three cheers for wifi cameras

Links in red (click for more info)

It's always a good day when emails show up and say "From: camera@samsung.com" Today we got pictures from Megan's camera as well as a few from Tammy, a member in her area, via Facebook. 

It seems from the first few pictures that her feet, ankles and legs have taken a bit of a beating. She talks briefly about it in this letter. I'm sure by now the swelling has gone down. The bug bites however may be a continual problem...she's always the one getting bitten on camping trips and outdoor adventures. And we'll excuse the serious need for a pedicure since she's losing herself in service haha

Any pain in her feet must not have lasted long since this looks like a Pday excursion to try on shoes. (No explanation from her for any of these pictures so I'm guessing) Missionary or not...girls will be girls. I love that she is enjoying trying on shoes that I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have any interest in at home

Megan and Sister Garcia

Sister Garcia and Sister Cieslak

Sister Garcia, Megan and Tammy's daughter

Megan and Sister Garcia. I love that Megan is wearing her Stately Type t-shrt. I'm a huge fan of David Lesue's work. This Brazil tee is the perfect Pday shirt. 

Tammy and Megan

Megan and Sister Garcia

Sister Baker and Sister Baker (there will be another Sister Baker joining them in the mission in about a month)

Megan and Sister Porter. Megan and Sister Porter connected via Instagram when they both posted about their mission calls to Natal. Although they had talked before the mission they had never met until this (which I think is at a Zone Conference) 

Sister Garcia, Sister Olla, Sister Cieslak and Megan. I believe that Megan and Sister Garcia share an apartment with Sister Olla and Sister Cieslak. Sister Garcia and Sister Cieslak are Brazilian and Sister Olla is from El Salvador,  I think, but has lived in the US so she speaks Spanish, English and Portuguese

So curious to know what is going on in this picture

We are grateful for Megan's sweet trainer, Sister Garcia

taste of america

Links in red (click for more info)

With photos from the CTM not happening (6 weeks is a long time with no photos) we were thrilled when this picture showed up in our inbox via MissionTies.

Derek traveled to Brazil last week. He only had a carry on but once he had his clothes and such packed you can bet I stuffed as much American candy, peanut butter and Nutella in there as I could. As he left for his flight I kept my fingers crossed that the peanut butter and Nutella would go unnoticed by TSA and as luck would have it TSA was not on their A game and all that creamy goodness made it through security.

Packages are not allowed to be delivered to the Brazil CTM so Derek stopped by Mr. Cheney across the street from the CTM and asked if he could leave the package with them. They were more than happy to help. Thank you Mr. Cheney. While there, Derek decided to throw in a pizza party for Megan's district which Mr. Cheneys also helped with. The package and pizza are whats going on in this picture. Someone at Mr. Cheney must have snapped this photo and then sent it via MissionTies.

So happy to know the kids got everything and enjoyed a taste of America but even happier just seeing a picture of all these missionaries with their bright smiles. 

handwritten

Links in red (click for more info)

(mom note: We are able to get handwritten letters from Megan in just a couple days via MissionTies. Megan can send or drop of her handwritten letters to MissionTies (located across the street from the Brazil CTM) where the letters are then scanned and emailed to us. These "handwritten" posts will consist of excerpts from those letters and will be in addition to her weekly email)

Oi Familia! 

I'm sorry that I haven't really been able to answer all your questions, especially you momma. Time is just crazy here, especially email time. 

PLEASE email pictures/mail pictures. I love them. I miss you guys and want pictures of your lives. NYC, fun stuff at home, everything.

Kay, I'll try to answer some of the questions you asked::

*Pday is on Fridays in the CTM. The time will depend on when we get back from the temple. I have 45 minutes online.

*Portuguese...sometimes I love it, sometimes I really don't. But I have learned a lot for how short of a time I've been here. I just get frustrated that I'm not able to say what I want to to investigators (mom note: people who aren't members of our church that are learning more about it through the missionaries) I love this gospel and I have so many thoughts and experiences and feelings that I want to share, but I have to resort to the vocabulary of a three year old.

*The CTM. I'm still homesick, and it's definitely hard here, but I'm also having a really great time. I literally am always laughing with my district. The schedule is busy, but I think that's good that I don't have too much down time to miss home. For gym time we either play basketball or volleyball. The sisters and I just shout "SPORTS!" and run around like idiots. It's honestly a riot. And of course everyone just laughs at my total...(mom note: the scan for this page got cut off so we can't see the rest of this sentence. I will assume that it said something along the lines of "my total inability to do anything athletic" Do we not all remember her pre mission mishap while trying to ride a bike. Photographic proof below haha)

(mom note: because of the bottom of the previous page being cut off we also cannot read the beginning of the next sentence. It obviously mentioned the food) here is usually good, I mean there's definitely weird days and we're not always sure what the meat is, but there is a really good dessert that is like creme brulee/flan-esque  that I love. So I'm being healthy ya know haha.

I'm trying to finish this letter on the bus back from the temple so I'm going to wrap it up. I miss you guys tons but I genuinely love it here. My district is amazing. I love my teachers. Portuguese is hard but really cool too, and Brazil is the bomb. I especially love Pday and walking around and exploring so that will be really nice when I'm out in the field in real Brazil.

I hope everything is good with you guys, you're my favorite people. xoxo

Ballin' in Brazil 

Sister Baker

PS. Mom please tell Grandma Wood hi and that I love her. I didn't have time on email to send her a letter.

(mom note: I'm a fan of photos so I've searched the internet for some pics to include with this post since it's my understanding that the missionaries have no way to send pictures while in the CTM.)

The Brazil CTM where Megan is spending her first 6 weeks of training

Drink machines in the cafeteria feature Guarana, the national soft drink of Brazil, carbonated water

and fruit juices 

Outdoor track where missionaries can run/walk

the street in front of the Sao Paulo CTM

week 1 . #brazil #iloveit but i struggle as much here as i do in the USA with...ya know, life. ha.

links in red (click for more info)

Oi familia! (And everyone else!)

It's FINALLY Pday [mom note: preparation day or Pday for short. A day set aside once a week for missionaries to shop, do laundry, write home, play sports and take a break from regular proselytizing activities] This has been the longest wait of my life haha. And then I opened up my email to twenty eight emails. You guys are all rock stars. It made me feel so loved (and also slightly panicked because I don't have much time to email) Luckily some American sisters who have been here for awhile gave us a great tip about taking pictures of emails so we could read them later. So I have mostly just skimmed all the emails you lovely people sent me but I promise to read them very thoroughly when email time is over.

So wow...I'm in the CTM in Brazil. I've only been here for a week and a few days even though it feels like I've been here foreverrrr. Every day is so long and busy that by the time we eat lunch (almoco) it feels like it's time for dinner. We have tons of classes throughout the day so we can learn portuguese which is sometimes really fun and sometimes the most frustrating thing in the world. Lemme tell you though, I am so grateful for the four years of spanish that I have under my belt. They are making this so much easier to learn than it would be starting straight from english.

On our second day here we started teaching investigators (pesquisadors) in PORTUGUESE. Wait, what? Did she say in portuguese? Yep. Fresh from America and we're trying to teach a lesson in a new language. It was actually painful it was so bad. But the good thing is our lessons have only gotten better, because they really can't get any worse.

Well actually, we had a lesson with a new pesquisador yesterday named Selete. It was definitely one of my hardest days here. Lots and lots and lots of tears were shed for probably 3 hours straight and then some more later. Rough. But my district [mom note: group of missionaries] is honestly a dream and made it so much better. The elders gave each of the sisters in my district a blessing and that was such an amazing experience to see them use their priesthood to comfort us. I just love them and I love the priesthood and I love this gospel!

But back to Selete. So our whole district (all the sisters actually) had this crying breakdown in the middle of class so Irma (Sister) Mendes (our teacher, she's a riot...we love her) decided to change class around and talk to each of us individually about why we are here and we read scriptures. I was feeling better until I realized that Sister Clinger and I had to teach a lesson in like 10 minutes to our brand new pesquisador and we had nothing prepared because of the cry time. Sweet sweet Sister Clinger basically took the whole lesson on by herself and all I had to do was bear my testimony (we've done that before but usually I am the person who talks to the pedquisador about if they have questions or whatever because I usually sort of understand what they're saying, but this time I was just down for the count because I could. not. stop. crying.)

We walk downstairs to the little room, me sobbing the whole way and we knock on the little door. And Irma Mendes was inside! She was role playing Selete! Thank goodness because anyone else would've thought I was straight crazy. So Sister Clinger starts teaching the lesson, she knocks it out of the park. Then it's time for my testimony. I go to wipe my nose since it's all nasty from crying and when I pull the tissue away there's blood all over (like my fourth nosebleed this week, whats wrong with me?) hahaha So my nose just starts leaking blood like crazy. I've got tears streaming down my face, makeup everywhere, my eyes are swollen to the size of Texas, and I've got a bloody tissue stuffed up my nose while I try to bear my testimony in broken cavewoman style portuguese. Oh AND there's a video camera in there so I guarantee the people watching it just really had their day made.

Okay so I'm going to try and give you as many details as I can about life in the CTM and this last week, but times getting shorter (ahhhhh email is stressful haha. I'll send home some letters with Mr. Cheney's/MissionTies next week. [mom note: a quicker easier way to send letters. See more info after her letter] Best idea ever to do that mom)

THE CTM

The CTM is really nice. It had started to feel slightly like a prison after this last Wednesday, but getting out and going to the temple in Campinas this morning was an absolute dream. All the people here are so so nice, even if I can only understand a few words of what most people are saying.

MY DISTRICT

Okay my district is the literal best. All the sisters are already like best friends. Sister Clinger is an amazing companion (as you can tell from my previous story) and she shares her cookie butter with me so I love her. Sister Hatton is so sweet. She's quieter but sometimes she'll just say something seriously hilarious. Sister Johnson and Sister Hartvigsen feel like people I've know for years. We all get along so well and we entertain ourselves just telling stories or quoting dumb videos or just cracking jokes (they like puns...score!) all day long.

The Elders are the sweetest and think I'm funny haha. It's weird because my whole district thinks I'm this super outgoing personality and that I have like zero percent shyness at all. HA. Its just because being with people for like 16 hours a day really breaks down any barriers.

Some of the elders without any sisters in their family are kind of freaked out by the fact that the sisters will just burst into tears randomly. Their reactions are priceless. That's the thing about the CTM in general...this has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. There have been times when I've been really sad but I have also had SO much fun. And I have felt the spirit so powerfully it is amazing. I wish I had more time to focus on the scriptures and the gospel though. It sounds weird but we're spending so much time on portuguese I feel like I never have time to really get into my scriptures, and all I want to do is just curl up in my bed and read them. I think everything here is just a matter of giving myself time to adjust and trusting in the Lord.

MAIL

Thank you sooooooo much for the letters through MissionTies. Mom you might get emails from some of the other missionary's moms about mission ties because my whole district wants their moms to sign up for it haha. You have no idea how much I needed those. Send a trillion more, I love mail!

BRAZIL

Still can't believe I'm in Brazil, Partially because we've only been outside of the CTM to go to the temple, but we're hitting the streets of Sao Paulo after email so that will be exciting.

Kay, I know there's a million more things you guys want to know about but I'm running out of time. I love love love you all so much and miss you every second.

Mom and Pie [mom note: our family nickname for Emily] how's NEW YORK? You crazy kids running around the city...I love it.

Dad the scripture that you shared with me and the quote in the letter you sent was PERFECT. I read it to my whole district because it was exactly what we all needed. I'm so proud to be following in the footsteps of you and mom and serving a mission, and I know that you understand how hard this is, but you also have come out the other side of it, so I know that you understand how many great things will come from this too. [mom note: here's what Derek shared..."One of my favorite scriptures is found in Psalms 30:5 and it tells us that "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning". I love that concept. To take it a step further, it is good that challenges and struggles wont last forever, but even better to understand that they come with a purpose...they help us become who we are supposed to be. Neal A. Maxwell gave a General Conference talk during my mission that has one of my favorite quotes of all time. He said that, "we find that sorrow can enlarge the mind and heart to give place, expanded space for later joy." What an amazingly true concept...that as we become more and learn from our challenges, we are better equipped to comprehend the joy that comes our way. I love it!"]


Pie, Luke, Nate. I LOVED your emails and letters. Keep them coming. You are my favorite people and I'm sorry I can't write more to each of you, but I'll send some letters, promise.

Kay time for me to peace out and go get A MILKSHAKE in the city, you don't understand how excited I am for that. The food is pretty good here but there's definitely some stuff I'm mission (uh I mean missing haha) from America.

I love you guys so much and MISS YOU like crazy. Thank you for being the best in the world. Stay cool.

Lots and lots of love from Brazil.

Sister Baker

[mom note: MissionTies is a website that allows us to email the company with letters or pictures for Megan. They print the email and/or pictures and mail it to the CTM. MissionTies is associated with Mr Cheney's Cookies which is an American bakery right across the street from the CTM. Because of their close proximity to the CTM an email we send on a Monday is likely to show up in Megan's mailbox Tuesday. The advantage of this is Megan can receive and read letters any day during the week and not have to wait until Pday. It is a paid service but we can add sub users to our account with no cost to you so if you'd like to be added to the account so that you can send snail mail letters to Megan as opposed to or in addition to emailing her email me at dbakerfam[at]cox[dot]net. I know she enjoys getting emails but she really loves seeing letters in her mail box during the week.]