week 6 . There's MORE SOL in MOSSORO (you dont pronounce the L in sol so that actually works as a pun okay?)

[mom note: the post titles are all Meg. I am not the one grasping at straws to make a pun. All her.)

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Well it's official! I'm in the CAMPO! (mom note: field)

Wow. I have so so so much that I could write about this week, but I'm short on time (and a bunch of people sent me emails that I needed this week so I was reading those which took up time. But thank you thank you to each and every one of you who emailed me. If I didn't reply it's just because I'm so short on time today, not because I didn't love your email. Because I did.).

So yesterday I said bye to my sweet sweet CTM Sisters (and cried a ton) and got on a bus with all Elders. I was literally the one and only sister going to Natal haha. I slept through the entireeee flight. Like before the plane even started moving until we had landed. So exhausted. Then we got to the airport and met up with Pres and Sis Soares and the APs and they were all SO nice. Took a bus to the mission escritorio (mom note: office) and a chapel and met up with all the missionaries who would be our trainers. The Elders didn't find out until later who would train them, but it was fairly obvious for me since I was the only sister haha. My mãe (mom//trainer) is Sister Garcia. She is the absolute sweetest person I've ever met. And she's hilarious. Thank goodness. She keeps calling me her filha (mom note: child/daughter) and taking wonderful care of me.

I genuinely feel like a baby here though. I have no idea what's going on or what anyone's saying so I just smile and laugh a lot (which is definitely why babies always laugh, they just don't know what's going on). This is also the reason why I think babies cry a lot. It's definitely pretty frustrating not being able to talk to people or only understand them half the time. The language barrier is killing me right now. But I know that as I work hard and exercise a lot of faith, that will pass and I will be able to speak Portuguese. Heavenly Father has promised me that in my mission call. So I will preach the gospel in the portuguese language. It's just going to take an adjustment period. 

Yesterday Pres Soares welcomed us to "O Melhor Missão do Mundo!" He said, I know everyone says their mission is the best, but ours actually is. Apparently our mission is #3 for number of baptisms in Brazil!!!! What?! And even better, it is #1 in retention! Go Brazil Natal! Am I right?? We did contacting yesterday on the street and the people are so open here! They are so willing to talk about God and Jesus Christ and genuinely want to follow his example. We invited people to be baptized while we were contacting yesterday. Like, Hey how's it going? Will you be baptized? Okay slightly more in depth than that, but that's the basic idea. And we had six people who were interested! We set them up with the missionaries in that area to take things further! Crazy crazy crazy! 

Last night we slept in the casa (mom note: house) by the escritorio (mom note: office) with the sisters in that area. And I met the other Sister Baker! Haha. She's way cool. But since there's already one Sister Baker, that means that I'm going to be "Sister M Baker" which in Brazil sounds like Sister Emmy Baker so I feel like I stole Pie's name haha. [mom note: there is actually a third Sister Baker going to her mission that just entered the CTM today...that won't be confusing haha] But the sisters were all so nice and understanding that I was tired and shellshocked but they all talked to me and were so sweet and I'm already so grateful for every sister here in this mission. 

Today has been more traveling! Sister Garcia and I are in Mossoro. Which apparently has great great ward members, tons of baptisms, and is one of the hottest places in the mission. Haha, of course. Like Natal itself was actually really nice and breezy, but here it's hot hot hot and the sun is apparently stronger than in other parts. Holla. Haha. [mom note: when I saw where she was living I checked yahoo weather. It said it was 92 degrees with 48% humidity and a real feel of 106 degrees. Keep in mind its the tail end of winter for them. I guarantee she will be missing her beloved Provo winter weather] But other than the heat this seems like the best area that I could start my mission in and I'm SO excited to just get to work! Also in my area are three out of the four elders from my CTM district. Elders Fallon, Collier, and Phillips are all in my area and I think a couple or all of them are living in the same house as each other. I definitely thought we'd all be split up, but I'm way excited that I'll see them around still. Poor Elder Giles is all by himself in Sousa, but we'll see him later this month probably, and he's working harder than anyone at the language so I know he'll be fine. 

I know this email is lacking my usual charm and embarrassing stories, but there was just too much that happened in the last couple days to even go into my whole week! And if this email doesn't make any sense, cut me some slack haha. I've only heard portuguese for the past few days so my english might be off. 

I miss you guys more than I can explain. This is HARD. Probably the hardest thing I've ever done. And it's only the second day in the field. But this work is worth it. I do not doubt that for one second. 

I love you so much!!!!

Sister Baker

PS // I asked Pres and Sis Soares about Davis and President Soares said "I love that guy!" haha. Way cool connection! (mom note: Davis is Megan's cousin. He and his family lived in Brazil for a few years. If I remember correctly Davis served in the stake with President Soares and was also the Soares' home teacher)

[mom note: none of these pictures came with an explanation so I'm guessing on what or who some of them are]

View from the CTM in Sao Paulo

Comic book version of the scriptures...looks like a Megan doodle job but I can't be sure

CTM teachers

CTM Mission President and wife...President and Sister Swenson

Sao Paulo Temple

Megan's district at the Sao Paulo Temple...Sister Clinger, Sister Hatton, Sister Hartvigsen, Sister Johnson, Elder Fallon, Elder Giles, Elder Phillips and Elder Collier

Megan and Sister Clinger at the Sao Paulo Temple

Sister Clinger, Sister Hatton, Megan, Sister Hartvigsen and Sister Johnson at the Campinas Temple

All the missionaries in the CTM going to the Natal mission...one of these things is not like the others

All the Natal missionaries once they arrived at the Mission Home. 

Megan with her companion Sister Garcia and her mission president and wife...President and Sister Soares

Megan and Sister Garcia

laughter, tears and lots of spilled water

Today Megan said goodbye to the 4 sister missionaries that she has grown to love over the last 6 weeks. The sisters are all off to the Recife Mission while Megan and the elders are headed to Natal. We have enjoyed reading the family letters from a few of these sisters and love hearing little snippets about Meg, some of which are below. I know she will miss these girls and all the fun they had.

::We had to take the bus to where we were going in Sao Paulo, which was to say the least crazy. I'm pretty sure we almost hit like 30 people. But you would not believe it, Sister Baker gave away two books within the first 10 minutes of being on the bus! It was impressive. She just wasn’t afraid at all to go and talk to them.

::Our schedule this past week goes like this...

6.30 wake up (which hasn't been too hard surprisingly)
7.00 personal study in the classroom
8.00 breakfast
8.50 language study
8.55 cry because of portuguese
9.30 exercise
10.20 study time
12.00 lunch
1.15 class time with Irma Mendes
3.00 cry some more about portuguese
4.00 prepare to teach investigator
5.40 dinner
6.30 prepare to teach investigator again
7.45 teach investigator
8.15 cry because we had to teach investigator
9.00 laugh time (as a district we just talk about random things and just die of laughter together, nice way to relieve stress)
9.30 snack time
10.30 bed time

Yeah.. we do a lot of crying... and seriously it's for no reason. Of course we miss our families (like a lot) and are stressed out. But seriously we will just look at each other and then burst into tears. I found that snickers you stuck in my bag the other day and I shared it with Sister Baker. No joke, we took one bite, looked at each other and then started to cry. It was so funny. Everyone walked in right when we started to cry and thought we were going insane.

::Sister Baker - I seriously love her. She is amazing. She is always dancing. The other night she performed the entire Les Mis musical, every song (except for the not so good ones) and acted it out. Took her 45 minutes. She definitely understands portuguese which is awesome because I have no idea what in the world I am doing.

::I was laughing way hard one night. Aaaand I may or may not have peed my pants. Ooops. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. Sis Baker and Sis Johnson are hilarious.

::Sister Baker is seriously a clone of you. [mom note: the missionary is referring to her sister] It kind of scares me. She loves cats, can draw amazingly well, she dresses like you, is dorky and awkward but adorable. She loves puns and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one of her favorite movies, she quotes it all the time. Its scary how alike you two are. She is the second funniest person that I know, her life is seriously like a funny tv show.

::Something else that was good was that Sunday night we decided to have a sleepover with Sister Baker and Sister Clinger! We knew we were probably getting new Brazilian roommates the next day so we figured this would be the only time!! They came and slept in our room and we had a blast! An elder in another district had his brother send him a bunch of song lyrics to music that he likes and we were borrowing it to copy. Sister Baker used the music to compose a musical of a sister missionary that was on her mission for four days and decided she wanted to move back home to marry her boyfriend who didn’t even know who she was. Haha. Like a creepy BYU stalker sister missionary. It was a one man show and she played all the characters. Again, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life!! (I didn’t pee my pants this time though)

::Sister Baker has managed to spill water on just about everyone in the CTM. This week it was my turn! She spilled water all over me! So funny. I’m going to miss her when she leaves for Natal Tuesday.

week 5 . C(ya)TM

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Oi!!

LAST PDAY IN THE CTM!

What?? I can't believe how fast time has passed here. I swear I just barely got here. I am going to miss the CTM and my district. I love my district with all my heart and soul and I'm going to miss them so much. I feel like even though I've only known these people for six weeks, they've already become lifelong friends. That's been especially true because for our last week here in the CTM we decided that by the end of the week everyone would have shared their testimony for the district. So every night a couple people share their testimony. And oh wow. These missionaries have amazing, beautiful, inspiring testimonies. These elders and sisters have seen really hard times and really beautiful times and turned to our Savior through all of it. I am so grateful for the examples they are to me. I know Heavenly Father put me in district 32A for a really really really good reason. I needed these people!

Last Sunday was fast sunday, so we did a district fast and we had a mission conference and then a testimony meeting and then we watched 17 Miracles (again. still sobbed) and then a devotional. So basically the BEST DAY EVER. Seriously the spirit is so strong here in the CTM. And during our fast and testimony meeting I got to bear my testimony in Portuguese! It was scary beyond belief but also a very very cool experience. I loved being able to talk about what I love about this gospel in this new beautiful language! #blessed (but for real)

The Tuesday night Devotional was phenomenal. It was all about how there are people on the other side of the veil, in the spirit world, waiting for their ancestors to discover the gospel so they can be baptized. And that those people will be guiding angels for us, to help us find investigators. And it got me so pumped up about temple and family history work! But no more of that for me for the next year and a half, so fam. . . get on it! Go do baptisms at the temple! Go do sessions! Find names on FamilySearch! I'm bringing people to the gospel here in Brazil, but family history is missionary work too! Those people need this gospel just as much as the people here!

Today was my last time to go to the temple for a year and a half. [mom note: There is not a temple within Megan's mission boundaries so she won't be able to go while she is in Natal] And when we were leaving I could not stop crying. The temple is like home. It's a place of so much love and peace where Heavenly Father's presence is so strong. But as I was thinking about how sad it was that I wouldn't go back to the temple for so long, I had the thought come to my mind: What's more important? That you can go to the temple and feel this way? Or that hundreds of people down the road can go to the temple and feel this way because of your work here? I know that was God giving me a little talking to for having a bit of a selfish moment haha. And I know that that is why I'm here! To help people feel the love of our Heavenly Father that I feel daily and especially in the temple.

Speaking of hashtags. . . #minhavida ::

Well. . . this week we were playing volleyball. Which if you know me is #minhavida by itself, but I managed to make it even more embarrassing than normal. The ball was coming over to my zone on the court so I go to hit it. And I'll have you all know that I definitely would've hit it (probably) if Elder Phillips hadn't jumped in front of me. So instead of hitting the ball, I hit him. In the butt. Hahahahaha. So not missionary approved. So now my whole district has just been making fun of me for the whole week, and poor Elder Phillips was traumatized.

weekly scripture ::

2 Nephi 32!!! Love it so much! I've been focusing a lot on trying to feel and recognize promptings of the spirit more, because those are so vital as a missionary, but just in life as well. I want to do God's will always!!

Alright, I'm going to finish this up and go eat some unlimited meat with my district to celebrate our last Pday. I love you guys so much! I am so so so grateful for the family and friends and life I have back home, and I'm even more grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary here in Brazil! President Faust once said, "The field is white and ready to harvest. But it's a little whiter in Brazil." hahaha. But genuinely, I feel so lucky and so blessed! It's going to be scary to go out into the field. Like I'm panicking a little bit. But I also keep remembering that I'm here to share this gospel! Not to sit in classrooms. So I'm nervous but so excited too. And I know it will be hard, but the CTM was hard too and it has ended up being one of the most amazing experiences of my life, so I'm just keeping that in mind.

Kay. LOVE YOU!

Peace out girl scouts.

Sister Baker

PS // KATE MIDDLETON IS PREGNANT WITH ANOTHER ROYAL BABY??? THIS IS REAL? I GENUINELY HAD TO SIT DOWN WHEN I READ THAT LETTER I GOT SO EXCITED I'M PEEING MY PANTS RIGHT NOW JK NO I'M NOT.

(also I forgot to tell you guys I was a Sister Training Leader here in the CTM! That's why I was in a leadership meeting. Guess my stake president didn't write down that I'm more of a follower type hahaha)

added 2.28.15 [mom note: we received some CTM pictures from Megan's CTM companion's mom this weekend. I also had a couple from another sister in her district. I'm adding the photos to this post as it was her last letter from the CTM

Campinas Temple 

Sister Clinger and Megan 

Sister Clinger, Sister Hatton, Megan, Sister Hartvigsen, Sister Johnson

Sister Johnson, Sister Hartvigsen and Megan

Sao Paulo

Sister Hatton, Sister Clinger, Sister Hartvigsen, Megan and Sister Johnson

District Elders...Elder Fallon, Elder Elder Phillips, Elder Collier and Elder Giles

CTM dorm room

the view of Sao Paulo from the CTM

Sao Paulo Temple 

CTM district with a few random missionaries

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. 

week 3 . #minhavida // proselyting

[mom note: We got a great surprise this week when this picture showed up on Jeffrey R Holland's facebook page. You can read about her experience with him in her week 2 letter)

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Hey howdy hey!

So no apostles this week, but it was still a great week! Both of our "investigators" are getting baptized and we're real excited about that! Seriously it's been crazy to watch as we've improved on speaking the language and giving lessons. I still have a lot to learn and it's easy to get frustrated that I don't know how to teach something or how to say something in Portuguese, but in three weeks my entire district has come so far! It honestly is a miracle that we all know as much as we do!

So let's start with a little segment I like to call #minhavida (aka #mylife). Basically just me talking about how my life is not real because I'm so embarrassing.

(1) Well on Sundays they'll sometimes have little movie nights and this last Sunday was 17 Miracles. We walked in like two minutes after it had started which was awkward, and here sisters always sit in the front so we walked all the way up there past everyone. And then I sit down. About two seconds pass and I'm already crying. And then two more seconds pass and I'm out loud sobbing/hyperventilating. When the movie ended literally the entire row of people in front of me turned around to see either who was crying or why there was a dying manatee in the row behind them. Not sure which. Then we went to dinner right after and I was still emotional from the movie so I pick up this fork out of the basket and it was just the cutest darn thing I ever did see and that made me cry again. Which was not weird at all right? And then at Sunday night devotional I tripped walking to my seat but it was after a leadership meeting so pretty much everyone else was already sitting down and this Elder came up after and asked me if I tore my acl ha ha.

(2) Sister Johnson squirted a juice box all over herself. Which sounds like it would be embarrassing for her not for me, but... I laughed so hard at her that I peed my pants. Cool. [mom note: another sister in Megan's district wrote home about having the same problem as Megan. Apparently, their district is just so funny that no one has control over their bladder haha] 

(3) At dinner the other night I went and refilled my water cup and then when I was about to sit back in my chair I tripped and spilled water all over my poor sweet zone leader Elder Anderson, and of course he's like no worries, just glad it's water! you're totally fine sister! But I'm trying to help him and grab a napkin so I go to put my water down on the table and it tips over and literally floods Sister Johnson's entire tray with water.

(4) During a lesson with an investigator (who we had never taught before) I struggled big time standing up from the couch at the end of the lesson. Why? Don't know, standing should be pretty easy. But they videotaped that lesson (it's called TRC) and we have to watch it during additional study so my whole district was just crying laughing watching me grab onto the arm of the couch to push myself up (why) and then just straight up fall over and then hop around and then just try to play it off and go "Tudo bem tudo bem!" (all right all right) to the investigator who is also dying laughing. (why why)

Alright, you people get the idea. Heavenly Father must've figured that the missionaries here needed something to laugh at since we're all working so hard. So here I am. The true reason I'm serving a mission. hahaha.

We got to go proselyting this week!!!! Like in the real world. With real people. We had two Book of Mormons (Books of Mormon? no idea) per person. So Sister Clinger and I got 4 books and our district got on a bus with Irma Mendes and got to talk to people. We were sitting on the bus and I kept seeing this guy across the aisle looking at all of us all curious like and I figured, hey we're going to be talking to people eventually might as well start now. Even though I was so nervous I thought I might pee my pants (but I didn't do that. I only did that the one time). So I talked to him about his relationship with God and his religion and bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave it to him! And it was perfect. I mean, hey I didn't understand a majority of the words he said. And he probably only took it because I sounded like a three year old and I almost fell out of my seat a couple times when I was talking to him, but the important thing is that he has a Book of Mormon. He has in his possession, the truest book in the entire world because I handed it to him. Coolest feeling. And then I realized he was sitting with a friend so I talked to his buddy a little bit too and I gave him my other Book of Mormon. So I gave both mine out on the bus!!! And then we still got to talk with people out on the street. A lot of people just avoided us, and some people were nice but just weren't interested. BUT there were a few who genuinely seemed interested in the message! And the other sisters in our district saw this girl Sis Clinger and I gave a Book of Mormon to reading it with her friend! Yes! And also some little old colombian man really wanted Sister Clinger's number haha. Oh yeah and we got really really yelled at by some drunk man and I have literally no clue what he was saying. I just kept bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon because that's pretty much all I can say fluently in Portuguese hahaha. And eventually after lots of hand waving we got Irma Mendes' attention and she came and saved us. It was honestly such a great experience to go talk to real people about the gospel, about the Book of Mormon. I LOVE this gospel and I'm here to share it! So it was nice to have a chance to do that. But it also made me realize that I need to get cracking on learning Portuguese!

Well I love all of you guys! I hope everything back home is fab. I miss you guys and sometimes I really miss America (and England, what? it's true!), but BRAZIL. Wowee I'm in Brazil and it's beautiful and new and exciting and I love it. And when I don't love it, I've got prayer and the scriptures to turn to and then I love it again. Speaking of which, 2 NEPHI 4 everyone. 2 Nephi chapter 4. Go read it right now. It's been one of my favorite chapters since sunday school, but I don't think I realized how powerful it is. We don't have to ever feel frustrated or sad or alone because we have the Lord on our side! And He can do anything, as long as we have faith and trust in him! It's like in Elder Holland's talk last week he said that this isn't my mission, it's God's mission. This isn't about me at all! It's about helping people find the happiness that this gospel has given me and about serving my Father in Heaven. And even though I'm trying to selflessly serve, I'm still going to be SO blessed for this so it's basically a win win win win for everyone.

Thanks for being the best family / friends / support group in the world. Don't know what I'd do without you guys. (And don't know what you guys would do without my embarrassing stories, you'd definitely be less entertained. So you're welcome).

ALL MY LOVE

Sister Baker