Week 5

Dear Family and Friends,

FELIZ NATAL!


I have officially hit my one month mark here at the CTM and next week I leave for my mission on the 2nd of January! I cannot believe it has been a month already. If time goes this fast the whole mission, I will be home in no time!


This week has been very busy with all the Christmas celebrations and fun. The CTM did a very great job of making it a special Christmas we will never forget. It was full of fun activities and devotionals focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ. I enjoyed the time separated from the commercialism of the world and simply spent pondering the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was different than my other Christmases but it was still great and I will never forget it. It was hard to be away from my family and friends of course, but I was surrounded by new missionary family here in Brazil. :) Papa Noel even made an appearance (The CTM President. They gave us each a necklace or tie.) and we were able to sleep in an extra hour! Talk about a missionary dream come true.

Another surprise this week was during the Christmas Eve devotional - I was assigned the closing prayer. Did not even know until I heard "Serre - going to Piracicaba." I looked to my companion and she said, "That's you." And so I looked at another elder and he says, "They said your name!" I still wasn't certain but yup, it was me. So after the song, I walk up there with no preparation and say an AWESOME prayer in Portuguese in front of the WHOLE CTM! It was great. The gift of tongues is real! There was an audible gasp when I finished and so many people came up to me after and said, "Voce e uma Brasilera!" (You are Brazilian!) It was really cool to be able to just freely speak Portuguese - it gave me some hope for the next weeks. :)

Christmas devotional was really cool because they gave us the chance to bear our testimonies in our native tongue and simply just focus on the Spirit. We heard everything from Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Tongan! Very cool. Such a strong spirit here always. I love it. Then another Christmas devitional was Elder Bednar - always great.

I cannot believe that I leave next week! Piracicaba, here I come! I am so excited to actually get out and teach again and to meet new people and improve my Portuguese. I can already tell it will be amazing.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and could reflect on the life of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I love you all and am so thankful for all the thoughts, prayers, emails, and well wishes! You are the best support team ever.


I love you all!


Sister Serre