GOIANIA BRAZIL!!

Erika's flight to Brazil was quite unusual. She flew from Salt Lake City to Dallas/Fort Worth. After several hours of layover (which included bumping into Amanda Merrill's mom and talking on the phone to Jennae and I) , she got onto another smaller plane with 2 Elders (male missionaries). It was one of those flights where it first lands in Brasilia and then continues onto Goiania. When the plane landed in Goiania, Erika got off the plane and waited for the other missionary to get off, too. He never did. She then realized that the missionary probably didn't understand the Portuguese instruction when the plane landed in Brazilia, to remain on the plane to connect to Goiania. Erika wrote, "I grabbed his suitcases at the baggage claim and went to find help. I saw the mission president (President Tobias) and his two assistants and totally left the lugguage and ran up to them. The first words I said to my mission president: Temos uma problema....we have a problem. He doesn´t speak English, so one of the assistants that is American had to translate that Elder Webber was wandering around Brasilia´s airport. What a trip!"

"My companion is Sis. Judd, she is American and will be finishing her mission in 3 months. I´m going to be her last companion...but exciting news...we are opening a new area! We will be serving in Rio Verde which hasn´t had sister missionaries in over 2 years! Exciting! It´s the highest baptizing area in the mission so we are excited to get there!"

"Before we can move to Rio Verde, the mission office has to find a house to rent and get it furnished for us. Until then, we´ve been in Parque Amizonias and Universitario areas. There are so many people here and they are so diverse I just expect them to speak english...but they don´t. Because I look Brasilian, people have commented on that, they just start jabbering off to me and I have no idea what they are saying. I can understand about every 10th word, but can normally get the gist of what they mean...normally."

"Funny story, I was on splits (where you pair off with someone else other than your usual partner) with a sister missionary that doesn´t speak English and we were doing street contacts. I can understand the sister, she speaks Portuguese slow enough for me to understand, but the lady we were contacting...no idea what she was saying. But apparently she had been asking me questions and when I didn´t respond she asked Sis. Ramero "Ela não oviu?" She thought I was deaf :) I have to laugh at that one."

Erika's mailing address: Pending. . . .TBA