Oí!!!!

First off, here's my favorite quote of the week: "If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

This week I learned soooo much about the Holy Ghost and the importance of the knowledge it gives us as is mentioned in Moroni 10:3-5 (and like a billion other scriptures). And I pondered that scripture and thought, "But we can gain knowledge of things just by reading about them or hearing about them in talks" and I pondered it some more and then the Holy Ghost testified to me, right then and there, que o Espírito Santo da conhecimento a nosso mento, e a nosso coração (hopefully I said that right! They teach us how to speak Portuguese here, not write it). AGH. So awesome.

Okay, now onto bullet points because they're way easier to write out and take less time!

- Turns out the other Sister Murri and I are related!!! Our great grandpas were brothers!!! SO CRAZY!!! Woo! Yay family!

- Music and the Spoken Word is probably the thing that I look forward to the most here at the MTC besides sleeping. I cry. Every time. Probably from a mixture of both the beautiful music and lack of sleep. Hahahaha. I miss music SO MUCH. So every night before we go to bed, the sisters in my district and I sing hymns in Portuguese and it always makes me feel better.

- Thank you thank you thank you so much to everyone who has written to me. Sincerely. Emails and letters can turn my day from an "I feel like a piece of poo" day to an "I can do anything good!" day. Keep 'em coming

- I am foursquare QUEEN which is something to have pride in here at the MTC. WOO! They call me Sister Murderi. And my band of tricksy sisters. Let's see now, there's Sister Stompson, Sister Breakon, and Sister Killemmore.

- I still stink at Portuguese (who doesn't at first?) but I can teach a 30 minute lesson on basically every gospel principle (except for tithing and chastity. I'm looking forward to those!) in the language. YAAAYYY!

Story time!

So the other day, my companion and I were trying to teach our "investigator" how to pray. I told him to fold his "armas" for prayer and he said, "armas!?!??" and I'm like, "uhhhh sim. armas" and started waving my arms in the air like, "ARMAS". Then he laughed and laughed and laughed and said "armas" and then pulled up a pretend rifle and started pew pewing with it around the room. And then he pulled out a fake sword and held it up like a pirate or something which is when I realized that "armas" means weapons hahahaha. whoops! Better here than out in the field, am I right?

And another time where there was a miss communication. I was teaching a pesquisadora how to pray and I told her to tell God the things she was grateful for. So she's going through a list of things in her life that she loves and then she said, "E eu sou grato por meu cão" and I was just soo confused. I thought her family had a cow. So I said, "cão?!? MOO?!?" and my companions looking at me like i'm a nut and my investigator starts woofing in the middle of this prayer so all you could here outside of the room was mooing and woofing and it was fabulous. So apparently in Portugal, dog is "cão". Gooooood times.

Okay okay one more story. So I'm asleep snug as a bug in my bed when all of a sudden I hear my companion saying "Sister Murri. Sister Murri. SISTER MURRI!" so i wake up and i'm freaking out and I say "What's wrong Sister Thompson?!?" and she says "We have to go back to the classroom right now". What the hey. So i'm confused. So I ask her why and she replies "we're not ready to teach all three of our investigators tomorrow. we have to go prepare!!!" and then i hear her shuffle around for her clock and she looks at it and says "oh. nevermind." It was 12:00 at night you guys. She didn't even remember it the next morning. That's what the MTC does to our brains!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Temple run!!

Oiiiiii Oi Oi Oi!!!!

It is true what they say. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. The only days I actually have to keep track of are Tuesdays and Sundays. Speaking of which, I gave a talk last Sunday on Baptism and bore my testimony of it and of how much it means to me and how hard I had to work for it. I felt the spirit so strongly in the room and it was so sweet! Thank goodness they allowed me to give my talk in English! Because after two Sundays pass they make us write all of our talks in Portuguese and pick a random person to give the talk at the last minute. Woohoo!

Let's see, I suppose I should introduce you all to my little tiny district.

Sister Thompson - is my companion and I literally don't go two minutes without seeing her face. Every day. Every hour. We are glued! We have to be within sight and sound of eachother at all times, and it's weird. If I don't see her for about two minutes I start to worry and look around for her hahahahaha. She's from Missouri, she's super cute, blonde, and a REALLY hard worker. She's one of the most self disciplined girls I have ever met in my entire life. She follows the rules to a T and she's so obedient. Quite the opposite from myself (not that I'm a rule breaker or anything) but we are both teaching each other so much! She's teaching me how to be obedient and well disciplined and I'm teaching her how to take a step back and breath and to go with the flow. We make an excellent pair. She will be serving somewhere in Brazil.

Sister Bacon - she's the oldest one in our group. She's 22 and she's from Florida and she is learning Portuguese at the speed of LIGHT! It's amazing! She also teaches by the spirit really really well. Which is a magical combination. She's tough as nails and yet so soft! She will be serving in Portugal.

Sister Cullimore - she's this tiny little thing with icy blue eyes and she can get me to cry from laughter better than anyone here can which is saying something 'cause there are some hilarious missionaries here! She's super sweet and incredibly kind and I love her to pieces. She will also be serving in Portugal.

Elder Gilbert - is a hoot! He is a riot! He's actually better than television! One day he recited an entire episode of the office in full detail and dialog and my ribs hurt so much from laughing. Which is good cause when you're at the MTC youre either crying or laughing. He sometimes gives the impression where you don't know why he's here at the MTC and then BAM. Tear-jerking testimony! He will be serving in Portugal

Elder Sorenson - is who I like to call the "Intellectual Free Spirit". Not sure how to describe it better. Hahahaha. He's so funny and so intelligent and I learn new things from him at least every hour of the day! Whether it's doctrine related or completely out in space somewhere.  

Well, that's my family! Those are the people that I spend almost every hour of every day with!

Let's see, what else?:

- I think it's safe to say that I have officially become accustomed to MTC life (PFFFTTTt!!!)

- I had horribly horrible stomach pains on Thursday and my companion stayed behind with me and took care of me for most of the day.

- I also had a horrible stomach ache on Sunday. Stress? Or perhaps it was because those were the only two morning I actually drank milk :O

- My wrist hurts from attempting the Brazilian finger snappy thing so many times! Does anybody even know what I'm talking about?

- A huge chunk of my zone left yesterday for Brazil :'( BUT, we get three new missionaries coming in tomorrow! A sister and two elders. I'M SO EXCITED. I feel like 5 years older than them just because I've been here for two weeks hahaha

- I've never been so frustrated with myself in my entire life. Turns out I'm not as gifted with the language as I thought

- I MET THE OTHER SISTER MURRI HERE AT THE MTC!! And she says that her ancestors are from Switzerland. We MUST be related. Also, she's going to Taiwan. Mandarin speaking. What the hey. ESTA TUDO BEM porque I'm going to AFRICA!!! You can't compete with that ;)

- Please please please please pretty please I'm not begging you (okay maybe a little bit) send me emails (natalie.murri@myldsmail.net)! Or DearElders! Or handwritten letters! Or like a two sentence joke or something! You guys don't even know how much I love anything from the outside world.

- The MTC is its own country.

- Mormon 9:19-the rest.

Minha companheira!!!!

My district! From left to right its me, Sister Bacon, Sister Cullimore, Sister Thompson, Elder Sorensen, and Elder Gilbert!

My INSANE schedule. Behold.

My zone!

A candid shot of some of my favorite Elders

Oi tudos mundas!

-First off whoever said that the first day would be easy was seriously misinformed! We literally walk in, drop our suitcases, get some books, and go to class!
-It only goes uphill from there
-Every day has been like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant
-THE FOOD IS AWESOME HERE
-There's no time to miss anyone or anything. If you're not studying then you're eating or you're sleeping
-On that subject I have been getting about 5 hours of sleep every night
-"O Dom de Linguas" (gift of tongues) is real! My companion and I have already taught three lessons completely in portuguese. THREE. LESSONS (I mean think about it, I haven't even been here for a week). that lasted for about 15-30 minutes each to an "investigator" and the lessons weren't too shabby if I do say so myself! Even though we sounded like cavemen
-I spend all day in my classroom with my district. my district is comprised of two elders going to Portugal, two sisters going there too and my companion and I. my companion is going to Brazil.
-I will see them all day everyday until we all leave! which means district=family
-As of last friday i am now the only missionary in the MTC going to Cape Verde!
-The Portugal accent (the one im learning) is 100xs harder to speak and understand than the Brazilian accent. WOO!
-There's a small part of me that wants to leave RIGHT NOW and another small part that wants to stay here forever
-Having to stay right next to someone 24/7 takes some serious getting used to
-I took pictures but need a converter to upload them! Sorry!
-Also I have forgotten my notebook which has some things I really wanted to say to you guys! Dang! Maybe next tuesday
-Snow=not so fun with a wardrobe geared toward Africa hahaaaaa
-Get on the DearElder website and write me a letter! That way it gets printed out and delivered right to me on the day that you send it!
-P-day is on Tuesdays
-I only have an hour to write and do laundry so, tchau! I love you all!