Houston we have a problem..I am in the Amazon!‏

Well...I made it! I’m not going to lie the past two days have been a little rough mostly because I am exhausted. My last few days in the CTM were really good!! I am going to miss my district. Luckily my flight for Manaus left at 9 a.m. so I had to be ready at 7 a.m., however my roommates got up at 4 a.m .Tuesday morning and Sis. Leitherer had to get up at 5:30 to leave for the airport. So I was super tired by the time we were on the flight and of course I couldn’t sleep. The flight was only four hours. As the plane started to descend all I saw was trees everywhere!! To be honest I started freaking out but I quickly said a prayer and I felt a little better. It was strange being with elders all day long. I missed having a sister to talk to.
We were greeted at the airport by our mission president. He gave all the elders big hugs and I got a hand shake ha. As soon as I walked out of the airport the heat hit me. It is hard to describe how hot it is here. Way hotter than Hawaii! It feels like you just got out of the shower but you never get dry! Crap. But I promised myself I would not complain about it.
Then we went to the Manaus Temple site. It was pretty cool but sadly it won’t be done until 2012. Here is a picture of all of us at the temple site.



After that we headed to the Mission Presidents house and I met his wife. We had a good lunch and went over some health stuff. Then we headed to the Mission Office. We had interviews with our mission President there. Now keep in mind I was running off maybe four hours of sleep. As I was waiting for my turn to talk to him I just keep thinking about how tired I was. Then the thought hit me, you aren’t done traveling for the night. When I met with my President he told me, my first area is Boa Vista and I would be getting on the midnight flight to go there. I just laughed and told him I kind of already knew. Then he asked me what kind of missionary do I want to be and I said a great missionary! He said are you willing to pay the price? Of course I said yes, but now that I am here, I am realizing just how hard it is going to be.

After meeting with him I basically just waited in the mission office until 10:30 pm. All the elders and assistants to the president were speaking so fast I had no idea what was going on. Luckily they fed me pizza and by this time all the new elders had already left with their trainers or had a bus ride or something. Then they drove me to the airport and left me at the gate ha. It was around 11:00 p.m. My flight had already started boarding so I got on right away. I fell asleep for my hour flight and arrived around 1:00 a.m. The second counselor picked me up, but there was a sister from another mission on my flight so before I could go to my new house, we had to stop at the chapel and release her. So by the time I met my trainer it was around 2 a.m. Oh and lets not forget everyone was asking me so many questions in Portuguese and I was so tired. But I did talk to them with the little Portuguese I know.
So my trainers name is Sister Boyak. She is from Louisiana, USA. She is 24 years old and has one year left at BYU. Her mom is Brazilian so she is fluent in Portuguese. She has been in the field 7 months now and I am her first daughter. Our apartment is this little green shack. It is actually pretty clean. We have a small fridge and stove. We have a small washer but no dryer. So we have to hang our stuff up on a line. I have only seen ants so far. We talked for a little bit then went to bed at 3 a.m. My mission president said I could sleep in a little bit so we got up around 7 a.m. I am so happy today is Pday and not a normal day. We didn’t leave the house untill 11:00 a.m. We took a laçoste (like taxis but they only cost 5 reis for wherever you are going) to a shopping area to buy me some really good sandals. After we bought the sandals we just walked around and then bought some groceries. Yup that sums up my day so far. I get almost two hours to email every week so that is super nice. Pday ends at 6 p.m. then the work begins.
I like Sister Boyak, but things are just a little weird right now. I hate feeling like a small child who doesn’t know anything. I made ramon noodles for lunch and it felt so weird cooking again. I am constantly asking her questions. She seems just like me when you want to talk you talk, but silence is ok. I think she feels weird too because I am her first daughter. She has never trained anyone before. I am grateful she speaks English. I think I would really be freaking out right now if she didn't. We are going to visit an investigator tonight and follow up on a contact reference. So we will see how it goes. Right now I am just feeling completely unprepared.
Before I left the CTM we watched a talk from Elder Holland. He was giving it to the missionaries. He said we will all have to walk through Gethsemane to know what the Savior went through and even take a few steps toward Calvary. So I know this is going to be hard. I have said so many silent prayers today. I just need to keep praying and having Faith. Dad I like that chapter in John I will read it before I start working tonight. I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ can fix any problem. And I know if I ask for help the Lord WILL help me. I just need to keep exercising my faith.
I got a letter from Shane last week. What a fun surprise. I hope he enjoyed the end of his mission. I mailed him a letter today.

Oh bad news..So all of the mail goes to the mission office in Manaus, but if you are serving in Boa Vista you maybe get the mail every 2 weeks or every 6 weeks. So keep sending stuff I just won’t get it for awhile.

Love you all so much!
Sister Crystal

P.S. My trainer was joking with the other elders and sister about what her new daughter (me) would be like. All she knew was that I was born in Germany and grew up in the church. And they thought my name was Begen or something. So she thought I was going to be a 40 year old woman with hairy legs. Haha good thing I am not!