tudo bom?

Hello world, hello family! I miss you all so much! where do i even begin? I am going to the federal police today to register with the country. That means we arent going to the temple which means we get to explore the city. this means we get to buy things from shops and the people can charge us extra reais because we are white and cant speak portuguese! hooray! haha. i am excited nonetheless. This past week was a good week. Yesterday was a bit tough. I was giving a lesson, the plan of salvation, to some brasilians and they were just looking at me like what is she saying... i thought i was speaking portuguese... my teacher was observing, which only makes things worse! I couldnt say what i was trying to say so i just started crying. not sobbing but just frustrated stupid tears. the brasilian elders looked at me like they didnt know what they should do- they were new themselves and here this american is crying! my companion nudged me and said you can do it! and my teacher nudged me and he said you can do it! but i couldnt do it! i couldnt! it was so pitiful. I dont know how ill be able to leave in 3 weeks! faith, the atonement. the atonement is real and i know that i couldnt get here with out it. no way. I was reading scriptures after the whole ordeal and thought about ether which then referred me to romans 8 - read it, its an amzing chapter. other than that whole ordeal things are great. my hair is looking good and one elder likes my blond hairs. haha. i have a new companion named sister bailey and i love her so much! Oh yes, mother, in brasil you throw your tp into trashes near the toilet. not at the ctm or temples though. these are classy places. i dont even want to think about having to do that. the water here is really good too, just not out in the real world. the water treating itself is good but the pipes that carry the water are the problems. they are old and gross. so we have our filtered water bottles! this next week ( although i hope they dont remeber) i look forward to street contacting. in the middle of sao paulo and the week after straight up proselyting. I get that ill have to do that soon but at least then ill be with a companion who can communicate! this will be the greatest challenge of my life! sorry for the short email, im writing to you all today! oh and hey, write to me here at the MTC will ya? theyll forward it to me if it comes to late. but i miss you guys! love sister neptune! tell pam im looking and watching for corey!

Mackensie Made it to Brazil!

Fammmiilly!!! (and friends, I am sending this to all because I wont have enough time to write individually, too much to say and excuse the poor writing) ok and no enter bar. anywayyyy! so mom, i sent you a letter but it didnt make last weeks pouch so youll get it sooner or later. please laugh at and then disregard it. i was SO tired when they made us write the letters so I loathed everything including brasil. but dont worry, i love it now!we just got back from the campinas temple today because the sao paulo temple is closed for cleaning and SISTER ROUNDY- campinas is just as beautiful as they say. it~s green beyond reason and completly breathtaking. i feel like I am in jurrasic park here! so after we got off our forever long plane ride we sat in customs and waited and waited and waited. one line to another. that travel day was the worst. sao paulo is huge. san francisco times 50! and i would sort of compare it to the sktechiest places in our cities, shacks built up against eachother etc except it doesnt feel unsafe at all, its just how things are. there are no building laws so its just colorful shanties or apartment complexes built into one another. i am in another world. this is not america, this is nothing like i have ever seen. i love this mtc! it is beautiful, our rooms are all wood and granite and tile, it looks like a hotel. the grounds are beyond gorgeous and impeciably well kept. the food is amazing, I will never miss the mtc food or american food for that matter! sure you have your rice and beans with every meal, which is delicious, but you also have fresh papaya, mango, pineapple and a myriad of other fruits and veggies I have never heard of before and will probably never identify because every time I ask: que isso? (what is this) people answer in portugues.... Oh hey, mom! Elder Brady jones (campell grandson) is in my district, i love the kid! he ran up to me at the airport and said my grandma was asking if I knew you! Oh and as soon as we hung up on the phone last week i had to do visa stuff then boarded, so | guess it worked out! classes here are great, real brasileiro teachers and we teach other districts, i love my teachers and its fun because there is a slight çanguage barrier all around, but we learn! this mtc is tiny so are meetings are always with the mtc presidency, everyone is really happy to see the americanos here again. about the brasileiros, I LOVE THEM! they are hilarious and warm and goofy. just last night a bunch of sisters knocked on our door and stormed in to chove lollipops in our hands and hug us. I dont know why but i like it! We had choir on sunday and we sang in portuguese, ingles and espanol because we have a few latino districts here. it sounded horrible! mostly because we cant pronounce one anothers languages but also because the brasilians cant sing, serio, we are stars here! then we watched the testament... an american movie dubbed in portugues with english subtitles. I think that sums up my life right now! and a bunch more americanos just arrived!!! god blesses us! sammy! youre registered for highschool, did mom cry? Jacob, I love you!!! mpm, thank you for sharing that story. you are the greatest example to me. I am so blessed to have you as my mother. Grandma, learn portuguese! at least little things and we can converse! I am happy, I am sooooo soo happy. I know this is exactly where I need to be and I am glad. I have only seen 2 cockroaches and they were little... and dead. so alls well so far. Oh and did you know you cant put toilet paper in toilets in brasil? you can in the church owned places, but nowhere else. some elders found that out in the airpot :) I wish I could say more but im out of time. did i mention apostrophes dont exist in this language so the keyboard doesnt have them! i love you, all of you! i think of you so much and I miss you more than I can express. I love brasil, I wish i could speak the languahe but I guess I leave that up to pai celestail!

1st email from the MTC!

Hello family!

I hope you get this email because I'm sure you weren't looking for it today. For further reference my pday is on Fridays so expect an email then. I'm going to apologize up front for any mispellings or the likes. We only have 30 minutes and the time ticks ominously in the upper right hand corner.

Important things first, write me! please. Just do dear elder. it's super easy, all you have to do is go to dearelder.com and choose the mtc and all that good stuff. It's amazing how much I do miss hearing from everyone, especially mother, when i don't have the opportunity to call or text!

Where do I begin?

Life has been crazy since I hung up the phone and got out of the car this wednesday. We haven't stopped since. We have been learning portuguese, SO much Portuguese, we only are ever spoken to in Portuguese while in class and that makes learning confusing and really beneficial. I can say (and pronounce, which to be honest is even more difficult for me) Oi, me nome e sister neptune e eu sou missionaria de igrejia de jesus cristo dos santos dos ultimimos dias. Hi, my name is makensie neptune andI am a missionary from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. But I didn't just memorize it, I understand the parts of the sentence and what it all means! and d's in portuguese as in "dia" are pronounced like a "g" so it's more like gia. r's are pronounced like "h's" and nothing is pronounced like in spanish, forget about rolling r's and y sounding l's . The gift of tongues is real, because how else could I understand any of this. Ah, the beauty of being thrown to the wolves!!

I have 2 companheiros sister Roundy and Sister Schaeler. They are both nice. But we are different. It should be a growing experience. You know how I like to be the leader ;) but it's good. very good! When we are learning together and feeling the spirit everything is as it chould be. My district (my class) is great! Most every Elder is from Washington! Some of us have done our online apps and some of us haven't my companions haven't so every time they call a name over the intercom they hope it's them being called to the travel office. My one companion has had her visa done since october even and hasn't gotten anything back! (utah) but the prognosis for me is about a month and there are a lot of prayers here for visas. I know it will come.

BUT. I am SO happy to be here in Provo, this place is amazing. It's remarkable to look around and see 2,000 missionaries wherever you go. Everyone says hello in their various languages. We are all trying so desperatly to learn. There is no way I could learn this language if I wasn't called to by Heavenly Father (pai celestial!) Everyone is so helpful and friendly and we all have the same goals. It's so great.

I have been able to rub elbows with some dear friends: Elder Markham and Elder Baker and Elder Harmon from BYUI, it's so much fun! and they give me all the ins and outs.


I live in a dorm with 5 other girls. you do that math. The other girls in our room are hermanas.

What else? Nothing too exciting, just class every day and meetings and just intense life. That's the perfect word. Intense, but we laugh too. But there is so much to be done. For instance, we have to write a talk each week for sunday even though we probably won't be called on to give it. Ok that's fine and dandy but it has to be in portuguese. Which is awesome because I don't know portuguese.

I know I am missing a lot and I need to write more I can't think of anything else and I am running out of time. I know this gospel is true and I miss you guys SO much! Please let me know what is going on in life!!!

I love you,