Dear friends, family, and all others who wish to inquire about my lifes tales......
Today marks the first week of my being here in the Brazilian MTC in Saó Paulo, aka the CTM. Last Tuesday/Wednesday I flew here from Dulles, but my flight got delayed due to mechanical failure of the plane...as soon as they got that resolved, a thunderstorm rolled in and so we sat on the runway for another two hours until we got clearence to fly... needless to say, I missed my flight to Saó Paulo from Dallas, so they rerouted me through Rio, for an aditional 3 hours of flight time. That was fine, but when I got to Rio, as soon as I stepped off of the plane, they I heard my name being called over the speaker system along with a long slur of very angry portugues, none of which I recognized... once I got through customs, I headed over to the baggage claim, because in Brazil, in order to make a connecting flight, you have to re-check your baggage >:/ my baggage never showed, and I had missed my flight. I knew no portuguese besides ´how much is your fee´ so I was stranded in Rio, with no baggage, and no ticket to Saó Paulo. I found the help counter, and eventually found 3 workers there who spoke a grand total of 5 or 6 words of english each... by pointing at signs and using random spanish phrases I recall from freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was somehow able to tell them what was wrong, and that I need to go to Saó Paulo. Well, they didn´t quite get the picture because they tried to get me to pay 1.600 R$...or something along those lines... and then somehow, a man who spoke perfect english came out of a back room, asked if my name was Tyler Eliason. I said yes...and he told me that my bags were taken care of and that my ticket numer is...... whatever he said, the lady just plugged it into the computer and printed me a brand new boarding pass and told me to have a nice day. I have no idea who he was, where he came from, and how he knew that I was stranded, but it happened, and I flew to Saó Paulo with no furthere incidences. I soon got to Saó Paulo, but of course the flight that I came on wasn`t the one my bags flew in on, and so I spent the next 2 hours speaking 3 or 4 word phrases to the baggage people describing my bags, and once again. A random guy, working in the America Airlines counter, walked up to me and just handed me my bags. How that happened I have no ideas. The Lord works in mysterious ways my friends, He does.
So Brazil! oh what a place!!!! the food here is AMAZING!!! we eat rice and beans at every meal, but its so delicious I don`t think that I could ever eat enough of it. today, being our first P-day, we were allowed to wander around the city and try different things... one of our teachers, Irmão Costa, came along, and took us to his favorite restaruant ever. It was a Brazilian BBQ, kind of like Tucanos, except it was really run down, and it was dirt cheap! so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It smokes the living tar out of Tucanos. Every meal, we drink fresh squeezed juice, and it`s amazing! We eat so much meat and fruit, it´s unreal, I have fallen in love with Guava fruit! It´s a relative of the tomato, but it´s sweet, and so rediculously juicy! I´ll eat probably 8-10 quarters of guava every meal! we also have the most amazing pinneaple here, it is white, but so much more sweet and just all around juicy and crisp than those of the United States.
My first companion is Elder White. He is from Smithfield, Utah, and has a love for basketball and golf. He has been working out with us and absolutely loves the people and the language too! We have fun, but he is very serious when it comes the gospel, and that is an amazing attribute. We have been here a week, but we speak better Portuguese now, than I spoke Spanish at the end of my third year in high school. I amazed by the spirit here, and am constantly immersed in the language and the love of the people. Portuguese is such a beautiful language, it is actually closer to Italian than it is Spanish, but I love it none the less :D Mr. Cheney´s cookie shop/letter service is like the Dear Elder service of Provo, but they deliver mail way faster than post mail, so that´s always an option. Send letters, they´re always loved, by everybody!
Only the Best,
Elder Eliason
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