Entao....
 
Week 5 has flown by....exact same schedule every single day XD oh well, so for all of you wondering, we're actually here in the CTM for 9 1/2 weeks... yeah, so I still have what, 4 weeks left? And...my mother has been blowing up her letters to me w/ tons of questions, so I figure I'd take this opportunity for a little Q&A with them...so here we go :D
 
1. how many people in my district? --11
2. Am I teaching Alexandre every night? -- no, we only have time for 2 companionships to teach him every night, and anyways, he got baptized last Saturday, so we have a new investigator now...
3. Does he come to the CTM?  yes, he works here as an instructor :D
4. What did I teach last night? I taught about Alma 32, being humble by choice, not necessarily by force
5. Personal scripture study stuff?  Preach my gospel, chapter 5 w/ applicable references---AMAZING!!!!
6. Do I study using Portuguese Scriptures? yes, I do during language study, I study using both english and portuguese side by side, translating, it helps w/ grammer.
7. Are my CTM teachers native Brazilians? --yes, both of my instructors are native São Paulo residents, Irmão Costa, and Irmão Irmalho.
8. Do they speak English? --kind of, they´re both learning
9. Do I play soccer (foote-bal) on pday? no, we don´t play sports on pday...too much stuff to do, I´ll probably do that once we get out into the field though...
10. The São Paulo temple open? yes, opened a couple of weeks ago
11. Animals have I seen? --dogs, rats, dogs, mice, dogs, vultures, dogs, dogs, dogs, and 1 mccaw
12. Best thing eaten this week? ---mango, definitely mango, we bought a huge mango for 2 R$ last P-day, and it was amazing :D
13. Worst food of the week? Stroganoff--i have no idea how to spell it, we call the meat they put in it the bubblegum meat, you can chew it for hours and hours on end, and itll never diminish or change
14. How is winter weather?  fantastic, mid-70s every day, and low 60s every night
15. Good sunsets and sunrises? I live on the sixth floor of the CTM, and we look out over the west part of São Paulo, when the smog isn´t bad, its fantastic.
16.  Winter days are about sun up at 6 to sun down at 6...so they´re not bad...
17. how is regular sleep and little exercise?  terrible, I´d rather have a non-routine sleep pattern and exercise for most of the day, not sit for 10 hours in a classroom, the muscles tend to cramp a lot from lack of use :(
18. What do I do on Sundays? ---church at 8, lunch, and a 4 hour nap, then a fireside
19. Classes on Sunday? ---no, no classes on sunday
20. How did they know I played the violin?  they took a music poll when you first arive, they want to know the musical abilities of everybody
21. They have a violin for me? Yes, I play the CTMs violin, it is much nicer than the one I got in 6th grade and still use today :D
22. What am I playing? Hymns, lots and lots of hymns
23. How many missionaries in CTM here? 200, the largest outside of provo
24. How many zones in CTM? 5
25. How many districts in each zone? 3-6 depending on the week
26. How many missionaries are headed to Porto Alegre w/ me? 4 others, Elders White, Reeves, Blair, and Nelson
(funny story, Elder Blair is cousins with the Smiths ..Troy, Alyssa, Justin....)
27. When do I leave the CTM? the Tuesday before General Conference, in 4 weeks?
28. Fried food? yes, they love fried food here, but it´s not that greasey, its delicious :D My favorite are the fried bananas, they are absolutely delectable, and I could eat them all day!
29. Funnest word that I learned this week: ........ <--- the word, I´m not telling what it is, but it has 3 definitions....
    a. To hang oneself
    b. To loose an incredible amount of money at once
    c. To get married
 
- was the editor filled with pent up anger over something or what not???
I almost died laughing when I read that...that´s what the dictionary says, but I asked a native brazilian if that was true, and he said that they never use it for anything but the first definition
 
also, under the translation of eggs, it has an example sentance and then uses of it in slang terms...the slang term used for eggs was ´´to go tell your grandma to eat rotten eggs´´  so many questions about this
 
anyways, I bought a set of leather scripture cases for my Portuguese scriptures, i´m so stoked,  they come next wednesday ^^D pictures to come
 
Best of luck to all y'all
Elder Eliason
 
P.S. Letters are the little bit of sunshine on each day, (food for thought)