dear everybody,

 

i love your letters mother...thank you very much :)

to answer your questions mother....no, we don't have much poison ivy here, but tons of stinging nettle...people keep it as a decorative plant because the leaves can get HUGE....stupidest idea ever.

- the house...well, we threw bricks upstairs, (yes, that was fun, especially when the person up top didn't catch it....) made home-made cement, laid rebar....made reinforced cement walls...the usual house-stuff here....houses here are very rarely made up of a frame and drywall...actually I have yet to see one...they are all cement walls, or bricks with cement laid overtop (more common)....or if they are poor, wood planks. if they're extremely poor, plastic-bag tents (see: picture next week of gypsies that have moved in...)

 

i'm sorry, this week i forgot my camera, so next week I will send pictures...i took a bunch this week that will make you laugh....im sorry, i have to talk about one right now...last night, as we came back from a lesson....we found on our doorstep, a drunk man who was passed out.....now, we know most of the drunks around here...we have the white haired silent man, the wanabe opera singer (to our chagrin), and the bald mexican....we find him normally passed out about 9 or 10 in the morning.... the bar next door opens at 0530 to serve the early morning hard-liquor enthusiasts...yeah, its pleasant..but i didn't recognize this one....maybe he'll stick around?

well, this week was rough. very rough. especially for Elder Bryant. every year, about this time, he has extreme stomach pain... it hapens in a searies of 3 events...first pain only for a few seconds....the second time for a few minutes....the third and final time for a few hours...extremely intense and excruciating...well, on friday, he had both the second and third episodes...so he wasn't even able to walk....he laid down in the apartment for a couple of hours while I read the Liahona...luckily it left and we were able to teach a couple of lessons that evening...between that and a meeting that elder Bryant had to go to on tuesday out in Porto Alegre...(2.5 hours away) that took all day....we suffered sufficiently by way of well-taught lessons. I went on exchanges with elder Reeves in caxias on tuesday while elder Bryant and elder Herai went to Porto Alegre. the highlight of that day was when elder reeves, (while teaching a family of a single mother and ten kids ages 1-13) asked "so, who wants to be baptized?" and all of the kids jumped up and yelled "Me!!!" we kind of just chuckled and said okay, and left.

 

i have to say, that my favorite photo that you sent mother is the one of BJ, he makes me laugh, and is so adorable.... XD

 

anyways, last night we met a very interesting man....we have an investigator who lives up the street from us...he's 35 lives with his parents (very common) but single...(usually people live with their parents, grandparents...etc with their own families...very common to find 3 or 4 or even 5 generations in a single house) but he likes the book of mormon, so we were going to follow up with him about it....and low and behold, his brother (who has been dropped from the fam..he's atheist (just because he doesn't like catholics)) was there...and he spoke english. turns out him and his brother....both speak english, fairly well...how did they learn? well, one of the brothers bought an oxford dictionary when they were teenagers, and they sat down and read the entire dictionary....because it had context sentances in it, and they would memorize the words and use them in sentances...talk about the most terrible way to learn a language... :P but they could communicate really well... he lives out in PO, so i got his information because he wanted to know more about the "ideology of the mormon church".....to be completely frank, I really don't care if people try and speak english, i almost enjoy it more when people just speak portuguese..its easier for me to understand (as narcassistic as that sounds) but a supprising number of people here speak little tidbits of English...for example...bispo yesterday in church was talking..and somebody butted in (elders quorum meeting) and he said "I KNOW!" and then calmed down and explained in portuguese...its funny

Flavia (mãe do Artur-the little guy with my name tag) finally came to church, she is the most elect woman I have ever met...when elder Black came to do the interview with Andreo, he met her and told us that she was the most elect woman that he has seen yet on his mission....he's at about 1 year....she reads the book of mormon all day (she's a receptionist at a hotel that doesn't have a ton of people) and reads the gospel principles book when she has questions...she also loves mormon.org profiles and the Liahona...we gave her a conference issue of a couple of years ago....the only problem is that she has to work on sundays...and she only gets 2 days of vacation a month, so she took two sundays off..and next month she will be baptized the day before her vacation day (sunday) so she can be confirmed.. :) she is absolutely incredible, and will make an amazing relief-society president.

 

everybody gives us juice *(suco) aka Tang, which is absolutely incredible here...the tang in the united states has nothing on it....the tang here is literally like fresh juice.....fresh orange juice is very different here...it is made with a different type of orange that has a very bland flavor, and they love it....i have a hard time drinking it....but do not worry...i have little chewable vitamin c pills from BJ's, so its a costco-sized bottle....it'll last me most of my mission....if you are preparing for a mission...that is a very good idea to bring...vitamin c pills and multi-vitamin pills, lots of time people start lacking in one or two areas because of the typpícal meals that are served almost every day (little bit of meat, lots of rice and black beans, and some lettuce with salt and bassalmic vinegar on top and maybe a sliced tomato and raw onions with a bit of oil over them...actually really good)

brittany's little date episode reminds me of something exactly the same as what I did...except it was the other way around...I had an (unplanned) date that just happened, and i had to kick her out of the apartment before my next date arrived (who wanted to stay the evening, but left, i don't remember why... ....i felt kind of bad, but it was alright because I went back over to her (date#1) apartment afterwards and we watched a movie.... yup.... fun stuff.....best of luck B on your provas! (portuguese for finals)

 

portugese word of the week for all yall....

Lápide: significa- tombstone (la-pee-je) emphasis on the á

 

much love-

elder T-whizzle

ps. elder bryant just sent me this photo...