Erechim!

Hey!

well, this week has been a bit long, seeing as how its been almost 2 and a half weeks without p-day....Yes, we had the "pday da zona" but what happened? Everybody arived, the sisters arived and left for the hospital (one was very sick) and the majority of the Zone was working on the transfer (me included) so we blew the entire day making the transfer work. Note to self: Do not plan the pday da zona the day before transfers if you are in the office. Anyways, Yes mother, we are eating blackbeans and rice again every day, along with strogonof (the humble farmers extravagant meal) on a daily basis. The ward is awesome, there are few members (the majority are by far youth and they are all out at their version of youth conference out at the beach....bummer! My companion is Elder Lucas De Souza (that's what his name tag says, we have 5 Elder De Souzas so he had to put his name on it too). He is from Rio Grand de Norte, up near Forteleza, he speaks portuguese very very very fast, and with an extremely difficult accent to understand. He also uses a very different vocabulary than the people down here in the south, so a lot of the time the people here don't understand him also. It's really interesting to have a Brazilian companion, because now, I can't speak English at all. He speaks no English except for "Gootch Nitch" and "Ai love uuh" it is pretty funny. He actually is new, and I am training him also, If you don't know, missionarys here in the POA Norte Mission get trained for 2 trasfers, Elder Christaldo was his first trainer, I am his second. It is interesting because he picked up on a lot of things that Elder Christaldo did that are kind of strange to me, but he taught as normal stuff for missionarys. Not bad, but just different. It was a real eye opener to me to see how huge an influence that the trainers have on the new missionary. They litterally have the choice to make them a fantastic hard working baptizing missionary, or they can be lazy fubeccas. It's interesting.
 

Mother, I don't know if you realize this, but you said "I know you wish you could be in Caixa for the baptism..." Caixa means box in portugues...Porto Alegre is where the baptism will be, the mailing address says Caixa Postal, which is their way of saying P.O. Box. funny, you made me smile :) obrigado. Mother, I love you and thank you for sending new contacts, I have to ask though, what type are they? I got some new-ish ones right before I left, and it turns out that I am alergic to them, and if I wear them for more than 2 hours I get pink-eye. :) Just FYI. I remember Farenheit 451, it was an interesting book, but as an 8th grader when I read it, I don't think I percieved the significance of it or how well it was dictioned.

 

Elder Haddow's mission prep class sounds fantastic, he is a really pecuilier guy, and yes, Tanner would adore that class, along with yourself. Tanner is and will be an incredible missionary. I'm so proud of him.

This Saturday night was the first night of Carnival! Carnival is a lot of fun, but when in the larger cities, resembles a lot of 5 de Mayo, down in New Orleans, so the missionaries in the large cities have to stay indoors. We just have to be in our apartment before 8pm, not that much of a difference, but hey, we get a bit more time to study and sleep. Although it might be driven by the more carnal side, everybody here celebrates it in their own way-here in the smaller cities, they are a lot more happy, open, and energetic- everybody gets off work. We had to look long and hard to find a Lan House that was open to send an e-mail. It's a fun time, and there's tons of energy in the air all the time.

 

P-day is now Monday again, and I have to pay 3$R/Hr to use the computer, so the e-mails won't be as long as before, but know that I love you all the same and that Brazil is incredible, but the United States is my home.

Te amo, e A Igreja é verdaderia

EE

P.S. I have never drinken more Chimarrão in my life than I have here, it is incredible how much they drink, and that everybody drinks it here....today I will actually probably buy a quia so I can drink it on my own...I have developed a taste for it :/