Another letter from BRAZIL

First off Guarana is amazing they have the non caffinated kind in the
lunch room, im trying to figure out a way to send it to you guys but
its so expensive to send packages to the US. The money withdraw was
just for spending money. I have been sick, the Brasil Mtc food does
some nasty things to the human body. But I only had $33 in my wallet
when I got here which was like 55 Reals (pronounced like hey-eyes) and
I bought Nathans birthday present and a soccer jersey and I was out so
I withdrew some spending money since im gonna be here for a while.
while me and Elder Lambert were walking to the bank some lady stopped
us and started asking us about the church and we were picking up on
most of what she was saying so we got excited to have our first street
contact and be able to talk to her. turns outs she only wanted free
coffee so we promptly left, broken hearted. but back to your other
questions. yes i am getting your emails, keep sending them I just dont
have a lot of time to get on and read them and respond. Its
frustrating since we can only send letters and emails one day a week
so I feel like I really have no contact with you guys ever. But my new
companion is from Sammammish WA, hes going to Teresina too and hes
really cool. he have similar personalities and sense of humor so we
get along and our teaching is getting alot better as our vocab is
improving. So more about my first day. I was reunited with Elder
Kamalu, my companion from Provo. Its been bittersweet though. He has a
gigantic God complex and everybody knows those are my favorite kinad
of people, and hes gotten a million times cockier cuz he was named
district leader here. We fight all the time. We are fine it doesnt
effect us all that much but he makes me mad all the time. And he
always gets mad when the other guys in the district hang out in my
room and not his, I love having highschool drama in the Brasil MTC.
Its the best. But getting off the plane was like walking into a steam
room it was so hot. and all the signs were in Portuguese and nobody
spoke english so it was really overwhelming. the worst part tho was
when i went to get my bags only one came and everybody had left except
me and my travel companion and we had been joking about what if one of
our bags didnt show up and like 5 minutes after everybody was gone my
bag comes rolling down the return thing just by its self. it was so
scary. and then me and my travel companion (Elder Hinson, the Utah
football player) decided we were gonna go practice our Portuguese on
the natives. Yeah bad idea. we had no idea what people were saying and
all we could ask is stuff like where are you from, how many people are
there in your family. So we gave up and just left. But Brasil is so
cool. its like the weirdest organized chaos ever. the drivers are out
of control and we feel like there should be a million wrecks a day and
we havent seen one yet. but the coolest part is the weather, like one
minutes its sunny and 114 next its pouring rain. and by rain i mean
thunder, lightning and like flooded streets. But the lightning shows
are amazing. We open our windows and just watch the lightning cuz it
stikes like every 15 seconds for about an hour. but today was
seriously like the worst day of my mission. the Brazilians are only
here for 3 weeks, kinda like the americans in the Provo MTC going
english speaking. So all of my friends left. All of them. It seriously
like shattered my heart. I loved those guys so much after only 2
weeks, and one of my favorites (Elder Goes) couldnt even speak English
and I could barely speak Portuguese. But they were all so cool. And
Elder Moreira, one of my roommates that speaks a little English aka my
Irmao Gemeo (twin brother), this morning when he was leaving woke me
up and told me that he was leaving me his Captain Moroni poster. He
bought this poster last week at the Temple and he was so excited to
have it and he hung it up and was all pumped about it. And this
morning he told me that I need to have the courage of Captain Moroni
and that he believes in my....yeah I cried. And Goes gave me his
bracelet and told me hes never going to forget me. It was awful. Im
gonna miss those guys so much, Their all going to the mission that
borders mine so we will all be up there in the North. lets see what
else has happened. umm its really different here. The teachers dont
teach very much, its really on your own kinda of stuff. I learn more
from talking to my Brazilian friends than I do actual class time. Its
just really relaxed here. Its kinda like if you dont want to study you
dont have to, if you want to just nap all day you can. its good and
bad. I think the missionaries in Provo learn to speak better
Portuguese but the missionaries here understand it better cuz we hear
the Brazilians speak it. And they dont speak the same Portuguese as we
learned in Provo. They are ridiculously fast. I try to understand the
prayers and they fly through prayers. the say a ton but they only take
30 seconds. But its really cool walking around the city a little bit.
Its just so much different than the US. Theres a completely different
atmosphere. Its just such a laid back country and its such a mess like
everywhere, like the sewers overflowing onto the sidewalks, but they
make it work. Its been cool so far. at first I hated it here just cuz
my Portuguese is awful but now that I can at least teach lessons and
hold simple conversations its alot better and I love it. But so far I
havent heard ANY good things about my mission. Theres a meal that the
only way I can describe it is its like sand, I dont know what its
called but weve ahd it a few times and you are supposed to mix it with
various fruits and then mix it with your rice and beans or meat or
whatever. but a guy from Teresina was telling me how all they eat is
this sand stuff for entire meals....awesome. and theres a fruit that
only grows in the North that all our teachers that are from Brasil
hate and according to her it tastes like shampoo....of course. the
only cool part, which is good and bad, is in the summer it gets so hot
that we sleep outside on hammocks....awesome! that will be awesome.
except getting eaten alive by bugs. speaking of bugs. during our
serivce hour me and Elder Ray (hes from Mesa, dad) killed like 20
cockroaches and we didnt even make a dent in their population. I hate
them so much. But tell Nathan I will ship his present next week. The
post office is closed today because of Carnival. And Im trying to
write you guys more letters to condense my emails since they really
dont let you go over on time. Im over by like 10 minutes right now but
I do what I want. Send everybody my love. Send me emails if you want
to get something to me quick, it seems like im getting all of those
and it takes like 10 days by mail. and that mission ties thing is
exactly like dear elder its just ran by a nice lady across the street
so its awesome look into it for sure, it works great. But everything
is going good hear, keep sending what ever, I will get it eventually.
and im through Alma today, a little over half way done with the Book
of Mormon.  Eu amo Voces!