First letter from Brazil:

Dear family who is worrying way too much about me,

This place is freaking sweet!! I don’t remember much about Venezuela but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot like it. Everything is going just great though!

So yeah, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were long days…I got ok sleep on the giant plane. That thing was huge! I gave the Brazilian next to me the first discussion...He seemed interested a little and I gave him a pass-along card and the restoration pamphlet. But yeah so when we got to Dallas I saw Elder Wilson! I was stoked to see him and really happy cause he’s going to Belo too. Elder Clark (who I left with) was going to another mission so I was going to have to connect by myself. It was really nice to have someone else. He’s better at Portuguese too.

We finally got to Sao Paulo and the lady at the desk was trying to tell us that our flight to Belo had been cancelled. Finally, when we didn’t understand her, a young lady nearby came and helped us and translated. The Portuguese here is not even close to the Port. in the MTC. It’s crazy. Some words are even different. Some things that they taught us don’t even make sense here. But yeah so we finally took a bus to another small airport in Sao Paulo... a real sketchy one… where we took a plane to Belo. When we landed I saw Elder Bowerbank from the MTC! He was there with a secretary missionary. He told me that Elders Ercanbrack and Baker were in the office all waiting for us to get there too.  We finally got to the mission office in the middle of Belo (which is the only place where we can send and receive letters by the way). It was a really long walk with my luggage. President is awesome! He’s really strict and all about business. The mission here is completely different than the one in Cali. We don’t hand anything out and the structure of the lessons is completely different. We don’t even mention the Book of Mormon till the second lesson. It was weird at first but now I’m getting used to it. Anyway, President took us out to eat that night. I was pretty hungry along with the others since we didn’t really eat anything all day. He took us to a restaurant that just gave us TONS of meat…the first thing they brought out was chicken heart. It wasn’t bad...but weird haha. That night he interviewed us and assigned me to Elder Jack. We spent that night in the assistants’ apartment—that place was crowded and really messy. I was glad to be able to get out of there haha.

Once we got back to the mission office the next morning, Elder Jack came to pick me up along with his old companion, Elder Domingos, who was assigned to be with Elder Bowerbank. I live with all them now in a 2 person apartment haha. Elder Bowerbank and I sleep on the floor and keep our bags in a small study room. It’ll do for a transfer haha. We got right to work after about a 45 min bus ride to Florenca where I am serving. At first I was a little shocked but I’m getting used to the area and it’s becoming my home.

Ok now let me tell you about the people here. It’s amazing. They are so humble and open to everything you say. Even if they reject you they still listen to you a little bit…nothing like California.

It’s amazing! Elder Jack and Domingos are zone leaders. Elder Domingos doesn’t speak English but my companion Elder Jack is from Utah. He’s going home in 4 weeks at the end of the transfer. I think I’ll probably end up being transferred although I don’t want to be. The first 2 days I was here I saw 2 baptisms and we have 6 planned for this Sunday. Elder Jack and I fasted yesterday and have been praying hard that they will all come through. The retention rate is about 68 percent here. I don’t know if that’s good but Elder Jack claims it is horrible. He told me yesterday that I’ll probably be baptizing some this weekend. I need to get the baptismal prayer down. I’m pretty nervous especially because the names here are insane. They have like 5 first names that I cant even pronounce…

The language is pretty frustrating so far. I’m trying to stay patient… but I’ve only been here for a week. It’s coming pretty quickly and yeah, I’m learning a ton more here than if I were in the MTC. I need to work on the tenses more though as well as my vocab. People like to make fun of Elder Jack and I because everyone knows we’re white. People always call us Germans...it’s pretty much the kids in the street playing soccer. But yeah Florenca is awesome!! There’s only one paved street and the rest are dirt. It rained hard for like 2 straight days...i’m gonna buy a new umbrella because that one is too small and the water goes right through it haha. I’ve only wore my 2 pants that aren’t dry clean only since everything you wear gets mud all over them. Elder Jack told me he’d give me some of his boot shoes when he leaves and probably some pants. It’s all worked out so far. He says that mail takes like 2 to 3 weeks to get here and packages take months...

You are constantly wet here though...either drenched in rain or sweat. I have sunscreen too so I’ll put that on if I start burning…the sun is intense here. There’s lots of shade that we try to stay in for the most part though. I can understand some things…I usually can understand what people are talking about but it’s still really hard especially when people slur words together and talk really fast. But I’ll get there. Everyone, including the President, told me I’d get it down really quick…like 3 months… so I’m confident. It’s hard to study both the gospel and understand it while needing to study the language but it’ll work. This place is hilarious too. I love the kids in the streets. There’s like roosters that wake me up every morning and dogs, horses, ducks, ect. just running around the streets. People just walk down the street with bloody chickens haha. My filter in my water bottle is working good I think— I haven’t gotten sick. I need to eat more fruit though. I need to keep working out too…I think I’ve gotten real weak haha...I did some push ups last night but we just don’t have anything to work out with. I’ve eaten lots of weird stuff too like pig skin, ears, ect…it’s not as bad as you’d think. And beans and rice out here is not a joke—it really is for EVERY meal.

Good to hear from all of you. It’s supposed to get warmer soon so no I’m fine mom...i’ll just use my hoodie and stuff when it’s cold at night. I’m loving it here. My only worry here is that you are worried about me so please don’t. I get sick if I think you are worried about me because I’m perfectly fine. The lord has promised that I’ll be protected as long as I’m dong what I need to be doing. I love this work. I can feel the spirit so strongly out here. This is a humble people. The lord has blessed me so much to be teaching with them. It’s awesome. I witnessed a baptism the other day and it was amazing.

Love all of you lots. I love your letters, Elizabeth haha. Mom and Dad and everyone else, love you lots too. Hope everyone has a great week! I’m going to try to send some pictures! Talk to you next week!

ps I haven’t really been bit by any mosquitoes...i’ll let you know…

On his way to Brazil!

His companions in the CA, Arcadia mission

Florenca 

showing the love with a little graffiti...

Apparently it rains a lot

Elder Jones, Elder Jack, Elder Bowerbank, and Elder Domingos

On to Brazil!

We received Andrew's first letter from the mission field (Arcadia, California) this Monday.  He waits until halfway through the letter to nonchalantly mention that he will be flying to Brazil in less than 48 hours.  He has since made the 18 hour journey and landed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he will be serving for the next 22 months!

Dear family,

Well here I am in the church building where I’m serving. We have an hour now to write emails and don’t have to listen to 2000 washing machines run behind me. man! Life is great out here! iIt's exactly what I expected. We’re constantly doing something. I barely ever get time to look at my watch or to think about time passing. I never even look at myself in the mirror. It’s all good anyway cause it's all about other people.  So yeah, I live in La Verne, just by a panda express by the big road called foothill road. I live in a really sweet shady area. Somebody got shot last week and there’s constantly helicopters flying overhead with search lights. Sunday something went down again…cops everywhere outside our door. They always just see us looking out the door reading our scriptures...hahaa… ohh man LA county is intense with the crime. But it's all good. You wouldn’t understand how safe we are. It’s incredible-people always talk about how we’re protected and whatnot and you can’t understand it till you experience it. The church probably gets a kick out of putting missionaries wherever they want because they know they’ll be alright. Everyone loves us and says hi to us. There’s nothing ever to worry about as long as you are working hard and being obedient. I love this place.

I’ve talked to lots of old people since being here and they all say that the smog is a LOT better than years ago. I guess they’ve got all kinds of new laws for businesses and whatnot. The air is still gross but apparently its a lot better. 

The main thing I realized when I got out here is the trees and landscaping. All the plants are sooo sweet. You know all those church movies like the testaments, ect with Joseph and Mary walking on the donkey past all those palm trees? That was filmed right here where I live in Pomona. Apparently there’s places up high in our mission where you can see all of LA and the ocean. My roommates all climbed Mt. Baldy a couple weeks ago. They said it was sweet. But yeah, so we’re constantly on bikes-its sweet. My butt and legs are finally used to it. I was a little sore after the first couple days but now I have an iron butt like in spongebob.

But yeah I serve in Claremont. That’s our actual area. Yeah, I’m in a threesome. It’s not too bad actually- it’s working out pretty well. It’s tricky to make sure you keep it simple and basic when you have 3 people teaching but it’s worked out pretty well. We’ve seen countless miracles. I found a lady on the street the other day and suggested we go talk to her and her son. Her name is Cassandra. She said that she’s looking for a church and has even told us now that she knows that God lead us to her for a reason. I gave her a run down of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we came back and taught the first lesson the other day. She has been so prepared that it’s unbelievable. I asked her to be baptized on November 13th (after the first lesson) and she said yes of course. We just gotta keep teaching her. That’s just one example...2 days ago we stopped on Foothill rd. and asked a man how he was doing.  He said not too good and explained that he was trying to get somewhere where he lived and how he was hungry and only had 40 cents. Elder Suiter (my senior companion who is the best example and missionary ever) explained that were just poor missionaries but we could pray for him. He said he would like that so we took off our helmets right there and prayed and Elder Suiter said that as long as he had faith and had righteous desires that he would find a way to get home and get something to eat. Right after we said amen a few random boys walked down the sidewalk with a huge thing of donuts. We asked them for one and gave it to the old man and told him to have a good day and left. It was amazing. This stuff happens 24/7 out here. You realize when you are out here that you are truly doing everything in Christ’s name and that you are doing his work. You are doing what he would do if he were here. You begin to really understand that nothing is just an occurrence; the Lord’s hand is in everything. We’ve given out a good amount of Book of Mormons and taught tons of lessons that have gone pretty good. I’ve still got a lot to learn but I’ve got some time.

So yeah, the day we got here I arrived in the Ontario airport with about 25 missionaries- about 15 in our mission. The mission President and his wife who are awesome met us at the baggage claim. Then they took us to this amazing restaurant for lunch and we all introduced ourselves and spent the rest of the day meeting Brother and Sister Toole, and everyone else in the mission office. The whole day was boring and was hard to stay awake. Everyone had a interview with the president that lasted at least 30 min each. I was excited for mine and was last so I went in there and he shook my hand and said congrats you have your visa… apparently it came in while I was on the plane here...ironic. So yeah he told me to work hard and learn all I can before I take off for brazil Wednesday morning. I have to be at the arcadia stake center by 6:45 am and pick up everything and then its off from Ontario to Dallas to Sao Paulo and then I fly to Belo. It’s about 18 hrs of traveling...pretty intense. It will be long but I’m excited. The Portuguese has definitely not gotten any better since being here…I’ve been incredibly busy. It’s wake up, get to work, get home around 9:15 and get to bed. But yeah, I’ll be alright though. I thought they would have told you that I got my visa but it’s all good. So yeah looks like I’ll be calling Wednesday from the airport. Ohh and I’ll be traveling with Elder Clark!! (he’s the other old District Leader in the 33B branch from the MTC) so that will be sweet. It will just be us two. But yeah I said bye to Elders Kendrick and Wilson the other day who are both going to my mission so I said I’ll see you soon (hopefully). But yeah this is gonna be wild! I know the Lord wanted me here for a reason so I’m working my hardest so I make sure that I fulfill that reason. I now understand how time flies. I feel like I just got here and it’s already Monday. Crazy...

So yeah I live with 2 zone leaders, Elder Otter and Elder Pitt, who are hilarious but they work hard. My companionship is Elder Carpenter from Arizona who left for the MTC August 10th too and Elder Suiter who has been out a year. Elder Suiter is a great missionary and I’m learning lots from him. We’ve got a bunch of weight stuff in our apartment that he collected over the months on the streets… it’s actually really nice.  We use them every morning. But yeah our apartment is humble.. .the carpet is incredibly dirty…it’s hilarious. And man, does the Lord provide. I don’t have any food here at all cause we haven’t been to the grocery store and when you open up our fridge there’s like nothing in it but we are constantly fed. People are just constantly feeding us and keeping us full with great food. The palm trees out here are real sweet. I’m glad I was able to come out here first-it was real awesome. So yeah just be ready for me to call home on Wednesday at completely random times…I’ll call Elizabeth too.

Ok so yeah, that’s lots of what’s going on right now. I obviously can’t sit here and tell you everything. Just know that I’m completely cared for and that we’re preaching the gospel to our area like no other and we’re working hard and have probably biked over 400 miles in the last week. I’m constantly sweaty and everything but it’s great. This mission is pretty great. Ohh and quick cool fact… the mission president and his wife BOTH served here in the arcadia mission. They said that they don’t think that that had ever happened before where they send someone back to their mission like that. I have a pick of the mission pres and his wife and everything. I’ll find out a way to get that to you ...and I haven’t had the chance to take any pictures yet! I’ll definitely have to do that. Maybe with the palm trees and with my companions on our bikes with the mountains in the background or something. The sunset is unbelievable here and the afternoons are gorgeous - especially on bikes. We still sweat because we are peddling hard but it feels really good. There’s lots of low riders out here and all the Elders know about the Chino Sinners.  We’re going to eat dinner on Tuesday with a man who served 6 months in Belo Horizonte so I’m stoked to talk about it with him.

Anyways, sounds like Spencer and Davis are having a good time with football...make sure they’re still going to seminary todos dias.

Elizabeth- sounds pretty sweet…wish I could go on the white house tour…we almost did with Mr Rivera but got denied. Keep letting me know what’s going on! Can you tell everyone to now send letters to Belo!!?? just let everyone know I’m finally in Brazil!! Heck yeah. I’ll be there Thursday morning I guess but dang I’m sooo stoked. I’m not gonna understand NUNCA!!  But it’s all good because I’m excited to know nothing and hopefully learn fairly quickly. All is well. My testimony is as strong as ever and I love talking to everyone. There’s no fear when you fully understand what you are sharing with them.

  

Love you all! God speed.

Love, Elder Jones