life is good.: 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…