[Time really flies as an adult. When you are little things seem to take eternity to happen.] Time flies my foot, 2 years right now seems like an eternity. Everyone says that time flies here but it hasn't so far :) It's 90ish outside everyday for the whole year, it will rain more in the summer so it will be more humid there. It's windy here so its not bad at all, I have been in much worse. The worst part is waiting outside the door for some reason. You are hot and there is no breeze and the sun is beating on your back. Houses are bad too, that's where you usually sweat a gallon in the houses because it is so stuffy. Yeah 3 days for you is like .00000000000000000000000000000000000000008 of your life :)
[I don't know if you have access to the Ensign magazine. We've been leaving it on the table and people read it as they eat various meals. I was reading the first Presidency article for August by President Uchtdorf. The article is on Temple Blessings....] They give us a Liahona every month here so it has some of the same things. I might be in the Portuguese Liahona one of these months. There was an open house for a chapel near the CTM so they made a missionary choir to sing there for 3 days. One of the days the Liahona people were there taking pictures, I signed release forms too so maybe.
Well thanks for all the words about temples, even though I won't see one for another 2 years :) I liked going to the temple in São Paulo, and I was bummed because the week I left the missionaries are going to the Campinas temple. [Take some pictures....] I have pictures, mostly from when I was leaving the MTC because they would only let you take them your last day. I have a few here but I don't carry around my camera with me. I don't carry anything with me but scriptures and some money in my front pockets so I don't get beat up. muahah I haven't even washed my pants yet, they haven't needed it but it is dusty here so I will have to. The shirts don't hurt anymore.
It has been a good first week here, the people are so nice and when you see a member on the street they usually just walk with you to the next house and teach with you so it's not hard to get members when you teach. It's hard to understand people, that is probably the hardest thing to do because they have a lot of slang here. I've had some spiritual experiences too, we cast out a devil the 3rd day I was here. My companion has been out for 10 months, his name is Elder Alves from São Paulo, and he has never done it before. It was intense but wasn't scary and it was totally different than what you usually think. I am working hard and walking a lot because this is the highest baptizing mission in the world and we have tons of investigators that need to hear messages.
Monday, August 23, 2010
23 Aug 2010 - First week in Fortaleza
[Still over 100 degrees here every day, but we'll be headed to cooler lands on Thursday. We plan on staying in the Colorado mountains for 3-4 days on the way to Utah to see what there is to see. BYU starts the 30th, so we'll have a week or so with the little ones before they have to get to studying.] It's not too hot here and we get a nice breeze from the ocean all day. There is nothin' to see in the mountains but cold and despair :) Yeah those little chitlins are off to school before you know it Lauren will be married in 6 months and you are going to have to buy oxygen tanks every month. I hear those old people scooters are cool though. Thats cool though, I'm not missing the cold of BYU-I right now. I did burn my shins in an attempt to become less white oops :) Today was P Day as you can tell so we were rocking out to a guitar and I realized how white I was, but now I am pink. They don't hurt though, they didn't get burned bad at all.
[You mentioned eating chicken hearts. I've eaten them before, although I actually like chicken livers a lot more. And they had more than rice and beans in Central America. We had tortillas too. And other stuff. But lots of rice, beans, and tortillas.] Chicken hearts were good, but just a little rubbery. Livers are nasty but that is all exquisite food here. I have only eaten rice and beans and noodles and some random bits of chicken. I had ramen noodle omelets the other day for breakfast, so chicken hearts are a delicacy right now.
[Any better luck this week getting Elder Olson to speak Portuguese in public?] We didn't go proselyting anymore so I don't know, but he speaks a lot better than when I first met him. The speaking part is the easy part, it's so much harder to understand the people. Especially here, they speak with so much slang and they say cara every 4 seconds with basically means dude, well my roommates do. The people of Ceará have so much slang and they say their 'r's weird here too. So I still haven't gotten the listening thing down yet. My companion elder Alves only speaks Portuguese so it will only be a matter of time I guess.
I got jipped when I got here, some random elders met me at the airport. The other elders said the Pres. met them and 10 elders and they had dinner at his house and slept there. I ate pizza on a dark stage in the church, they had chocolate pizza though which is dough and a half inch of chocolate.
I have done a lot already, we walk around because we have sooo many investigators that we have to talk to. The people here are so nice and I have only taught a few lessons without a member there. The most spiritual thing so far is when we cast out of a devil from a possessed lady, it was cool because she is a strong investigator so that's good we got to help her. I am so grateful for the authority on this earth, the priesthood. This land of Brazil is a blessed country and I think it can easily surpass America's number of members. I have never been yelled at or had slammed gates or anything bad yet.
[You mentioned eating chicken hearts. I've eaten them before, although I actually like chicken livers a lot more. And they had more than rice and beans in Central America. We had tortillas too. And other stuff. But lots of rice, beans, and tortillas.] Chicken hearts were good, but just a little rubbery. Livers are nasty but that is all exquisite food here. I have only eaten rice and beans and noodles and some random bits of chicken. I had ramen noodle omelets the other day for breakfast, so chicken hearts are a delicacy right now.
[Any better luck this week getting Elder Olson to speak Portuguese in public?] We didn't go proselyting anymore so I don't know, but he speaks a lot better than when I first met him. The speaking part is the easy part, it's so much harder to understand the people. Especially here, they speak with so much slang and they say cara every 4 seconds with basically means dude, well my roommates do. The people of Ceará have so much slang and they say their 'r's weird here too. So I still haven't gotten the listening thing down yet. My companion elder Alves only speaks Portuguese so it will only be a matter of time I guess.
I got jipped when I got here, some random elders met me at the airport. The other elders said the Pres. met them and 10 elders and they had dinner at his house and slept there. I ate pizza on a dark stage in the church, they had chocolate pizza though which is dough and a half inch of chocolate.
I have done a lot already, we walk around because we have sooo many investigators that we have to talk to. The people here are so nice and I have only taught a few lessons without a member there. The most spiritual thing so far is when we cast out of a devil from a possessed lady, it was cool because she is a strong investigator so that's good we got to help her. I am so grateful for the authority on this earth, the priesthood. This land of Brazil is a blessed country and I think it can easily surpass America's number of members. I have never been yelled at or had slammed gates or anything bad yet.
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