23 Aug 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[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.

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.

11 Aug 2010 - Brazil MTC

[It is still in the 100s here and the forecast is more of the same. According to my iPhone it is only in the 80s in Fortaleza. I guess you'll find out soon if that is accurate. When do you head there?] It's only winter here so it's not going to be that hot in Fortaleza. I leave next Tuesday the 17th of August. I'm kind of nervous, going to the mission field is a lot different than just sitting in the MTC forever. Plus I don't think I'm that good of a teacher but in a week I will be teaching real people stuff. We went to a meat 'buffet' place today for our last Pday. I dont know what it is called, rodesia something like that, it's like Texas de Brazil but much cheaper. They just kept shoving meat down our throat and it was all good. Chicken hearts are good too, you should try them :) It was good though, they have lots more than rice and beans here sorry to say it seems better than Costa Rice... ;) I went proselyting this week again but this time it was downtown São Paulo so that was more intense. It was more walking around and talking which is harder than talking to old men eating crunch bars with no teeth. They were selling some pretty sweet stuff too. They had little ponies that walked around in circle on a string. They just walked around a stick in a circle. Pretty tempting stuff I know. The people were still nice though but I got rejected a lot more there, not really rejected people just said they were busy. I met a few members too so that was cool. We gave out 5 of the 6 Book of Mormons that we had in 1.5 hours. E Olson wouldn't say anything though, I couldn't get him to talk to anybody. But it was good, it's good practice and it easier to do it than you would think. [Sean isn't a Cub Scout leader any more. He was called as a teacher's quorum adviser. Tonight they went over to Brother Starr's house and cleaned guns. Now that sounds scary: 14-year-old city kids with guns. Fortunately I don't think they had any ammo, or there might be some dead teachers since Sean said they didn't seem to grasp the concept of not pointing guns at people even if they are not loaded. I don't remember doing anything like that (cleaning guns for Mutual) when I was a teacher. I was deprived.] I don't think they had guns when you were a teacher. I thought you guys were still working out the whole fire and wheel thing in your day. That doesn't sound good that they are playing with guns but I guess it's okay if you cap someone else's kid at mutual. I guess that's why you don't have 34 guns in the house and you live in Texas too. You granola California kid. Well I am just making up stuff now since my own mother didn't email me today and that lazy Michael kid who got a letter from me every week didn't write either. :)

4 Aug 2010 - Brazil MTC (to Dad)

Boa Tarde

[It has been over 100 degrees every day and is forecast to be over 100 for at least the next ten days, so we're thankful for air conditioners.] It's been pretty cold here lately, just cloudy. It doesn't rain much in the winter though, I have only seen it rain once and that was when we went to the temple so I got soaking wet. [You asked who Michael's home teaching companion is: it is Brother Dixon, but he's been out of town a lot.] Yeah he leaves in the summer, but that would be a good home teaching companion. [Wow, doing temple work in a language you're learning would be different. One thing that might be interesting as you master the language is listening for differences in words that might clarify meaning in English when the English word could have multiple meanings--you can do the same thing with the scriptures. Sometimes how something gets translated makes it clearer what the intent was in English, if that makes sense.] I like the scriptures more in Portuguese, they say stuff differently and it is interesting how they mean different things like you said. [The end of summer is fast approaching--well, not really the end, but the time to take Michael and Lauren to BYU. It is kind of scary in a way because it will be awful quiet, lonely, and boring with a nearly empty house and I know I will miss having all of you around.] Yeah you will be almost all alone in the house like old people. You better find something to do like soap carving or learn how to do weird grandpa things so you can show the chitlins weird stuff. You should also save up quarters so yuo can take them out of all the kids' ears. Nothing interesting here much we got 5 elders. 2 from my other disctrict so that was cool. We saw a brazilian smashing in a car at night the other day too after a fight, that was awesome!!!!

4 Aug 2010 - Brazil MTC (to Mom)

From what I have heard Fortaleza Mission is like Arizona and 110 degrees and dry, except for on the coast where Fortaleza is. Yeah I bet some of it is rich but the rest of the city is ghetto. Where are you guys going? [Speaking of upcoming trip to Utah, presumably.] dropping off lauren and michael? The swivel chairs are the best. [We bought a couple of chairs from IKEA (exciting, huh?).] You could always just travel instead of being a Scandanavian Viking IKEA cashier. Yeah its pretty much a compound. [The MTC.] Here in Brazil it's even worse, at least in Provo you got to walk outside and see light. I haven't seen natural light for weeks, well since last p day and through the windows. Yeah I got the package. Just for future reference I hate those Werther's Original Candies. But I liked the letter and the book about the apostles. It took me awhile to figure out that there was our family picture on it though....oops; Elder Holland is a good speaker, he is my favorite I think and not just because he has the coolest 1st name ever. He shows a lot of emotion, that was my favorite part about that talk I showed you. Eyring is good too, they are all good I suppose. I want all of that too, its a lot easier to want it here, but not much easier to obtain it. However, you got have a lot more powerful spirit and the mantle of apostleship (kind of) and that makes blessings pour in. Love ya

28 Jul 2010 - Brazil MTC (to Mom)

[I see how it is.  : ) you write me last??? then you only have 30 seconds to write???  who or what is the Nazi?] Yeah I did, you were last on the list so the internet clearly wanted to make you last. I had more than 30 seconds I just had 30 seconds when I said I had 30 seconds left. It has a countdown of doom and there is nothing you can do but accept it. The nazi is the countdown timer. [Brazil sounds different, but not bad.] I haven't experienced much of Brasil just a little when I went proselyting. I forgot to tell dad about that I thought I already told you. I went proselyting last friday, just walking around the CTM with my companion trying to hand out 6 book of mormons. It was easier than I thought and I realized I wouldn't mind doing that for the next 2 years. In fact I wish they would have let us pass out more. I talked to a lot of people and most of them had a book, nobody denied taking the book. Everybody is nice and not a mean thing was said, even when they don't want one they say how much they respect you and the church. We did have this one guy that we talked to for like 40 minutes about lessons 1-4 pretty much he just kept asking questions. It was good practice and I am surprised I could speak that much portuguese. Alas he didn't take our Book of Mormon he said he would stop by the CTM to learn more but who knows. I don't think I am learning much faster just normally as anyone here does. I think I am stuck right now, not really growing in the language. My companion understands about 2% of conversation so I have to do most everything which I guess is good to learn faster....What did you share from my emails? Well evan didn't write me so you got plenty of time this P day. It's good here, only 18 more days before I leave to Fortaleza. From what I hear it's the higher baptizing mission in the world, and it's hot, and I will probably stay in Fortaleza city the most. Every time I tell a Brasileiro I am going to Fortaleza they say "quench" or hot.

28 Jul 2010 - Brazil MTC (to Dad)

[Any new arrivals yet or is it still just the two of you soaking up all the knowledge from your teachers? I think the Lord is preparing you as select individuals to be leaders in your mission. Really, as you look back you'll see events and circumstances that happened to prepare you for situations you'll find yourself in. And I think you have the talents and abilities to be a leader.] We got one new arrival today but he was from the other district so I don't know him, figures though. I don't [think] he is preparing [us] for that, we aren't miles ahead of anybody. It will be hard to have a tripanionship (3 elders) especially when we teach but class will be the same. I didn't get picked out of our bustling district to be the DL so who knows ;) [Monday night we had a family home evening with the Hansens. We played a bunch of different games and everyone seemed to have fun. It was funny watching their young ones drawing tiny pictures of unrecognizable things in Pictionary. Sean was on a roll and seemed to guess the right thing even when the pictures weren't ideal.] That sounds fun, sounds like the pictionary we use to play when you drew 3 lines and someone got the answer....basically cheating is the word I would use. [I went home teaching with Michael tonight because his companion is out of town. It was an interesting experience being taught how to do it right. ;-) He opened with a kneeling prayer, made good and meaningful conversation that showed genuine interest in the family, shared the message in a very insightful way, offered specific ways in which we might be of help to the family, etc. Wow. I was impressed. You'd have to be there to understand exactly what I mean, but I could picture clearly how good of a missionary he was. You kids are so much better persons than I've ever been. The Lord was serious when He said He would send the best for the last days.] Who is Michael's companion? Home teaching is different than missionary work you don't have to commit anyone to baptism. I'm sure you had to stop michael a few times when he asked them to commit to going to church. But I guess the rest is the same but I didn't get that far before I said something oh well. It's a lot different than what I thought when I first got to the MTC, it's nothing like the fairy tale missionary stuff I always thought it would be. I bet you were about the same, but you didn't have Preach My Gospel hence you were a pro. Português é muito facíl. As palavras parece a mismo mas eles não falou a mismo. (I have no idea if that is right) é muito facíl para entender quando as pessoas lhe fala. Eu espero que eu possa ser um bom missionário e ensine as pessoas do Brasil. I went to the temple again today and I did initiatories. It was interesting all in portuguese and I didn't understand most of it but I still knew what they were talking about and it still was the same thing even if I was in Brasil.