:)
Sounds like I get 30 minutes on the computer every Wednesday, so that's when you hear from me. However, the computers are slow, and
my password gave me problems today. 1 phone call to salt lake and it's better
though. It kinda feels like I already have known my companions for months
no w.... weird. But anyway, beginning:
The flight was stupid long and there were no other
missionaries in Seattle or in Dallas. The flight in Dallas was delayed, but we
just sat on the plane for a hour. They went fast apparently though, because it
was only a 9 hour flight instead of 10. After I got through customs I
found Elder Bushman, the guy you talked about before. He is pretty nice,
and we get along well (something about being the first other person that
speaks English that you met in Brazil...) Then we met Sister Hass, she is
great. She is great at teaching and really good with Spanish, so she can make
make herself understood, and picked up Portuguese very fast. Elder umm...
Schmidt came in the next day. He is the first
German Missionary to come to Brazil, and he is our companion. YAY. He is super
neat, and he was made the leader of our cute little 4 person district. We did
get 2 more elders today, but we barely know them so far, they are in meetings.
And a sister is coming to be Sister Hass's companion sometime today as well.
I sorta kinda barely understand Portuguese. I can kinda read
it, and can write sentences very slowly, but I can't carry any sort of
conversation outside of the realm of "how is the weather today?"
"today, the weather is sunny"... oh well, it will happen. No one from
anywhere I know is here, do you know if they are stuck in Provo? apparently
there are about 400 Brazil missionaries without visas.
Went to the temple this morning yes, and it was neat. I
think the Portland temple was a little cooler, but it was cute and tiny. The
video was in English, but the workers spoke Portuguese. Talk about a tough
time... But it worked out and was a neat experience.
I sent a letter the second day that has letter instructions
for mailing on it (they made me :P). They say to avoid sending anything
larger than letter to the MTC, because it may or may not make it to us on time.
If it is a letter it should be okay, but larger shipments take longer, and they
can't forward anything but letters to the mission home if we leave. And the way
that you address it is VERY important. It must be exactly like it is in my
letter, so good luck.
I can only take pictures on P days, so today was the first
chance. The memory card in the camera was full with Europe pictures, so I need
to delete a few in order to take any. The new memory card (as well as Elder
Bushman's) won't work with my camera. Camera too old? Dunno what it is. So yeah
I either need a camera or a different memory card, I'll be looking into that
this week. As a side note, everyone in the district wants some pictures of
family and friends, so if it is convenient please send some.
The weather is more or less like a perfect Seattle summer
day, but every day. It rained one night so far, and it rains like Florida, but
it is actually extremely pleasant most of the time. Apparently Brasilia is quite
hot, but dry (it was related to Arizona by one sister), so I should be able to
live. The food is different, and I only like little bits of some of the meats
that they serve (which is most of the meal), but they usually have plenty of
rice and fruit, so I'm fine there. North American soda sounds good though, this
soda is weird. European Fanta is great, but South American Sunkist is... not.
The Brazilians are SUPER friendly, and since there are only
about 20 of us Americans, most of the missionaries are Brazilian. Many know English, and the ones that don't are very understanding when you babble Portenglish at them. Understanding each other is quite the game, and we play a
similar game with Elder Schmidt. He has great English, but he needs help with
some words now and then. Surprisingly, I found that I'm not the worst at either
basketball or volleyball, which are the games we can play. Our whole district
stinks at both, making it much more fun. Ummmmm..... can't remember what else I
was going to say, but my time is running out, and I should send this before it
runs out.
If anyone wants to write (when they have instructions) or
have questions to ask via your email, feel free to send them. It's easier to
remember what is going on when there are questions to answer.
Love ya all, ask me questions! And/or send pictures. :)
-Elder Carl
