MTC 2

Dear people,

I only have 45 min to write everybody emails so if I don´t respond to you today I am sorry, I'll try to get back to you next week.  

This week has been a huge adventure. Micheal Phelps, we just saw. The police station story is basically the bus driver wouldn't let me get on the bus and then made everyone wait, took my passport, and led me to the police station. I was like, "what the heck is going on?" Then we waited there for like 30 min and then they gave me my passport back and we left and I have no idea what happened because everything was in Portuguese.

The MTC [missionary training center] has been a blast.  The food is amazing and so are all the people.  I am in a three way companionship while I am here. The first is Elder Hackleman, the Nebraskan that is absolutely obsessed with basketball and did show choir in high school so I always sit next to him during choir so when he harmonizes I sound good.  He also has this really cool pen trick that is really sweet but I can't really describe; it's cool though.  The second is Elder Larsen from Arizona who loves mechanics and building things and shooting things in his backyard.  They are both really fun and great to hang around with.  Our roommates are Elder Fariez and Elder Melo who are both from Brazil learning Japanese for their missions and are here for 9 weeks.  Fariez speaks pretty good English too, so it is great to work on our Portuguese with him at night.  Speaking of which it's amazing how much Portuguese I already know. Our second day we had to teach someone a lesson about the gospel in Portuguese and it was terrible, but I at least understood him a little, and we have done that every night since and now we can hold decent conversation and I can bear my testimony and pray.   

Dad, to answer your question the hardest adjustment has to be the toilet paper and showering with bugs.  The toilet paper comes out like Kleenexes so you can't just unroll the amount you want, and the bugs are water proof so you can't wash them down the drain but at least they don't bite.  

When we got here we had a devotional and they said, "obedience brings blessings, but perfect obedience brings miracles."  I guess I have been perfect because I definitely have had miracles. For one, I actually sound OK when I sing in choir, and the second is I am actually good at basketball because one of the rules is you can't jump (not sure why that is a rule), but it throws everyone else off and then my skills are on par with theirs.  However volleyball is where my true skill lies.  Me and Elder Santos are an epic duo no one can defeat. We can't even speak to each other because we don't speak each other's language but the team chemistry is so real nothing can stop us.  

Elder Hackelman had a really sore throat so we went to the help desk and the doctor wasn't here and the lady only spoke Portuguese so we had to try and communicate but it wasn't working so eventually she wrote something down on a sheet of paper, led us outside, pointed across the street, said, "muito bem" and went back inside. We weren't sure what to do, but we just went across the street and there was this weird pharmacy place. We weren't sure what to do because the store shop owner didn't speak English so we just grabbed our throats and made moaning noises and eventually he went in the back and grabbed us some meds and took the paper which apparently meant we didn't need to pay and then we left.  So we hope the meds are what we need and he doesn't die.  

The city is amazing everything is like crammed together and the city is so packed. I have pictures but I cant send them until I get into the field in 6 weeks or else the WiFi will crash.  

The temple is absolutely amazing. It is so beautiful and huge. The only problem was lots of everything was in Portuguese but since I was a temple worker and had everything memorized I ended up being okay. 

 Oh, and also today I bought a nice scripture case from a lady from Peru outside that has a llama on it, but it might be an alpaca because "their ain't no pack in alpaca."  Also next week when we go to the temple I am going to buy a Portuguese quad to put in my new scripture case from the church distribution center they have there. [Quad is a set of scriptures including 1-the Old Testament, 2-The New Testament, 3-The Book of Mormon, 4-Doctrine and Covenants]

My district is so amazing we all have so much fun. We spend all day quoting Nacho Libre and trying to learn Portuguese.  It's so amazing to wake up everyday and have a giant scripture study with them and everyone shares what they learned during personal study and it is just awesome to hear all of their testimonies and why they are serving missions.  It's amazing to just have the entire day jam packed with the Spirit and everyone is always so happy.  Another thing they said in the devotional is that the MTC is one place where the Spirit is most powerful second to only the temple and my first thought was, "yeah right it is a bunch of 18 and 19 year old boys" but After this first week I can definitely say that is true. I don't think I have felt this much spirit in my life. I am learning and growing so much and I am so glad for deciding to serve a mission.