Olá!!
Greetings from Brazil! It is insane to think about how a week ago I was on my way here. Brazil is crazy and wonderful all in its own way. In the airport after arriving in Sao Paolo I bumped into a bunch of elders all going to Brazil. It looks like a ton of missionaries got their visas the same time I did. Waiting for my plane to Porto Alegre I bumped into a bunch of different elders and sisters I knew in the MTC. But it sounds like me and one other elder are the only ones from our MTC district to have received our visas as far as I know. I did hear that my MTC companions are still in Alabama, as well as the other elder coming to Porto Alegre.
Yes, Monday is P-day and we do have access to a little internet shop where we can email. Emailing president was super hard in portuguese.
Anyway, So President Pavan and his wife picked me up from the airport and I stayed in the mission home that night. Sister Pavan is just so sweet. She doesn't speak any english, and my portuguese is a little rough, so communicating was hard, but even still she went out of her way to make me feel welcome. Driving in Brazil is absolute insanity. The cars make 3 lanes out of a two lane road and then there are people on motorcylces driving in between the already limited space between cars. And everybody drives so fast. Im so happy to be walking everywhere. So then Wednesday morning President took me to the mission office where I met the assistants and the 5 elders who arrived a few hours after I had on Tuesday. Then we all went to the Federal Police something or other where we waited for ages to get our paper work certified.
Then the assistants took me in a taxi to my first area, Gravataí. Except it´s not really my first area. President has had me working here with Sister Gonçalves and Sister Sousa for this week, because transfers are happening tomorrow actually, so tomorrow we go to Porto Alegre and I´ll be assigned to an official trainer in my first area. But my current companions have been amazing. They´re so patient. I speak more portuguese than I understand and it´s frustrating for us all when they´re trying to explain something and I´m just not getting it. Both are from Forteleza, Brazil and speak no english. But we´ve been having a lot of fun, and they´re very encouraging. I´m treated no differently than if I was brazilian and could understand what they said. I´m still expected to teach my portion of the lesson and talk to people on the street. So I´m learning, but it´s hard.
But I´m already falling in love with the country. It´s so so so beautiful. There´s trees everywhere and the people really are so friendly. I´ve felt so welcomed here. And even we can eat fruit right off the trees in the street. I had some sort of berry that Sister Sousa was eating the other day and it was quite tasty. I don´t remember what it´s called or else I´d tell you. It´s funny though, we talked to this woman the other night who had never met an American before me. I was her first to have ever laid eyes on and she had so many questions. People here are just fascinated by the snow. They´re always asking if there´s snow where I live. It´s funny, before I left Washington, an elder who served in the next mission over had just returned home from his mission and I asked him what the weather was like and he said it was getting cold since winter is coming. So I arrive thinking it´ll be at least a little more like fall, but it´s still super hot. Though in the evening it does get into maybe the 70s and my companions from the northeast are shivering and complaining about the cold, and I just laugh. But I have heard it gets into the 40s when winter comes for real. An elder from the states said that in Caxias which is probably a colder part in the mission, it got to about 30. So I´m not super worried. I think Washington prepared me well enough.
Anyway, Brazil is amazing. Everything is different, but I´m just loving it. It´s hard not really speaking the language because I want to learn about everything so bad, but I´m limited in what I can learn until I can understand the answers. But I know it´ll come. And before I know it I won´t remember how to speak english.
So next week I´ll have to tell you about my first official area and my trainer and everything.
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