Oi!!!

This week has been amazing and has flown by. I’ve fallen into a pretty good routine here at the CTM. Every day we wake up at 6:30, do personal study from 7-8 am, eat our ham and cheese panini breakfast, study the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes, study Portuguese for an hour, got to actividades fisicas at 10, play basketball/volleyball for an hour (without jumping), go back to the room, shower/clean up, go to divisions (which is splits with a Brazilian comp), eat with my Brazilian comp, prep a lesson and teach an investigator with my new comp, return back to my tripanship, have grammar lessons/and language lessons till dinner at 5, after dinner we have more lessons and teach 2 more lessons, then we finish the day with planning, go back to the room and have a festa with the Brazilian roommates, and finally hit the sack at 10:30.

The days sometimes feel like forever, but at the end of the day, I pass out. Monday was my first time going on splits with a Brazilian compo. Let me tell you, it was crazy. One could say the CTM is not very organized. So pretty much one of the instructors gave us a paper with a name of our new comp and who we were teaching. Then, they let us have at it. My comp’s name is Elder Antonio. He’s from Sao Palo and speaks 0 English. To my surprise we taught a pretty good lesson on that first day. I also learned a ton from only speaking Portuguese for 2 and a half hours. I think for the rest of my stay here, I go on splits 3 times a week.

My companions are pretty chill. Tripanships are the best. You get to prepare less, you have 3 minds to interpret the incredibly fast speaking Brazilians, and two extremely different people to talk to. Elder Callahan is brilliant. You can give him any gospel topic, and he’ll give you 2 or 3 scriptures memorized. Elder hair is hilarious, and all the Brazilians love him. Overall, we make a powerful tripan that can baptize any “investigator.” It’s sad as the weeks go by cause we loose all our Brazilian friends. Every Tuesday, they ship out the their missions.

The language is very difficult, but I’m learning everyday. I learn the most at meals and at night with our roommates. On Tuesday, we went to our room and tons of Brazilians came running into our room dancing and singing. I think in total there were 25 Brazilians in our tiny room. I am so glad I was sent to the Brazil CTM. The culture, people, and spirit are all so strong. At first, I wasn’t a fan of singing hymns in Portuguese. But now, I love it. It always brings the spirit into the classroom, devotional, or church meeting. My district is awesome, and is by far the most loved American district. We have some amazing district scripture studies. I really love the Book of Enos. Some of the words used in that chapter are super powerful and descriptive like “wrestle before God,” “soul hungered,” “faith began to be unshaken.” The missionary life is hard and learning a language is even harder, but I know that if I have faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, work my hardest, and love everyone around me, the spirit will help me be able to say what I need to say to the people who need to hear it.

Love and miss you all!!
 Dave

Blessings Flow

Óla!!!

Wow! I can´t believe that I´m a missionary... It´s been a crazy week. I got to Brazil last Wednesday, and it’s been a super packed schedule ever since. The first four days we pretty much sat in a class room all day and learned the language. 

Learning the language is not what I expected though. This first week we have solely learned about the gospel in Portuguese. No grammar, no conversational vocabulary. Just the gospel, which is great. It´s crazy that I’ve learned so much in the last week. I can bear my testimony and pray with ease haha. The gift of tongues is real!!! Even with the gift of tongues, the language is super hard. They have a saying the mtc which is fala sua lingua or speak your language (which is now portuguese). 

I´m in a trio with Elder Hair and Elder Callahan. Both of them lived in B9 during freshman year. They both are awesome and help me learn the language. They both are hilarious and we always have a good time. We live with two amazing Brazilian Elders. Elder Santin and Elder Alves de Silva. I think my favorite part of the day is talking to them at the end of the night. They teach us new words, tell us about Brazil, and make us crack up. Elder Santin can kinda speak English, but Elder Silva knows pretty much nothing. Overall, my comps and roommates are awesome.  

I love the Brazilian mtc!!! From day one, you are fully immersed in the Brazilian culture. You eat with Brazilians, are taught by Brazilians, live with Brazilians and so much more. Every day we have actividades fisicas for an hour. We can go to the gym, play volleyball/basketball or run around the one lane track. It’s funny. The only rule is that there is absolutely no jumping. Let me tell you it’s nearly impossible to play a game of basketball without jumping. The food here is good, but they are not very good at portion control. Every meal you get two meats, a vegetable, fruit, a salad, and rice and beans. Also every breakfast is ham and cheese sandwiches, which I still haven´t adjusted to. 

So far the missionary life is very difficult but great. Every night I go to sleep feeling exhausted. I´ve learned so much about the gospel, the language, and the people while I have been here. The spirit is so strong each and every day. Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Love,

Dave

Welcome to Brazil

I made it to Brazil. Everything is good here. Didn't sleep much on the plane. I don't have much time to write so just wanted to let you know that I'm here and that I'm in a trio with Elder Callahan and Elder Hair. My next p~day is next Wednesday. So I'll talk to you then. 

Love,

DAVE

See ya in 2!