Wassup guys!
"pancakes that Elder Lima and I made"
Man, this week has been a bit dry, and I don’t quite know what to write this week. To be honest, I know why. I got along so well, I think, with Elder Duarte, that the only things worth noting were good things, and I was able to tell and relate some funny stories. With Elder Lima, more often than not our stories together have been about how we’ve not been quite getting along together, or about how we are working on getting along together. Types of stories which aren’t very fun to read and aren’t very fun to write. So enough of that.
This week has been hotter than ever. It’s broken 40 degrees C here, which is about 105 Fahrenheit. Everyone at the CTM said that Rio Grande do Sul was going to be cold, the coldest place in Brasil. Man! On the contrary I believe. We are pretty much melting every day. What temperature is it over there in Maracanau, Brendon? Elder Lima says it’s way cooler there than here. But we’re drinking water at every single stop, taking water bottles with us, and that sweet handkerchief that Sister Harris gave us is really paying off here; a bottle of water in one hand and a handkerchief in the other to wipe the sweat. Thankfully yesterday it finally rained, and today has been very nice and cool and cloudy.
Man, I’m really having a problem relating anything interesting this week. How about on to all of your letters?
First of all loved Brendon’s video. Actually, I think we pretty much have the same accent, or are at the same level of fluency :). The accent is going to be the hardest thing to conquer, I think. I’ve really tried to get the gaucho accent down, but what is kind of weird here, or at least what my companions have said, is that the gaucho accent is regarded as somewhat of a hick accent in other parts of Brasil. I really don’t know what to do about this, so maybe parents, you can help me out. My companions want me to learn to speak as a Paulista (person from Sao Paulo), which is regarded as higher class, but also as foreign. I want to have an accent that shows that I learned how to speak with the Gaucho people, which will show others that I appreciate and treasure their culture. I’m pretty much alone on this opinion. But, what do you guys think? Imagine if a Brasilian missionary arrived in Texas, would you recommend that missionary to learn to speak in a Texan accent? I don’t really know how to answer that question.
But it was really cool news that Elder S Costa is returning to the mission! Yes, the mission is so awesome and so worth it. It’s been really difficult, but at the same time, just last night we had two awesome lessons with people off of the street, and you could tell that they were getting it, and they really expressed a desire to learn more. Sweet. :)
Good job on starting to read the Book of Mormon out loud in Portuguese! I really know that it works. See if you can catch up, I’m in Mosiah 6. ;) Man, if you thought reading Isaías in 2 Nefí in English was a dry experience, wait until you do it all in Portuguese. I used up a couple hours of P-day and just raced through it quickly, because I was absolutely dying every morning because it is so hard to understand.
But here’s another suggestion for study. I haven’t done it yet but I’m going to start tomorrow. Elder Anderson (remember him?) got transferred here three weeks ago, and we’re having a blast together, but he said he’s been writing in Portuguese, and having his companion check his grammar and sentence construction. My companion really thinks this’ll help me too. And if you look in chapter 7 of PME, Language Learning, it says to write in your language. So I’m going to try my hand at writing some Brasilian Mission-themed Poetry. :) I thought it’d be a good excuse for you to exercise your writing muscles. 30 minutes of reading, 30 minutes of writing. How about it? We can exchange our writings if you want. You just have to remember that the purpose is to learn grammar to use on the street and in conversations, therefore, it won’t be very useful to learn all of the vocabulary of a science fiction or fantasy story, because you probably wouldn’t use that day-to-day. But it might be fun.
Brendon, you didn’t take the challenge! Family, you also didn’t get the challenge. "The Searcher" was the ship that Penny (wife of Desmond) used to look for him in Lost. Why is this related to my letter? Because the ship was staffed by Brasilians, and I just so happened to have a picture of a Brasilian ship in my blog post! Okay! So I had another riddle this week but it looks like it’s not going to work because my video isn’t uploading.
Mom, the zombie kit was awesome. How about you use it as a Birthday present? Hehe, that was cool.
(**from Kay Lea - it was a joke - a photo I found on the internet, there will be no "Zombie kits" for birthday presents)
"the aforementioned fruit tree in our yard" (*See last week's post) Cool!
Bah! I’m so jealous about "Lost". I mean, I’m glad that it was awesome, but for some reason hearing about "Lost" just made me want to find it online and watch it already. But I resisted the temptation. Hear that Brendon? We have to keep from the spoilers together! I will as long as you do.
That is way sweet that you are so involved in everything Mom! You have a bunch going on! You sound like Lynsey :). It’s also so great that you and the “wives club” are supporting Dad and his partners in the company. You can really make a difference there. I love you so much Mom. Thank you so much for keeping us updated. Your words have definitely lifted me up.
Grandma and Grandad sent an awesome letter too. Thank you guys. I love my Grandparents :).
Man guys, I had another video to send all of you, but YouTube is not uploading it. However, MyLDSMail is upgrading to use a specialized version of GMail, so I’m pretty excited that I’ll be able to send my videos to you directly instead of waiting for YouTube. Should work next week.
Man, I love you guys so much. I wish I had more to write, it’s been kind of slow here. But! Next week is going to be action packed. Let it be!
My Dad, keep going strong man. I believe in you. The only way to stay excited, stay energetic, and stay happy, is to just do it! Just start, right now, and feel that excitement for the next couple days of work you have before you. Heavenly Father will help you maintain this through prayer. I think it’s a type of faith. We can pray for blessings, and say to yourself, in your head, that they will be fulfilled… but at the same time NOT really believe that anything will change. We can want the blessings, we can ask for them, we can want the faith to believe that they will come, we can ask for the faith, but in the end it will come to our own little seed of faith. We NEED to make that small simple step. Once we inch forward and say, believing completely, “Yeah, those things really are going to happen, Heavenly Father will provide a way”, Heavenly Father will send the confirmation that our prayers will be answered. THEN we will say in our minds, “Woah! I know that those blessings will come!!! I had so much doubt before, but through the Spirit I have felt things that could not have come from any other place, and so I know that God is with me! Sweet! It’s all going to be okay! Awesome!” Of course, we all have to be doing our part, repenting for our mistakes, and relying on constant prayer to receive this, but I think we should not underestimate Faith. We can place wood and pour gas in the fireplace, and it’s a lot of work, but in the end we need that spark of faith. Do you believe? Just believe already!
Anyway, that’s how it’s worked for me and what I’ve understood about this. Don’t procrastinate setting this spark!
Lyns, keep going strong. Heavenly Father is with you. You can pray for comfort and for rest. Sometimes a sincere prayer is much more effective for your work and well-being than a nap or a couple hours of “me-time”. He will give it to you.
My Kaitlin! I am so happy I got your picture last week! I look at your picture almost every day! I love you my sweet Kate! I hope you are still working hard on your homework and on Japanese! Be happy okay my Kaitlin? Are you still saying your prayers? Have you tried to read the Book of Mormon every night? I love you so much my girl. Write me about some of the things that you’ve been doing recently.
Brendon, I love you buddy. Thanks for the video. Do you remember when I did that Game Jam thing at Santa Cruz? It’s already been a freaking year since then! It’s freaking me out how fast time went. Getting up to the 6 month mark! What the heck?!?! Love and live every day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuVboNL_Vv4
Okay, my photos names were a little less creative this time. Sorry. Kind of rushed right now.
Um, this weeks riddle is "LonelyElder617". What and why? 1 point up for grabs!
Tchau tchau! Amor amor amor!
Elder Con
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