hospital hehe (12/25/19)

It's Christmas today, so feliz Natal. This last week has felt like 2 weeks. It had 2 parts, which was two splits--I will explain:

Tuesday: I forgot what we did on Monday, but we got up early today and had more that 10 minutes to get ready for zone conference. We walked to the stake center at the center. My brown shoes--I wore them a while ago, awesome, then today they decided to not be so awesome. Lots of pain. We got to the stake center and rode in a van to Uberlandia for zone conference. This was a Christmas zone conference. Not much different, but we got little chocolates and Presidente didn't talk from 1-5, just 3-5 pm. We also got little chocolates. This day was rather interesting. I got a letter I didn't know I was going to get, and that was so awesome. Lots of people got very large packages, very large packages. My first thought was not "I want that," but "How much was that?" and "Your parents really went to the trouble to send you socks?", among other things. But lots of elders got new socks. Seriously. What a waste. It's expensive to send a package, and you send socks? We're not on the edge of civilization; we have everything here--Subway, McDonald's, Burger King, banks, Mercedes Benz (occasionally downtown). Presidente said we could go in our house at 8. We got back to Uberaba at 7 and had about an hour walk to get home, so I was very exited. I understood wrong apparently. But whatever. I got a little chocolate ball thing and some candies from Presidente and a cup.

Wednesday: this is where it gets good. We had splits today. I went with the zone leader. My comp and I ate at a restaurant before it, and that food was really bad. I felt gross the rest of the day until I just couldn't walk anymore, so we went to the church. Here's a little question: what do you do when you have a headache, you feel a little feverish, feel sick to your stomach, and are weak and tired? You take ibuprofin, right? Or the equivalent that you like. Not here, because if you have Dengue, you die. My splits comp wouldn't let me take ibuprofin, so that sucked. Then I was sick, won't go into detail. We went home. So at this point it's 9, he thinks I have Dengue, I'm using the bathroom every 5-ish minutes, I'm not even in my apartment, and I have 10 reais. Nice. So I went to bed and the next day guess what? He's sick too. But a different sick. He was freezing cold.

On Thursday: my splits comp is still freezing cold, shivering, feverish, the whole 9 yards, so what do we do? Go to the hospital. So we get to the hospital at around 1 and get green wrist bands that literally say "little urgent." Nice. Then at, oh, 4:30 somebody calls us in. They don't have doctors' offices here. In America, you go to the hospital if you are dying or giving birth. Okay, so here, you go to the hospital if you have a cough. We told the doctor our problems, he heard us breathe through the thing they all wear around their necks, and he told both of us we were sick and it was probably a problem with our intestines. My comp for the day had a fever and was cold. Nothing about throwing up or diarrhea. The doctor then prescribed to us the exact same thing, and then my comp went to the back of the hospital and got a shot in his hand for pain. Yeah that's going to be a no for me, dog. Big no. I was thirsty and saw a drinking fountain. Then thought, I don't really wanna share that with all these other sick people. I can wait. And besides, I just get nauseous when I drink water. The member who drove us home made a stop at his house. I wasn't too happy about that. And he was like, "I have the cure for you guys. Coca Cola is great for diarrhea--here's 3 liters; drink up. Also here's chicken feet. It's great for diarrhea too." I think not, but we ate and drank. That sucked. I hadn't eaten anything for 2 ish days, and then I drink Coke and eat chicken feet. Heh. After that we got home and went to bed.

Friday: at this point I haven't eaten anything real, and I drank just a little bit of water since Tuesday. I'm really weak. So what do we do? Walk home. We walked to the center and met our companions, then we walked home. Great to be back with my companion. We're walking home, and I have my back pack and bag. I think we're going straight home. He's already talked with Sister Piros [mission president's wife], and she said don't drink milk, eat yogurt, or eat beans. Still a little confused about the beans. Then we visit a family for lunch. I ate very little and forgot the word for sick. So instead of saying I was sick in my stomach, I said there was war in my stomach. Nobody thought that was funny, but I did hehe. We get home and my comp is like alright, we're visiting these people. How about...no. I was in the bathroom for a while and my comp was like, yeah I was in the bathroom a ton too, so I bought toilet paper. Woah. We're really livin' large now. He used most of it though, haha. We bought more, so we're good. Five star hotel now.

Saturday: time really flies when you do nothing. It's already Saturday, and I've visited like 2 people and taught 0 lessons and made 0 contacts. I was feeling a little better and decided to try my luck with my yogurt because I was hungry. Sister Piros is very smart for being 8 hours away and talking on the phone. It made it worse again. Nice.

Sunday: I was not doing good in the morning, so I was grateful for the extra hour I had because of the Christmas program. The Christmas program was a little different--it just felt like a normal Sunday. It actually wasn't normal because all the speakers finished early, and the bishop got up and bore his testimony, and that was it. After that, we had choir practice. It's hard for me to sing in English and even harder in Portuguese haha. I contributed quite a bit with my humming, I think. We visited a few people this day, and I realized my bread was bad, so I threw it out. I thought we were getting food tomorrow because Monday is pday, but it's not because pday was changed to Christmas.

Monday: we went to the lan house and emailed presidente. My comp did some prep work for going home in January, so weird. Then we visited the bakery close to the lan house. Those desserts looked so good. But those prices all of a sudden made those cakes look not so good. One piece of cake was 8 reais. Not a ton, but at other places you can get 1 piece for 5 reais, and a healthy amount of pao de queijo for 8 reais. We visited another bakery close to our house, and that one was cheaper. We got lunch and then went on another splits. This is part two of week two of these two weeks. I was with an elder I was in the CTM with. Presidente specifically told my companion and me that we are to speak no English to him. And if I wanted to have a conversation with him and didn't know the words, don't have the conversation. ABSOLUTELY NO ENGLISH. Orders from Presidente himself so wow. Nice. I learned I know quite a bit of Portuguese but really not enough to effectively communicate with others. I feel like I'm about 3 ish years old with my language abilities. I can say some stuff and understand some stuff, but I can't have a conversation like this one where I type and read and know all the words I want to say. All he did was complain. We literally have 2 years here. That's it. Two years to not do stupid stuff like that. After that, do whatever you want, but when you're wearing a white shirt, tie, and Jesus in bold on your pocket, let's not. Then this is how the conversation went: my comp sucks, he's an idiot, he's this this this this this, bla bla bla, Brazil sucks, America is way better, there is nothing here that is better than America, I want my girlfriend, if my girlfriend dumps me I have a few others I'm talking to right now too, I almost didn't come on the mission because I was going to marry her, I want to be in America right now for Christmas, my comp sucks, he does this this this, my house kinda sucks too, in America my house is this, (right now he lives in the nicest apartment in the mission--only Presidente's apartment is nicer), if I were in America I'd do donuts in my car in the snow, my car was so nice, I love the snow, Brazil sucks, I don't like Christmas here. At this point, I broke the 1 rule Presidente gave me and told him (in English) that we are here for 2 years, 2 Christmases here. If you live to be 100, you literally have 80 other Christmases in America, with snow. Buck up and shut up, and shut up about your companion too, geez. That day was very long.

Tuesday: during personal study I read 3 Nefi 11 and Helaman 10 in Portuguese and Christlike attributes, the beginning of it. So good. All that in our 1 hour of study, and my splits comp read 4 paragraphs in the introduction, ironed his handkerchief, used the bathroom, made some food, and then sat there looking at the wall. I was told that's kinda his daily study. Eek. Got back with my regular comp. I love this guy so much. I realized that today. Also I didn't have diarrhea today. Today was an awesome day. Feels weird that Christmas is tomorrow.

Wednesday, today [Christmas]: I made pudim, big fail. We didn't have milk, and the stores were closed. We're at a shohosko and are about to go home and eat our pudim. I talked with the fam. Don't have any time, lots of food, some desserts, so so so good. I have been craving desserts, and I received today. Also I'm so grateful for my health and my Savior Jesus Christ. :) That's all. Enjoy Christmas wherever you are. It rained a little, so now it's super hot and humid--opposite of home, but it's awesome.

yeah (12/16/19)

We're so thankful for the wonderful
member who sends us pictures!

This week was pretty good. It's a new transfer--my companion's 17th transfer. He goes home in 5 weeks, kinda crazy. We've been teaching 3 people, and they have all accepted baptism. The other 2 people are kinda iffy. One moved, I think, and the other, well, we still haven't visited him.

Tuesday: we taught a guy today. He was so high. He answered the garage door and had a dab pen in his hand and invited us in. I'm not sure how much of the first lesson he will remember haha. Also while people talk, people say eie and ie but eie means what's up, so I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Wednesday: we had lunch on our own today. We knocked a ton of doors today. We also found these mini apple things called acerola. While we were knocking doors, there was a broken doorbell, so I pushed it and shocked myself, weird. So naturally I did it again. It shocked me again. So I knocked after but was rather curious to push it again. Not sure why, so I didn't. This morning was kinda difficult. I don't know why, but today just was loooonnnggggg. Nice. We also taught 0 lessons, got 0 contacts, 0 references, 0 new investigators. That probably contributed to the longituity of the day.

Thursday: it rained quite a bit today. We knocked more doors. We had lunch at a recent convert's house, and he is so good. Awesome guy. He's the only member in his family, and he is very strong. We visited Cidade Nova which is 45 minutes away. Then after we didn't have much success, so we went to Costa Teles. Didn't have much success there either, so we visited one of the people who is progressing. We visit them every day. I hope they aren't sick of us. I also conducted planejamento seminal today.

Friday: I have started Helaman. I rather enjoy Helaman. I've never read Helaman on my own, but it is rather good. Nice. I've also had dreams every single night. So cool, but so weird. I don't remember many, but there are a few noteworthy ones. What they were, don't remember now haha, oops.

Saturday: I learned a ton today, terere and other things like bomba are drinks and straws for those drinks. Learned a ton of stuff about little ice cream things that look inappropriate, chup chup is what they're called. I also want a hacky sack. It was so hot today. We stopped for a coca and found a pen on the ground. The Coke didn't help a ton with the heat, but the ice cream and water did. Next time I'll just get ice cream and water. We had lunch at a member's house an hour away. He had a movie playing and goodness, movies are so dramatic.

Sunday: church was good. It was hot. We brought some people to church, and our friend who is progressing bought a white shirt and tie, so cool. I didn't know this actually happened in the mission.

My homie turned 100 this week, and so did Jacob. Well not 100, but he had a birthday too. No pictures because its 6:10, oops.

Food :) (12/09/19)

Alright muito rápido

My custom job.

The rest of Monday: learned the word conhece. When I would say voce familiar com profetas, that's basically asking do you know prophets personally. Conhece is like are you familiar with prophets. Kinda backwards of what I thought was logical heh. My comp got a haircut today. I am still growing out my hair to try to fix my #2 cut on the sides and a #3 or #4 on top haha. Also didn't get to make pudim because we didn't have enough time. Dang

Tuesday: we had lunch with my 99-year-old amigo. He turns 100 in 3 days from today (on the 9th, not this Tuesday I'm talking about). Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmm we taught 2 lessons, dunno what else. Lunch was 45 minute walk from our house.

Chocolate

Wednesday: we knocked doors today, and apparently knocking doors is a contact. Didn't know that. We need 84 contacts per week for our mission-set goal. There were some words in the Book of Mormon I didn't know. I wrote them down, forgot about them, and read them just barely. I know all of these words. English is getting hard. Oh yeah, we met this guy, awesome guy. We're like halfway through the first lesson and then my comp is like will you be baptized? And he's like, yeah sure. Didn't know that actually happened. And then we didn't visit him for the rest of the week. I think the date is like the Saturday after this one. Interesting.

Mini eggs

Thursday: we had lunch with papi noel, not really, he's the guy with the huge beard [we didn't get a picture of this, so we'll just have to use our imaginations]. We left our house at 10:30 and got there at almost noon. He's quite literally on the other side of our area. Then right after basically ran past our house to try to teach somebody before they went to work. We made it with approximately 1 minute to spare. Aaannnnnnddddd they weren't home. So we went home and had planejamento and then visited some people. One person in specific stood out. She answered the door almost naked, said it was because she was making food and the rain. Okay, whatever, we don't care, put some clothes on. After she changed, she talked to us for oh, 3 hours. She talked about how she has very fat gold fish. It's impressive how long some people can talk about something so, um, different? interesting? I don't know what word I'm looking for. My legs were in an abnormal amount of pain. How do people stand for that long? People also get nuts when they find out our name is Elder and Elder. They're like WHOA WHAT YOU'RE BOTH ELDER?????? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE! HE'S AMERICAN AND HE'S BRAZILIAN???? They seriously want to tell other people about it haha. We explain elder is a title for missionaries, and Benny, yeah I'm probably never going to say that for the next 2 years. This lady just made fun of it, and they made fun of America I think. So Benson is much easier to say, and it's super similar to bênção which is blessing.

Irmao Almir's house on Sunday with more food.

Friday: we went to dois mil [neighborhood 2000]. I have come to a little more peace with this neighborhood, but like I still don't love it. I shook somebody's hand, and a bird pooed on my arm, weird, mid handshake. A warm thing of water landed on my arm, no that's not water, that's poo. My comp said that it is a good thing that it happened--it means good luck. I think I understood wrong. We gave a nice lesson about temples and families to a recent convert. We also got dinner today. Nice. We were at somebody's house for like 2 hours. We taught them a lot about the Plan of Salvation. I hope we got our point across. I hope we answered his questions. Then we walked 30 minutes, and we tried to teach another family. They were like nah but we've got some food, here eat. So that was awesome. Then we tried to teach them, and they were like nah we forgot your message, tell us again. It was weird, but that was some good food. They they gave us some cake. God must really love us. God really loves us hehe.

Sent to us from Irmao Almir.

Saturday: we knocked on the wrong doors today hehe oops. We messed around and impersonated other elders, well, each other. We visited a reference, and she was awesome. She had really good questions, then she was rather interested, then her sister showed up and was like spirits are in the earth and other weird stuff. She also gave us popcorn. And maracujá juice [passion fruit]. That stuff was so good. Like wow. Then we visited a member and he was like here's some food, and we watched UFC. Interesting. But the food was amazing. We taught a few lessons today. Today was really good.

Sent to us from Irmao Almir.

Sunday: so Sunday was amazing. It was the primary program today, and that was amazing. There were 6 kids and 3 really littles. The spirit was strong, but our investigators were like this is kinda weird. Well, the spirit will do His thing. We went to lunch and well, we were there until 5 pm. hehe oops. We had so much food, ice cream, cheese and goiabada [guava paste], and oh it was all so so good. We talked a ton. I gave a message about Ammon and the sons of Mosiah and how they were protected. Then their son showed up from Uberlandia, and he was like yeah so Uberlandia flooded, and there were 4 cars that flipped. [Click here for a video of the flooding on December 8.] And he got a new bike. It's a Yamaha 750, and I forgot to get a picture because it was raining. After, we went to somebody's house, taught them a lesson, and they were like eat some food. They gave us coxinhas and cake, and juice, and soda, and it was all so good. Then we went to a member's house and had chorosso, nice, that was so good. I ate way too much food. It was so good. I want every day to be like that.

It's also weird to hear Christmas music in Portuguese and English and not have snow but have heat.

Sent to us from Irmao Almir.

Panificadora (12/2/19)

Chatting with Benny today.

This is bakery in Portuguese. I want to go in every single one and buy all the cake and bread. I cannot.

Monday: so I found out it's cold here right now. Interesting. Today was good; I read the scriptures while my companion slept, I think.

Tuesday: I was the senior companion again today in my area, with Elder Neeley [mentioned last week; he went to Brighton with Benny]. That was a ton of fun. District counsel was a ton of fun too. We visited lots of people then accidentally went to the wrong house. It turned out really well. It was the house of a less active member and a family that was rather interested. I'm not sure how much they understood from 2 Americans, heh. We visited them a few more times during the week, but they aren't really into it anymore. Bummer. We had lunch in the other zone with a member at a really good restaurant.

Wednesday: I'm not really sure what happened today. I don't remember anything from today. Weird. We went to neighborhood 2000 and taught a lesson, and my companion was like there's a baptism in 3 weeks, wanna go? And they were like, not really. Then he was like, you wanna be baptized? And they were like, not really but it sounds cool, I think I'll go. He then told me I was baptizing them. Interesting. We will see how this one plays out.

First video chat with Benny!
Thanksgiving 

Thursday: talked with the fam today. That was pretty awesome. It was Thanksgiving in America, and nobody has heard of Thanksgiving here. It rained a ton a ton a ton today. Wow oh wow. We were knocking doors, and it started to rain. We knocked on one last door before it was too rainy to hear, and they said no we don't want to hear a message, it's raining outside. haha. You enjoy your dry house. I talked to my companion for about 3 hours because it was raining and lightning-ing and thundering so loud. He also doesn't have an umbrella, but we talked about food and Christmas and Thanksgiving. He now wants to come to America in 2 years for Thanksgiving. We will see if Christmas lives up to the hype here. I think it will.

Friday: I can't remember anything from today other than we saw a brand new straight piped BMW 335i. Nice. Those were some beautiful turbo noises. hehe. Other than that, I forgot what happened today.

Saturday: we fasted after lunch until lunch on Sunday, kinda difficult. Lunch was interesting. We were on our own and bought hot dogs and hamburgers and rolls. We got home and made them. These aren't the soft rolls that Mom makes and come out of the oven. It was an interesting combo. I did a good ol' hot dog and hamburger mixture. The rolls were a little firm, but it was rather good. After that, a member drove us somewhere. It was so nice to be in a car again. It was so familiar. Although we were in it for all of 2 minutes, it was really nice. The car wasn't very nice, but the feeling of being in a car was nice. Also a 14ish-year-old girl said that my eyes were beautiful. Interesting.

Sent to us from a member.
Eating lasagna.

Sunday: fast Sunday, I bore my testimony and it was rather broken, but somebody said they understood me this time. I had something planned and got up there, and nothing was in my mind, nice. We had lunch at Irmã Cristina's house and had panquecas, and they were so so so good. I don't know how to describe them, but I had 4 with meat and corn and cheese, and 1 with just mozzarella. Wow that one was good. The rest of the day was good too. I also learned how to make pudim--super easy, milk, sweetened condensed milk, 3 eggs, and some sugar. That's it. Nice. I also gave the message at lunch. I talked about 2 nefi 27:12-13. Good verses, and we have the testimonies at the beginning of the book. We may not have the plates, but we have the paper book. We also experienced a ton of rain today. We went to an irmãos house and he gave us bolinho de chuva, which is cake of rain. It was a deep fried dough. It was so so so good. We also had some lasagna stuff. That was way good, too. They heated it up at 8:58 pm and we had to be home in 2 minutes. haha.

No pictures today because the computer isn't happy today.

Doce (11/25/19)

So I dunno how to get any of these fancy accents and stuff. This word is "desserts." It's pronounced dough-say or dough-see; everybody here has a different accent I feel like haha.

The rest of last Monday: I thought we were lost. I saw this huge green building and was like yeah we're really lost. As we got closer, it was actually the main road next to our house. Either that or it was a neighborhood where an awesome member lives. We kinda get lost a lot--north, south, east, and west aren't a thing here for me yet. Some mountains would be nice! I forgot what happened the rest of this day.

Courtesy of Elder Neeley's mom.

Tuesday: we had meetings with presidente today, rather good actually. It was mostly Portuguese until I asked him about things like water and money for food. He was rather worried, so after my meeting he met with my comp and a few other people, and after they explained to me all the things about my card and bla bla bla. It helped a ton. We walked there, then went on divisions [splits]. I went to a different area with Elder Neeley. We went to the same high school, graduated together, knew the same people, had the same classes, and now we are companions for a day. It was so much fun honestly. I learned a ton and understood a lot more with him than with my companion. I was told my comp has a very very strong accent. That's why I can't understand him haha. They live in a super super nice house. I was told one of the nicest in the mission. I like my house though. They also have 2 sets of missionaries there; that drove me kinda crazy for some reason. Glad I live with just my comp.

Wednesday: heh, we did another split today, but I was the senior companion in my area hehe. That was interesting. I got a phone call and didn't understand much because we have little flip phones that don't flip. That was difficult. Then we got lost, and I thought we were out of our area. Also forgot to mention that my companion was an American who has been here for the same amount of time as me, Elder Poulsen. That was rather interesting. We kinda taught a lesson to somebody, then it was 8:45. That day flew. That day was a ton of fun.

Thursday: I was very glad to have my companion back. We ate lunch at the church. This week has been very fast and short at this point because this is the first day I had lunch with the members this week. At the store you can buy pasta noodles and sauce or rice and beans in 5, 10, 20, and 50 kilo bags. We weren't about to do that. But Monday-Wednesday we had spaghetti. We visited a few people, and this is the day when I really really really was craving chocolate, ice cream, brownies, cake, cinnamon rolls, the whole 9 yards. We visited a member later in the evening and I gave the message. Not sure what I said, but I gave it.

I know I know, I'm basically a chef. Ramen with the crouton bread.

Friday: we had pasta again, no lunch with members, bummer. I plan everything around food. I am planning my next meal while I'm eating haha. We bought some pão de queijo [cheese bread] and ate it on a bench because my companion was hungry. I should learn how to say, "I am going to buy food because I am hungry and I don't care what you say." I learned that Christmas here is just a huge party, nice, same with Carnival. Depending on where you are you just eat and eat some more. I want that so bad haha. Also forgot, did I tell you all about my conversation with my companion about cars? If so here it is again: his favorite car is a Fiat truck thing and his dream car is a Ford Fusion. We are literally opposites. I asked him if money didn't matter, if he had 1,000,000 dollars or reais, what car would he buy? Ford Fusion. Nice. Not sure what I can learn from this one, but maybe that I need to buy a practical car in the future? Maybe not a twin turbo Corvette... nah.

George--he's going on a mission next week (or the week after?).

Saturday: so I felt like today was out to get me, but I felt that for like 3 hours and that was it. Lunch was rather interesting. I'm not sure how to describe it, so I won't. It was good food good people, but it was just a weird feeling. I didn't like it. We visited a family after lunch. Lunch was an hour and 15 ish minute walk today, so we were there, might as well visit them. They had an air conditioner, woah. They also gave us watermelon. Hey Mom, Dad, I found out something I'm allergic to. Also, kinda hard to describe that to your companion in Portuguese. Finally got my point across and he said, ok, and walked slower. But all in all today was awesome. My allergic reaction made today great because we didn't walk 200 mph. There was a soccer game today between Brazil and Argentina. Brazil won, I found out when I couldn't speak to my companion because of all the fireworks haha. That was fun. A few other noteworthy things happened today: I heard the only V8 in Uberaba. It was a Camaro, 5th gen, and I think it was an LS2 or LS3. Nice. A kid we have been teaching said he didn't want lessons anymore. That was an interesting feeling. People talk about the deep sadness, deep to your core man. That felt like a literal hole in the ground. You drop something in it and it just keeps going and going. It was a pit. Crazy feeling. I felt better after a few prayers. Today I was really tempted to buy pudim [Brazilian style flan]. It's a cake made with sweetened condensed milk. It's so good. I've had it once or twice, and I want like 10 cakes.

The family we spent a ton of time with.

Sunday: church was good. We visited 2 people, and they were like yeah I'll come later, no you won't. Haha, sorry. They never showed up though. We had an amazing lunch. I had 3 plates because of peer pressure and because I was hungry and it was good. I love how there is so much food, and they just eat and eat and eat some more. This is the most I've ever eaten in my life, I think, and it's all in 1 meal. I could have 2 or 3 meals a day, though, if it were up to me. The air was very still and hot. When you walked you didn't even get a breeze. Woah. We walked around to the other side of town again and visited a family. We ended up being there for oh 3 hours haha. What a wonderful family! I think they are less active but I'm not sure. There's still a rather large language barrier, but I talked about cars and motorcycles to the two boys there, awesome convo. My legs experienced something weird; they felt weak but not tired. Weird.

Anyway, that sums up this week and it was a ton of fun. I should put something spiritual in here, uhm, God is in everything. I got a cookie, yesterday I think, from a little boy at a member's house. Also I finally found out how much I have on my card. I wrote it down but forgot where. It's more than the 20 reais I thought I had haha. God is helping me out with that too.

2 for 1 combo deal (11/18/19)

You may be interested or intrigued by this email, that is Saturday and Sunday, mainly Sunday. Anyway.

[Mom note here: Sometimes I forget that Benny is still a teen-aged boy. If you don't want to read the details of his 2 for 1 combo deal--which, spoiler alert, involve barf and diarrhea--stop reading when you get to the picture of the giant bowl of rice. Saturday and Sunday descriptions come after that. The non-descriptive short summary is that these somehow turned out to be positive experiences for him and he thought they were funny.]

The rest of Monday: We went to the market and I spent 30 reais because I didn't know how much I had on my card and well, I forgot my pin, heh. It's at the house but I don't know enough Portuguese yet to tell my companion the things I want to tell him. Eventually. Anyway, I ate all that food before Thursday. I'm not really sure what happened today; not that memorable I guess. I read my patriarchal blessing and it was a great experience. Learned a lot so that's good.

Elder Bowen (in my district at the CTM)

Tuesday: We got up at 5 am for zone conference. This is how I woke up: hear the alarm, sit up, my comp turns off the alarm and screams DEZ MINUTOS ELDER!!! This dude really gave us both 10 minutes to wake up, shower, eat, get ready, and get in the uber he had a member call. We made it to the church downtown and everybody in the zone was there. Some elders I knew said they got up at 4 and made breakfast and had time to wake up, even studied a little bit. One elder forgot his name tag heh. oops. We drove to Uberlandia, and we had a 4 zone zone conference. I'm not sure what I expected, but this is what I got from it all: drink 8 cups of water a day? maybe 8 liters. It's still a little iffy. Eat fast because the Brazilian elders will eat more than you, faster than you, then go back and take the rest of the food. I got a chocolate bar because it was my birthday. I ate the whole thing. Hershey's tastes a little different here. Then we sat for 5 hours, and it was really difficult to not fall asleep. Nobody else was asleep, So I figured if I fell asleep I'd stick out. We eventually went home, stopped at a gas station, and some people got food. It all looked so good, but I had 2 reais. There were these way cool leather shoes, and I grabbed one, turned around to show my companion, and there was this huge poster of a completely naked girl. I spun around and left real quick. It was absolutely disgusting. We got home and knocked on a few doors, and we found an awesome family.

Elder Havenar (my comp at the CTM)

Wednesday: We taught the second lesson today!!!! Then I found out she was a recent convert and that's why we taught the 2nd lesson haha. She lives in neighborhood 2000. That place is interesting. I saw some guys herding horses in the neighborhood. Horses run much faster than people in their bare feet. Also there was an abnormal amount of people riding horses just everywhere. weird. I think we got a chocolate bar for lunch today. The chocolate here, at least the chocolate I've had, tastes very different. It's like Hershey's but without as much chocolate. It's like milky chocolate milk--you want more chocolate but can't have it because it's not there. Very interesting.

Thursday: It rained a lot today. Lunch was brought to us as spaghetti noodles and 2 cans of sardines. My comp asked if I liked macaroni and fish. No idea, then I learned macaroni and fish is spaghetti and sardines. I honestly hate planejamento semanal [weekly planning]. Worst thing ever. Not sure what else happened today. I think we may have gone to a member's house and they gave us bread that was so good. It was fluffy and soft and almost sweet. It was like eating a bread/cake mix but like 90% bread and 10% cake. It was so so so so good. Might have been tomorrow though, don't remember.

Friday: Lunch was interesting today. We got a call at 10:30 saying, elders, where are you? Why aren't you here for lunch? This was not our planned lunch. We called the irma who was supposed to give us lunch and she said to go to the other irmas house. So we began the 45 minute walk. We got there at around 11:20ish and we ate and then left at 12. Shortest lunch ever. I was hungry at like 4 or 5 haha. It was a holiday today. When we talked to people about it, some didn't even know it was a holiday. Kinda a lame holiday I guess. They love Christmas and Carnival. I keep expecting English but hear Portuguese, little difficult.

Christina with the rice she made for the churrasco

Saturday: Lunch was amazing, there was so much food and the family was so kind. Very good food. Saturday was an amazing day. That's when the week really got good. This is when the 2 for 1 started. It's mainly Sunday, but I'll apply it to today too. I ran out of water, and we were talking to people, well trying. then I had to go to the bathroom, heh. We were kinda far from the house, and so we go to a little shop. I spent 2 reais on some bread things with meat in them and then used the bathroom. WARNING: not really but this is when it get hilarious. I get in there, poop, no toilet paper, oh man, then I look over at the sink. I'm not going to tell you what I thought, but I checked to see if there was water, no water. So rather worriedly, I went out of the bathroom and we started walking again. I told my comp outro banheiro and he said porque? I have no idea how to explain this situation in Portuguese, so we went to a kid we're teaching his house, and I get into the bathroom and sit down. There's like 10 little squares of toilet paper left. Oh boy. I used that then searched for more, none to be found. The faucet was leaking water and I looked at my hand and said it had to be done. I will skip ahead now. I am trying so hard not to bust up laughing in here because honestly this made my day 10 times better. It was absolutely hilarious. I drink my water again, and then were walking and we see a member driving and we wave. He stopped and invited us to chohasko (no idea how to spell it) found out its not those shishkabob things, it's a full barbeque. [I translated "barbeque" and got "churrasco." I'm guessing that's what he's talking about.] We went to a different member's house before and asked what we could do for him. He gave us sandwiches and juice and then after I ate my things I bought, we went to the bbq and I ate more there. It was all so good. Then a guy came up to us after and was like hey I wanna be taught by you guys, I read the Doctrine and Covenants and he did 2 other things I dunno, cool guy. My comp is way skeptical about it. He doesn't want to do it.

Sunday... heh: Here's the real 2 for 1 deal. It's at the end of the day though. Church was awesome. We brought somebody to church, same guy whose house we went to for me to, uh, clean up, heh. We walked home and lunch was canceled because a different member was having a ward churrasco. Nice. We were there for like 3 and a half hours. This is the same family that basically saved me the first Sunday. I ate so much. Then ate some more. And more again. There was one specific piece of meat that was so good but so bad. It had a crunchy honey outer layer. This tender meat, then pure fat that weirdly you could chew and eat. I had to choke that one down. Later in the day I wasn't feeling so red hot, so I drank a bunch of water and felt a little better. Then we stopped, sat on a bench for a while and called the zone leader if we could have dinner because we both didn't feel good. So it's 8 pm and we have an hour. He said we can have dinner at members' houses or restaurants. Well the food we buy isn't there, is it? Oh well. We go to a random house and get some water from the lady and my comp decided to talk for a while. It became very evident that that meat that I ate earlier today, it was coming up, soon. So I tried to give some hints but my companion didn't understand anything until I gagged. I gave my cup to the lady, said obrigado and started walking rather fast and boom it all came out, middle of the street, took a few steps to a bush and 2 more, not in the bush but in the street. I was really not too happy about that one because some got on my shoes, but after I was good enough to walk I started laughing because that made my day 100 times better. I felt great after that, despite the barf that was hanging off my face and in my nose (sorry descriptive haha) and on my shoes. We went home and he called the mission president's wife and she said for me to eat an apple, drink water, and shower. Those things I did, and my day was awesome after that. Here's the 2 for 1--I also had diarrhea haha. Anyway that shower was very nice needless to say. haha. I'm really trying not to laugh right now. One of the best experiences of the mission, I'm being 100% serious. haha. I wish I took a picture of it, but for your all sake I'm glad I didn't. It was honestly hilarious. I don't wanna do it again but like, it was so funny, really turned my day around for the better.

Not what I expected to learn but ok (11/11/19)

Well I'll start off by saying sorry for the rather negative email last week. Now here's the good week: this week felt about the length of 2 weeks as opposed to 1 month, and the things I have learned this week are very interesting. I plan literally everything around meals. After meals I want to eat again and am anticipating my next meal. Sadly, here our breakfast is a little cup of yogurt stuff, and then we go go until lunch at 12 or 1, or 2 or 3. haha. But at breakfast I'm thinking about lunch. At lunch I'm thinking about our non-existent dinner. We don't eat dinner. I still eat when I get home.
I have also realized I'm now at the age where I can gain weight. Weird. New concept for me. And it all went to my stomach, another new concept haha. Another thing is that the members say mais (more) very boldly, almost yelling, so I think they are mad so I eat more. I love the food here. I want to eat more and more and more, but I can't because we have about 40 reals for weeks, which is about 10 ish dollars. At least that's what I think. It's a little hard when your companion's only English is oh frick, I need to pee, and flip flop. That's not even English--it means idiot in Portuguese haha.
So I realized the part of Uberaba I'm in is kinda the older, not-as-nice-neighborhoods area, and when we went into town outside our zone for district council it's rather nice here, and there's 5 chapels in Uberaba. The main one is rather nice too; a few rooms have ac! That's not our chapel though.

(A picture of habibi that I found on Google.)

So, the rest of last Monday was actually rather good. My district is good. We did district council on Tuesday. After that we went on splits. I went into a different zone--made me realize I actually like my area, and my comp and I had come to good grounds the day I left haha. That was a long day in the other area. We ordered habibis which was a new concept for me, ordering food. They were little Greek pita bread things with meatloaf on them. They were so good. I ate 10 haha. Another thing that happened during splits was a kid said that there was 906 gods and an old lady said I was beautiful, haha nice. A little kid also peed in the street right in front of us haha. We went back to our normal companions then.
No idea what happened on Wednesday. Thursday, well, we haven't had toilet paper for 5 ish days now. That was definitely getting old. We visited a member and then went across the entire area for lunch. If we are on the way south, they were on the way north. It took us an hour and a half to walk there haha. That was a great meal. I ate 6 bananas and a really little banana that was abnormally sweet and muchy. It tasted like candy, it was so good. The medium small bananas are way good; the big bananas have an apple core type of thing on the inside, weird. We finally bought toilet paper, laundry detergent, soap for white shirts and I bought milk, drank the liter in that day and the next. oops.

my feet, ouch

Friday, I loved Friday. We ate lunch at the same members' house that basically saved me on fast Sunday. They are so kind and so happy. I gave them a little message. The looks on all of their faces indicated that I was not speaking Portuguese, but I thought I was speaking Portuguese. Also I learned that some footnotes in the English scriptures aren't in the Portuguese scriptures, so I had an awesome little message in English and had to change at the last second because of the lack of the footnotes that just didn't exist haha.

(A picture of coxhina that I found on
Google--described as a "fried dough
food" filled with shredded chicken.)

Saturday was great too. We taught a lesson in neighborhood 2000 where we aren't supposed to go, but I don't know how to tell my companion no. We ran across the freeway again, climbed the mud hill and taught Caio and Kayse, very kind people. We waited about an hour for Kayse to show up. They were watching some Netflix show I don't even know. I learned a rather large lesson that day. Patience. If I can be patient for food--we had lunch at 3 that day, not 12. If I can be patient for Kayse to show up--about an hour, maybe hour and half, then knock on 16 other people's doors and have them say not today or weren't home, we were out of people in our planner. If I can be patient and have a good attitude, I can take that same patience and apply it to my companion. That was a big lesson. We went to a member's house after and they gave us food. I was so hungry. We bought me an apple right before. I ate that then ate food, so good. It was their daughter's 9th birthday.
Sunday was way better. We got a kid, Mateus, to come to church with us. I read the Book of Mormon all of 2nd hour, and it was cloudy, not 1000 degrees! Nice. We waited for lunch for probably 2 hours. They brought it to us. It was very different. It was fried rice with some corn, carrots, chicken--very minimal and heavy on the rice haha, And some refried beans. It was a great change, but I still ate the rest of the normal plain rice and meat that the members had given us the day before. Today has shaped up to be pretty normal. My companion bought us Coxinha, no idea what it was but it was way good and 1 reals.

Well that's all for my novel. I'm feeling better and learning lots. We are going to Uberlandia tomorrow at 4 am, wowza, no sleep for me tonight woop woop haha.

my feet, ouch

huh? (11/4/19)

This is the only response I've been able to understand so far from Brazilians. I say something in Portuguese and I get huh? I say something in English and I get huh? Weird feeling.
I was kinda annoyed on Sunday. We have to wear our suit every Sunday. This makes Sundays very long. I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting. Nobody understood and I almost started laughing because of the looks on everyone's faces. Second hour I read the dictionary, then we had a meeting with the bishop and a few other people, after that we had lunch at a members house. (Lots of people here are part member families.) They had a beautiful kitchen, and peer pressure is a real thing. I had 4 plates of food because I thought they were getting mad then they started laughing after it all. They are a family that has stood out to me; they made an honest effort to communicate with me. I understood about 10% of what they were saying. The food was so good.
During the week I got here I was told do not go to neighborhood 2000. Even other elders from the mission office said that. So what do we do on the 2nd day because I don't know how to say let's not go to neighborhood 2000 in Portuguese? We go to neighborhood 2000. The elders got robbed there, I found out that night. I didn't get robbed but the elders on the phone were like y'all are stupid--don't go there. We had to run across the freeway because my companion said it was a short cut. Nooo it wasn't. It has been very confusing in Uberaba. My zone is called California and it's nothing like the American California haha. We do lots of walking. There is 1 flat and smooth road. All the other roads are bumpy torn up dirt or a 10-12 degree incline or slope, no in between.
A few things about the house we live in, the toilet doesn't flush all the way and it's hot. When it rains there is lightning so holding the umbrella is a little sketchy.
When I got here my companion got here too. Neither of us know the area and neither of us know the people. We tried teaching a few lessons to the people who the other elders taught, but they all lost interest. We try teaching lessons to other people and they just say "ok cool" basically, take the pamphlet, and leave.
This internet cafe place is uh very 2nd world nation-y. We're out of our zone right now, but in total, it's pretty good here. We finally got some food for our house. My companion got 1-year-old bread. It literally breaks like croutons. He loves it. We are getting 2 loaves of bread next week. He got vegetable juice and skim milk, so I looked up in the dictionary "whole," and we got whole milk. I also fell asleep during 2nd hour of church, oops.
It's hot here. We cleaned the place we live in today. There was dirt and spiderwebs literally everywhere. I did the dishes. Mom, sorry for leaving pans in the sink. I know now how hard and annoying it is to scrub burnt 5 day old eggs out of a pan. Nice.
I've realized that the people here are amazing, but nobody really wants to make really good friends with the elders for some reason. Maybe they know that we leave soon. I'm here for a while though, I feel it. Because I don't wanna be in this area, I'll be here for a while haha.
Anyway, no pictures because my companion said I don't need to take pictures. I have no idea if he really meant that or not because that came from a dictionary and him shaking his head.
Hope everyone is good at home and gets enough sleep for me!

Muito Quente (10/28/19)

These words have been burnt into my mind for two reasons, 1. literally every Brazilian says that about Goiânia the second I say I'm going to Goiânia, and 2. I checked the weather at dinner and it was 96 I think. Nice.

 This week has been interesting. Everybody is happy to leave and I don't want to leave. The São Paulo temple was great, last temple trip for 2 years. My companion has been receiving some super crazy revelation about super specific things, nice.

 One of my instructors, Irmao Rodrigo told us a ton about his mission and he showed us a ton of pictures. It was so cool. He showed us a picture of his girlfriend and they are in the São Paulo temple visitor center and the next picture Rodrigo is head down looking straight at her chest. That picture was absolute gold. He told us he was trying to look at her shoulder, then fix the picture, then he gave up and said, "I'm not a missionary anymore, it's ok." Hah. Nice.

 Actually this week has been kinda boring. Oh I also taught a lesson yesterday and it was SO BAD. But it was hilarious. I prepared, thought I did a great job, gave the lesson and ended 20 minutes early. Then I played hang man with them because I didn't know what to do. Then I asked for everyone's favorite scripture. Then an elder gave a mini lesson with a piece of paper. His lesson was great. Now when I see any of those elders they just start laughing because I basically laughed the entire lesson.

 This computer has the usb thing turned off so I can't upload a picture of a sunset. Look at a sunset and it'll basically be the same.

Posting one of my own pictures, since he couldn't send one. I take
pictures of sunsets all the time, but this is the last one I took,
back on September 3. I have lots of pictures of clouds since then.

Tacos? (10/22/19)

We had tacos for lunch, it was tortillas that were very stale with meat in them. They were awesome. I love it here so much. Tomorrow we are getting 168 new missionaries I think, might be getting some new roommates.
This week was really good, we had the same obediencia exata devotional. We basically have that memorized haha. We did splits and I was a little concerned. My companion for splits doesn't speak English, maybe 100 words. One of those words is the n word. We were at lunch and he said he has a black girlfriend, said we were racist, then started saying the n word a bunch. Not going to lie it was hilarious. I was laughing so hard I didn't finish my food.
Also for breakfast today the oatmeal milk stuff had a bunch of brown sugar, I love that stuff. Classes are very long, and the chairs are very hard.
Here's some statistics that I have taken here so far: 1 white shirt has disappeared, 3 socks, all from different pairs, one pair of pants came un hemmed and seamed after I took them out of the washer, all but 2 of my shirts are wrinkled (because one shirt is missing and the other didn't get washed), an elder over loaded the washer, still wanna punch him, I broke my watch in the first 3 days, bought another, and it is giving my wrist cancer, my wrist swells a bunch, and it ripped one of my shirts, my companion also broke his watch haha, church socks are starting to tear. My companion ripped his garments while putting them on. That was hilarious, he ripped half the waist band off. We can tell whose garments those are when we do our wash. And lastly, I bought another pair of bottoms, washed them the next day, gone. Nice.
Well other than that, this week was kinda long, good in most aspects but I am looking forward to Goiania. Everyone says it is hot there, nothing else, just hot. Here I come, heat. This computer won't let me open my usb card reader thing, no pictures, there wasn't any new pictures though haha.
How could I forget, a sewage pipe broke next to my classroom, dumped poop all on the 2nd floor, ha. Nasty. It was in one of the classrooms, glad it wasn't mine. But it was 3 down from mine.

Chocolate (10/15/19)

my companion and I at the Sao Paulo temple
(the Campinas temple is in a better location;
some people say it's better but the temple is the temple)

I was thinking, I should probably kinda make this email sorta spiritual. I have been craving chocolate, then it was my birthday, then Presidente Milder and his wife came to my classroom and were talking in Portuguese and I didn't understand anything of course, then an elder was like hey Elder Locey, they have a bar of chocolate for you. God is great; He gives me chocolate, and blessings, it's great. Life is great here. We went proselyting and this guy came up to us and my companion told me after that he said he loves us and loves God because God has given him everything and he is taking lessons from the missionaries. Way cool.
I also want some cinnamon rolls. I have gained a few pounds, I'm up to 135 lbs and that's about 62 ish kilos. One elder is trying to brag about how he's lost about 10 kilos. He did four 24-hour fasts in about a week, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. Everybody has their oddities and quirks but we still need to love them. Some of the drama is resolved but one elder is still rather negative and is still holding many many grudges. It's sad to see that.

my Peruvian homie

The night classes really kill me. I have resorted to reading the dictionary. Not much else has happened. My Peruvian homie roommate left today at 1 am. He is very kind. I have no idea where he went on his mission but he helped me memorize the missionary purpose in Portuguese. He is very patient.

my car in Brazil hehe

9 Pieces of Pizza (10/8/19)

We have a sister in our district who is the littlest thing ever, like 110 pounds, and she's lactose intolerant and 2 weeks ago she had a very undesirable time eating pizza, so she ate 9 pieces of dessert pizza instead. She was in a competition with another elder who is around 6 foot 3 and 280 pounds. He ate 9 also. Not sure if I should be completely disgusted or impressed but she went and threw up after and then in class was bragging about it. Interesting.

Campinas temple

The Campinas temple is so beautiful. It's about an hour away, but it is well worth the uncomfortable seats on the buses. On p day we bought jerseys and I don't know anything about soccer so Elder Erwin got me one, I think it's Manchester? No idea. Looks kinda cool.
I took a spoon from the cafeteria and tomorrow I'm going to go buy a tub of ice cream hehe.
General Conference was great. We got to watch it in English. My instructors are pretty awesome.
They love to give us these ungrilled grilled cheese sandwiches, ew.

my 2 new roommates from Rio de Janeiro and Peru

This week has been kinda interesting for lots of us.
I can't figure out how to use these computers. I honestly love America and how I had so much there.
Well that's about as much as I can remember from this week. The days mush together and are very long. Things I think happened 4 days ago happened at lunch. Weird.

the view from my room

Obediencia EXATA

This has been drilled into my head from the 6 devotionals I have been to in the last 2 weeks. It is the same slides for every single slideshow (exact obedience).
There was some drama with our district. There were 2 sisters who were companions and one is a little difficult. She likes to just say anything and we are a little worried about her knowledge of the church and the gospel. Everything is in the Lord's hands though. The sister that was basically being a mom to the other sister was transferred and presidente split up a companionship that the two sisters knew each other before the mission. Every single day there's about 4-6 times when she will come into the classroom wiping her eyes or she leaves the classroom. I feel bad for her. It has been very hard for her.
Something that I absolutely loved and hated was p day. Last week they said get up at 5 am and get on bus 10. We get outside and there's bus 1-9. No 10. We waited for an hour while it was raining and then bla bla bla. We got to the temple, so pretty. I wanna go there again with my family. We got back to the CTM at 3 and they said we had until 4 then we had to be in the classroom and p day was over. Rather annoying but what can you do.
We have a full room now with 2 more Brazilians that showed up. They are very nice.
I can't communicate with anyone haha. We taught a lesson in Portuguese a few days ago and I said 5 words. It was very hard haha. I am abnormally calm and relaxed about everything though.
My companion is great; he is very militant though. Very rough and tough on me, whatever. We tried cutting his hair and a bunch of people got mad at us haha.
The rice and beans are starting to get a little old. We had burgers after the temple. They were awful, but I ate 5 because I hadn't eaten since 5:30 am.
We are getting kicked out again. If they see you with a camera on any day other than p day they will take your camera and delete the pictures. My companion likes it here because he is going into the military after his mission. He kinda enjoys the strict. I don't. They could relax a bit if you ask me.
Also I bought a watch because mine broke. I bought a fake Casio for 30 real (hey ai). [This converts to about $7.20.]
I love this district; it is like my family, they kinda annoy me occasionally haha.

Why isn't it hot here and why doesn't the question mark button work

It has been a sucessful ish week here in the CTM in Sao Paulo Brazil. The flight was MUITO long.The first day was the equivalent of like 4 days. We are going to the temple tomorrow morning and need to get up at 4 am. We don't get to go to bed earlier tonight. ew. 
The elders here are so nice and have helped me so much, the other districts that is. The elders in my district seemed really familiar to me and I realized that it was because I knew them in the pre mortal life, along with the sisters.
Presidente here is so nice and so strict haha. He always says that reverence will bring revelation. It is very true. This really is the Lord's house and His work.
The headsets that we use because we don't know Portuguese are so painful. The language is a beautiful language but very difficult for me to learn; my district has gotten the hang of Portuguese and I still can't remember how to say how I'm doing. but I do know how to do a finger snap and only 2 others in my district know how to do it. So I just do that all the time.
My companion is Elder Havenar. He is such a great guy. I love him to death. He is very strong; he is going into the naval academy and then into the marines to be a commander or something. He is a little tough on me but I think I need it because I've been having a little too much fun here.
I love the food so much. The rice and beans and kinda nothing else. We have stuff that looked like mac and cheese and we put it on bread. It tasted like a chicken sandwich. We also have this runny oatmeal stuff. I LOVE THAT STUFF SO MUCH. IF I COULD EAT THAT EVERY MORNING FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE I WOULD. MMMMMMMM Also we had this pudding stuff with chocolate on top, mmmm I love it.
It has been cold and rainy and not humid. California was more humid and hotter. I put on my sweater all of yesterday, and one of the sisters has blankets.
I need to go now for some reason. Lots more to say.

Benny messaged us a bit before he sent his email. He couldn't call because the headphones at the computer were broken. Here are some of the messages he sent:
-The irons we have here are just a step above what [our friend serving in India] has haha. My companhiero, Elder Havenar (pronounced Haven are), burnt his pants!!!!!!!!!! muito nao bem!
-Food is amazing, class is so long I fall asleep during devotionals too haha oops.
-We have lots of guarana here and it's awesome and they have a thing called limao and it tastes like limeade. (Guarana is a Brazilian soda.)
-It's way fun here I also forgot my razor haha
-Also there are Japanese elders and sisters here learning Japanese going to Japan and Brazil and its way cool
(The Sao Paulo MTC teaches Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese. Brazil has the largest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan.)
-Portuguese is muito bom! It's actually not it's really hard to figure it out and I have no time to do anything. I get to my room and have like 30 minutes to study the language, scriptures, and write in my journal. Not enough time.
-They also have chocolate milk and better chocolate milk in the vending machines.

Departure and Arrival

(Benny's flight left SL at 2:15 pm and got into Dallas a few hours later. After a short layover, he flew from Dallas to Sao Paulo and arrived at 7:30ish in the morning. Brazil is 3 hours ahead of those of us in the Mountain time zone, so that would have been 4:30 am our time.

Also, just a note of explanation: in Jessa's mission, the wall air conditioning units were called climas (klee-mahs). The older generation had lots of maladies they associated with the climas in order to get them turned off, like they caused back pain or illness. As a family, we have adopted that word. At the Locey reunion this summer, the clima in our condo started leaking water like crazy. Jacob went to the office to tell them the clima was broken. "The what?!" "You know, the clima!" We've laughed a lot about that!)

Hi I am alive. Here at the CTM. I didn't have any water for like a thousand hours because the people on the plane were weird. I slept about an hour maybe the guy next to me was very nice. He is platinum whatever and the seat next to him is always open. Lucky me. It was him, empty seat, me. I'm only supposed to email mom but I'm on a roll with breaking the rules now. I don't know who my companion is haha. There were about 15 missionaries going from slc to dallas. Then about 30 going to sao paulo. I got very dehydrated. I am ok though and am not dead. They have a cold water button and a normal water temp button. Very cool. Sao Paulo is interesting on the roads. My camera is not good, very bad pictures. Oh well. Every motorcyclist I saw had a helmet. The bus driver was driving the Mercedes equivalent of a Greyhound bus, and he was rippin' through traffic like he was on a little car. Crazy. It is air conditioned in most places in the EL CTM. I'm in room 523. They have climas but it is called a bug long Portuguese word similar to saying air conditioning. My time is almost up. they said I can call or email on Tuesday in the morning or evening or afternoon. I dunno. I feel very sick but am well. This is the Lord's work. I am excited and hope Goiania is different than Sao Paulo. Lovey you all. Benny