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!