WK1 - Brasil

Area: Brazil MTC

Companion: Elder Shepherd

Wow so much to say but not a whole lot of time! First off.. Mission ties is awesome. I have got all the letters you sent so far i think, and 3 of us in our district have it and we are the only three that have received letters so far because it takes so long to get mail here. Second, my enter button doesn´t work so its going to be a jumbled letter. -Wednesday- That was a really long flight and i probably only slept for an hour or so. It was no leg room and then it got really cold in the plane as the night went on. It was nice to finally land. We got off the flight and got in the pretty cool van that took us to the CTM and then we got a few things and then got a picture taken etc. We were done about 6pm that night with everything and then went to unpack and check the rest of the ctm out. There is a basketball court, two volleyball courts and the little track which is pretty cool. And in the middle of the track is sit-up benches and pull up bars. The CTM has 6 floors and of course im on the sixth floor and we cant use the elevators. Well that wednesday night i think we went to bed around 8 or 8 30 we were just really tired. I met my companion as well which at first was ok and all but im still not sure i like having a companion. For example if i leave something up in the room he gets mad at me because he has to walk upstairs again... its kind of annoying. -Thurs- This is when real classes and study time starts. We spent all day studying, sitting in classes, and trying to figure out portuguese. After the first night, you are in class until 9 30 every day which is pretty rough. -Friday- was a long day as was about everyday here so far, haha, but it was also our first day in gym which was pretty fun. gym time we played volleyball and a little bit of basketballl and not a whole lot of exciting things happened that day. -Saturday- was just another good day in class and studyin and all. Seemed like everything went smoothly and the day went by pretty quick. -Sunday- So far sundays are just as good, if not better, then p-days. You wake up, study, eat, then go to church meetings and then most of the rest of the day is yours until about 5 30 i think. One thing we did this last sunday was do interviews with our branch pres. And right after that, he choose me to be the district leader. It really is just to have someone take charge of the class and direct the district meetings. I have to go to a couple more meetings each week, but its not too bad. We also pulled out my bug zapper this day and that is like the best toy you can have here. It is the coolest thing ever and everyone loves using it. And it will be even more usefull in the mission field. -Monday- On top of the normal class day and studying, we talked about visas and signed a couple of papers. There is a guy here that they call nacho because he does a really good impersonation and his wifes name is ignacio or something, but he talked to us about the visas and hes really funny. -Tuesday- Yesterday was a pretty long day, mostly because i felt pretty sick as the day went on which was a drag, but i made it through and just took some medicine and woke up feeling pretty good today. There was a devotional this day as well and its interesting because the speaker speaks in portuguese and then someone translates, so the talks at devotionals last a while. -Wednesday- well today we woke up and went to the temple which was really cool. Can i just say that driving is insane here and i dont know how that driver drove a big bus to where we were going, and how he didn~t kill a motorcycle guy on the way because they are crazy too. But one disappointing thing is that we can~t take our cameras to the temple... but its ok. Sorry about not having pics this week, i don~t know if we are supposed to but i will do my best to do it next week. Mr. cheneys cookies are really good and i heard they have people patrol the computers over there now so you don~t go over your half hour. The weather is not super humid here mostly because its winter, and has been as low as 50 but today is probably about 75 or so. so not super bad. Well thank you again for the letters from missionties! we get a printed off letter in our box, which by the way is box 28, and i have more time to read it. Love you all and good luck! -Elder Smoot


Letter written by Tanner. Scanned and emailed by missionties