The pictures were sent to us from Elder Bangerter, Elder Halls companion in the Brazil MTC (CTM for all you Brazilians). This is ALL of the pictures I have since week 1. Thank you, Elder Bangerter!!!! The missionary that Elder Halls is referring to, Elder Shanks, the one hit by a bus, has a blog set up. My son didn't know it, but I have been following his blog for weeks now, after learning about him on a missionary moms email list I'm part of - here is the link - http://www.elderbrittenschenk.blogspot.com/ I know the Lord loves his missionaries!
Oi!!!!!! Minha familia!!!!! this week has been awesome! and so has last week haha, and now i have to figure out how to tell you guys about it!!! so my new companion is Elder Squires from Sacramento area in california. He is way awesome. We are definately going to work hard. My mission president is such an inspired man! i cant even begin to explain how cool he is, but i will try. He interviewed us all, and every person walk out of the office with a smile, and with no more worries. he know just what to say that gets you excited to work, haha, for example. he shared a story about how when he was our age, he was the best handball player in portugal. and then he said, why do i tell you that? because i am a champion. i am either the best, or i am nothing. you will be the same. haha, our mission will be very hard, but it will be worth it.
I feel like how i felt at the beginning of my senior year of football when my coaches, especially coach hawthorne were telling us how hard we will work, but how much fun we will have. Coach hawthorne said his fun came from winning football games, and on the mission, our fun comes from our success, which is measured by how much we love the people, how close we felt to the spirit, and how we feel the spirit working through us to the people.
Entao, i will tell you about the last two weeks. haha, so the last week of the ctm was amazing, the language really felt like i was improving, i was growing in the spirit, and i was really enjoying the last few days in the ctm. So when we left, we woke up at 4 am, took a bus to our area and met the mission president, had some instruction and by 2 pm we were on our way dragging my luggage 3.5 hours on subways and buses. haha, the final part of the journey ended while dragging my luggage for 30 minutes up a hill to our house. haha, i was imagining the pioneers and what they did, so i tried not to complain. haha, I have been using not know the language as an advantage when it comes to contacting. On our way back i talked to a man on the bus, or tried to talk to him. He was wearing a shirt for a church and he was just finished with a service project, i told him how much i respected him for that, and asked him about his beliefs, then when i expounded all my portuguese, my companion, elder squires started talking to him. Before he got of the bus, and before we even asked, he gave us his number and told us to call him any time.
I am in Jacarei, which is in the Sao Jose stake i think... and my companion and there is a wonderful ward and branch here. The members are just so amazing and loving, and it has so much potential for growth. My companion, elder squires, and I are over the branch. I love it! haha, something funny, there is a boy leaving on a mission and his fiancé spok first. haha, yes. he is engaged.. he is such and awesome boy though. Last night they had a farewell for him at the branch presidents house, and they asked me to speak and give a spiritual thought. I got up there and did my best, and i have no idea if anyone understood anything I said. haha, but it was an awesome opportunity even if i looked like kolupoki? the elder on o otro lado de ceú. haha the other side of heaven.
anyway, the church is true, brasilian drivers are crazy, and there is no maple syrup. i love you. bye!!!
I have some time left on my computor, so i will tell about something that happend before i got here. I dont know if you hear, but drivers are crazy here, and no one enforces the law, and so it is very dangerous. My companion was with his trainer, elder shanks, when elder shanks was hit by a bus. Elder shanks wasnt supposed to live, but has made an amazing recovery so far. The quorum of the twelve fasted for him, and he is making a miraclous recovery.
Oh, by the way, JEFFERY R HOLLAND IS COMING!!!!!!!!!! he will be here on satuday to talk to our mission and we get to have a mission conference with him here!!! He really likes our mission. haha, this is his second time coming in 2 years, and i am so excited. I cant wait to tell you all about it!!!
Love you all
Elder Halls
(ps, i dont now the mission adress, but you can send things to the mission home, you can probably look it up)
if you want to send me beef jerky, i would like that. :) just mark it as shoes in the customs form. haha
wow this letter was long. haha
