Look out Sao Paulo East...Elder Halls has ARRIVED!!!!

Week 7 (WOW!!!)
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

Last week in the Brazil MTC (called CTM in Brazil)

April 2, 2012 - Week 5

Just a note from Elder Halls mom:  The conference Elder Halls is mentioning can be linked to by going to http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng The talk Tanner shared with him, was the story of the parent's in Haiti who had prayed to find just one surviving child amid their destroyed apartment following a natural disaster. I'm not sure what speaker that was.

Family and friends!!! I loved the email! i am so glad that we bought a new car!!! So about the packages, maybe try to figure out if it is something that i could buy here first, because someone got a package sent to him and they charged him 95 reais just to pick it up. but just let me know. did everyone love conference!!?? i think my favorite talk has to be either Jefferey R. Hollands first talk, or the one Tanner talked about. i dont have my notes with me, but i loved how Elder Holland ended. "dont delay, its getting late" i loved that talk. I know that it doesnt matter when you return to the Lord as long as there is still time, the ultimate reward will still be the same. however, we must know that we will be held accountable for those we didnt effect or neglected when we could have had an impact.today is my last pday in the ctm, and i am actually really glad to get out of here!!! haha, i will miss the other elders here, but i cannot wait to be in the mission field. i was able to leave the ctm last week to get my glasses fixed after a volleyball accident, and it was just elder bangerter and i walking around the streets. it felt so awesome! and i felt like i just wanted to talk to everyone i saw, and i did!!! haha, i would usually only get as far as boa tarde! tudo bom? haha.i hope everyone loved conference!!! i missed going to priesthood session with dad and ammon. we watched priesthood sunday morning because of the 3 hour delay. haha, thats a funny story about emily watching david archuleta. i was watching it, and my companion elder bangerter wispered, thats david archuleta. haha, and a couple of guys who just came from the provo mtc said they talked to him after he reported, elder archuleta is going somewhere in northern chile. haha, he is such a great example to the world.so tonight i am singing the song, This is The Christ in front of the whole CTM for the devotional! so pray for me! i actually asked to sing it, because i love this song so much. time to go!out of time, love you guys!!! you~re in my prayers!!!!-elder Hawwls

Brazilian FOOD!!!

March 27, 2012 - Week 4

This week has been awesome! On sunday we had the first black missionary of the Church after the revealation about the priesthood speak with us. His wife spoke, and they were using missionary translaters, and the translaters were having a hard time. Then He got up and said, take a nap, haha, ill speak in English and Portuguese. His name is President Martin. He gave an amazing talk. He is the president of Sao Paulo Norte i think?

The language is difficult, and just when i think i'm making big improvements I realize how little in know. Haha, I can communicate really well in lessons, but sometimes i wont be able to think of a word and ill just get stuck... haha.

Dad told me that i should tell you all about the food here! So we have a really awesome meal plan, except some people in my district dont like it. We eat pannini style bread? i think thats what it is, with cheese and meat, and all different types of jucies, like strawberry, passionfriut, orange juice. lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and it consists of some sort of meat, then all you can eat beans and rice, and small salad and fruit bar with no ranch.. haha, but it is amazing. you can put this sand stuff on your beans and rice, and then there are more juices or guarana, which i cant handle, it is wayy to sugary and has far to much caffiene. haha, for dinner we just have a smaller version of lunch. I am always in heaven, because i can eat as much as i want!

Yesterday I had a very good experience teaching a mock lesson with a new teacher. We were teaching on the plan of salvation, and he had a question about what will happen to his wife since she has died. I found a scripture in alma chapter 40 that i had previously read. he read that, and i was able to explain the entire though that i was trying to convey in portuguese. It was such a boost for me because i was having a really hard time with the language, and i was getting really discouraged.

I love you all. I still feel like i have barely left.

I will miss watching conference with our family! especially priesthood session with dad and ammon!!!

-Elder Halls

ps// I got the resses!!!! thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!! and I am going to have a pizza party next week!!!

  and next week i am getting my peanut m and ms!!!! so im going to a restraunt that is all you can eat meat, just like tuscanos for only 20 reais!!! love you

Week 3 - CTM (Brazil MTC) Adventure continues....

March 20, 2012 

Well it's been a great week in sao paulo!!! it's finally starting to cool down a bit, the first few nights we were here we would sleep with no blankets, and would wake up in the middle of the night, and have to sleep the opposite direction because we would be sweating so much in our bed. But lately it has been perfect :) 

The language has been very tough, there will be points where i feel great and i feel like i could teach a lesson, and there will be points when i dont even think i can say hi.. haha, its pretty much a battle all the time to stay diligent and not let yourself get down.

I think that one of satans most powerful tools is telling us that we are not good enough to do things. However, we are all Children of God, so what is holding us back? It is in our nature to be able to do all things through Faith in His son, Jesus Christ.

Today we were on the bus on our way to the Campinas temple, and i thought that we were going the wrong way, and we were! so we drove to sao paulo adn had to turn around and go to campinas which took waaayyy long!!! haha, i love you guys!! Please pray for the missionary and pray for opportunities to show your love to others through service, or missionary work, or whatever tool you have to use to be the hands of our Savior.

Elder Halls

Week 2 - The adventure has begun!

March 13, 2012

Família! How is everyone doing? That sounds crazy with the suburban! You would be suprised if you saw the cars in brazil. There are only motercycles, small cars, small trucks, busses and semis. There are no silverados or F-250s! haha, anyways

today was an amazing experience. The São Paulo temple was closed so we drove to the campinas temple. It was soo beautiful. The drive there gave me a bit of a taste of what my mission will be like. From what I have been told, my mission has alot of Favelas, which are just houses build on top of each other to form a huge neighborhood, with no space. They are insane. I wish you could see the things I have seen. The craziest part is that there is jungle wilderness, then one of these will pop up on the side of the freeway and go for miles.

The language is getting way better. Elder Bangerter and I have had a lot of success while teaching our mock investigator Carlos. We committed him to baptism, and then just last night he said it was going too rapido (fast) so we changed our whole lesson plan, went by the spirit, and found the root of the problem. When someone says they dont think they can be baptized, they usually will tell you excuses, but you just need to listen to the spirit, and understand what the root of the problem is. Sometimes it´s as simple as they dont have the money to buy a white shirt and tie and they dont feel comfortable getting baptized wearing their normal clothes, sometimes they dont feel like they could ever be worthy to be baptized. Either way, the Lord has a way for us to accomplish everything he asks of us.

Before the lesson, we prayed that our tounges would be loosed, and that the spirit would guide our thoughs and minds. That lesson, my mind was so clear, and I spoke the best portuguese yet. I put sentances together, and he could understand what I was saying without having to read off of my paper of everything that we wrote.

I love you all!!!! I love brazil!! can anyone ask where in Chile wesley served? I am friends with alot of chilean missionaries!

I went to the campinas distribution center and was in heaven!!! I wanted to buy a book of mormon childrens reader, but they were all out, so i bought a portuguese doctrine and covenantes childrens reader, simplified hymn book, about 5 liahonas, and 3 cds of portuges primary songs,.

out of time,

Love you all!

Elder Halls

Elder Brandon Halls - 1st Letter from the Brazil CTM!

March 6, 2012

Family, Friends, Everybody!!!! I love you all so much!!!! I hope that you are all doing well! I only have 30 minutes, and it's already at 25, and i Havent even read your email!!!!! The CTM is amazing!!! The people of Brazil are amazing. I wish I could describe the emotions and the feelings I have felt this week. The Temple was amazing. I was talking to a roomate, Elder Gucca, I think, and he is amazing. I asked him about how when he joined the church, and he told me it was a year ago. He then dropped out of the second best law school in sao paulo, and came on a mission. He is so obideint and stalwart in his covenants. I then told him that i was going to the temple today, and he gave me a family name to do for him! It was so amazing to do a seesion in the sao paulo temple and to do a name from brazil. These are the kind of people that i want to be like. they are so humble, and love life soooo much!!!! The brazillians are so funny, yet there is still always such a beautiful and peaceful spirit in the CTM. My companion is Elder Bangerter, and he is from Utah, St. George. He is such an example to me, haha, we're very similar. It is pretty funny that they put the two football players in one companionship. How is everything back home!!!?? I love you guys!!! It was so hard saying goodbye, but as soon as I began working on the language and the doctrine, I immediately knew why I came here. The gospel is so amazing. Why wouldn't anyone want to go on a mission? I still cant believe I'm in brazil, and a servent of the Lord. It is such a blessing, and there is a strong spirit that is with us. Well, I think ill read you letter now. Oh, i forgot to give details, I am in sao paulo. Haha, the roads are crazy, the city is amazing, my room is on the 6th floor of the CTM and we dont get elevators. The temple took 1 hour for us to get there. The language is very discouraging, and my english isnt even that good.. hahaha, I am so excited to be out here, and I already love the people here. Oh and dont send any packages to the CTM, just send them to my mission. I cant believe it's been a week! It's gone by so fast!

Ok. I am just about out of time! I love you guys!-Elder Halls