Hey Everyone! So I´ve survived my first week at the CTM, actually I really like it here so it doesn´t seem like I´ve had to `survive´. Anyway it is so crazy how quickly we are moving in the Portuguese and everything! I have the purpose and the first vision memorized, I can pray and bear my testimony as well as have a good conversation, all in Portuguese! It really is such a beautiful language and our district has amazing teachers, Irmão Carboni and Irma Gaspar. They are some natives who have served missions here in brazil. (For some reason this computer won´t let me use the enter key so I can´t really make paragraphs so I´ll just use a slash.) / We have the biggest district in the whole CTM with 11 elders and I love everyone in my district. My companion is Elder Abernethey from Boston! (Shout out to Jackson!) He is really an awesome kid and we have a lot in common as far as family situations and stuff like Family Guy. We pretty much just quote it all day. We live on the sixth floor, which is the top, and they don´t let us use the elevators so we have to walk up all the floors like five times a day. Some other elders of note: Elder Overton from California who has been having some major struggles and said he was going to go home the second day but we had Elder Neil A Anderson (that´s right, an apostle) come and he talked about sticking it out and relying on the Lord so it was pretty much divine help. Elder Williamson is from Virginia and is our District Leader. He is so fun to hang out with and I totally called that he would be DL before it happened. / We have some Brazilians living in our room and since we don´t speak the language too well it is really hard to communicate and they are really loud at night. But some of the Brazilians that live with our district speak English really well so they help us out. Most of the missionaries here are Brazilian because they only have to be in for three weeks. / The food here is AMAZING! It´s basically just carbs and protein all day everyday with some fresh fruit and Guarana. They mix it up with some American style food on the weekends but it´s all good. I have been being really careful though. Everyone in my district is trying to gain weight so they eat as much as they can at every meal but I just eat what they give me and a lot of fruit and vegetables. I´ve already lost about four pounds so let´s keep it up! / I really do love it here and haven´t been homesick at all. Not that I don´t love you all but they keep us so busy that there isn´t really any time to think about home. Since it is our first week we have a bunch of special meetings so maybe things will get more chill after this week. / The coolest thing is that they let us out pretty much whenever we want so we have walked around the MTC several times and the neighborhood is very friendly and there is a lot of cool stuff to check out. There is an American cookie shop across the street called Mr. Cheney´s. Diet Coke is called Coke Light. Medical stuff is pretty much free so sorry mom and dad for making you pay for all those shots. The World Cup is going on right now and it is crazy here. The city goes silent during the game and when they score it just erupts in fireworks and horns! It is so cool! All the Brazilian missionaries sit by the windows waiting to here the noises and they can keep score. There are brazilian flags and fireworks everywhere, it´s really cool to be in a place where people have so much pride in their country. / Anyway, my time is almost up so I need to finish it up. I love you all so much and I am praying for you all back home like I hope you are praying for me, I´m going to need all the help I can get to learn this language. / Stay Classy! Elder T
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