Brazil!

Things here in Brazil are CRAZY! it is so different then what i am used to in the united states. So much has happened to me since I got here!

Before I tell you all about my week, yes, I had two packages waiting for me and everyone was jealous because it was full of American food and that stuff I can’t buy here so everyone wanted to buy if from me. I am safe. I am serving in the city of Manaus. In an area they call Tancredo Neves. Its a little bit outside of the city of Manaus, like West Valley is to Salt Lake. It is a busy city there are a LOT of people. But not to busy. The language is really hard! I can’t understand anything people say to me. Everyone says that it is normal to not understand anything. So I am not worried. My companion, Elder Calaza is from southern Brazil and he does not speak as good English as I thought. I live with two other Brazilians, Elder Leao and Elder Dias. (Yes his name means days in Portuguese, I thought it was really funny at first) Elder Dias does not speak English at all and Elder Leao speaks really good English because he lived in Utah with his sister for 6 months a couple of years ago.

My week has been really good a lot has happened and I have learned a lot about Brazil. I don’t know where to start.... On Sunday we were going around and I was meeting the members after stake conference (which I did not understand by the way). So we went to a family and they gave us food, The food is really good! I LOVE IT! and then we left and went to another family and they also gave us food. my companion tried to tell them that we had just eaten at another families house but they would not take no for an answer. So I had two BIG meals that day! I was so full but so grateful for the sacrifice the members make to feed us. They pull out all the stops for missionaries. They serve rice and beans at every meal! Fine with me because i love it!

The other day in the middle of the night my finger started to hurt really bad and I found out in the morning that I had gotten bitten, or so I thought, by some bug. It hurt really bad! In the morning I noticed that there was something in my pillow case so I opened it up and found that there was a huge catepillar on my pillow! and it was pokey and when you touched it, it hurt and left what looked like a bug bite. It was crazy! We also found a cockroach in our toilet and it was really big too! All the bugs here are big and they are everywhere! I had to put the food you sent me in our fridge because there were ants crawling all over the stuff!

The rain here is crazy! It starts to pour without warning and I was soaking wet within about 3 seconds! There is so much water that comes down! But it is awesome and I love the rain!

I was really surprised at how dirty the streets are! There is garbage all over the streets! It makes me a little sad to see all the garbage lying around. There are also dogs roaming the streets that don’t have homes to live in. They look really sad and lonely.

I was also shocked to find out that the people are not as poor as you would think they would be. They have really crappy houses. But they have cars and cable tv and internet. I love the people here they are all so nice! Everyone tries to help me with learning Portuguese. They understand that I am learning and they try to help me. It’s awesome!

I love it here and would not want to be anywhere else in the whole world! This place has its ups and downs but they are now my ups and downs and I love it here!

I love you guys and hope that all is well with you and that you are loving life as much as i am!