Elder Jake with his comp Elder Dos Reis. He is quite a bit larger than the Brazilians -- thanks in part to G'pa J!
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Hey!
So, Brazil is great! I really love it here! The people are great, so humble and so wonderful.
Real quickly, I need Ross to email that ab workout I left in in utah on accident! Also that email from Bro. Burnett!
Thank you! Well, the past few days have been good! I am so grateful for the attitude and mindset the Lord has blessed me with. I am just so excited to be here. Truly a blessing. There are missionaries that really just don't enjoy it and can at any time tell you the time they have left before they get to go home, down to the hour!
Four Elders from my district made it to my mission! And two others to Cuiba! I got to see one of them yesterday, and I have talked to him on the phone a few times. I am glad I got to come a few days earlier, because he is havin a hard time, I think. It has been nice to know a bit, a very little bit, to help him out and encourage him!
PS, can i get letters and info from Jacob? My comp is from curitiba and he wants to know! To answer some questions. The language is coming! Slowly, but each day gets a little better. I love it. The Lord has really been blessing me. I am still struggling a ton, don´t get me wrong, but I can have conversations with ward members. I have talked to a lot of people about construction, the U.S. and my family. People seem to love those topics. My companion and I communicate rather well now, and I am learning so much from him! Everybody is impressed with my language, and with my accent. But I don't know, cause they are all members and are all super nice haha, but I am feeling very blessed with my language, as simple as it is.
(P.S. Turns out it is even harder to stay awake in Elders Quorum when it is 90 + and super humid, in a suit, and you dont understand a thing that old mumblin man is sayin!)
I can understand about 70% more or less of what most people say, but if they only say four words, I miss one. And that is bad haha
9My comp is crazy. He writes a five-minute email.)
Schedule. Brazilians are crazy. We don´t set appointments, except maybe once. We arise at 6:30, get ready and study til 11. Then we go to lunch at a member's house, and then just walk around the city stopping at houses to see if they are home. Seems nuts to me!
Also that whole be in the house by 9:30, 9 if we dont have an appointment, is a joke! The first
day, we got in at 11! I haven't made it in before ten! I don't understand why not. It's kind of annoying because I want to be in bed by 10:30, but I have stuff to do!
Also church starts about a half hour late, haha. So strange, but I don´t mind that now because I don't understand a whole lot in Elder's Quorum and Sunday School. Also during Sacrament, people will just stand up and walk across the room and stand there talking to someone. Haha Everything is so chill here! Too chill in many cases.
(I have no time.) This week was good! I am really learning to love talk to people! We have this one drunk guy that has stopped us twice asking to change his life. It is really hard to understand this guy. But Sunday, we had an appointment for once and we were in a hurry. He stopped us and talked to my companion forever. My comp told him I didn't speak Portuguese for the sake of time. So we stood there for 15 mins. And then I had enough. I placed my hand on the drunk's shoulder and said, in Portuguese, "Brother, we are in a hurry. If you pray, God will help you, and help you have the faith to trust him. But you need to stop drinking and stop using drugs. We'll pray for you." It came out in real good Portuguese, and my companion was very grateful.
He asked me why I hadn't done that earlier! He also said it came out in a kinda scary voice. Which I am okay with ;)
We had a baptism! So great! I will try and send pictures!
I have really loved kids. They are great to teach, and great to talk too! We taught a lot of kids this week (6-15). It has been awesome! At the end of the lesson once or twice, we taught the kids English and Japanese (which none of us speak). One of my favorite phrases I hear every day is "Hey German, speak English!" Guess it is pretty popular phrase towards Americans.
Yesterday comp had a meeting, with othere district leaders, so we did contacts in that city. It was my and my home boy Elder Adams from the MTC, and two Brazilians. The Brazilians didn't really want to work, so me and him did contacts ourselves! Very hard haha, but I loved it!
I love you all! I will send some pictures of stuff.
We had cleaning checks, and I took some "before" pictures. These Elders are gross. The place was and still is a disgusting. But it is better. Thanks for teaching me how to clean! We stayed up until 12 cleaning. (We haven't had a P-day since I got here yet. It was worth it though.
Bye!-Elder Loveland
