December Photos - Alabama to Brazil

Golfing on my last P-day in Alabama

Jody's Baptism (Alabama)

The Young Family in Alabama

Brazillian Pizza!! Yum
(Companion Elder Pontes on left)

Christmas Eve Fireworks

Christmas Morning - at least I didn't open my sock presents.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (PLEASE)

Dear family and friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Brazil! It was definitely a lot different spending the holidays here. Not only being away from all of you, but the weather and culture and...mostly the weather. Let me get all my complaining about the weather out right now so you don´t have to hear about it the rest of the letter. So Christmas was about 98 degrees with no clouds, the day after Christmas was 108+ degrees with no clouds, the 27th it rained ONLY at night, which made the next day more humid than before. Add that to no air conditioning and a half broken fan and that has been the weather down here. I guess the day after Christmas was the hottest day here in 51 years...I think that´s what this guy said. Half the time I have to guess haha. But yeah, sorry for all the complaints, I´m done now. 

Other than the weather, it was a good week! It was so fun to talk to you on Christmas and see all your cute faces. Including Seven :) It sounds like Christmas was a good one with Mama going overboard as always. I never heard about Mom´s bomb, what was it this year? I absolutely loved the family decked out in the roll tide for the Christmas picture this year. And I´m glad we were able to get one with me in there :) We didn´t end up hiking the mountain for Christmas cause it was so hot. We ended up deep cleaning the apartment while listening to Christmas music cause it was needed. And then we made a cake for your birthday, Father. Well, technically it was for Elder McArthur, but we made it for you too. The big five oh - soon you´ll actually earn the "dear old uncle" title!

The rest of the week was good as well. We´ve been trying to find new investigators and we´re still trying to get to know the ward. We have a couple investigators who are completely ready to be baptized, they just don´t come to church! It´s frustrating cause they love everything we teach them, and they want to be baptized, they just won´t come to church! bah. Well one of them, Eduardo, isn´t really his fault. He´s this 11 year old boy who wants to be baptized so bad, but his parents are skeptical. This week we found out his mom is actually a member from like 30 years ago. She doesn´t want him to be baptized because she doesn´t want him to commit and then stop like she did. But we´re hopefully going get her to come to church and realize it´s a good place! But other than that, we´ve been teaching less actives and tyring to help members do missionary work as well. The language is still a major struggle, but I´m learning! I can understand maybe 50% if I really focus hard. The only problem is, my mind loves to wander. Haha but I´m working on it, and Elder Pontes is helping out a lot. He´s letting/forcing me to teach and it´s good. Keep praying for me, cause I need it!

I love you all! Hope new years is fun, tell the family hello at the cabin for me! That´s one thing I really miss - the cabin! i have so many fond memories from there. So have fun for me! Hope the rest of the week is great and I´ll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Weight

Bem Vindo a Brasil! (Welcome to Brazil)

Oh goodness, where to even start. THIS PLACE IS CRAZY! But a good crazy! I seriously love it so much already, even if I´m lost 80 percent of the time.

So, Tuesday I left Alabama around 4 pm. I took a flight to Georgia, then a 10 hour flight to Sao Paulo. We were delayed on the flight for like an hour though, so we missed our connection flight to Porto Alegre and thus our flight to Santa Maria. So then we had to wait at the airport for a few hours and then caught another flight to Porto Alegre. There weren´t any more flights to Santa Maria so we took a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Maria...haha. So in all it took like 28 hours to get here. But I made it! We selpt at a hotel that night, then the next day had lunch with Presidente Parrela and his wife and figured out a bunch of visa stuff. I actually really love the food here. I have had rice and beans everyday but I actually like it! Probably because it´s not just beans, there´s a bunch of other spices and meat and stuff. It´s quite delicious. Other than that, they eat a ton of fresh fruit and a ton of meat. The fruit is delicious, it´s all really fresh. And they drink a ton of juice too which is also really good. 

So after all that, we met our trainers and headed off to our areas. Luckily I didn´t have to take another 5 hour bus ride cause I am staying right here in Santa Maria! I live pretty close to downtown, but my area is more of the outskirts. We get to go downtown on p days and if we ever need anything, though. Downtown is more of the tourist area tons of stores and food places and vendors on the street and stuff. It´s pretty cool. My apartment is actually a lot nicer than I was imagining. Theres four of us living there. My companion, Elder Pontes and I and Elder Perira and Elder Mcarthur. It´s nice to have another american living with my cause I sitll kind of have no idea what is going on haha! 

My trainer is the best. He speaks a little bit of english, more than I expected, but mostly just portuguese. At first I couldn´t understand a thing he was saying and I couldn´t say anything to him, but it´s getting easier. He is from Sao Paulo and he is hilarious. He knows a bunch of american music and we´ll be singing linkin park and adele and coldplay and stuff walking down the street it´s aweosme. He is a convert of about 6 years and I am so lucky to have him. Cause I´ve heard horror stories from other people about their brazilian companions.

So our area isn´t too big, but we walk everywhere. You can walk from one end to the other in about 30 minutes. Missionary work is so different here, you can talk to anyone on the street and they will listen haha.

So i just found out i only have an hour so i have 1 minute left. I gotta go I love you so much!!!! The language is so freaking hard and I have no idea how to say anything. But I know I´ll learn, i love the people here and i love brazil!!!!!!! Talk to you next week. tchau.

Part II

Okay I have more time, I thought it was going to kick me off at 1 hour, so I wanted to send that.

As i was saying, I can´t understand anyone. People have the weirdest accent down here, they talk really fast, and they slur everything together. example, "de onde você é?" "Where are you from?" They say "Você é de onde" which turns into "Voce donde" It´s terrible haha! People will ask me a question and I´ll have no idea what they say. So I´ll just smile and nod and they they´ll look at me like I´m an idiot. It´s just so frustrating, cause I can´t understand anything, and in turn I have no idea what´s going on so I can´t say anyting either. Meh. I just need patience, cause it takes time. It´s only been 5 days and it gets better each day. So it´s all good! Elder Pontes is great and he is helping out a lot. 

So the four of us all just got transferred into this area. The assistants used to live here, but they just moved. They didn´t have a lot of time to do much work in the area, so there´s a lot of potential here. We are teaching this 11 year old kid named Eduardo and he is great. He is helping me learn portuguese and talks slow so I can understand him. After just one day he told me we were friends. Ahh the people here are just the best. They don´t have a lot of things to be grateful for, yet they are the happiest and most cheerful people around. It´s definitely an eye opener being here, we have so much to be grateful for! Remember that! 

Now let me tell you about all the crazy things that happen in Brazil.

1. They love American music and tv here. I think I´ve heard more american music and brazilian hah!

2. There are wild dogs EVERYWHERE. They just roam the streets and chill in the sun all day. It´s actually quite sad.

3. Cars do not stop for ANYTHING. Like for real. Although, it is pretty interesting cause no one ever gets hit. Eveyone just knows the car isn´t gonna stop so they wait. Maybe America should adopt this! Heh!

4. They have armed guards that sit outside of banks when taking mony out. 

5. They don´t flush toilet paper here and yes, the toilets DO flush the opposite direction.

6. You never open someones door when leaving, cause I guess that means you don´t want to come back. I was pretty close to opening one but elder pontes stopped me just in time. The people just had this horrified face it was almost bad haha.

7. It is December and it´s 90 degrees. This is probably the weirdest one. It doesnt feel like Christmas at all! Plus, no one plays christmas music around here, so that´s too bad. 

Okay now i really have to go. I love you so much and miss you bunches. After all, theres only 9 more sleeps till Christmas!!! And hopefully skype! I´ll let you know next week. 

Love you!

Elder Weight

Last P-Day in America

Welcome to the beginning of the end! Isn't that weird- my last Preparation Day in America! These past 3 weeks have gone so fast. 

So this week we got a new companion, Elder Linton. He is from Centerville and he is great! We are having fun in our trio and the work is going well. It was sad to see Elder Harman leave, I miss him a lot. He was a very good missionary and helped this area out a ton. I think he was more sad to be leaving than to go home, poor guy. He loved this ward so much and it killed him to leave. He said he would live in this ward in a heartbeat, especially since he hates Utah haha! He actually called us yesterday morning and he seems to be doing well. 

Thanksgiving was good, but it was just not the same without my family!!! We had 3 separate food appointments so we were sick of even looking at food by the end of the day. We ate at the Sedgewick's first, ate a bunch of food, and watched a wee bit of football. We saw the opening kickoff of the Cowboys game, when he fumbled and the raiders scored, I was laughing pretty hard. I could just imagine the Masons going crazy over it. Too bad they won ha ha. The Sedgewicks served their missions in the Philippines and met as missionaries on their mission. Sound familiar??? Hee hee. They're a great family and we had fun over there. Then we went to the Crawfords, ate a ton more food, and hung out with their family and kids. They had about 25 people over and they thought it was packed. I told them about our Thanksgiving with over 40 and they couldn't believe it. We love our big family! To end the day, we went to the Vergaras, and had more food! It was only dessert, but still. I'm pretty sure I gained like 5 pounds in the day. We played dominos and church history trivia haha it was a lot of fun. All in all though, it's just not the same without your own family! Holidays are fun with all the food and decorations and games, but it's all about family. I miss you all so much!!! I'll be able to call you in just one week though! So excited!!!

So Rick and Jody are doing SO well! Their car broke down so they weren't able to get their marriage license this week. BUT! We have an awesome ward! Brother Godfrey is a mechanic and agreed to check their car out, Brother Messervey agreed to take them downtown this week and Bishop Magonigal agreed to marry them in their home this Wednesday! Rick and Jody said we were the only ones they wanted at their wedding, how cool is that! They moved her baptism up to the 7th so I could be there. They are amazing! She still eats up everything we teach her, keeps all her committments and cannot wait for her baptism. That will be a wonderful close to my Alabama mission.

Now Saturday. This is probably the best and craziest story I have had on my mission so far. So the game (Iron Bowl, 1 Alabama vs 4 Auburn) starts at 2:30 and we have nothing to do. Everyone loves football around here and no one wants to hear from the missionaries. So we visit with Jajuan for a bit and then visit a few members close by. We end up at the Vergara's during the last few minutes of the game. This is when Auburn scores with 30 seconds left to tie the game. Overtime for sure right? So we head out to see another family nearby. All of the sudden, we hear screaming coming from 3 different directions and we realized something crazy just happened. Elder Linton sees some people screaming and jumping up and down, decked out in Auburn orange. He goes to knock on the door to find out what happened. Elder Nielsen and I didn't want to bug them so we started to leave. Then this guy comes out on his phone and asks us if we saw what happened. We say no and he invites us right in. There are probably 15 Auburn fans, completely wasted going insane. They rewind the game and show us the last few minutes and show us Auburn running the Alabama missed field goal all the way back for a touchdown. They go crazy again and we are just loving it. I wore my Alabama tie that day and I'm just doing my best to cover it up so they don't see. Then they give us all this food and start asking us all these questions! This one lady probably asked us 5 times if we wanted some beer. Hahahaha so we find out one of them lives in our apartment complex and we get invited back for next weeks game. It was just hilarious. Welcome to Alabama!!!

I don't have a lot of time, but I'll talk to you in person very very soon! I love you and miss you so much, have a wonderful week! 

ROLL TIDE,

Elder Weight

(Yes, I'm still rolling tide.)