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
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