Week 63-- It's only getting better here!

Hello again one and all. It´s only getting better here truthfully. My brain is in some strange middle ground between Portuguese and English, so sorry if things don´t make too much sense. It´s like I´m thinking in English with Portuguese spelling and grammar with random words mixed in, ha ha. 

So the biggest news from last week I guess is that we had a baptism and a confirmation (see what I mean?). It was pretty pretty great but some funny stuff we going on. First of all the woman we baptized was 69 years old and has lots of problems with her back, so we actually joint-baptized her. I said the prayer and Elder Kinney helped support her back while I baptized her. And as for the confirmation no one told us we wouldn´t be in the circle to give the blessing so we walked up there to do it but then the bishop looked at us like we were crazy so we just sat on the stand while they did the confirmation. I guess we lost touch somewhere in the middle there somehow. Either way, two more souls to the celestial kingdom! 

Some other awesome stuff that happened was at a zone conference Friday. We traveled for 5 hours or so total and ended up in a place called ´Monte Negro´ which, being interpreted, means black hill. We got there and I met up with some familiar faces, Sister Green, from my other mission, and Sister Gamez, from my MTC group in Provo! It was pretty cool and we caught up on the old ´ol days, ha ha. It was funny because Sister Green´s comp said I speak better Portuguese than her even though she´s been here longer (totally didn´t effect my pride, ha ha). 

On the way home a lady also wanted to practice some English with us. We asked her how good she thought her English was and she responded `I´m a chicken`. A little confused we asked what she meant in Portuguese and she said she meant to say Ì´m a child` ha ha. It´s funny, everyone here wants to speak English. They seem to think it´s better for some reason. They learn it in school like we learn Spanish in grade school. A few phrases here and there but nothing really substantial.  

Um, the other day it rained like freaking crazy. I thought I saw enough rain in Missouri but there was literally rivers of mud-water running in the streets. All the little kids were out in the mess and playing and having fun it was pretty awesome. We were soaked to the bone and only had one small umbrella between the two of us, so we started home. About 15 mins into the 30 min walk the rain let up so we thought it was all good but 5 mins later it picked back up and started really getting nuts. Hail started falling that was about as big as golf balls but we didn´t get hit. The wind picked up and the rain was almost coming in sideways, so we just closed the stupid umbrella and ran for the last 3/4 miles or so. It was nuts. As we watched it almost looked like footage from a hurricane. 

Running out of time here so I´ll sum up a few things: 

--We moved like 1000 bricks

--Went to the Porto Alegre North temple which was awesome. They asked us to do some sealings too so we did that for an extra 45 mins. SO cool!

--We ate these things called torpedo fries. Feeds 4 people and has fries, cheese enough to kill you, pulled pork, chicken heart and some other mystery meat...

--Elder Kinney kinda dislocated his shoulder

--Church is great here!

--We meet elect people everyday.

This is the true church. Stay strong and carry on. It´s like Paul said: 

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have a good week everyone! 

-Um no exército de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 62-- I'm doing pretty freakin' awesome!

Oi todo mudo! How you guys doing? I´m doing pretty freakin´ awesome. I can´t even describe how good it is to be here in Brazil. It´s great :)

So some things that I´ve learned about the culture here really quick: 

1.) Everyone here walks. I know that I already said that and I was aware of the fact but really it´s true. EVERYONE WALKS. We walk like crazy too but it´s good. That combined with the heat is gonna make me look like a model by the end of my time here, haha. 

2.) Everyone here is what they call a gaucho (Ga-oo-show). It´s kind of like southerners in the US. Everyone here is stereotyped as speaking bad Pôrtugues and not being very bright. I´d say it´s pretty true but you can´t be general about something like that, alot of people are still smart and some actually speak the lanuage right. The thing is though this is the Texas of Brazil. Literally. People have more state pride than national pride, they brag about Rio Grande do Sul (the state), heck, they even celebrate the day they rebeled from the rest of the country to try and make their own, which they lost of course (I have on idea why they celebrate it.... guess that´s way every thinks they´re dumb...) 

3.) Everyone drinks this nasty-grass-tea (see what I did there) stuff called Chimarrão (Shi-ma-how-oo). It is literally grass and hot water. It´s not just any grass but it is a type of grass that they just call herb. In all honesty it is super nasty but for some reason I find myslef drinking it more and more.... 

4.) Speaking of the heat you have 2 choices here. You are either soaked in your sweat or you are soaked in rain. Nowhere in between. For real, it rains like crazy here and is hot and humid at all other times. 

5.) Don´t ever open a door for yourself at some else´s house. If you are arriving it means you are welcoming yourself in and if you are leaving it means you are never coming back, haha. 

That´s just a few things really and there are so many more but I can´t even begin to explain everything.

So my week went a little something like this: 

We got up at 4am to fly here to Porto Alegre Norte (PAN) and arrived around 10am in the mission. President Wright and his wife met us at the air port with the AP´s and such and we took our stuff to the mission home for a while. We then had lunch with all the people who were part of the emergancy transfer we caused and my old travel compainion to LA became my companion here in Brazil! Not sure if you all remember me talking about Elder Kinney but we both served in LA, he just got his visa a year before I did, so he´s been here a lot longer. So we had some interviews and such and took off to our area, Sapulcia. 

In the past week we´ve been walking and working like crazy. We had a baptism this week and should have one every week until the end of the transfer too. So 4 or 5 people will be baptized in my first area in my first few weeks.... Welcome to Brazil people. It´s different here. There are prepared people EVERYWHERE! Everyday we find at least 3 or 4 people who are looking for the gosple. Just they other week we ´knocked´ by a woman (I say that because people here don´t really knock doors, we stand outside the gate and clap because here knocking a door would be tresspassing) who said she was just praying for God to show her the true church to join and then we ´knocked´ by later that day. Miracles! 

Oh, the language by the way. I don´t mean to sound prideful but I was not one of those misisonaries who stepped off the plane and realized that I didn´t speak the language. Pretty much I get most everything people say here and they can understand me pretty well. Most people don´t believe I´ve only been here for a week or so. They can tell I´m not native but they are all shocked I can speak already haha. It´s language study people, that and actually speaking your langauge in the MTC (so you better do it Elder Welch!). It´s really cool though honestly, the Lord has blessed me with the gift of tounges for sure. 

Which brings me to my funny story of the week. My companion actually made the language mistake! We were going over the plan of salvation with the kid we were teaching who just got baptized. His name is Rafiel and he is SO prepared. His dad is... no was less active who is now fully active and wanted his son to have the gospel and Rafiel accepted and loved all of it. Anyways, we were teaching the plan of salvation and my companion got some words mixed up. Instead of saying that God had a body of flesh and bones he said God has a body of flesh and bears! Rafiel was really confused at first but got it later on and we all thought it was pretty funny. 

Oh, a little heads up. If you send me a letter I might not see it for 2 or 3 weeks. It takes a week to get here to Brazil, the ZL pick it up next time they are at the mission office and then the next time they see us they give it to us. I´m not saying don´t write, but email will be a whole lot easier :). 

I really wish I could tell you all more but there is SO much happening. I´ll mark it in my journal for sure and you guys can ask me about it later, haha. I´ll try and do a little each week till it all makes sense. Hope you all have an awesome week and I´ll do another email then. 

-Um no exercito de Deus 

Elder Teela