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

Week 61-- The most important thing? Pizza Night!

Querida famila e amigos,

THAT´S RIGHT I´M FINALLY IN BRASIL GUYS! Sorry I haven´t sent an email for a while but P-day here is a bit off so this is the first real email we´re sending home. Sorry if some stuff looks funny, the keyboard here is different. Anyway the CTM is pretty cool here. A whole lot more relaxed than our last visit the to CTM in Provo. Not sure if it´s just the culture here or that we´ve already been out so they don´t try to shove all the info down our throats again but it´s a nice break for sure.

The flight here wasn´t all that bad except for the fact that it too about 16 hours in the air and around 18 total... that´s okay but I won´t be looking forward for the ride home too now, that´s for sure. I got up around 4am last Tuesday to make the flight and I was solo for about 5 hours and then at the airport in Detroit I met up with 5 other missionaries, one of which was actaully from my last MTC district! You all might not remeber me talking about Elder Collet but he´s my comp now and I about died when we saw eachother. I was on a moving side walk but grabbed him a hug anyway and we almost both fell over laughing. There´s also an Elder here from one of my EFY groups too! How crazy is that! He thought I was crazy when I ran up and hugged him at first haha, but then he seemed to catch on pretty quick. What are the chances?!

I can´t really get around to all the things I want to tell you all about so I´ll just try and do a quick summery of the rest.

First and most important thing is that this is the only CTM in the world to sport it´s very own brick-fire pizza oven, so every Wednesday is pizza night. Yes, that is the most important thing, no matter what you think :).

I´m in a district with 7 Elders and 1 Sister. Elder Espadas (swords in Port.), Elder Mortenson (close to the word death in Port), Elder Wilder (DL), Elder Jenson, Elder Ormsby, Elder Collett (Like the word for sports jersey. My comp) and Sister Phillips. We´re the ZL´s but it´s pretty much useless because we don´t really do anything execpt make jokes at Elder Wilder because our distirct is the only one in our zone. So we´re zone leaders over a district for 6 days doing nothing..... haha

There is no peanut butter, only nutella

I´m doing pretty great on the language, we speak pretty much only Portuguese here but most of the district slacks off a lot, but that´s why they don´t speak as well yet :P.

The teachers are pretty chill, we have 3: Irmã Alcalde, Irmã Mendes and Irmão Rodrigo, all brazilian, all from the city here.

We´ve been out doing some contacting around here 2 times now for a few hours both times. It´s pretty great, a whole lot better than it was in Cali, haha. I can´t paragraph down now... wierd. Anyway, we just get back for the temple. We went and did it in Portuegse which was pretty awesome. I got some pics but we can´t send them here so it´ll have to wait till next week or so. Well, that's all for this week! Um no exercito de Deus -Elder Teela

Week 60 1/2-- I made it to Brazil

I made it to Brazil alive Momma! It was about 18 hours of travel but the plane didn't craah and I didn't bug Elder Collett too bad so we made it through just fine. We're actually compaionions now! It's pretty awesome. There is about a 5 hour time difference from Cali and I think I'm only and hour or two ahead of you guys back home.

Um, this MTC is a bit more.... como se dice... ghetto, haha. I thought it'd be nicer like the one in Provo but this one only is one building and the area around reminds me of when I was in downtown LA. It's still really exciting though, speaking Portugeuse and stuff again. I was funny when we were getting off the plane everyone seemed to catch the vibe and started speaking Portugeuse around us. It was super weird to actually not have people understand us when we spoke english. My Portugeuse seems to have lasted a bit better than I thought though, so that's good. Me and Elder Collett are going to try and speak only Portugeuse while we are here so really get us more ready.

I have a ton more to tell you but I'll have to save it fro Monday. Love ya and I'll email you soon. Let everyone know I'm safe and pumped!

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela

Week 60-- Bound For The Promised Land

Well, this is it finally everyone! I go to Brazil tomorrow morning! I'm SO EXCITED I'M GONNA DIE!!! But for real though I am very ready for this. It's been a long year waiting around but it's been great. I've learned so much from this mission and I am going to miss it for sure. There are some great missionaries and great members here and it's been an experience like nothing else. That being said though, it didn't keep me from singing along to the song "The promised land" which goes like this: 

"I am bound for the promised land, 

I'm bound for the promised land! 

Oh, who will come and go with me? 

I am bound for the promised land!" 

Haha, pretty much tells all the story there. I think on the plane I'll be singing "Oh Babylon, oh Babylon we bid thee farewell!" This really is an amazing place, so many good people but also so much... sin and temptation. It really is modern-day Babylon I'd say, but we'll see if Brazil really is "The Promised land", haha. 

So fun stories this week? Well, I became a man for one. Me and Elder Shamo had to go up to the temple Saturday for me to get some new clothes (since most of whites got stained last week). We missed our exit and somehow ended up in Malibu... It was really pretty, don't get me wrong but it was not the place we needed to go by about 20 mins. So we went back, got there and ended up in the car for about 3 1/2 hours. But what made me a man out of all of this? We had lunch on the way there at a place called Fatburger where the food is just that. Fattening but super delicious! They have what they call the XXXL challenge. It's 1.5 lbs of meat on the burger, and you stuff your face with that. IF you finish it they take your picture and you get a certificate and all that. It's a staple of man-hood I'd say :). 

The rest of the week we pretty much made our normal rounds but I was saying my goodbyes as well. It's really a speacial place here in the South-West LA (SWLA) branch. I really am going to miss the people here and all around LA for that matter, but I'll be back in a year or so I'd hope :). 

So I guess for my final thought here I want to talk about trials. When I was thinking on this this morning I was for some reason drawn to D&C 121 where it says: "Many are called but few are chosen". Many of us thinks this has to do with callings and I think it does too, but it might also be talking about trials. I know that our trials are calculated to improve and strengthen us.  I think that many people are called to go through similar trials, but few are chosen specifically for us. I think that this was one of my "chosen" trials. It has taught me much and I will always remember all the great people and lessons learned here. I trust my Heavenly Father that this, will be something I will know was for my better. We just need to keep that faith and say as Nephi did "Never the less I [will] go forth" when we don't know what exactly God has in plan for us, because it's better than anything we can plan out. 

Well, catch you all in a week, in Brazil :)

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela 

Week 59-- Last Week In LA

Well, this is my last week here in LA. I'll be traveling to Brazil Tuesday morning (super early by my estimation) and I'll be having an interview with President and staying the night there with probably the assistants as well. It's gonna be awesome! It'll be great to finally have all this language study pay off. 

Tuesday  was pretty great. We went to all our normal visits and when we showed up everyone seemed to want to bring their friends who were not members. We had a lesson set up with a recent convert and his friend just so happened to be there. Apparently he got suspended from school because someone was bashing on Christ and he went and floored the kid, haha. I respect his fire but maybe he went about it the wrong way.... We also had a lesson with an elderly man in our branch and his non-member daughter was just there for the day so we got to teach her as well. She wasn't too interested but a seed was planted I guess. 

So this week has been pretty great we've been getting ready for me to get ready to go. The main thing was me trying to get my Hep. A shot. Friday it took o\us pretty much forever to make it to the place we needed to go. We went to the wrong place first, then we got directions, ended up getting a bit lost and then finally got the right place for the 30 seconds and tons of money it took to get the shot. It took us 3 or 4 hours just to go get one shot, haha. And days of searching for a place that actually had it. 

Sunday went off the hook pretty quick too. Right after conference we had an appointment that fell through and we were just walking away when a man called out to us and told us to come into his place. He told us that it was a christian shelter but that didn't seem to raise any red flags to me. As we sat down though the director asked who we were and I felt a little weird. After that we had man named "Preacher" come sit down and decide to listen in on our lesson. At that point I asked if this was a church run place and our new friend said yes.... At that point it was clear we needed to leave but my comp seemed to think it was a good idea to start debating doctrine but I wasn't having none of that. We got out of there real quick to make sure we didn't offend anyone too bad. It wasn't too great really, not my smoothest moment, but we continue on. 

Oh, and we found some people that want 40 bibles from us.... not sure what to do there... 

Well for my spiritual thought I would like to site all of conference, haha. It was pretty great. I was really excited that some people were giving some talks in their native languages. Especially like the one in Portuguese for sure :). I'll have to listen to that one again for sure. I also liked the one that was by Elder "Jorg K." It was about taking responsibility for our sins and all that. I also like one that was also along those lines earlier in the session but I forget who did that one. Elder Bednar's was fun too, with the story about his two kids :).  Pretty much, if you missed it, make sure you go back and watch it. It was a nice pick-me-up from the world out here. 

Well, that's all for this week. Everyone have a good week! 

-Um no exercito de Deus

Elder Teela  

Week 58-- I love the people here

Hello again everyone! 

This week has been pretty good I'd say. The people here seem to love our message, they just don't want to come to church. We try but it seems everyone is always doing one thing or another. Thus is missionary life I guess :).

So, it seems that here in the ghetto there are plenty of strange, weird  and down-right funny things to go around. For example, me and the DL were on exchanges and he needed to get his flu shot so we took off to CVS. As we were in line some man, who was very obviously drunk, and asked us what we were. We were pretty happy to tell him but he cut us off and said "Wait, you can't get caught up in that religion stuff. You see, I am God!" things only made less sense from there on out and then all the sudden he leans in close to us and says "You see here? I've got a "G" ( $1,000 in LA lingo)  on me. If I ain't got a G on me then there's a problem. Just don't tell my girl, cause I've got more than her." His girl then proceeded to call out to him and he looked like a scared little puppy, haha. He then went over and "blessed" a little boy by responding to every outburst of non-sense the baby was saying with "BLESS YOU CHILD!"..... This defiantly isn't the LA they show you on TV, haha. 

We got to see a movie that's coming out as well from the church called "Meet the Mormons". Not sure if they've been announcing it around there like they have out here but it's a big deal apparently. It was pretty great, just over an hour and very inspiring. They follow some notable members around and it does a real good job of making us not look weird, which was the goal I guess. It's super good! Go see it, then take your non-member friends to see it and then call the missionaries and watch the miracles happen :). 

One more fun thing was that I fulfilled a man's dream this week apparently. We have some members here that have recently moved in from Guatemala and they feed us dinner every Thursday. They really like me because I speak enough Spanish to help them learn English and Elder Shamo just kind of sits there all awkward like, haha. To say thank you I figured I'd make them an apple pie. When I gave it to them he told me in his broken English "Elder, this pie... when I come to this country, I always want to try some house-made apple pie. You are fulfill my dream!" Ha ha, I love the people here :).

Well, In being spiritual this week I guess the topic is gonna be General Conference. Go to all your sessions people! You never know what you are going to miss if you don't go. It'll inspire you because these really are men of God. I've been lucky enough to shake a few of their hands and be in conferences with them and the spirit around them is tangible. Pray to God and prepare a question you need to have answered and I swear by my ties that God will answer it through one of His anointed servants. The power of God is upon these men. 

I hope you all have a good week. Love you all and hope the Lord can help you all this week.

-Um no exercito de Deus 

Elder Teela