Oi from Brazil!

Monday July 22, 2013

Oi Familia!

well i finally to brazil! it´s been a crazy week so far and quite exhausting. 7 companions in 7 days, a new language, a new country, a new mission, a new president. its all been kind of exhausting. but i made it and life is good.

so much has happened so i´ll just try to fill you in as best i can.

the trip down was an adventure. it was fun to be with elder mckay again. i would love to be companions with him out in the field one of these days. after the late flight to detroit that caused us to miss our flight to sau paulo, i had a fun time working with elder jones and elder bytheway for a couple hours before going back to the airport. the flight down to brazil was long, but uneventful. i didn´t sleep much, so my first day in brazil was kind of exhausting, but fun nontheless. we got picked up at the airport by a member who drove the three of us to the mission office in downtown campinas, about a two hour drive. drivers are crazy here and there are tons of motorcycles who just zip inbetween the cars even on the freeways. crazy. anyways, once we got to the mission home we went to breakfast with some of the mission secretaries, and then spent went through some training with them, the assistants, and then had a short interview with president perrotti (pehochi). president seems like a great guy. funny, hardworking. couldn´t understand a ton and i doubt he could understand me either, but we made it work.

after that we went to the mission home to have lunch with president and sister perrotti. good food, good people. and then we got assigned companions.

as for companions, it´s been quite a story. i first got but with elder bonfanti and elder miranda, both brazilians, in an area called progresso. then the next day i got a call that i was being emercency transferred, so had to pack everything up again, and go to vida nova with elder barbosa. vida nova is within the city of campinas, so that´s been fun.

so with all that i think it makes 7 companions in the last week. elder paxman and elder cozzens in indy, elder mckay while traveling. elder jones and elder bytheway in detroit, and elder miranda, bonfanti, and barbosa in brazil.

personally, it´s been kind of a rough transition to brazil. my companion doesnt speak very much english, so it´s portuguese all day every day, which is good in the long run but difficult right now. they do everything differently, and are so focused on baptizing quickly, i almost feel like we aren´t really converting anyone. elder barbosa is upbeat and lively, but i almost feel like we are just shoving the gospel at people and just expecting them to be baptized withouth meeting their needs, and listening for their concerns.

it´s been hard to start a new language again. i was finally starting to communicate in spanish, and now it´s back to square one. i think learning spanish helped, and it feels like portuguese is coming quicker, but difficult all the same.

well it has been exhausting, and i come home everyday absolutely wasted, but there are definitely some fun stories i want to share.

1. people are a lot more friendly. there are tons of people just walking around in the streets, and you can talk to anyone and everyone about anything, and they´ll listen and respond. it´s kind of cool. i like how lively it is.
2. music. half the music they listen to down here is american music, and the other half is funk (weird brazilian rap). my companion probably knows more american music than i do. people play music loud everywhere. bars have it blaring, cars driving by, all in all its actually kind of annoying how much noise there is. fun fact, all funk artists go by MC and then their last name, so all the brazilians who arent sure how to say my name just call me mc daniel, which they love.
3. we were teaching a lesson to an investigator and she asked me what the strangest thing i´ve seen in brazil was so far while she was nursing her 5 year old kid who didn´t have pants on right in front of me! what did she think i was going to say?
4. kites. everybody flies a kite. kids, teens, some adults, its awesome!

well a lot more has happened. all in all it´s been a crazy week, but i´m sure i´ll settle in eventually. things will work out, the language will come, and eventually i´ll be out of training and just be a regular missionary.

love you all and hope you have a great week.

love, evan

p.s. sorry for the horrible grammar and lack of capitilization. the keyboards here are a little strange and hard to work with.