January 27, 2010 Update

My living conditions are pretty good in Marilia. In my apartment there are tons and tons of ants everywhere, but I have only seen one cockroach. I just found out that we are moving sometime in the next week or so, crazy stuff here. We do have a ward here, but I am not sure how many members there are. we don't get many referrals, but we contact tons of people. I don't ever have to cook. We normally just have bread and juice for breakfast and then for lunch a member will either make food for us or give us money for food. They don't really eat dinner here, we usually just have a snack of some kind. All we eat is rice and beans with some kind of meat and they eat every bit of the meat, fat and everything. and, yes, the food has agreed with me. I have not gotten sick. We walk a ton, but it is good. sometimes when we are far away from our house we will ride a bus back, which is a very crazy experience. the people here drive like maniacs! I haven't put any weight on and I think I am losing, but I am not exactly sure because we don't have a scale. My shoes are good and very comfortable. My knees and feet kill me everyday, but I will survive it. My companion is really a great guy, he is really funny. He is from Sao Paulo. with the language right now I hate it. All I can say is yes, no ok, and where I am from. It has been really frustrating for me, but I'm doing ok.

Life here for me is good and rough at the same time. I am not the most social of people and out here you need to be very social, so that is the hardest thing for me.

Mom: About my hair. It was 3:30am when I woke up that day for that picture, I didn't care too much about my hair. Ha, ha

I love you all and miss you so much!

January 18, 2010

So I just arrived in Londrina yesterday morning at about 7. I flew in with Elder Hodges (my comp from the Provo MTC) and 2 brazis. It was way cool, we met and had lunch over at the mission presidents house. It was very good. I found out who my trainer was there and which area I would be in, but I didn't come out to my area until today. Last night I stayed with two other elders who were leaving the next day. It was way cool , we went and taught this family about the 10 commandments. My companions said that I would just read a couple of scriptures and bear my testimony at the end, but then one of the daughters asked them if I could explain the next commandment about coveting. It was so, so, so hard. I guess I did a good job because they said they understood me. It was really hard to go to sleep, they had me put a mattress on the floor and sleep there. It was way hard because the place we were staying was in bad shape and there were bugs everywhere. I think I had like 4 cockroaches around me somewhere. It was very different from what I am used to, but my new home is a lot better. Thus morning I came out to my area, which is Marila. It is way pretty here and my dad (that is what you call your trainers I guess; ha,ha) is way cool! His name is Elder Silva and I am going to kill him (that means this is his last transfer.) He can speak English pretty good, but it is cool because he will ask me a question in English and I will answer in Portuguese. It is very helpful and he says that I can speak the language really well, which is a big boost for me!

So, yeah, everything is great. I love you all and miss you so much!