day 61 click day!

Well this week went by fast with not a whole lot of action so this letter is going to be really short sorry. 

This week we did two splits the first one was with one of the people from my CTM group. hes boliviano and speaks as much portuguese as me but he knows spanish so hes got that head start. Then we didnt really do much the rest of the week. then yesterday we went on another split with members from the ward and i went with a guy named Niulson (niuson) He knows a TINY bit of english and is still learning and he just got back from his mission 6 mths ago and is the only member of his family. 

Thats about all i remember...!

 Love Elder Smith

questions:

Do you get along with your companion?  You said you like that he cooks everyday for you..is there anything else?  Is he nice?  Is he a bully?  Can you understand each other?  at all?  Do you have some sort of medium language together?

yea hes just a cool cat. hes nice no bully. He studied english for about two years in college so he understands almost everything i say. and im starting to understand him more and more.

What are your plans for pday today?

Just E-mail and then go back to our area! We went to McDs for lunch today. its not as good as the ones in america but they're trying.

Is that one person who committed to be baptized still on? for this weekend?

nope cuz they have to come to church at least twice.

It's the 4th of July this weekend...when is Brazil's independence day? do you know any history of it?  Who did they get independacized from?

I have no idea about any of that...

Do you get to talk English ever?  

I talk with my comp all the time

How many American elders are there in your district? zone? how many native?  how many from other countries?

there are 4 americans in my zone.and the rest are native.

Are the kids in the kite flying picture members? Or just some kids that live by you? Is that a park that is by your house?  

Nope no members just kids near us. Yup its about 2 min.

Do you have a ward/branch?  How many members?

we have a ward of about 100 people

What is your daily food intake?  your food schedule?

well we eat at 12 normally and then after we finish the day we go home and make a snack.

Got any pictures of your companion?

yup.

Got any pictures of you in front of the Sau Paulo Temple?

nope. The CTM people wouldnt let us take our cameras

Got any pictures of your casa?  that's the same as spanish...i looked it up.

haha yea ill send some!!

day 54 Que Chiquie

So this week was fun. 

On segunda-fera (monday) after email we went and bought a pipa (Brazilian kite)and went and flew for about 2 hours or so. The brazilian kids have a brincadero (game) they play and you try and cut the other persons pipá, and one of the kids in the picture tried to cut mine, but i bought a string that is really thick and strong and he tried and i didnt even know he was trying to cut me and i cut him not realizing it. After i cut him all the kids around try to go and catch the cut pipá. It was super fun!!

Every Terca-fera (tuesday) we have a zone meeting and we went to that and we played fusbal and i wrecked!!

    Quarta-fera (Wednesday) we had a meeting with a referal and he is really strong in the faith of Assembleia De Deus just some other catholic church. He said he has been waiting for the missionaries for about one year and has not known how to get ahold of them and so we went out and contacted him and we started talking to him about the restoration and after, we asked them to be baptised and HE SAID YES!!!!! So we have a date set for July 5th, and he`s so excited!! And so are we!! 

Nothing really exciting happened on thursday-saturday.

    On Domingo (sunday) we woke up at 7:30 best sleep in yet! Then we went and picked up our pesquisadores (investigators) and then they said they had friends that wanted to come too and we went and picked them up and we went to church! We had standing room only, we had so many people!! In the near future the church has bought an acre of land and are going to build a new capela (church building) but for now were stuck in the little capela we have now! 

But thats all for now!!

Love Elder Smith

Questions:

What is your companion's name?  What city is he from?  How long has he been out?

My comps name is Elder M. Santos M. because in brazil Santos and Silva are the same as Smith or Johnson. He`s from Recifie and been out 1 year and 9 mths

How are the games there?  

The games are on EVERY t.v. that`s turned on but the Brasil games are CRAZY. Here they are holidays, and so we have to be in casa (house) by 1:30 or 2 cuz the streets are crazy!!

What city are you in again? What kind of area is it?  country-ish? city-ish?

I`m in the city of Sumare residential area so houses everywhere

Are they having "summer" now? I'm assuming so from what all the sports announcers are saying...it's super hot and humid...When is the "winter" season?

so right now we`re having the "winter" season which is like 22 degrees celcius 65 degrees ferinhite 

What do you like about your companion?

The best thing about him is that he cooks everyday and its Droga (freaking) good!!

What's your favorite food so far?

Well it`s all kinda the same... but one lady made a corn dessert (picture) that was alright.

Got any special moments to share?

just the baptism thingy that was pretty droga cool!!

day 47

Hey i just got done shopping for the next couple weeks at a supermarket called goodbom (good good) dont know why thats called that but whatever.

We are at a lan house with about 20 other people just playing games and stuff. Today is the USA game and the member that lives above us invited us to come up and watch!! Fun. This place is soo hot right now im dying!!!! On days of the Brazil games we work till lunch, and have lunch and then we go home to our house and do nothing! But tomorrow we are going to watch it at the members house above us. 

We have a family that we are teaching and theres an old ladie and a guy in his tweenties with a kid and his girlfriend we havent met her yet and they have another house behind theirs and they invited them to come listen and they are all really cool about listening to the message and participating in them. We dont really have any other REAL progressing investigators cuz we are just now opening up this area, but everyone that we contact on the streets are so welcoming and caring to just listen to our message even if it is just 2 min. 

First one is our capella (church building)

day 44 IN Piracicaba

President and his wife with our "beloved" (their sweet words in an email) Elder Tyler IN Piracicaba...they sent an email saying that he's arrived safely and is with a competent trainer. He looks awesome!  

We'll have to wait until next week to find out where he is and who's his companion. 

day 35 Frongo Coxina

Well its my last week here at the CTM and i vai imbora (leave) on Terca-fera. My Portuguese is coming along great im at the point where i can carry on a long conversation for at least 5-10 min if they dont talk fast!! Ive met about 8 other Brazileros going to Piracicaba. All the Brazillians are super nice and they dont know how really to be mean. I met a teacher here that was on a mission with George Stewart, he asked me de onde voce e and i said provo and he asked "do you know him and i said my brother played soccer with him!! he speaks really good english, all the teachers here speak or at least understand english but they say they dont. But thats all i can think of right now!

I love you all and i cant wait to get out and serve the "rednecks of brazil" I cant wait to get out of the CTM.

Love Elder Smith

where are your companions from?

Still the same comps but one new one from New Zealand

and the other two are from sandy and south jordan utah

what are you going to do for you pday today?

Today we went to a bakery and we got some coxinas. and we went shopping alot and got some cool stuff.

we might go back out later and find a guy who makes scripture cases out of leather, pretty cool.

have you met some nice people?

Yea all the people here in brazil are super nice and really cool!

had any cool experiences yet? spiritual ones?

After every devotional we go back to our rooms and we talk about what we took notes on and what we felt from the spirit and just what ever we felt like really...but everytime we have those the spirit is sooo strong in the room. We do it with the other districts in our zone here in the MTC.

while you're in the field, you have service opportunities...do you there in the ctm as well?

Here we have service time once a week and we just do odd jobs that the cleaning ladies dont want to do, like sweep the stairs and mop the floors and random stuff like that

teach us some brazilly words...

well the title is an new one...I cant think of any right now...

I'm getting ready to send you a package...any requests..not too big..I think sending to brazil is going to be tougher than philippines...

i dont have any at this point but thanks.. and when you send it make sure you put a picture of The Virgin Mary on the top so the workers dont steal anything!!!

Next week is the wold cup...notice anything different about the people there?  more crazy? excited?

no the people in this part of Sau Paulo arent as big into soccer becouse its mostly shops and retail around here but in other parts there are alot more riots and people preping for it. I leave on tuesday and im super excited to get out and start actually putting all this work into action!