April 6, 2011

TUDO BOM!

Man, i am finally here and its crazy! So the flight to sao paulo was super long, but i finally got there then i was off to curitiba! The flight from sao paulo to curitiba had the best airline food ever! they had caramel with passionfruit, guarana, and this way good sandwich thing with melted cheese and meat inside. Wow this keyboard sucks the keys arent all placed the same as in america! But anyways, when we landed in curitiba the president with his wife and the ap~s were ready to pick us up and go to the mission home. There, we had interviews and had a legit brazilian meal made by a brazilian member and it was sooooo good! I could deff get used to this. I love the food here so far, its so good. We had rice and beans and this stroganoff stuff that is sooo good@! For dessert we had this frozen passionfruit moose that was amazing! After that, we went to the church and had an orientation where i met my companion elder evans. He is from oregon and he~s really cool. He~s been out on the mission for a lil over 7 months, and he~s already fluent. We then got our suitcases and went off to our area which is bordo do campo, which we~re opéning again after it was closed due to the shortage of missionaries. \we rode busses late at night with all of our stuff to it and we didnt even know where we were going. We were on like 9 different busses for over 2 hours, then we got off and went to our shack haha. It is third world almost haha it makes my last appartment i had in the usa like a penthouse hahaha. It will be fun tho and im excited. Today is pday so we took a bus to one of the elders house and the whole zone came for a bbq. we had this really good brazilian sausage with bread and it was so good with all the guarana you can drink! wow it was good. I love brazilian food! After, we went to the church and played soccor with brazilians are amazing at, and a little bit of basketball. After we finished, i was soaked by the humidity and am still a little wet haha. I~m gunna get super tan here, or perhaps just super burnt. i need to buy some sunscrean. But yeah, my first thought on brazil. So there is a lot of funny things that i~ve seen already that is different. So first off, when the cars are waiting at a red stoplight, the kids will go around and place candy on their mirrors, and if the person wants to buy the candy, they grab it and then the kid gets his money. Also, the motorcyclists here are crazy and they weave through traffic and go over medians and such. Kids and bums have these carts that they wheel around and that they dig through the trash so they can get cardboard and recycle it for money. Another thing is the wild street dogs. There are these wild dogs everywhere that just run around and cause mischief. I guess all the missionaries get chased by them and get bitten haha this should be fun, it keeps you on edge. Another coo,l thing is the markets here that sell fruit and produce, its crazy cool. Wow, i~m just in culture shock! I dont know what the missionary work is like here yet, but i guess i~ll find out soon when we go prosyliting tonight! The weather here today is perfect, it feels about 70 degrees and it feels great. Not to hot, not to cold, just the way i like it. Last night however, i was super hot and couldnt sleep for a while. It was like sleeping in a sauna haha. My zone has a bunch of brazilian natives, and they~re really fun. they say i speak good portuguese, but its so hard! The people here speak fast and slurr their words, and also have slang, so its really hard. I~m learning fast tho, and i know that in no time i will be able to talk with the people no problem, i just have to stay determined and listen carefully. Man, there are so many things different here than the usa. Its such a huge change, but i like it and the people are really nice! All is well here and i gotta run soon, so just know that im happy, safe, and sound and working hard! I love you, have a good week! Até logo,

 Amor, Matt