May 18, 2011

The new lawn mower sounds like it does work! I will deffinatly not miss mowing the pasture with a push mower hahha. Thats super good that jazz got a number 3 pick! Maybe theyll get jimmer! haha. Ocean fishing is gunna be super fun! But all is well here. Today for pday we went to the botanical gardens. It is really big and super nice. It looks way pretty, maybe you can look at photos on google. I sent pics to mom, so you can check em out there too! This week i went on splits a few times cuz my comp is DL and he goes and does interviews. Were you ever DL or ZL?? We got brazilian pizza and it was super good. Its like a tradition to get pizza on a split. We also marked several dates this week, which is good. We need help from the branch. The members here dont help very much, so its hard to baptise here, and when we baptised the recent converts go inactive because no one there fellowships. The portuguese is coming along really good. At zone conference the mission presidents wife (which speaks fluent portuguese, served a mission in Portugal) pulled me to the side and told me how impressed she was with my portuguese. She said by far i speak the best out of the group that arrived with me. I guess the practice and prayers in philly paid off! Im almost to the point where i can just go up to anyone and have a conversation with them without worrying. I can say what i want ususally, and understand the people good. The teaching is going a lot better too, which is sweet! We had our confirmation this sunday too, which was sweet! Something i like here is something called sonhos. They are like these doughnuts things with good creme in the middle and they are only about 45 cents american. Really good, and really cheap! the bakerys here have way good stuff! Something funny this week was when a brazilian said that it was a pleasure to have me in his store cuz i was american ha they love us here. THey think its really interesting cuz they usually never see americans in their life in person. Well, not much more that is going on, just working hard and putting up with the COLD! Man, its starting to get super cold in the night and the morning. We dont have any insalation, and so its like a fridge in our house. They wind and humidity makes it super cold! This morning i was freezing, and by mid day i was sweating. The weather here is weird... BUt all is well here and just know that i love ya!

Love, Matt

May 11, 2011

hey dad! not much to say to you either haha seeing that we talked on mothers day! Today was really cool, we went to the Curitiba Temple! Man, its so weird to do a session in portuguese! I didnt even use a translator, but it was good and i understood a lot of it. It took forever to get there, and ate up our whole pday, but it was worth it cuz the temple there is way cool and i look forward to going there again. I spent like 7 hours on a bus today man it sucked, and tomorrow ill spend even more time cuz its zone conference and we pretty much just have to go all the way back into center city curitiba, which is huge! But yeah, it was so cool talking with you guys via skype, ill deffinatly have to look for another member with skype when christmas comes, which is only about 7 more fast sundays! haha. But yeah, not much to say today, and im really short on time. I love ya!

Matt

May 4, 2011

Oi pai!
Things here are going good, and a lot different with a brazilian companion haha. They just act different than americans. He doesnt speak any english, so im forced to speak portuguese. Its good tho, cuz my portuguese and accent has gotten a lot better, and will continue to improve. Man, the same time i learn portuguese, im forgetting english haha. I had to think pretty hard how to say the pledge of alligence the other day haha. So now that Elder Dos Santos is new in the area, i took it over and he relys on me to know where im going. The road and house system out here is rediculous, but i know the area pretty good. So about the skype deal. Im pretty sure ill be skyping at 4 your time, so that will be good. Man, it will be way good to see your faces, it will be weird! Today for pday we played futsol, which is a version of soccer. Its played on an outdoor basketball court, with a smaller soccer ball. Its fun, but the brazilians are so freaking good and just own all of the americans ha but when it comes time to play basketball, we will own every time. Man, i just emailed on wednesday so i dont know what more to say, that and i will talk to you on sunday! Hmm... Well we did mark 6 baptisimal dates the other day so that was good. I dont know what more to say other than im super excited for sunday! I love you!
Love, Matt

April 30, 2011

Dad, Haha wow i dont even know what you were trying to say with that portuguese sentance. Maybe you meant to say como foi sua semana filho? Or maybe a simple tudo bem? hahah just keep practicing. But hey! Im doing good down here, just another crazy week in brazil. Nick is finally engaged, thats sweet! I knew it would happen this week. Thats cool that your upping your resume. That thing is lookin good! ahha. Did jazz even make the playoffs? But yeah, this week was good. I did my first babtism in portuguese! We had two baptisms actually, it was great. I also gave my first blessing in portuguese. Tough! Haha man seriously speaking another language is tough, but i learn more every day, and everyone tells me i am speaking way good. Its really tough though. Im so used to saying whatever i want to say, and teaching how i want, but i have to adjust my teaching and speaking to what i know how to say haha. Páscoa (easter) was really good. We went to a members house and had a chorrosco (brazilian bbq) and it was so good! The members house is right next to this mini rainforest thing and we walked through it and it was way cool. It had vines you can swing on and paths, it was awesome. We also took a toar of where he works, which is at a dog trainer place with over 400 dogs. Ha my companion and i put on one of those dog biting sleeves and he sicked a german shepherd on us. It was so intense seeing a german sheperd running as fast as it can to you growling and barking, then latching onto your arm yanking you around. It was fun! hahaha. I took a video of it it was funny. So yeah, i hope you have mothers day off cuz i get to skype! woo! I will get to see you guys! So yeah, i passed my six month mark! woo! 1\4 done already! We bought a pizza and celebrated. Brazilain pizza is the best. So about transfers. My american companion got transfered and i now have a brazilian! He speaks no english, so its a challenge haha but my portuguese is gunna get so good i think. His name is Elder dos santos and hes from Natal, brazil, which is northern brazil. But yeah, things are going good here, and were teaching a lot! I gotta run now but i love ya!

Love, Matt

April 20, 2011

Tudo bem pai! I see you´ve been studying up on your portuguese. Keep it up haha. When you use those automatic translaters it doesnt work out so well, cuz thats not the way they would say those things you said haha.  Thats crazy about the floods in west weber! Good thing we dont live by the weber river!  This week has been good, we are finding and teaching a lot of people, along with several baptisimal dates. It really is crazy how much we have done in just two weeks after opening up an area. Tonight we have a baptism, and he picked me to baptise him! We also have 3 other people this sunday that will be baptised, its gunna be sweet. The language is getting better, but its still really hard. The people speak so fast, and use slang. It will just take time and work, and ill have it down. Everyone i talk to says im really good and have a good accent, and that im progressing really well. Its just hard! haha. So about the baptism tonight, his name is wellington and he is 9 years old. His brother is a member, but no one else in the family is. He is awesome, and so fun to work with. The other baptisms this sunday will be clair, leonardo, and joão. Clair and her husband live right in front of us, and her husband is a none active member. He is excited to get back to church when his wife is baptised, and to eventually go to the temple. They have a kid together, but they just got married last week, just in time to be baptism worthy. She knows everything is true, and we are super stoked to have her baptised. Leonardo and João are brothers and their parents are members, but less active. They were offended by someone so they dont go anymore, but elder evans and i worked with them and now they are ready to come back to church! Its awesome building eternal families. So this week i got to go to center city curitiba twice. Once, for getting a brazilian identification, and the other for a training for new missionaries. The training was good, but it was funny cuz they just told us what our purpose was as missionaries, and they talked as if i was just fresh out of the mtc. Its funny when they call me a greenie, when ive already had a lot of experience in philly with missionary work. In center city, people like to do entertainment for money in front of the cars at stoplights. These kids were standing on eachother juggling for the cars waiting for a green light, wanting money. They were actually really good!  This sunday in sacrament meeting i gave a talk in front of everyone! It went good, even though i was nervous hah. Im speaking a lot better than when i got here! Im still loving the food, and loving the fact that we have meal appointments every day with the members. It gives us the chance to have legit home made brazilian food. Rice and beans every day mmmmm! Ha im lucky, cuz i love the rice and beans, but a lot of missionaries dont like it but they have to eat it every day! The dessert here is super good. If you guys come get me in brazil you~re in for a good treat food wise! Its the best! The hot dogs and pizza here are so much better than in america. You~d think that american would have better pizza, but nope, here its amazing! The weather has been so hot! Man, im getting cooked haha. The humidity makes it so much worse! The humidity sealed all my envelopes haha, so i gotta pry em open before i can put letters in them haha it sucks! But yeah, Everything is going good, and im learning a lot! Pray for me to get the language down quick! Mission pres said that i have to learn super quick , because hes gunna be using me soon leadership wise. This next transfer were getting 17 missionaries. wow! Thats a lot. Maybe ill even train ha that would be crazy! Well, all is well, i love you and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Harper

April 13, 2011

Tudo bom para meu pai!
Man, this has been the most different week of my life haha. Its crazy living in another country, but its cool and a great experience! Florida sounds like its been way fun, and the airboat rides sounded like a blast! Universal studios sounds pretty fun right about now haha. Thats cool that you got to see the church ranch and hang out with the justesons. Sounds like fun! Well, things here are going good, and Im loving the food. Today we ate something called tapioca, which is these pancake like things that you put hot chocolate fudge in and we also put linguisa in also (sausage) it was good! I love the guarana, and also they have tons of way good fruit drinks like mango and pinapple thats so good! We get fed lunch by the members every day except pday, and its awesome cuz we get the best homemade brazilian food ever! There is always a big thing of rice and beans, which is amazing, but thats just the side dish. They have sausages, chicken, pasta, and salads. Its all so good! Not to mention the dessert, which is amazing as well. I had this way good bannana pudding stuff with caramel the other day, it was way good. But anyways, thats just the food haha. Its funny how brazilians do stuff out here, like cutting grass. They usually dont use lawn mowers, but they get a team of guys armed with weed whackers, and just go to town on big fields and yards, then they scoop the grass up in tarps and move it. Kids and teens here like to show off their cell phones here by playing music while they walk, and a lot of people sell things out of their cars by driving by with big speakers on their car yelling what they are selling kind of like an icecream man. There are wild dogs everywhere out here. Hundreds of them! They just go around looking for food to eat, and they dont bother us. Some are actually pretty nice and want to be petted. So ive been having my first brazilian tracting experiences, which consist of standing outside the peoples gates, which everyone has, and clapping at their house. They always have their doors and/or windows open, so they can hear us. To get around, my companiona and i walk everywhere, but to go far away we ride the bus. The bus system here in Parana (the name of the state im in) is some of the best in the world, especially in curitiba, so we take the bus quite a bit, about three times a week for pday, district meeting, and training for my comp cuz hes district leader. Curitiba itself is a really nice, clean city full of flowers and gardens. The plants and trees out here are beautiful! There are a lot of lime trees in my area and other fruit trees as well. The language is really hard, but ive already learned so much and im developing an ear for how fast people speak and also picking up a lot of common frases. Each day i speak better, and im starting to teach now and the people understand me and say i speak good! Its so hard, but im learning quick. As far as the work goes, in one week we have found several investigators and have 6 baptisimal dates! Man, the people out here are so much more receptive than philly. Its so nice to have a lot of investigators again, and teaching people that are willing to get baptised. We have one this sunday, and im excited! His name is wellington and hes nine years old. The work is going good. There are a lot of snakes out here (girls) that yell at us sometimes like this week when they called us delicious as we walked by haha. I guess they really love americans, and elder evans and i are pretty handsome young americans haha but dont worry we just laugh and keep walking. We get a lot of looks haha. As for laundry, we have a small electric washer thing, so we wash our clothes in that and dry them on clothes hangers in our house. The weather here has been near perfect, but in the mornings and late at night it gets pretty cold. This past week, we had a crazy storm that dropped marble sized hail and it was coming down so hard! I guess its really rare for out here, and the kids loved playing in the hail piles after it was done. It was a cool sight to see. The members of the church out here are awesome, and they love the missionaries. I~ve seen a ton of spiders out here that are huge! Like triantulas! Ive also seen some cool looking birds and such. The bugs out here are crazy haha. Well that was my crazy week, and it was fun. All is well and im enjoying the work! I hope all is well over there! Until next week, i love you!
Love, matt

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