In Brazil!! CTM and Rio arrival!!

Email received from The Missionary Training Center in Sao Paulo - April 30, 2014

Hey family! I made it to Brazil! Man it was a long day and a long flight (9 & 1/2 hours). We will be Skyping on Sunday May 11th at 6 oclock Brazil time. Not sure what time that will be for you guys but you can google it to figure out. It will only be voice unfortunately no video. Sao Paulo is so dang big. We drove on a bus from the airport for 2 hours or so and it was just solid down town city. My comp here is Elder Fox. He was in the district with me in the MTC on Provo, Utah. It's great to see him again, and cool we got it the same time. Doing great other wise, still like a dream I am here. The people are so nice here I can tell already. The nice lady who sat next to me was super nice trying to understand my super broken Portuguese. It's going to be a lot of work and my head may explode trying to think so hard but I'm gonna love it here. Also I don't have a Skype account so if you can make one for me and send the username and password so I can use it. love you guys it was great to see you. take care!!!

Weekly Email - May 9, 2014

Man what a week!!! Brazil is freaking awesome first of all, and I love it down here. My comp is Elder Fox if you guys remember him, he was in my MTC district in Provo. Crazy that it happened like that. He was serving in the Charlotte North Carolina Mission and is from Oregon. Great guy, really enjoying being with him. It's so crazy being in the MTC again. I feel like it's starting all over again, it's pretty fun. All of the focus, of course, is on the language where as before it was on the lessons with Portuguese on the side. It took my brain a while to get going but its amazing how fast you learn here. There is about an even number of Brazilieros, Americans, and Hispanics here. It's a lot of fun to talk to all of them. We have two Brazilieros in our room, they are a blast to talk to. I feel comfortable enough in the language now where I can have a conversation about anything really. Portuguese is easy, in the fact that you don't have to know all of the words, you can describe them and they will understand. We have three teachers all of which are Brazilieros that just got back from their mission in the last year or so. They are great. We have gone proselyting twice so far, that was an adventure but man it was fun. We ride a bus to a park or bus stop or something where there is a lot of people and just start talking to people. They are all so receptive. The second time especially I couldn't believe it! I was having a conversation with a native, they understood me, and I understood them. They are so nice, very polite as well. For an example, we talked to this guy who was a minister or something for a church and was comfortable with his church. In the USA I would expect someone like that to just walk away or even maybe say a rude comment or two but here he said I respect you so I want to listen to what is it that you believe. They are so sincere. It really is amazing. The traffic/streets here are insane. They are tiny and all of the cars absolutely fly every where and there are a million and a half huge buses all over the place, not to mention all of the motorcycles who all ride in the middle of the road flying past traffic, haha. It's crazy. Sorry I can't upload any pictures, the computers here aren't capable of sending them for some reason. Next email hopefully I can. I'm super excited to get in the field and get a braziliero comp. It's hard to describe how nice they are, haha, they are instantly your best friend. And they love seeing you trying to speak the language. It's been a long week but at the same time it has flown by. Skyping is going to be really quick only 15 minutes because there are so many missionaries here but I'm excited to talk to you guys again. love ya I'm doing great.

Elder Mountain

Email letter that we received on May 18, 2014, once he arrived in Rio! A sure trial of our patience! He arrived in Rio on Tuesday (13th) and the email came on Sunday......but he's there!!! :)