Week 6

Thanks for the blog. That´s cool.I can view it from here. I can also get on to LDS.org if I need to. Usually I spend the entire hour, though,  trying to type up an email after writing the Mission President and reading all of my emails. 

I had a bunch of new photos to send, but I think there´s something wrong with my memory card because it´s not working on this computer. When I open up the card on the computer, the file that my pictures are in is a ``shortcut´´ folder and cannot be found or something. It´s in Português and I haven´t learned the computer language yet. If you have any ideas let me know.

 Anyway, this week I procured a magazine full of recipes from a member, as well as got my favorite desert recipe from another member after lunch. I know this one by heart at the moment, so I´ll send it real quick:

Dolce de leite (or milk candy/desert)

1 can of condensed milk
the same can filled with normal milk
4 eggs

Blend everything together. Get one of those cool donut shaped cake pans and somehow carmalize suger in it. (I haven´t figured it out yet, maybe you know) Pour the mixture in the pan, then put that pan in another pan of water. Cook for 30-45 minutes at... 200 C (you can figure that out too). After it´s cooked, carefully flip it upside down on a plate and refrigerate for another hour.

I haven´t mastered this yet, but it´s so good. Good luck.

 A lot of the days here the last few weeks have been quite unsuccesful. We do a lot of walking from appointment to appointment, but not many people know we´re coming since we can´t really schedule appointments in such a busy city. We just hope that the people we decided to try and teach were inspired and that something good will come from it. We have had several times where we happen to run into someone new who is willing to listen to us while we´re out trying to contact someone that isn´t home. This last Sunday, we tried to get our investigators to come to church. We invited about 5, but none wanted to come. It IS so difficult to get them to come to church. But when we got there, about 5 other investigators/inactives were there. That was definitely a blessing for us. 

 Something I´ve really realized here with so many less or inactive members is that I´m not here to baptize. The Missionary Purpose says this ´´Convidar as pessoas achegarem-se a Christo.`` This basically says ´´Invite the people to come unto Christ.`` It´s not just non-members. It´s everyone. We´ve made it our goal to visit the less actives and inactives a lot and try to refortify the ward. 

 The other day we taught a family from Peru that only spoke Spanish. It was pretty difficult because I understood much of what they said, but they don´t understand Português very well. We watched The Restoration in Spanish with them, and they agreed to come to church this week since their daughter is a member. 

The personal space in Brasil seems to be a little smaller than in the US. My companion is constantly walking really close to me and I naturally scoot over to give him and me some space between, and he pushes me into the road a lot.

 We ran into a somewhat drunk guy the other night who asked me if I was American and when I said yes, he got up in my face and told me he doesn´t like Americans. I think after about 8:00 pm and before 6:30 am, I´m a Canadian. 

 Apparently the mail service of Brasil is on some kind of strike right now, so my mail will be coming and going slower than normal. It sounds like it could be about a month for a normal letter instead of 20 days. I´ve got my response to your letter, Stephanie, just about done and I´ll send it tomorrow. 

The I´m a Morman campaign is pretty cool. We learned a little about using at the MTC because it does a good job of showing people we´re normal. You´ll have to keep me updated on that. If they do film the family, make sure to include a little shot of mom holding a picture of me saying I´m on a mission. 

I forgot to tell Dallin Happy Birthday last week. I knew it was this week, but forgot that I´d have to wait until after he was 18 before I could write again. 18 is strange, but I think 20 was wierder. 

Anyway, I hope this week goes well. I´ll look forward to reading your emails next week.

Elder Candland

Week 5 in Brazil

Anyway, I guess it´s adulthood, but I think I´ve got a small glimpse of parenthood bacause of today. I spent all day cleaning, shopping for groceries, and doing laundry. I also cleaned up my companions stuff, did his dishes, made his bed, and cleaned tha bathroom I don´t think he and his previous companion ever cleaned. While I was doing this he came and asked if I was done makin lunch. I wanted to say ´´Are you serious?`` but I´m a missionary. Anyway, tell me that´s not something I did as a kid. Also, I have no idea when I decided I can´t live with a messy house. I must have hung out with Jordan too much.

 Not too much progress with our investigators this week, but we have about 5 more. We also have about 3 baptismal dates, but we´ve have about 4 in the time I´ve been in this area, so I hope they can pull through this time. We´ve had a bunch of opportunities this week to serve our investigators finally. I look and ask each week, but this week we finally saw a few opportunities and took them. One lady was all upset that her house was a mess and her kids were playing video games. We cleaned her house as best as we could for her and I´ve never seen it better. That gained her trust I think because right after she told us about how the guy that lives with them is an alcoholic and it´s really tough for her. She´d never opened up like that before.

 My Português is getting better. I can carry on a conversation with people now without needing my companion to translate. Most people. Although it´s better, I have the attention span of about 3 minutes. We had our first mission conference, and Elder Godoy of the 70 spoke. Our President, his wife, and Sister Godoy also spoke. It lasted about 3 hours, and after the first 45 minutes, I couldn´t pay attention. It was SO difficult. I wanted to hear what a 70 had to say to us, but I caught so little of it. It was very disappointing for me.

One day while I was studying on how members and missionaries work together, I felt impressed that we really need to work on gaining the trust of the members more. The elders before my companion and I were less liked apparently. Anyway, that night, we were walking to see if an investigator was home, but we noticed the church was open. It was the relief society and they were teaching how to cook a noodle casserole. They had samples. An entire pan for a family of 8 kind of samples. Anyway, I got the recipe and I´ll send a copy home with translations some time. It´s way good. Anyway, we got some good time in with the mom´s of the ward (which I think is a vital part of the ward), so that was good, and I think it was very much inspiration for us to walk passed the church at that time. Also, we joked that Elders are just naturally drawn to food.

I had another transfer with Elder Paxman. We had a good lesson with on of his investigators, and this guy plays guitar, so we got a long. He´s a little crazy though, because halfway through the lesson, he told us some crazy dream about maggots turning into people and asked us if we could interperate it. We did our best to explain that we didn´t have any interperatation for him, and if God had given him a dream to tell him something, he should pray. Other than that, the lesson was awesome. We also made some chicken and rice that night, and Elder Paxman had som Panda Express orange sauce his dad sent him in the mail. That was such a good meal for us. I haven´t enjoyed a home cooked meal here more than that.

 Today I cooked everyone sloppy joes and made oreo truffles the night before. I´m going to be quite a chef after my mission. Elder Paxman has also taken it upon himself to tell anyone in the mission he knows that my pancakes are the best he´s ever had, and now they´ve become a legend.

I have Elders I don´t know asking me to cook for them. If you have any more recipes that use the least amount of ingredients possible, I could really use some, but a lot of things here that are normal or cheap in the US are not so here.

On Friday, everything seemed to work out perfectly. I forgot my planner, which never happens, my companion forgot the address of our reference, and the other elders phone was dead, and as we were standing on the street for about 10 minutes, we had two ladies approach us, ask us when and where church is, and practically invite us over to teach them. A few other things like this happened too.

Good job with the missionary work with Mo. Too bad she had to leave. Hopefully the BoM helps her out. You guys should read the section of PMG that talks about how Missionaries and members work together. It was very useful for me, especially for after my mission when I´m normal agian.

Also, the address I gave you is the mission addresss. I´ll never have a home address here in Brasil. Because of this, I get your letters a lot slower since I need to wait for the ZL´s to grab my mail from the office for me. I´ll write back asap when I get it. Write back to the letter you just got asap and we can have 2 going.

With your family, you can always remember the power of the book of mormon. It´s the proof we have that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ is true. If anyone doubts it, all they need to do is read, ponder, and pray. Simple as that. Only you´ll know what they need though. Good luck.

Anwyay, good to hear from you. I look forward to it every week. Have a good and busy week as well.

Elder Candland

Week 4 in Brazil

This week was pretty awesome I have to say. Not just missionary stuff either.

 First off, we went to the church building and played futebol (again), except I didn´t play. I sat and attempted to learn ``Come, Come Ye Saints´´ on the piano while Elder Paxman wrote letters. He´s determined to send mail every week. That sounds expensive to me. And writing letters is REALLY hard for some reason. After that we cooked some food in our house and now we´re headed out to teach.

As for our investigators, we had 6 investigators at church this week. We brought 4 with us, and 2 others came either with a friend or on their own. It was fast and testimony meeting, and since we had investigators there, I felt like I really needed to bear mine. It was short and I know I made a bunch of grammatical mistakes, but I think they understood. The lady we brought, brought her three sons with her, and one (even though it was his first time in the LDS church ever) decided to bear his testimony, and I´m pretty sure I heard him say he feels like our church is true. That was really cool.

 Okay, so one day, during a split with an Elder that doesn´t speak English, this hobo with nasty tribal tattoos and stuff came up to us and started talking specifically to me. He didn´t realize I don´t speak very well, because he started to get frustrated and said the same thing over and over and over. I realize now he was saying ``You´re an American, I live on the street, give me some change for coffee.´´ We walked off, and tried to give him the slip, but about 3 minutes later I felt someone hit my backpack. I turned around and saw him again, but he was more angry this time. Then he started to try and cut us off by walking ahead and stopping. We just kept weaving around him. Then my companion said ´´Oh, I think we need something from this store,´´ adn walked in. I followed, but before I got in, the guy grabbed my arm. I pulled it back away, and went inside. Then he started yelling the same thing again and again. I still didn´t understand, so my companion at the time gave him some change and told him to leave. I feel like it could have gone better. I´ve been looking for him whenever we pass by that area.

 There was one night we were walking to an appointment, and we walked passed this 15-year-old girls. They seemed particularly excited about something, so I smiled and gave a little wave to humor them. After they passed my companion said ``They´re you´re snakes´´ or in other words, the girls that like missionaries because they´re cute. I asked what he meant and he said that one was saying ``He´s so cute, just like the guy from High School Musical.´´ I´ll just take it as a compliment even though I don´t like those movies.

 Oh, by the way, I´m giving a talk on Sunday. I guess the bishop here thinks I´m ready. In the MTC we had to prepare a talk every Sunday even if we weren´t speaking. Which remindsme that my branch presidency wanted me to give you their email for you to forward it to them... I left the address in my room in my old planner. Next week.

 So, there are a bunch of people who resell things on the sidewalks at night. It´s illegal. One night I saw a cop car drive by, and every packed up and acted casual, but as soon as he was gone, everything was back out on the sidewalk for sale. I thought it was kinda funny, but sad.

That same day the hobo grabbed my arm, we never once rode the bus, so I got home completely exhausted. We had to have walked like 8 miles, I swear. Anyway, when we got back, I had clean laundry to take care of, dishes to do, and some other cleaning. I think I´m getting an idea of what being a parent is going to be like.

The food here is still good. I still like the rice and beans. I keep wanting to ask someone for recipes, but I haven´t remembered. I still have 2 years. I think it would be sweet to come home and cook real Brasilian food for everyone.

There´s this bird here that sounds like a kitten stuck in a tree. Thought I´d share that.

The other night, we went to visit an investigator (duh, that´s what missionaries do), but her mom was completely drunk and she came up to me and gave me a huge hug and gave me a 7-second kiss on the cheek. It was real awkward. Afterward she apologized and I said it´s fine just don´t do it again basically, then she apologized like 5 more times. I always home she´s not drunk when we visit now.

I get lots of compliments on my Português from the other Elders. It´s not good enough for me, but keep up the prayers. It´s apparent someone´s saying some for me. 

Also, we just heard from our neighboring Elders that there´s a Sister Robinson in the CTM here from our stake in Washington. She apparently knows Elder Paxman and I, but we have no idea who that could be. Any ideas.

And to finish it off, here´s a dream I had for Kortney to read about:

So, I had just traveled the world collecting the two haves to the beatle from Aladdin. I was in the desert and I put the pieces together just like Jafar. The cave appeared and I entered, but since it was modern time, the cave was full of modern riches and was a nice big hallway and stuff. I suddenly remembered Abu, the monkey, and quickly turned around and told him not to touch anything until the end. I didn´t see him after that. I also had no idea what was at the end. As I got to the end I came across a huge door. Suddenly I had a flash back to a picture from my explorer grandpa´s journal, kind of like Atlantis or Indiana Jones, and realized I had to face my worste fear on the other side of the door. As I opened the door, I suddenly entered my worste fear: apparently it´s surfing at night, while trying to shoot terrorists who are also surfing. Also there are sharks. At one point I fell of my board and started to drown, but was suddenly standing in a suvenier shop. This was the big surprise at the end of the Cave of Wonders. So, naturally, I bought some candy and went to McDonalds with Stephanie, except she was a Sister Missionary, and I realized this halfway through my ice cream cone and we were alone, and that´s against missionary rules, so I had to leave. I felt really bad because it was Stephanie, but she understood. The End.

Oh, also, I have lots of dreams about being home, but I´m still a missionary and have to follow rules and I need to get back and finish my mission. They´re awful. A lot of missionaries here seem to have them. Did you have any like this when you were on a mission dad?

Anyway, that´s my week. The dream was last night. Enjoy your first day of school... or whatever.

Elder Candland

 

Week 3 in Brazil

So, I definitely had more pictures to send, but I don´t have my camera with me now. All of the senior companions organized this trip to a members house where he cooked us a real nice Brasilian BBQ. It was so good, but they didn´t tell me we´d stay there all day, and come back to write email AFTER our Pday ended. I´m a little frustrated now. I´ve noticed a lot of Elders not following the rules as near to 100% as I think they could be; my companion included. I´ve been doing my best to follow the rules as best as I can because I know I need as many  blessings as I can get. Especially with our investigators. Last night I was a little upset and read the scriptures a little extra before going to bed. It helped me feel a lot better, then I prayed and asked what I could do to help my companion. I got a clear answer that he´s not disobedient because he wants to be bad, but because he doesn´t understand the importance of it, and that I just need to love him and set the example.

 This week was decent I suppose. We haven´t seen much progress in our investigators though. There´s one in particular that I feel like I can help once I can speak Português better. This week I straight up told her and her friend during a lesson that anyone who has any doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ is not true, they´re only arguement is with the Book of Mormon because if it´s true, all else is true, and that she can recieve an answer for herself. She didn´t say much after that, but before she had been quite argumentative. My Português is definitely progressing. It´s not enough to satisfy me, but I can tell it´s better. A lot of Elders tell my my sotaque (accent) is not very thick at all. The other day we taught a family about the Book of Mormon after teaching a quick 2nd lesson, and I did quite well at contributing. I rehearsed the 1st Vision for them in Português quite well and they definitely felt the Spirit. That was exciting.

I also ran into a guy in our ward here that served with my teachers in the MTC. We took a quick picture on his iPhone and he sent it to them via facebook. He was telling us that one teacher in particular speaks perfect Português. I think that may be part of why I needed to be in the Provo MTC. He was very helpful with teaching us the language correctly, getting us excited to learn because he was hilarious, and was always checking up on us individually to make sure things were okay.

 I had a hard time in church yesterday. We were there late because all of the investigators we were going to take with us bailed out on us. I was exhausted and it´s hard to stay awake when you can´t understand the lessons very well. My attention span feels like that of a 5-year-old right now. The second hour my companion and I were interviewed by some friend of a member the whole hour and I missed out on Gospel Principles. Then Sacrament meeting felt so irreverent to me. Lot´s of people talk during the meeting. It´s not just little kids. And I think worste of all, we were singing a hymn, I can´t remember which, but each line ended with a dotted eighth note, sixteenth not, and a quarter note, but they sang it as a triplet. It´s so obviously not a triplet. How does no one see that??? Oh ya, and my companion is tone deaf. Worse than Jordan by far.

This week too I was able to go out on splits twice with Elder Paxman. Totally coincidence(?) that it happened so soon and two days in a row. We didn´t get to teach much since we were two Americanos all alone in a monstrous city with little Português abilities. We did however contact a gay guy in the park. That was not too cool. He wasn´t interested in our message, but still talked with us for about an hour and a half. We couldn´t get him to just listen to our message. He kept inviting us over for dinner at his mom´s house, but he wanted us to be in normal clothes. We explained like 5 times we can´t.

I went to the police station to get all registered and stuff with my visa and ran into my Zone Leader from the MTC. He was about to leave the CTM in São Paulo. It was really cool to talk with him. Turns out he lived in Corvallis and attended Stephanie´s ward a few times. His name is Elder Manning. Good thing he returns after me. He´s tall and very athletic. ;)

Thanks for the cake recipe. It´s good to hear from everyone too. My address is this:

Rua Drive Rui Batista Pereira, 165

Jardim Caxingui
São Paulo-SP 05517-080
Brasil

Tell Uncle Ben thanks for the letter and have a good week.

Elder Candland

Week 2 in Brazil

Holy cow lot´s of questions. First off, I go to a LANhouse just down the street [to email on PDay]. It´s like a ghetto version of LANworks. We pay R$2 for an hour of internet use. That´s just barely over a dollar.

My apartment is two stories. The first story is a small kitchen with pots and pans thrown in a box under the sink. Then the bathroom is tiny. I hate the fact that our toilet doesn´t have a seat. I´m always wiping off the rim before sitting down. The shower isn´t so bad. Then we have the main room with 2 desks where we study and eat. Up the narrow staircase is our bedroom. Two beds with thin mattresses, and two dressers. Mine broke the second night while we were sleeping. I guess my clothes were too heavy or something. I have to hang them between our dressers now with the bar propped up on top of them. It´t not so bad, but the part that makes me a little scared is we actually live in a nicer area near the center of the city. I´m not too excited to leave for that reason.

My companion´s nice. He´s only been out for about 6 months though, so he´s new too. We don´t really know our way around the city very well yet. He does a good job of answering my Português questions, but he´s got a thick accent. It´s kind of like a British accent of Português. He doesn´t pronounce his R´s; they´re more like H´s. That´s probably good for me though.

We don´t get too many new investigators. We´re gonna go try and do some tracting tonight after everyone is home from work. Hopefully we´ll find some new people tonight. We need them. It´s really cold here today though. Finally some winter weather. I´ve got my sweater on under my jacket. It´s about 8 degrees Celsius.

Not many crazy stories yet. We´ve seen some shady people waiting for the bus. Thank goodness our bus seems to come pretty quickly after they arrive. There are lots of gay people in our area too. My favorite was the short bald guy with lots of earings wearings jean suspenders that walked and talked a little like Reniff. I also watched a hobo throw up the other day. That´s about it though. OH! I just remembered a drunk and/or high lady came up to us one night rather angry and told us that the other men here are scared of her because she can read minds. I wanted to ask her what I was thinking, then tell her I was thinking of a scripture about how only God knows the thoughts of our minds. Then I remembered I am a missionary.

The language is getting better. I still have a long way to go before I can be of much help to my investigators though. It really stinks sitting there feeling so helpless. I get a basic idea of their stories, but can barely manange to say what I´m thinking. It´s gotten significantly better since arriving here though.

The favela(s) are pretty nasty, but I have yet to see much crime. Most people don´t give us much notice, but we obviously don´t fit in there. We don´t teach TOO many people in the favelas since their far from the church building and they don´t have cars or much money for the bus, so it´s tough to get them there on Sunday. They don´t seem to keep our commitments very well either. I think a lot of them are pretty unmotivated like you said (Dad). There are lots of kids playing there too, which is even more sad.

Our apartment is actually outside our proseliting area. We have to take the bus to and from every day. It´s up on a hill in a part of the city called `Casa Verde.´ It´s not too bad of a part of town, but down in `Barra Funda´ is a little more where favelas and homeless people are. Speaking of favelas again, there are a bunch of them just scattered across the city of São Paulo. Each area has their own, depending on where the area is.

I still play my harmonica quite a bit. The kids in the ward we have lunch with or meet for references like it. My companion has a guitar, so he or the elders next door play the guitar while I play the harmonica. All I know is hymns though. That´s fine I think. My companion also has a recorder, so I took some note cards and used the lines as a staff and wrote down Come Thou Fount for him to play on the recorder. I play the guitar with him while he does this. It´s pretty cool actually.

Something about the Brasilians here is they really like TV. It´s a rare occasion that the family doesn´t have the TV just sitting there with some random show on. Lot´s of terrible soap operas or really dumb kids shows. There was one in particular that looked like it was filmed in the 70´s. It was about this ´´comical´´ super hero. It was very slapstick. One part I saw was of him with this magical wig that gave him super strenght. It was terrible.

The food is pretty good still. EVERY lunch is rice, beans, a meat, salad, then desert. The meal is always good, but the desert is always a little different. Sometimes their really good, and sometimes their a little strange for me. They ALWAYS have Guarana with lunch too. It´s a rare occasion when there is juice or water offered. I´d like to keep my teeth so I try not to drink too much soda.

Anyway, it´s time to head out now. I´ll be writing most of my stories and stuff in emails since they go so much faster and cheaper and simpler. I wrote today, but who knows how long it will be before you guys get them.

I´ll write again next week. Keep working with Lars and the bike too.

Elder Candland

Brasil finalmente

Holy cow I don´t know where to start. Probably the beginning I suppose. Also this keyboard is in Português. Irritante.

Anyway, I´ll start from the plane TO São Paulo. I was the only Elder on the flight. I had no idea what was going on half the time. With some praying and a few things I learned in the MTC, I was able to make it through customs and stuff smoothly. A little Asian lady picked me up and we drove for about 45 minutes through the city to the Mission Office. Thank goodness she spoke some Engish to help me understand everything. At the Mission office I was greeted by a bunch of the other Elders. Some of which spoke English; awesome. From there, I met the other new Elders. All were from the CTM in São Paulo; 2 were American. We all went from there to the Mission Presidnet´s home. It´s insane. You have to take an elevator to get to their floor. They have an entire floor. The food was excellent. I can eat these kind of rice and beans any day... which I do. It´s not too wierd at all. I like it. A lot actually. Always rice, beans, a meat, a salad, and then desert. Only for lunch though. Dinner is nothing. Sometimes literally nothing. Anyway, after dinner we all came back and hooked up with another companionship (our mom´s as they called them) and went out to do some missionary work. I was exhausted, and one asked if I wanted to stay back and sleep because of my time difference. I couldn´t start my mission like that, so I went out with Elder da Silva and Elder Treichart. We went straight to the Favella. It´s worse in real life than in Call Of Duty. They can´t add all the little details that make it look so bad. We met a family that had just been baptized and the daughter had fallen down and scratched her face really bad, so they offered to give her a blessing. Then they offered to have me annoint. I didn´t know the words in Português, but that wasn´t the hardest part. Her name was the hardest part. I can´t even recall what it was. After that, we visited a lady and her mom. We... they taught about something, I think it was the power of the Book of Mormon and the importance of a Prophet. I couldn´t understand a thing. Then they asked me to bear my testimony. Afterward, they committed the lady to baptism. Then we visited a member family. That was nice to be in a home with the Spirite present. We came back and had pizza. It´s not really pizza. They just think it is. It has white sauce instead, and too much ham that tastes like it was from the Family Grocer Deli. We slept at the mission home that night.

The next morning was transfers. I met my ``dad´´ or companion, and ran into Elder Paxman. That was really nice to see a familiar, English-speaking face. My companion is Elder Santiago. He´s just another 20-year-old guy like me, but from Brasil. His English is lacking, so we speak back and forth; him in English, and me in Português. It´s good for the both of us.

Anyway, I had to pack everything I thought I might need in on suitcase, and leave the other 2 at the office, because we take a bus to our apartments. We rode for 30 minutes, and when we arrived, I´ll be honest, I was disappointed. It´s tiny, dirty, and smells bad. I´ve got pictures.

The usual day is wake up, eat, shower, study, study, study, go get a lunch with our neighboring Elders or at a member´s home, then hit our... I don´t know the word in English... in Português it´s compromisos. That goes from about 12 pm to 8:30 pm. We walk A LOT through the city, so we usually get to meet about 6 of our investigators, if they´re home. We just show up because not everyone has a phone to call and set up an appointment... ! appointment. That´s the word.

This city is huge. I haven´t seen a horizon NOT made of buildings since I arrived. We live on a hill, so I should be able to see out. Apparently this city triples or almost even quadruples the population of the state of Washington. It really doesn´t end. It´s a nasty place too. Many of the streets smell like urine or worse. None of the buildings or streets seem to be taken care of. There are homeless people all over. I don´t know if mom knew how it really is here if she would have been more or less willing to let me come. Each building has a fence with spikes, barbed wire, razor wire, or shards of glass on top. Even the Church building. I constantly feel like I´m not in a safe part of town. I just trust in the Lord and His work. It´s good though. I like to be about the Lord´s work. I´m definitely glad to be here, it´s just VERY different from what I´m used to. I love seeing the member families out here in terrible conditions and seeing them still be strong. It really is incredible to see how the church is in a different place like this. It´s not different when it comes to the church. Sacrament meeting and everything else is the same, just in Português. The Bishop had me stand, and told all of the Ward to have patience with me. He´s a pretty funny guy. He speaks some English too. He alos pronounced my name Elder Candyland. Straight up. Now the ward thinks I´m Elder Candyland, and for those that speak Enlish, they think my name literally translates to ``Terra de Dolces´´ or Candy Land.

There´s this one member family with a daughter about Kortney´s age. Her name is Gabriella. She´s hilarious. It´s funny to see kids speaking another language. Especially since I speak at their level. Because of this we get along. She likes to tell me I´m Bonito.

Also, my mailing address is just the mission house address. I won´t ever get mail straight to my appartment. And I´ll only be able to pick it up about every transfer. I won´t be able to send letters this week. Next week. This week was crazy. We ran around the city center with a group of other Elders in our District. I got to talk with Elder Paxman a lot. He gave me some good tips, like to try the dessert pizza. That stuff is pretty dang good. It´s like a thin crust with marshmallow carmalized on tope; or chocolate. Best dessert here so far. Most others are just too fruity or soggy.

Anyway, I´ll try and add pictures now. Have a good week. I´ll email again next Monday.