Excerpts From Week 1 Email "Sleep, Eat, Study. Repeat"

Oi minha familia! Tudo Bem?

As expected I've been very busy.  P-Day is Friday.  I'm pretty much in class all day. Sleep, eat, study.  Repeat. With our workload of planning lessons and studying it's taking some getting used to when you HAVE to be in bed by 10:30 even when you haven't finished.  The Portuguese is coming along well.  Our Teachers only speak Portuguese to us so it's pretty much full immersion which is really cool.  Day 1 I understood about 10% but now I can understand about 80%...if they talk slowly.  My companion and I have taught 4 lessons ALL in Portuguese to an investigator named Jorge.  We all pray, sing, testify, recite Our Purpose, write 3-5 minute talks...all in Portuguese. 

My companion, Elder Durham, is from Springfield, Illinois...19 years old.  He's got a great testimony and he keeps telling me he's so lucky I'm his companion....


There are 8 people in our classroom.  Elders Phair, Waters, Larken, McEwan, Ballard, Parkhurst, and Durham.  Everyone is pretty young, anywhere from straight out of HS to 1 year of college.  So, I've been called the "Old Mature Sophisticated Elder" and I've been compared to Captain America and Henry B. Eyring (with more hair!).  No one knew Portuguese before they got here.  Elder Larkin is fluent in Spanish and he says it's really frustrating because he confuses the two.

I have two teachers, Irmao Chamerberlain and Irmao Orr.   Irmao Orr just started teaching us yesterday.  He got off his mission 4 months ago.

On Sunday we watched a video by Elder Bednar "The Character of Christ". HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!   L. Tom Perry came to speak to us on Tuesday. Apostles only come about four times a year. He focused on companionship relationships and preaching the Gospel two by two.

I don't know how to type the accents so this probably won't translate well:   Eu sei que a igreja e verdederio e meu porposito e para servir nosso Pai Celestial. Eu sei que Pai Celestial e amoroso e Sau igreja e restaurado. Atraves Cristo nos sentimos esperanca e Sua amor. O evangelho e muito importante por nossos vivos e salvacao. Eu amor voce.  Please pray for the Philippines and Missionary Work.