Happy Thanksgiving!

Feliz acao de gracas! (Happy Thanksgiving!)

We got a little free time today after our Devotional and Thanksgiving Lunch. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, CRANBERRIES, STUFFING (w/o the nasty stuff in it), Pumpkin and Apple Pie. Probably the best meal I've had here.

Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke to us this morning with the surprising topic of "Being Thankful" and "Becoming a Better Missionary".

So here are some things I'm thankful for:

Mom's Cooking.

Dad's Employment and Hard Work.

Emily's Care Packages.

Rachel's Determination for School and the Gospel.

Adam's passion for annoying Mom. (Keep it up!).

G'ma Belle and Papa Tom's decision to let the Missionaries in.

G'ma & G'pa Foster's love for us grandkids.

Tchau!

Elder Bean and Irmao Chamberlain

Didn't your mothers teach you to clean your room!!

Elder Bean and Irmao Orr (Jorge)

Week 2 in the MTC

Week 2 feels a lot longer than week 1.  All the days are long and they all sort of blend together, but we're learning lots and the language is coming along fine.  We're able to understand our teachers pretty well but then we try to watch a Mormon Messages Video in Portuguese and only catch about 5-10%.  The natives talk A LOT faster.

We have two new FAKE investigators, Roial and Paulo. Paulo smokes pot and Roial usually falls asleep during our lessons.  During our lesson with Roial, he offered us "invisible" food and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out it was a Strawberry Cupcake.  If they talk about church stuff I can understand it but anything else, I'm clueless. They're definitely trying to prepare us for the real mission field.

We had a surge of Visa's come through in our zone.  I think we had 7 in total but they were all from the Atlanta and Washington, DC consulates.  Houston needs to pick up the pace.

Rumor is we're getting another Apostle to speak for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully we get a nice Thanksgiving meal too!

The "Badge"!

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.

Elder Bean's District in the MTC

Left to Right:  Elders Parkhurst, Durham, Ballard, Bean, Waters, Phair, Larken and McEwan

Entering the Provo MTC

On the big day, Adam decided to drive Elder Bean to Provo where they met up with Emily to enjoy a few more hours with Elder Bean before dropping him off at the curb in front of the MTC.  With the help of technology, Mom & Dad in Oklahoma and Rachel in Idaho were able to Facetime for a couple of minutes and say our good-byes.  With a double "thumbs up" Elder Bean began is service as a missionary for the Lord.