Happy New Year... on the move to Londrina, Tuesday.

So me and my district leave Tuesday morning at about 8 in the morning. Pretty cool and intimidating at the same time.

Before I forget, most likely you won’t be receiving an e-mail from me next week. P-days are on Mondays in the field (so I’ve heard), which means that we miss our P-day at the MTC by a day, and P-day in the field by one day as well (gag!). We get to write letters and mail them that week, and it is still rumored that we maybe…maybe…maybe…might get a phone call home, but I’m kinda disinclined to believe that. Just wanted to let you guys know so that if you don’t receive an e-mail from me you don’t get concerned. That probably should apply in any case. No mail doesn’t mean I’m dead…just that it got a little busy.

So, Dad saw stuff on TV about Rio's celebration on New Year’s, eh? So here’s how ours went. The past week has been absolutely BRUTAL in the temperature department. Most of the MTC has AC, but our rooms don’t. One of our Brazilian roommates has a thermometer and it has been reading a steady 92F. at night. It’s actually cooler outside, our room just has bad ventilation. So all of us just lie there on our beds at night, trying to fall asleep. At about 12am, I’m just starting to fall asleep when I guess the festivities started. Now I’ve seen fireworks and celebrations, but I’ve never seen a whole city celebrate. The noise was incredibly loud, it was impossible to sleep, so we all gathered at the window to watch for a bit. I seriously doubt that anyone in the whole MTC could sleep thru that. It was pretty intense. It seriously looked like the whole city was shooting off fireworks. A bunch were exploding right above our building, and I was actually concerned that one would detonate right outside our window. It was probably the best firework show that I’ve seen.

Oh, small side note. There is an Elder here named Elder Naidu who said that he ate dinner at Auntie Luella´s house with his parents. I think his parents are from Fiji or something. We were practicing with his district when he asked me if I had an aunt in NZ, he said he figured that Heperi wasn’t too common of a name. Funny coincidence.

So we are flying for sure. I guess it’s just an hour flight to the mission home, but depending on where my area is, it might require additional travel. One of our districts teachers, Brother Silva, served in Londrina, so he knows the deal. He said that if our area is the city of Londrina itself, it’s just a taxi ride away to our apt. But if we serve in Capo Grande, it’s a 12 hr. bus ride. Needless to say, I’m hoping for an area that doesn’t require extensive travel. I have no idea about domestic luggage costs, although I expect the bags to not be too much heavier. The only things that I’ve picked up besides my Portuguese stuff are just ties and things like that. Maybe you could just stick some extra money on the Visa card just in case?

We had a very good last Temple session... we went to the Campinas Temple today, which is my favorite out of the two we’ve been too… the other being São Paulo. It’s newer, and has very pretty grounds. I’ll miss not going to the Temple for a while, but hopefully I’ll be able to baptize people that can go instead. My district are good guys, and I’ll also miss the close friendships that we have.

Well, my time is up. Maybe you guys won’t here me for two weeks, but hopefully sooner. I hope you’re all doing well, and I’ll talk to you guys soon. Well, till next week, bye. See you cats next from Londrina or wherever I’m going!

Elder =w= Heperi