Yep, I'm in Bauru

Before it slips my mind, I would like to thank Lynette for helping me with my BYU experience. I am very grateful that I will be able to still continue my experience at BYU. Thank you very much, Lynette!

Also, thanks to Bro. Magleby for allowing me to take his class. I kinda feel like I didn’t really deserve that B, but I am very grateful nonetheless. Thank you again, and I hope that Andy and Rob are well on their missions. (Berkeley too, but she’s home now, so blah.)

You were correct, Mom in your assumption [Emphasis added]. I'm in the city of Bauru. Actually, I can’t pronounce it correctly, my comp. keeps correcting my pronunciation. And yes, my luggage was overweight at the airport. I forgot that the books that we received at the CTM in the bags, and that tipped the scales I think.

I’m glad that my Visa card works here, though. Some of the Elders in my district have cards that don't work down here for some reason. Although, Elder M. (Orem, Utah) got off easy, his bags were a little overweight as well, but the lady at the desk must of been a member because she waved the charge because, "Missionaries shouldn’t have to pay". Lucky!

Did you get the pic’s that I sent from the last e-mail a few weeks ago, the ones about Christmas in the CTM? I hope so, cuz I don’t trust this site, it does weird things sometimes. Sorry, no pic’s this week, I forgot my camera in our house. Next week though.

Anyway, it was sad to say goodbye to my district. We all flew over on the same plane, and we arrived at the mission home in Londrina. Oh man, the home of President Leal (Leh-al)is waaaay nice. It’s in a building, hotel or really-nice apartment style. It overlooks the city, and Londrina is beautiful. Nicer than São Paulo, I think. São Paulo has kind of that New York City look to it, but Londrina, while still a decent sized city, feels more like Provo or something, more trees, less buildings.

We ate a really nice lunch at the mission home, probably the best meal I’ve eaten while I’ve been here in Brazil, and I got to play the piano for an opening hymn. After dinner and stuff, they sat us down and other missionaries came in. These were our new potential companions. Pres. Leal had a bowl full of papers, and had an Elder come up and draw names from it. At first I was like, it’s just completely random, where’s the inspiration? Ha, but then I found out that he had written our name and the names of our companions on it, and this was just a way to make it exciting. So Elder H. (Panguitch, Utah) officially is no longer my companion. I’ll miss him, he was a good guy. I began to find that we had some things in common with each other, more so than I thought at first. When they drew my name, of course they couldn’t pronounce it. (Remember what I said about Brazilian’s being able to pronounce Heperi better than Americans? Well, that’s becoming less true. Ah, Heperi, the one name no one can say!)

My new companions name is Elder Moraes. Don’t worry, I can’t pronounce it yet very well, it sounds like More-Ice, but you need to put some spin on it. Anyway, He’s Brazilian, and speaks a little English. Not very much, and his grammar isn’t very good, but I appreciate the effort. Of course, English isn’t the point now, so I try to only allow him to speak English when I can’t understand, and something is really important. Unfortunately, I don’t really understand very much as it is, but I do try.

Bauru is...uhhm, I dunno yet. It’s good here, and good to be on a mission and out in the field, but, I’m still getting used to actually being out in the field. The CTM, when compared to actually being out in the field, is vastly different. While the CTM was no vacation, it wasn’t as difficult as out here. Over the past few days, I’ve felt everything from discouragement and exhaustion, to vast confidence and motivation. Heh, I know that I had been told it before, but I think that it takes actually being on a mission to realize that a mission is HARD WORK. And I’m only in my first week in the field!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in a constant state of discouragement, just at times when it seems that I have no idea what is going on because I can’t understand my companion all of the time, much less the investigators. But I also have felt the Spirit and been encouraged when I realize that I understand something someone said, am able to respond, and can carry on a little conversation. My Portuguese is not very good yet, but I know that it will improve.

Church was funny. The bishop had me and Elder M. bear our testimonies. Mine was a minute long, if that, but the bishop thanked me for the effort. I could understand a little about what was going on during the lesson. During class, the lesson was on the Plan of Salvation. I’m pretty sure the teacher was confused though, because in his diagram of the Plan of Salvation, he only used the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial circles. From what I could understand, he was teaching the people that we came from the Celestial Kingdom, and are now living in the Terrestrial kingdom, and if we aren’t good, we will all go to Hell, which he indicated is the Telestial kingdom. Ha ha, it was pretty funny. I’m glad that there were no investigators in that particular meeting, otherwise there would have been a mess. I could tell that my comp wanted to correct him.

So, I haven’t had a decent conversation in English since, well, I left the mission home from my district. Actually, that’s not true. Yesterday in church, I sat next to a Brother who served a mission in Salt Lake. He was fluent, which I was very grateful for. I was a little on edge that day because of my frustration at not being able to express myself the way that I wanted to, and I had been hoping and praying for something to help. I believe that he was an answer, because he was able to offer encouragement and answer my questions. He said that I would be able to be do better soon, because right now I was in a phase where I am still thinking in English and having to translate what I want to say in Portuguese from English. I was very grateful for him, even though we only talked for about 10 min. I know that my mission is Portuguese, and I continue to learn the language, but it was very helpful to have a small dose of English from someone.

Our house is behind a gate that also houses another family, apparently the 1st counseler in the stake presidency. He´s very cool, and is a conductor in an orchestra. His kids are very funny, though they (and pretty much all Brazilian children) are inclined to laugh at my accent when I speak Portuguese. I’ve been called Gringo quite a few times, and Verdinho, which means "Little Green" as well. Brazilian’s tell me repeatedly that I don’t seem like an American until I open my mouth, then it becomes apparent.

I’d be grateful for pictures in any letters or whatever anybody sends, even though it might take a while to get here. Investigators and members like to see pic’s, and I only have a few, unlike my comp. Well, time is short, and as usual, I have about 2 million more things to say than I have time for. I hope that I covered everything that you guys wanted, and I’ll see you next week.

Obrigado!

Elder =w= Heperi