I´ll try to include the best stuff. So much has happened in this first week. I can´t remember it all. And I can´t fix the spell checker on here either so get ready for some mistakes. I arrived at the airport in Brasilia and was taken to the mission home where I met the pres. and his wife. They fed us an ambrosial meal and told us about the mission, things we would need, and gave us pillows. I then went to the chapel and met some new missionaries, heard more about the mission life, and then got assigned to a companion, Elder Parada . He can understand English and speaks a little. We are able to communicate most things in Portuguese. He´s a great trainer and I´ve already learned a lot. This area is a very difficult area in terms of baptisms. In the last 2 years they´ve had 9. Houses have fences around them and are in closed off areas so it´s almost impossible to access people by knocking on their doors. To do missionary work here you have to work a lot with the members to get references. The missionaries that were here before us baptized João. He´s been a member for a few weeks so we still get to teach him. He´s so cool. You have no idea. He´s the typical warm friendly Brazilian but x10. He´s very nice and loves to talk. He knows a little English so he helps me out when I don´t understand. Elder Parada and I visited him in his (really nice) house just to talk and familiarize ourselves with him and the area. The next day we watched Mountain of the Lord (I think that´s it in English) and taught about temples. His mother is so so nice. She´s not a member but she asks lots of questions about the church. She makes me eat a lot of food and is very friendly. It´s so great to teach João and to get to know his mother. This week we also met Edson, who was preparing for baptism when we came. His baptism was yesterday. I gave the talk about the significance of baptism and such before the event. It was funny. Most of the audience was American, but I spoke in Portuguese (as well as I could) and someone translated to English. I wonder if it even made sense to the Americans, considering my Portuguese.
I met many American families in the ward and had lunch/dinner with them. One person I met practices music therapy. (there you go, mom, your dream for me) I was so happy to talk to her about it and she told me a lot about what it was (all in English of course). She went to BYU too. Their whole family is American. One of the members in the ward who has fed us twice works in Computer Science. So I got to talk about Ubuntu with him. This place is just full of blessings for me. He told some really cool stories about his mission over dinner to Elder Parada and me in Portuguese. It´s fun to learn Portuguese by listening this way.
This area (Lago Sul) is very spread out, so making contacts and getting places takes time. The buses we have to take don´t come as often as we would like so we spend a lot of time either walking or waiting for a bus. Typical missionary complaint, I know, I´m just laying out the details for you guys. Haha. I got to see the center of Brasilia on the way to my area. It´s so different. I love it. The architecture is very modern and unlike anything I´ve seen. There are hardly any stoplights and traffic runs very smoothly.
Once I get some pictures I will send them.
A few things I need. I actually need that mission bag you were considering getting me, Mom. A backpack is too big. I just need a small bag like the one you sent a picture of. That´s what I need the most. The only other thing I need is sprees and mike and ikes.
I love hearing the news as always! I have about an hour for email every Monday, but the time goes very quickly.
I might send more emails before my time is up
Much love!
Elder Young
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