Year One, Letter Ten

Hello everyone!!!

NOTICE: My P-day is now MONDAY. That´s right. I will now be emailing on Mondays because...that´s just how it is.

Scripture: 2 Nephi 31: 18 - 20 (20 is most important)

It is most important because that is what my mission will take...lots and lots of perseverance. This language is ridiculous. I can barely understand a thing. I got really frustrated because it is so tough. Especially in the morning. I have trouble functioning normally in the morning, but now you have to toss in the fact that I have two guys speaking more Portuguese than I can register. Which leads me into the week...

Brazil just got crazier. We finally left the CTM. FINALLY...? Once we were out in the real world, i realized how much i loved the CTM. lots of food, lots of people who speak English, lots of time to do what we need, bathrooms, closets, beds, lol etc. butttt not anymore. We left at 3:45 in the morning and flew to Londrina. We met the mission President. President Leal is pretty cool. He seems to know what he is doing, anyway. So, we had lunch, interviewed with him, then we were told to pack up enough clothes for 3 days and were put in a bus. We had to leave all of our other things in the church by his apartment. I was not happy about that at all. We were dropped off in little groups. My friend from the district in the CTM, Elder Burt, and I were dropped off (literally, like tossed out of a van) onto a sidewalk and we waited for our new companions. They are both Brazilian. One is named Elder Costa and the other is Elder Filadélfia. It was ridiculous. They know very little English. We are in a place called Cambé and we were taken to the apartment for about 10 minutes and then we took off. We taught one lesson with all 4 of us about the plan of salvation and how we can be with our families forever and then we were split. I went with Elder Filadélfia and we taught for about 5 hours or so and then went home. it is nuts how tired i am at the end of the day. we teach and walk around and then teach some more. we walk like 10 or 15 miles per day. it is so crazy. but we are only going to be here (probably) for these 3 days. today around 5 we are going BACK to Londrina so that we can meet our real trainers and go to our real areas. I just don´t understand this nonsense. but hopefully everything will start going smoother and we can get going. so far, though, it has been a bit of a roller coaster. at least these guys are cool and they try to help.

we had a water balloon fight this morning. that was the beginning to our p-day lol. after personal and comp study we had a water balloon fight, got some ice cream, and went to the bank. very interesting, neh?

anyway. so normally i can answer all of your questions, but now i don´t have any to answer. i know i am here for a reason and that if i put my trust and faith in God that he will help me. i have been doing the best i can to do that. because i know that i will need help.

um the people are really cool. they are nice most of the time. they feed us a lot. on fast sunday, for lunch, we went to this lady´s house and she gave us - take a guess - rice and beans, spaghetti, guarana, salad, and carne. i think that was it. but it was delicious. i wonder how much time it will be before i can´t eat anymore rice and beans lol. but fast sunday was cool. i bore my testimony for the first time in a portuguese ward. and it was actually in portuguese. but that was awesome.

what elseeeeee.

blake - thanks a lot for your email last week. at least i think it was last week. it has been an incredibly long week. but thank you. i would try and respond in portuguese but there is no way i could do that in the time we are given. but it was exactly what i needed to hear. i read it this morning again and it helped because i was a little overwhelmed.

well i have run out of time. i love you all and i miss you all! hopefully i will have time to write next week instead of just reading 2 weeks worth of updates!

love you!

E. Scott Ghormley