July 8, 2009

opa everyone! how are things going? thinks are still going fine here. this was a pretty tough week. it is pretty crazy with the change from using english so much to only portuguese all day 24/7. we are pretty busy, but not impossible like i had imagined it would be. in the mornings, we wake up and do a little work out and then my comp will shower and i will eat and study. then i will go take a shower like 45 mins later haha. he takes the longest showers. after we shower and get ready we study til 11 then we go eat lunch at a members house. that is a huge meal. which is good cuz we only have toast in the morning and when we get home at nights. then at about 1 we start teaching lessons. we never really go tracking cuz there is always someone that said we could come visit which is pretty cool. we get back at about 9:30 and i just study some while he plans. then i eat and get ready for bed. then i try sleeping and wake up trying to think of a word in portuguese or there is a car outside my window. we are above a pretty busy street.

i have learned more and understand more every day. the first day i had no idea what was going on. it was so weird to be in lessons not teaching. i felt like i was with dad home teaching again haha. i understand a little more everyday. well i understand most the stuff but it is so hard to speak. that is way harder. i cant translate fast enough to speak.

so i am glad the fourth was good for you. that is the day leandro committed to be baptized so that was an alright way to celebrate. i also wore my red, white, and blue tie. that was about all. oh...i got to pray in english as well. they didnt understand anything but they asked if i could.

i went on a split yesterday with elder alves. i didnt know until last minute. so i grabbed a towel, some garmets(turns out i got two tops), and some shorts. i tried brazillian pizza outside the ctm. it was alright. it is really weird though. they put like string cheese on the pizza as the topping cheese. for a little bit i wished i was working at papa murphys again. oh and while we were there i saw that michael jacksons funeral was yesterday. i am so sick of hearing about him! it is on the news in every house we go in. i cant even watch tv and i am sick of seeing him on the tv. we taught a man and i asked him to be baptized and he said he would. then all the sudden he was like i have already been baptized in the name of christ so i dont need to. and he told us not to come back. i didnt understand that at all. he said he believed heavenly father and christ appeared to joseph smith and he doesnt think his pastor has the authority of god but he still doesnt need to be baptized again. i dont understand. i felt bad though cuz i could tell him anything cuz i suck at talking.

thanks for the advice becca. i would like alot more advice though ha. i can see how people like there missions so much. i think i will once i can talk to people with no problems. well i guess i will talk to you all next week. have fun. choose the right! love you
COM AMOR,
Elder Long

July 1, 2009

Well today is my first day in the field. yesterday i left for campinas. i arrived at the mission home at about 10 or 11. i was really tired still from packing and stuff. we met with the president and practiced some different things. then i had an interview with the president in portuguese. i am surprised i even could do that. after that we drove to the chapel and met our new companions and trainers. Sister Palmer and i were the only americans that came to campinas so they didnt really translate anything for us. it was pretty tough. i met my trainer. his name is elder mirando. he is brazillian and cannot speak and english at all! that makes it pretty tough but hopefully i learn the language quicker that way. after we got our companions and some more instruction, we started walking home. we walked for about 30 or 40 minutes to a bus station that is bigger than the idaho falls airport. we rode on the bus for about an hour and then had to walk for another twenty or thirty minutes. we got home at about 9. so i just unpacked and did a little studying. i couldnt eat anything. i was kinda sick but this morning i was feeling better. we live alone in the apartment so i cant talk to anyone in english there either. our apartment is the front room, our room, kitchen and bathroom.

i cant receive emails or send emails to anyone but my immediate family

well we are gonna teach 4 or 5 lessons tonight after p day is over. i dont think we will ever be low on investigators, which is awesome! the mission is baptizing more now than ever before which is also awesome. we get lunch from members ever day except p days so that will be way nice. lunch is really big here too. so hopefully the food is good. i dont think it will be to extreme.

oh ya. i get all my letters on tuesday so i dunno if that will affect how you send them. and you need to send all my letters to the mission home. well i love you all. have a good week this week. i will try to as well.
> Love,
> Elder Long

June 24, 2009

so it is my last week before i go to the field. i am a little nervous. i dunno the language the greatest. there are a lot of others in my district that know a lot more than i do. I will work hard though and catch up soon. I am nervous about my trainer but i know things will work out. i am really excited to get out into the field though and start doing missionary work. I really have liked the CTM though. I have learned a ton. I finished Jesus the Christ this week. It is an awesome book. You should all read it! It goes right along with the 4 gospels (Matt, marc, luke, and john) and has some book of mormon references. It taught me a ton about the Savior that i didnt know. I wish i knew all the scripture that go along with it though. I am gonna finish up the new testament in the beginning of my study in the field. And i think i am going to read our heritage on sunday and monday. I have done a lot of gospel study and not language study so i think that might be the reason i dont feel ready to go to the field yet with my language skills. I hope that everything turns out well though.

A Birthday Present for My Mom

Some of us kids gave this to my mom for her birthday today.

June 17

we went to the farmers market and that was really cool and ate some pastels. they are like flaky scones with whatever you want on the inside. kinda like a hot pocket. the farmers market just had a bunch of fruit. i cant remember what they were called or anything. i had some coconut water though. that was pretty good.

i guess we are the only mtc that has been shaking hands still. we arent allowed to shake hands anymore. it is pretty laid back here though and the teachers shake our hands a lot still. and elders definitely cant hug ha. thats always been against the rules.

i shut my window before we left but my roommate decided to open it up and he left it open and my stuff is next to the window. my stuff got wet but it doesnt need replaced. my portuguese scriptures and my jesus the christ got a little wet. i am gonna get new scriptures anyways. oh and my PMG got really soaked and one of my notebooks. but i just got a new PMG so it wasnt a big deal!

June 10

Last Friday, Thomas went proselyting for the first time. He said, "we placed all 4 of our books. it was really fun most the time but real scary the rest of the time!"

My parents sent him a Pizza Hut pizza party through Mission Ties that Thomas was enjoying today. He also got Guaranas, which is really good pop from Brazil, and he said you can get it at Winco. He sounds really good, but says he's been craving chocolate.

Thomas has 3 more weeks in the Brazil CTM and then he'll go out in the field.

June 3, 2009

it has been a pretty boring week actually so this email will be pretty short i think. so sorry ha. well i wish i was learning more lately. it seems like we have slowed down a lot on the language study part. i am sure it is just cuz i have been learning conjugation or verbs and i will probably do that most of the rest of my stay here. i have done a lot with the gospel aspect tho. i am going proselyting on friday. i hope i can remember my lesson! it seems pretty weird that i am going to be teaching people. i know i wont be able to answer their questions if the ask any so i am kinda nervous. i went to the temple today. são paulo of course. it was good. i didnt pray about anthing this week. i wish i woulda. i finished that book though in two days. i have started reading Jesus The Christ though. as well as the new testament. it is going to take me a while to read those i think. like the rest of my stay here!! whoever told me it didnt ever get cold here was lying!! it is way cold. it was probably like 40 yesterday. and it is only fall ha. well that was my week ha.