Friday
It feels
like it's been forever since I first got here! Today we had TRC (teaching while
being filmed) and Elder A and I had a really good lesson planned and
everything! So we got there and since he's district leader, they asked him if
he wanted to be an investigator instead of teaching because they didn't have
enough teachers. So instead of teaching we got to sit back and have a
companionship in our district teach us. It was sooo much better than teaching,
but I was a little sad because I was actually wanting to teach this lesson.
I was coming
off a good note this past week with teaching. I think on Thursday I had a
really good day with teaching. Elder A and I probably had an almost flawless
lesson. We didn't really do anything a whole lot special beforehand, but for
some reason it was a million times better. Elder A (like I've said before) has
the tendency to go on and on and on without letting me say a word. But with
this lesson, I actually talked a lot. I honestly think it had to do with the
investigator. He was really clear with his words and responded back with more than
"yes" or "no" responses.
I was able to talk a lot more because I actually knew what was going on hahaha.
I feel I can hold my own with talking, like I can get my point across with
words I know. but then I have no idea what people are saying back because they
speak EXTREMELY fast and there's a lot of different types of Portuguese spoken.
Like Brasilians from the south sound way different from the Brasilians from the
north.
It cracks me
up when I think about TRC (where they film you while you teach) because it's
almost identical to Monsters Inc. There are a bunch of doors on either side of
this hallway and your companion and you sit right across from the door. A
little bell rings and we all go up and knock on the door at the same time. And
then you enter through the doors. The first time I did it, I paused a second
and laughed to myself because I thought that's what we were doing.
We get lab
time everyday to get on the computers and use this program to help us with the
language. But lately they've been having problems with it so a couple other
elders and I have gone onto the LDS genealogy
site and have looked through our ancestors. If I counted right, I'm 73
generations away from Adam and Eve. We've been able to find our lines all the
way back to the beginning. Now I don't know how much of that is actually
correct, but it's pretty neat none-the-less.
Answer Time .
. .
*I'm on the
4th floor. I forgot how they have it in the states, but in Brasil they have
floor "T" or "Terra" which means Earth. After that, the
floors go normally, so the one above floor "T" would be first floor.
If you're counting the main/ground level floor as the first floor, we're
technically on the fifth floor.
*My
roommates were Elder A, Elder C, Elder W, and then the two other Brasilians
(Elder S and Elder D). The Brasilians left this past Tuesday and no other new
ones have moved in , so it's just the four of us.
*Schedule
Levantar,
orar, proparar-se Wake up, pray,
prepare 6:30-7:00
am
Estudo
Pessoal Personal
Study 7:00-8:00
am
Desjejum Breakfast 8:00-8:30
am
Estudo do
Idioma Language
Study 8:45-10:00
am
Gym Gym 10:15-11:05
am
Lab Lab 11:20-12:05
pm
Estudo c
Pratica Study
and Practice 12:05-12:45
pm
Almoso Lunch 12:45-1:30
pm
Gramatica Grammar 1:30-2:30
pm
Fundamento Fundamentals 2:30-3:45 pm
Ensinar Instructor
A Teacher A 3:45-5:00
pm
Jantar Dinner 5:00-5:45
pm
Fundamento Fundamentals 6:00-7:30 pm
Gramatica Grammar 7:30-8:15
pm
Ensinar Instructor
B Teacher B 8:15-9:10
pm
*Each Sunday
we study and eat breakfast before 8:30ish. Church starts at 9:00 am. We only
have sacrament meeting and Priesthood. They don't say who's speaking in
sacrament until the announcements. They want you to have a talk ready to go.
Six weekers have to do their talk in all Portuguese and everyone before then
can do theirs in English if they want. After church, we all have district
meetings where we plan goals for the coming week and after that my companion
and I go to a leadership meeting with all the other District Leaders. That ends
at about 1:30ish. After that we can do anything we want until 6:00 pm and
that's when we have a fireside.
*I wake up
at 6:00 am every morning to get a shower without waiting because the schedule
time to wakeup is 6:30 am.
*Every class
is with your district. You're assigned to a room at the very beginning and you
have to keep that room until the end.
*You can
only go about a mile radius around the CTM on p-day. They give you a map.
*There are
security guards, but not in the towers or anything like that. the CTM is
surrounded by about 12 feet walls with barb-wire on the top. I don't know about
the rest of Brasil, but in Sao Paulo, it's a normal thing to have a tall wall
around your house with barb-wire on the top of it. We passed by a favela (the
ghetto . . . look up pictures) on the way to the temple. Instead of having
bar-wire, they had shards of glass embedded on the top of the wall. These
weren't just little pieces of glass. They were big pieces-some bigger than your
hand. Crazy stuff.
Tuesday
Oh man . . .
What a funny morning. So I roll outta bed, super tired. Walk into the showers,
turn on the water, and it's only at about half power for some reason. Oh well.
Start soapin' up just like any other day. About halfway done, water really
starts dying down. Other guys start complainin' because their water turned off.
I'm rushin'! Water is literally dripping out when I finally clear off the
remaining suds. Justice. Hahaha. I don't really know why I wrote that story
like that. It's probably cuz I'm really bored right now and SUPER tired! Anywho
. . . The funniest part about this was that there was this hilarious African American
elder (Elder S) running from shower to shower, butt naked, trying to get any
last drops to wash off the soap. That was his last day at the CTM so it definitely
wasn't a good morning for him. But because of his reaction to all the water
running out, it made that whole experience worth it. I wish you were there to
see it . . . haha maybe not the best way to put that, but you get what I mean
:).
I'm on the
bus right now so my writing might get a little sloppy with all the crazy
driving. So last night, this administrator guy came into our classroom and told
us that we would be getting another missionary from the Provo MTC. He would be
in a triple with Elder A and I. The only bummer is that Elder A and I would
have to move rooms all the way down the hall from our district and everyone we
know. It's gonna be weird trying to teach with three because my companion and I
already know how each other teaches. We also have no idea how much Portuguese
the new guy knows and where he's at with the language. I'm really hoping that
he has some sense of direction.
More answers
. . . from the Missionties letter
*Yes, I have been getting the pictures and
letters. I think it takes about 2 days for the letter to get to me.
*Elder M is
on the Fall-Spring track at BYU-I. We've been talking and if things work out
and we both go up the same semester, we'll probably room together.
*So about
the Elder Baby Horse nickname . . . I guess there's a girl on the women's USA
soccer team (Alex Morgan) that has the same nickname. I told this guy that I
was going to marry her and he was going to marry Hope Solo. It was just
coincidence that she had "horse" in her nickname and so it stuck. A
lot of people call me that hahaha.
*I'm not
positive, but I'm pretty sure I was about 158ish pounds before I left. This
past week I hit 170, but that was right before eating. I'm eating a lot and
trying to gain weight. I'm trying to work out and eat really healthy.
*Elder L and
I both did the pizza party thing last week. Today I've got that second one
along with someone else.
Love you so
much! Talk to you later :).
Elder Steed
