MTC Week 4

January 19, 2013

Me and Elder Withers.

Ola, tudo mundo!

So, this week has been pretty good.  I have yet to feel any real homesickness, so that's good (yes I do miss my family, no I'm not that heartless.)  Anyway, homesickness manifests itself in a really weird way.  I keep seeing weird distorted versions of people I know from back home.  It's really weird.  I'll just be walking around campus and then I'll see someone who likes like somebody that I knew back home and I just kind of give them the strangest look.  I don't think they like it too much because they return an even stranger look.  Just the other day in TRC (Teaching Resource Center, it's pretty much home teaching in Portuguese) my companion and I were teaching this one guy and then it hit me, he looks a lot like my dad when he was like 20.  I then starred at him while he was babbling in Portuguese because it was really weird.  I then realized he stopped talking so I snapped out of it, nodded, and replied "Sim, muito bem" (Yes, very good.)

The language was kind of rough this week.  Right before we went to TRC it hit me that I didn't know Portuguese.  I just got really discouraged and I had no idea what to do.  When we got there we gave our lesson, had some small talk, and it wasn't too bad.  My teacher showed me what our first investigator had written about our attempt to share our message with him.  He said we spoke perfect Portuguese and that he could understand everything we were saying.  He said he was surprised at how strong the spirit was and that we made him want to read the Book of Mormon more often.  Needless to say, I was more than overjoyed and that was really good for my confidence.

I guess I should probably tell you about my companion.  His name is Elder Jung, he's from Palmyra, New York, and he is awesome.  He showed me a picture of what he looked like before his mission and he had the coolest dreadlocks I have ever seen.  He goes to BYU Idaho and is studying mechanical engineering.  Needless to say, he is very smart, very funny, and re rules overall.

The summary of my relationship with my companion Elder Jung.

Time here is starting to feel really weird, weirder than usual.  Last night our district debated about which week we are actually on and it's still a topic of controversy.  We're technically in our "fifth" week, according to our MTC schedule, but we've really only been here for about four weeks.  My first month of my mission is coming to an end and I really have no idea where all the time has gone.  It feels like I have been here forever and yet I'm truly amazed that I'm almost 1/24 of the way done with my mission.  Also, Elder George Alexander leaves next week!  It feels like he just came here the other day and now he's already leaving.

So the last two Brazilian Districts to leave didn't receive their V**a's and they had to be reassigned somewhere in the states until their V**a's come.  As of right now that is my current guess as to what will probably happen with me.  Bad news, I won't be able to go to Brazil right away, but I really don't care.  Thy will be done.  On the bright side, I'll get then opportunity to experience both kinds of missions - one in the states and one in Brazil.  It's like I'll have two different missions so that's pretty sweet!  Also, when I get my reassignment I get to call home for a few minutes and that's pretty neat (hopefully I'll get reassigned somewhere warm since I don't have any winter clothing).  So expect a call home from me in late February.

Also, we went on a treasure hunt the other day.  Someone carved a hole in one of the walls and stuck a treasure map in it.  We followed it and it lead us to this secret cache with a rock that a ton of missionaries had signed.  That was pretty neat.

Anyway, I think that is about it for this week, I'll write back soon.

Love,

Elder Johnson or Tanner or whatever