opa familia

I'm in a city called Mossoro. It's north of Natal and one of the hottest cities in Brazil.  My area is Bela Horizonte, sorry I didn't know how to spell it the first time.  This week was way better than the CTM by far.  The first day was really tough though cause I didn't know the language well and I couldn't communicate so I was really down on myself.  The area I am in is like 110 everyday, all day and I sweat nonstop!  There is only like 2 hours that it's nice because it's windy.  Mom, I can't find my sunscreen so I am just frying! Sunscreen here is super expensive so I don't have any so I'll probably have skin cancer and I'll probz have to get new knee's too after the mission cause I walk like 20 miles a day on their terrible roads.  Which are just big rocks in the road. So it's super rough to walk on.

Here there are so many kids.  All the really young kids run around naked and most of the kids here play soccer and basketball which I am surprised.  We aren't allowed to play soccer so I guess I won't be needing my soccer shoes.  When we went to our first lesson, that was really the game changer for me.  Our area is the Pavilions, which is the ghetto and only guy missionaries are allowed there because it is really dangerous.  

We went to a members house before we went to our actual lesson cause it's a lot better to have a member present in the lessons.  The member had 3 lil kids around 12 yrs old. They were all freaking out because I am American. They kept wanting me to stand up and show all their friends how tall I was.  And know one believes me that I'm 18. They always freak out.  Then I was talking to one of the lil kids about biking and how Gavin does it, and that I like it a lot too.  He was showing me his tricks or wheelies haha.  Then I was asking them about what sports they play and I told them I played basketball and then one of the girls freaked out and brought out her basketball and me and all the kids played. I was showing them how to go between their legs and stuff.  I think that really changed my attitude, seeing those kids - because they were always happy everyday when I saw them. They are always so excited to see me and then I thought about myself and how hard it is to understand this language and the lil kids. Now I just shake my head to the ones I don't know but I am picking up really fast.  Then after that the two lil kids came with us to our investigators house and we taught her a lesson.  She has two kids and no husband and a really small room for a house.  I taught a lil part of what I knew haha-it wasn't much but each day it gets better.  At the end of the lesson we asked the lil girl to say a prayer for us and it was super special seeing how the gospel has changed this lil 12 yr old girls life and how she wants to help us in our lesson.

Me and my comp teach a lot of kids.  They all really like us because we are just real people.  I play basketball and my comp juggles soccer balls with them, so they don't see us as weirdo's.  They always have me say their names because I sound so weird I guess and they always give me big words to say and I walkways give them one right back in english.  They want to know english words and phrases like 'what's up' and stuff.

The next day was kinda the same thing, we taught lessons and then we went to this members house that is super funny but he is a strange dude too. He loves to talk to me, he knows some english and he always comments on how good my Portuguese is coming, which is good to hear even though I don't feel like it is.  He sometimes comes over to talk to me. 

It's funny everyone here thinks I'm rich because I'm strong and my comp's think that too because that cologne you gave me mom, I guess it's really expensive here haha, so they always call me playboy, it means your rich.

I ate intestines this week too!  It was freakin nasty-we were eating at a members house and everyone always offers me more and more food and the guy brought out this bowl.  And was like do you want this soup? And I was like sure, so he put it on the table and I scooped it on my plate and then I realized what it was but the dude was looking at me and so I didn't want to be rude so I ate it.....

Gavin would love it here, cause it's his kind of food.  For the most part the only thing I drink is coke and guadana-haha.  I also eat a lot of bread, rice, beans and chicken which I like.   On saturdays we invite people most of the time to go to church and then on sunday we wake up early and walk in the heat for 30 min to the Pavilions, but it was all good cause it was so cool to see the kids waiting there for us.  We have to go get them cause they are really young and they won't come if we don't.  Then in church I couldn't understand a thing and it's different than in our church.  They have 2 hours then the last hour is sacrament.  All the kids sat next to me and I played Tic Tac Toe with them haha.  I actually sang cause I want them to come back and I want to be a good example, idk if the Tic Tac Toe was good, but it was fun hahha.  Some kid I didn't know was yanking on my mile tracker thing mom and then I finally let him see it and then as soon as he had it in his hand he broke it.  So I'm still pretty mad about that. Now I know not to let people see my stuff. 

Today has been fun as a zone we all played basketball and everyone was freaking out when i dunked it, haha.  Know one believed me and I was surprised I could still because my legs hurt so bad.  Mom, don't send my backpack.  Send me an iPod charger, snacks, a language book that can help me know how to contract sentence's plzzz.  A digital watch that does 24 hours and 12, because I guess my watches will get me killed.  That's what everyone says.  Send more pic's of us quaking and things we have done like, mountain biking and stuff.  Send me a snap back, tell Chase to go buy me one.  And all this stuff use my money, you guys already pay enough for me.  Then a small map of the world because some kids don't know where the United States is.  And another calendar cause I lost mine, hah-sorry.  Love you all. I pray for you guys. 

Elder Mauter

e ae família! (whats up in Portuguese)

This week has definitely been crazy. It was really hard to leave my old companion Elder Orton who is going to Recife. It's weird to think about cause i never thought someone could be as close as some of my friends back home but its probably because we have seen each others lows and highs. 

I had a cool spiritual experience in the ctm before we left. We gave each other blessings and we had 6 people in our district with 2 sister's. We let people choose who they wanted and I got chosen 3 times. I was so grateful to everyone that wanted me to, cause it meant alot and i could feel the Spirit Strong. Experience's in the ctm have already made my testimony stronger and i hope i can continue to grow.

Yeah, my flight was at 7 in the morning so i had to wake up at 320a which wasn't fun. i went with 3 other missionaries that are American from my district in the airplane so it wasn't so bad. On the plane i was talking to these two Brazilian kids that were about my age and trying out my Portuguese with them and they seemed like cool kids. We talked about American sports and music and stuff for a while until the plane took off and then one started rubbing the others leg and they started holding hands and all this nasty stuff! Oh, man i didn't talk to those kids the rest of the time I about puked.

Once we got to Natal the President and his wife came to get us with the zone leaders. They seem really cool. He knows pretty well English so that is good and when i had my interview he said the next one would be in Portuguese. So i better start learning. Yesterday we sat in the church all day and listened to him talk and i thought i knew Portuguese but i don't cause i barley got any. They talk so fast here. Then at night all the new missionaries and the trainers slept in the same small house or room on the floor and on bunkbeds and hammocks, super ghetto. Natal is way better than Sao Paulo. I'm in Bela Hora zoch idk but i took a 5 hour bus ride all the way here today, it wasn't that bad. 

My companion is from Sao Paulo and doesn't speak a lick of English hahah and the other two missionaries I'm stayin with don't either so its ether i learn this language or I don't hahah. So you can probably see how my 3 months will go haha. I'm just going to grind hard - i think this is just like anything else i have done. It's like basketball the more you practice the better I'm going to get with the language and the gospel. But as of right now i have no clue what they are saying. People everywhere in the street always yell Americano to me idk why and my comp always calls Americans on his phone. So i can talk to them-hahah idk why, but he seems like a cool dude.

I'll send you guys pictures next time. I forgot my câmera at the home. My P-day is monday now i think so email me before then. Mom you can cancel missionTies.com i get and hour now to email.

I guess i need to get some baptisms cause that means everything to Brazilians here. You don't get respect until you do then you get called Baptizador and if you don't you're called golado for goally in soccer cause you block baptisms or something kkkk. Send me my backpack and if you find books that will help me with the language or gospel, candy, beef jerky. They don't have beef jerky here so its like gold. I'll tell you how things are doing next week. We start teaching the real deal tomorrow so pray for me. I love you guys and dad (kkkk) means hahaha in Portuguese. Sorry i have alot of errors - this computer only knows Portuguese so every word is in red. Tell grandma thanks so much for mailing me, that made my week! Elder Mauter

  

Oi Familia!!

Woow my next email to you guys I'll be in Natal, that'll be crazy!  I'm really excited but then again a lil nervous cause the people in Natal speak the fastest I hear. That's gonna be tough.  I'm gonna miss all my friends in the CTM. 

Me and Orton have been talking about leaving since day one.  But now that it's here we are not as excited as we were.  So leaving here is defiantly going to be a hard one for me.  But it's easy for me to make new friends and most of the foreigners are the funniest - so I'm not really worried about getting a native comp - I actually hope I do.  One of the Brazilians here was trying to buy me a T-shirt yesterday, it was weird. hahah
       
 I'm not even close to finishing the BofM, because we really don't have that much free time. At night my district and another district just talk all night and that's the only time when I could.
         
We have this kid from Georgia in our zone and he is a straight redneck, southern kid with a huge southern accent.  He's such a funny kid.  He always hangs with me and Orton rather than his comp.

I really like my new comp he's so funny.  He has these weird guessing games that will blow your mind.  We always play them with everyone.  So I'll play them with you guys when I get home.  It's fun to play if you understand the game because it's so obvious but so hard to figure out if you don't.  I hated him so much when I didn't know.
      
Nothing really is happening here this week.  The language is coming good.  I can hold a decent convo with someone.  But it's annoying because the books they give us are wrong sometimes.  So you'll say something you learned from the book and then the instructor will have to correct the book.....so I'm gonna try and find a verb book out on the street today.

But the CTM experience here in Sao Paulo sounds so much better than going to Utah.  Idk if I told you guys, but on P-days we get to leave the CTM and walk around Brazil, eat and chill outside.  You can't do that at Provo!
        
Sounds like a lot of crazy things have been happening back home. Gavin hit the BMW with the Honda?  Kim's cabin had a fire? That's insane! Let me know how everything goes.

Tell me who got hurt on the basketball team, probably Amir.  Sorry nothing cool this week to write about.  I'll have something cool next week. I'm gonna try to work hard out there.

Oh, last week we had this sister- I don't know if i told you guys about this - but she was in our district and i guess she had her mission call for a long time. But got diagnosed with MS and then she got better.  So she decided to go on her mission again. When she got her yellow fever shot like a week before she came out here - it just sparked her MS really bad. She couldn't use her arm to move and stuff so they decided to send her home after 4 weeks out here. But during that 4 weeks we gave her a blessing and she was better than she had ever been she said.  But they made her go home anyway. It was another real eye opener because she really wanted to serve a mission but she couldn't. So I should take this opportunity for gratitude.  I'm so grateful for you guys and for friends and home. I feel like the Lord has really put people in my life to help me and i wouldn't want anyone else.

          eu amo voces -Elder Mauter 

Ola familia e meu amigos!!

This week was kind of a boring week we really didnt do anything different. Just in the classroom all day everyday. So sorry if my email sucks this week - ill have better ones once i get out into the campo. But yesterday we went to the federal policia station to get our fingers scanned, so im in the system now!! I can't  be doing anything crazy hahha! We had to wait in some ridiculous line for 3 hours! It absolutely sucked especially in the heat. I don't know why there were so many people.  It wrapped around the block. But me and orton started talking to some cool missionaries that had been out for a year and they said the language comes alot faster in the field than it does in the CTM.
 
 


I've definitely learned alot about myself and have been praying alot to know my purpose coming here on a mission. They definitely got answered with some of the people i have been talking to. Learning their experiences and how much it has made a difference in their life. That is what it is all about. I was reading in D&C and i don't even know why cause I'm not that far but i found a scripture that also answered one of my questions - so look it up D&C 6:14-15.

You know that sketchy roommate i was talking about? Me and him became homies and he has a pretty cool story. He used to party, fight, smoke and anything you can think of. Then he met the sister missionaries and he was baptized a year and a half ago and is already on his mission. He hasn't done any of that stuff since he became a member. He might look like a Pitbull but he's a funny kid. He was able to get endowed yesterday in the temple and he was as happy as can be - it was pretty sweet.

Some Columbian kids came in this week and i have already made homies with one. Me and him always fool around with people hahah.  I know i have been saying it sucks in the CTM even though it does - i have noticed how much I'm gonna miss the people i have made friends with here.  I'm gonna have to start from scratch here in about a week. Im defiantly hearing your prayers!  Looking back on how bad my Portuguese was until now. I remember the first semana(week) we would write down what we were gonna say and then read straight off the paper and now all we bring into the lessons are an English and Portuguese Book of Mormon. It's still way hard reading straight from the Portuguese BofM - like its hard enough reading from the English one!

I took some good pics today haha ill have you guys rolling. Mom thats awesome that you are doing that at the temple. We do that too when we go to the São Paulo Temple.  We have about an hour of service before our session starts.  I actually like going to the temple now. Remember the first time i was freaked out! I feel the spirit so much and it gives me a spiritual recharge for the week.

Gavin is a beast what can i say he has the Mauter blood so obviously he's gonna ball out in basketball. Keep it up buddy-And start eating some burgers to bulk up man!  I'm gonna have to get Wolff over there and get you into shape! I think i might have to get a machete in my mission hah because of the Amazon.  You know how you read that Natal is the safest city mom? Well my instructor told me that was way wrong! I guess the northern area has a lot more problems with gangs than the south in Rio and São Paulo. A native from the north told me its common for people to kill other people with machetes so I'm in for one!  I love hearing from all you guys, what your doing. I wrote a bunch of letters.  I'm gonna send out after emailing and then we are gonna go eat with our instructors.  Im so hungry all I've eaten today was baloney this morning with some OJ.

How is Josh doing, is he still working at Porters? What is Chase up to. Hopefully Rajeane is keeping him in check haha tell them hi for me! love you guys
Elder Mauter

January 2, 2015

Oi Familia!!

How are you guys?  New Years was crazy here.  We had to go to bed and try to sleep through all the noise of the people and all the fireworks.  It was so crazy I've never experienced a city so loud! Brazilians are wild!  I wish I were able to go out there and enjoy the New Year celebrations, but we had to wake up at 630a bright and early.  One of the worst nights of sleep I have had here.  It was impossible to sleep, we didn't even do anything special that day.  It was just a normal day.

Received this picture email from Br. Fabiano saying:
 Hi mommys and daddys. We love you and we haven't
died here in Brazil yet! Talk to you guys friday!

I liked the pic's from the dunes.  Gavin seems like he's still getting a ton of air on that dirt bike, not! jk buddy, you can talk smack to me when I get home and you're a pro!  Dude your so spoiled, you even got a neck brace!

That's awesome that Joe is home from his mission.  So many people went to see him at the airport in that picture you sent-legit!! My homecoming better be a fiesta!

This week was weird, so many things happened.  Tuesday a ton of the American missionaries left.  My homie Elder M-the chillest kid here was one of them.  He told me to stay strong - haha!   Then on wednesday I got a new comp, Elder B from Colorado.  He is like the super mormon kid.  The kind people stereotype mormons for.  He came from the Provo MTC and he knows a lot of Portuguese.  As soon as I thought i was progressing-I guess not, cause this kid is fluent. He knows a lot about the gospel so that is a blessing.  It's helped me a lot working with him so it's probably a good thing I'm his comp now.  I'm just gonna try to absorb as much as I can.  He told me the craziest thing he's ever done in his life was drink 13 mountain dews in one night.  So sleep on that one tonight-hahah! Its not that bad.  We also got two new Brazilian roommates in our room, so now we maxed it out with 6 people.  It gets crazy.  One of them speaks really good english and the other one is 24yrs old.  He's a pretty big kid that fights MMA down here.  He goes hard at night and in the mornings he's doing sit-ups and push-ups.

So this week before I got my new comp - every missionary gets to go out proselyting at their 3 week mark.  We each got 2 BofM's and went as a district.  It was really cool but also really humbling, cause the people just talk so fast and you just have to nod and laugh sometimes - that's what I have learned. I was the first to pass out my book on the bus on the way to the bus station where we stay for 1 hour 30 min.  It was some kid that was 16 years old and played basketball.  It was cool how I could relate to him.  I ended up handing out 4 BofM's.  My companions are pretty talkative people but I guess they can't talk to new people as well, because they made me start the convo every time and I didn't mind it.  They probably knew if I started it they would listen, because I'm the best looking in the group-haha!  It was hard sometimes because you would try to talk to people and they wouldn't even look at you.  Then I kinda thought, if that was me at home I wouldn't either, haha!  Weird missionaries!!

Oh, I got a crazy story for you guys.  So at the bus stop we were talking to this one guy for a while.  We asked him if he believed in God.  He said oh yeah I do, I should be dead.  So he ended up showing us a scar on his head and then he lifted up his shirt and showed us another scar there.  I don't know if this guy got shot or stabbed, but he's like 50 cent or something.  Then I guess he had another scar below his belt line, I don't know,  I didn't look cause he took it all off - we all just freaked out.  Like 'chill man!' haha!

I did my first temple session in Portuguese.  It was so hard.  They are telling me what to say but like in sentences of words we haven't even learned yet.  I was like 'um pralavla at a time man, I can't handle that yet!'  I can't wait until I can though, thats gonna be so sweet! I have learned a lot being here lately.  I'm trying to read my scriptures as much as possible and study the language.  Chase told me to try and finish the BofM before I leave and that's what I am trying to do!  I have never really understood anything that much in the gospel because I think I never understood the true and sincere way to pray.  The only time in my life I have really felt strong answers were before my mission, when asking if I should go and the whole time I've been out on my mission.

I love you guys, thank you so much for all you guys have done for me.  I'm gonna go get some grub at a BBQ place outside of here.  I received your mail, thanks so much!  Tell everyone that I'm sending some out today through MissionTies.  The letters help a lot. Thanks for the Christmas letter and tell the Southwick's thanks for theirs too.  I read their letter like a week ago.  When I got it and then I was reading it again during class when I was writing letters and I just broke down.  I don't know why it hit me so hard, so I couldn't write them back that night.  So I'll write them next week.  

I love seeing all the pictures you send.  Kim was asking about the spiders here but I've only seen one. But the cockroaches here are crazy big and there are a million! I'm sending her a letter today.

eu ami voces.  todo voce rem um bom semana!!!

I love you all.  You all have a good week.

Elder Mauter