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