E ai!!! (what up)
I don't know why you guys worry so much, I'm loving it out here.  Its hard but its fun. I love the people and i know all of this will help me in the long run.  And like Grandma Mauter said to look at this like an adventure because it really is. Some of this stuff i would never see, relationships i would have never had before and being able to live in Brazil which is really cool.

Pai(father) dont worry haha i was just joking about the girls. I'm way more focused on the work, but then again I'm still 18 so I'm gonna say some things hahah. Some old grandmas here straight up have beards its nasty.  Most of the old people when we go and talk to them are really nice and accept us into their homes even if they are of a different religious background.  They just like to talk about the Lord and we will always share a message with them and hopefully our example will one day bring them to the church. Here there are alot of protestant churches- i mean a lot.  They are just these lil rooms and they will open up their doors and you can hear them just scream at the people the whole time its funny. But the biggest church here is probably the catholic church, they have like 3 huge churches here. The church i go to idk if you saw the picture of it but ours is really nice and big. It has a courtyard in the middle of it and its pretty cool. But that is the only big LDS church here that ive seen. The sisters in our area have a really run down church building.

Im loving the food here, its way better than back at home and everyone feeds me so much because i will eat everything. Mom you would be proud, i eat my onions and tomatoes hahaha. But i forgot to tell you what else they serve with their food that's called cuzcuz.  Its this yellow ground corn powder idk how to descibe it but i hated it at first and now i love it. 

The crazy member guy-yesterday fed us and it was his birthday so he had so much food prepared for us i about exploded. Here in Brazil lunch is the biggest meal.  I'm like the only one in my house who will eat breakfast and dinner everyday. I have my egg sandwich in the morning with crackers and roman noodles or these hamburger things for dinner. I'm starting to try and not drink so much soda. I only will at the members house's. If it weren't for that i would be shredded right now haha!  I'm going to get kidney stones soon I'm sure.

Oh, dad theres this dessert here called Acai, its freaking amazing! You would be addicted. I wanna bring it back to america and sell it but its weird cause the first time everyone eats it they hate it. I remember i thought it tasted like straight up dirt. But now its better than anything I've ever had, it probably has drugs in it haha! They serve it with condenced milk, milk power, bananas, m&ms and granola.

Sorry i only emailed like nothing last week i had no time and everyone wanted to leave. But last Pday was so fun, it rained so hard. We ran around and then after chilled in hammocks the rest of the day. We also played some basketball. The weeks here are going by fast.  Sometimes i catch myself slacking because I'm so tired after a long day but last night I stayed up all night studying Preach my Gospel and writing notes. I think it was because i got my first two baptisms.

 

 It was a really cool experience. The boys both choose me to baptize them and their baptism was alot better than the last baptism I went to. There was like a million people at the church and they had a message and a song just how i remember it. I was a lil nervous but not really.  My first one was William he's 11 yrs old and a cool kid. His mom really supports us and hopefully we can baptize her too. She always has a bunch of questions for us. Then I baptized Ivan and i had to redo him twice cause i couldnt pronounce his name right. Brazilians have the longest names ever, but it was all good. Ivan is 14 and a neighbor to William.  

 

Its alot better to get friends to be baptized cause they will stay in the church.  His mom is a member but doesn't come because she has a baby and is really poor and has to support the family which sucks but shes such a funny lady.  She helped us so much getting her son ready to be baptized. She was like my son needs the Lord in his life all he does is play video games and play futball haha. And yesterday when we were waiting for him to shower she was screaming at him and was like- you are really gonna make these men of god wait for you? ahahaha!!

We were suppose to have 3 baptisms but our other one, Marcus had a problem with coffee.  He should have passed the interview but our zone leader is super strict to all the rules.  Like the other day some lil girl was giving all of us hugs and he straight up stiff armed her?! Its super hard for people here to quit coffee cause coffee is so big here and Marcus said he was going to stop but he drinks 2-3 cups a day and i dont expect him to go cold turkey and stop all of it so me and my comp were pretty bummed but he will be baptized next week.

I feel like i realize and understand more and more stuff in the gospel each day.  I was reading that talk- The Blueprints to our Church and it honestly opened my eyes so much. I'm still trying to finish the BoM. It's hard with everything going on but ill finish it soon.

The truck looks bad holy crap!!! Can't believe a blown tire would do that much damage.  Tell josh and gavin thanks for writing me even if it was just a sentence hahah!  Transfers are next week and i think im going to get a new comp, so i hope he's cool.
Well I have to go, I love you all-
Elder Mauter

Opa Familia, 

Sorry i dont have that much time today to email. None of the stores are open because of carnival. So Carnival is where everyone just parties and get super drunk.  So all ive been seeing all week are all the parties and the people here love to play loud music.  It's funny they will put massive subwoofer’s in the back of their trucks, cars and sometimes trailers haha its loco. We are using a members computer right now and there are like 8 of us trying to email. But mom you think 80 is hot? hahah your crazy haha and you have AC.  AC doesn’t exist here and neither does cool weather. But it did rain today when we were at another missionaries house.  Their house is way nicer than our house.  We took a taxi there and it was raining like crazy.  When we got out we all ran to their house and now im drenched haha but it was so fun. Not much going on this week, hopefully we are going to get two baptisms this week.  William who is 12 years old, i think i mentioned him earlier and a new investigator that we just met.  He’s Gavin's age, and he fights.  He's such a cool kid and hes always super excited to talk to us and also his whole family. Here so many people live together in the same house. 

i talked in sacrament meeting this week. I talked about my decision to serve a mission and also having Faith in Jesus Christ.  I used Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  I like that scripture.  I also recited the first vision for the first time. Thank-you for sending me that package and stuff.  It’s going to sit in the mission home until next month around the 11th.  i wish i could get it sooner. Mom, send me the address to missionties so i can mail my letters there-not the website. Post the my blog address you did on twitter so everyone can find it, thanks.

I'm so tan now, haha people are starting to believe that I’m a Brazilian.  And everyone thinks you are Brazilian too mom idk why haha! I like it here though.  Please send more pics next time and type more! There are alot of motorcycle’s here. A lot of Honda and Ford cars.  Kind of normal to America just not any big trucks.  There are also a lot of Fiats and Volkswagens. Everyones houses touch each other and they are all really colorful. i definetly slacked this week but I'll make this week better.  How is work and life for you guys? i like hearing about stuff from home.  And yeah, send me some good talks and scripture's that you like they help a lot.

Acting like all the people celebrating Carnival

I have to go, Eu Amo Voces (I love you guys)
Elder Mauter

 Opa Familia!

Tell everyone thank you for writing me, and im sorry cause i cant email them back.  I'm going to try to write letters. Can you send me the missionTies address so i can start.  Tell grandma, kim, jacqueline im sorry ill right them letters soon! 

This week was a lot better than last week. I’m starting to eat more normal like I used to and actually I think more than I used to.  This gospel teaching is coming. Last week I think I just had a really bad attitude about things cause I was sick.  But I feel like the Lord always helps me in the littlest ways to make everything right.

So on tuesday you know how i said i would get a new comp for the day because my comp and his comp were going to Natal for a leader meeting. It was pretty cool experience to have a new comp and to talk to different people in a new area.  My new comp was a lil Brazilian kid that always loves to come and talk to me every time he sees me-haha. He always helps me with the language too. So that day we didn't practice lessons like i usually do in the morning because he isnt my trainer, but he just had me read alot in Portuguese until lunch. Then we went to lunch with a member at a buffet place that was bomb! His name is john the baptist and he has like half a foot so he has a limp but he's a super cool guy and i got to talk to him alot. He bought us that meal and dessert with it.  i always feel bad eating with members cause i know they have very little but they always give everything.

 Then after that we went to teach in my new comps area which is alot nicer than my area. He's in the nicer part of Mossoro. When we were walking to go teach someone i always say hi to people on the street and this one time i passed this older lady and said boa tarde and she responded but i didnt hear her but my comp started breaking out laughing. He later told me that she was saying stuff like i was beautiful hahah!  Then we went to teach this one investigator that killed someone so he cant be baptised for a long time -kinda sketchy.

Im starting to know more in the gospel so i can actually teach the whole gospel of Jesus Christ and most of the restoration.  I have memorized the first vision so i can say it in lessons. It makes things alot better when you know your stuff.( I lied last week i think my reg comp only has 7 months left in the mish so he knows so much.) But then we went to another investigators house which was the nicest house i have been to, here in Brazil. She is a really cool girl. Me and her talk alot because she knows some english and she is 19 so like my age. Only english like "how are you"and "good afternoon" hah but its better than most people that try to talk to me in english!

 Then after that we went to another investigators house to talk and they really liked us a lot.  But last week when they went to church i guess someone said something to her brother who is a homo so they were all mad and screaming, not at us but just at their anger if you know what i mean. The investigator is like 40 and her mom was there too and her brother haha.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it rained like crazy and thats really rare. On Wednesday we didn't go out to teach or do anything cause the roads were all flooded. So we couldn't do much but it was good for me because i actually had alot of time to mark and study Preach My Gospel.  All the kids were playing soccer outside.  It was cool i wished i could have just went out there and played too.  I'm just a kid too haha! I don't know how Kimber runs in the morning or works out.  Everyone in my house is so dead in the morning -so we just sit around and get ready for the day.  I workout more at night.  We have this bar with cement slabs on each side.  i can actually get a good workout in with it. I'll send a pic.

It's sometimes hard to teach here being American to some of the younger kids because you can teach them but they will always interrupt you and throw in a totally off topic question. Because they would rather talk to me about other things. But i love all the kids here, thats another reason it's easy for me to stay here and feel comfortable cause I feel everyone here loves me. All the kids, members and people.  I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday when we were inviting a kid to go to church.  He's really good at soccer and wasn't interested at all in going to church. I felt the spirit prompt me to tell him my story with basketball and how god has blessed me with all my talent and success in basketball. Because i felt I was going to church and doing the lil things. He didn't end up going to church but i felt he felt different after that.

I'm starting to act more like myself with people with the only few things i know in Portuguese.I was at a members house and the people there love american music and always sing it but dont know what it means haha. So me and a girl my age were goofing around before they fed us lunch and singing american songs haha and her cousin who is like 6 would not stop laughing at me at everything i did haha.  It was so funny, she had a Barbie backpack so i sang her I'm a Barbie Girl. Then at lunch everyone here serves rice, noodles, beans with steak and brats if they have more money but normally it's chicken. The juice is really good. So there was juice and sprite on the table and so i mixed it like we always do at home and everyone looked at me funny and then everyone tried it and they were literally amazed haha! I thought it was just a normal thing.

There is this one family that i really love here. They always talk to me and they have a daughter my age that is actually really good looking and it helps me speak more and practice my Portuguese.  Because i have always been the one to step up my game with a hot girl haha! No, but she's really cool- she always helps us with our investigators. When we talk she always rubs in stuff like - yesterday when she went to the beach and had a luau with friends and then ate pizza…..

This Sunday was really good because we had like 7 investigators come with us to church. Four girls that just go because they like me haha and the rest were young kids. Its funny cause the four girls always take pictures of me and stuff so i hope i can baptize all of them. We haven't had a baptism in awhile and the pres i guess looks down on missionaries if they dont get baptisms every week so my comp was really stressed and this sunday really helped us both. This one lil kid that we have been teaching William, i love this kid. He's also really good at soccer and when we first got to church i could tell he didnt like it but by the end i could tell he loved it cause he made friends and when we were walking him back to his house after church he was singing I'm beautiful its true hahah. I'm known here around the kids and for the one who always says ohhh por que which means why haha. It's  so fun to say and every kid says it when they see me and also they want me to give them a handshake snap thing because it hurts. Then they try to see who can last longest.

Its so much different here in Brazil. But i love it. The houses are really small and pretty bad.  The kids run around naked and the women will breast feed right in front of you and in church haha! Carnival is this week so ill get some cool pics.  All the kids here dress up and dance in like their piñata outfits. I love you guys.  I think about you guys every day.

Amo, Elder Mature 

  Vida Loca

opa familia,
This week sucked, i was sick like the whole week and had to stay inside for two of the days. I slept all day which was nice but id rather feel healthy and go out and do something. Then i drank some of the tap water cause we ran out and it was sunday so we cant go out and buy any so I've had diarrhea ever since. Then i have to wake up like 4 times every night so thats fun. i feel alot better but still dont feel 100%.  Im still super tired during the days and it sucks when every lil kid wants to play basketball  or soccer with me cause i wanna but i feel like junk. And it doesnt help when its freakin hot all the time also. Yeah, mom the sun rises at 5a just blazing and goes down at 5p but thats when it gets nice cause the wind starts to pick up. I started eating eggs in the morning. It's like the only normal thing i have had. Im getting sick of beans and rice everyday. They don't have milk here. I wish i could just have a nice cold glass of milk right now. I heard the Patriots won the SuperBowl.   My neighbor the goofy member came over and rubbed it in my face that he watched it, so i about killed him. 

My companions name is Elder Vieira he's from São Paulo and 20yrs old and has been out for 9 months. So he's  really good already and he is a funny kid.  I'm so glad i didnt get put with some weirdo at first. I live with 2 other Brazilians too and they are really funny also.  One is a really small chubby black kid and the other one is pretty tall. We live in a house kinda if you wanna call it that. 

This week has been hard.  Portuguese is still difficult.  One day I feel I can talk most the day then the next day will be terrible. I went to a baptism for the first time this week. It was different. They didn't do anything special for the kid and it seemed like everyone was rowdy. 

Most the people we visit are very poor.  They give us coke or guadana to drink because its cheaper than water.  I feel bad accepting anything from these people, but they are always happy to share with us.

Everyone here thinks I'm a celeberty so if you are american everyone freaks out because my comp says not alot of americans get sent to this part of the mission. So I guess I'm special. 

We were inviting people to go to church and  on Saturday we were talking to like 4 girls, 15-18yrs about going and they were killing me with questions it was crazy. All of them were talking at once and then more and more girls started to show up and talk to me so it ended up being like 9. We invited all of them to church and i wrote my name and my comps on the pass along card to maybe give them an incentive to go. But none of them actually went even though they were all promising me they would. None of the people we invited ended up going to church that day and it sucked cause me and my comp wake up super early to walk all that way to pick them up. And no one was there so that made me mad. We teach alot of kids here not really older people. Kids are just easier and we started talking to this one kid that we play soccer with and his family.  So hopefully that goes well. Nothing else this week much. My comp is leaving to a leadership meeting tomorrow so i will have a new comp for one day.  So we will see how that goes.  
Love, Elder Mauter 
mom send me my backpack. We can use them. Plus my back freaking hurts from the side bag.  Send jerky, peanut butter, and like air heads, jolly ranchers.