Week #4

BOOM!

So this week was another fantastic week here at the CTM! Man, it is incredible how much I have learned, and it has only been a month!!!!! CRAZY!!!!! I can kind of understand most Brazilians but it is hard to speak still. I have to translate what I want to say in my head and that takes a while.

This week I was not able to go to the temple because I had to go tot the federal police to get finger printed and stuff. It was way long! We left at 7 am, but the driver forgot our leader who was going to help us there, so we had to go back for him. Which took an hour to drive back. Then, we had to wait for 45 minutes just so the guy would show up to come with us!!!! We leave and get to the station and it is PACKED! Weird people there... SO we stand in line for a while and we find out that their computer system is messed up and we might not even get registered. Well we wait and wait and wait. Eventually all of us are called up in a big group except Elders' Howard and Torres. Turns out that their paperwork was lost or something so after getting done we had to wait for another 1.5 hours before we could leave. By the time we got back to the CTM it was already 2pm! My whole P-Day wasted. Lamesauce! However, Elder Rex (my comp) is a Brazilian citizen because he was born here in Sao Paulo, so the good that came out of this is he that still got to go to the temple and have a great experience.

However, the highlight of this week was an allergy attack. Sorry mom but this one is a good one. So on Monday I woke up with a pink eyeball and my nose is runny! Terrible! Going through the day I was sneezing and coughing and my eye hurt so much! It was like my face was going to explode!!!!! I had a huge headache and could not focus. I went to the doctor here in the CTM and he gave me some really strong drugs and it seemed to help. Well, that night I got into bed I grabbed my pillow and I grabbed the second pillow I had discovered hiding in our room and had used the night before. Then it popped in my mind very clearly " don't use that pillow". So I threw it away from me. The next day I was symtom free! Like nothing had ever happened. There's something about that pillow I must be very allergic to. Anyways now everything is all good. Evil pillow! I definitely gave thanks for being saved from the pillow.

Mr. Cheneys! WAY COOL!! (*see the note at the end) I get the mail so much faster! I love it! Yesterday I received three letters! Two were snail mail from home and one from Cheneys/Missionties telling me about the care package and letters that you sent. Kati I got your letter/pictures. Please tell me if you get my letters I sent from Cheneys today. I have sent 2 or 3 letters by snail mail so far, and 1 long one today via Cheneys. I think 2 to the family and one just to Kati. Anyways, I LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH! Sorry I couldnt skype home on Mother's Day. Happy Birthday Roman! Happy Birthday Taylor! Happy Birthday anyone else!

*There is a mail and care package service just in Brazil through a site called Missionties.com and they are associated with Mr Cheney's cookies, which is the only American type cookie store in the whole country of Brazil (and happens to be right across the street from the MTC). You sign up online and buy a certain amount of letters each month that you want to write (we bought 20 letters for $20). You write the letter through their site. They print it and send it through the Brazilian mail and it gets to the MTC or any other location in Brazil within 2-3 days (not 1-2 weeks like letters from the US). The missionary can then write you back via paper/pen, mail it back to the Missionties office (taking 2-3 days), where they will scan it into the computer and post it as a pdf to your user account on their site. They also offer care packages so you can send of things that they can't normally get in Brazil like Skippy peanut butter, maple syrup and Dove soap. You buy them online and they ship them within Brazil to where ever the missionary is located and there's no issues with your package getting stuck in customs or stolen. The items are a little more expensive than if you bought them here, but WAY less expensive overall if you don't have to pay shipping from the US to Brazil which is outragious. If your interested, go to their site and look through the FAQ's tab and learn more about the services they offer and browse the rest of the site to see the care package products. So far we are very excited to use this service!