Email received Tuesday, June 2, 2009--Tyler's first email from Brazil

hey hey...

so, the CTM has been pretty good so far. i don´t know if you guys have gotten the first letter i sent you, and i´m sending you another one but anyway, if you haven´t gotten it by now, then it should be on its way.

this first week has been really good, really weird, and really long. on wednesday, i got into the CTM and that was good. i had been awake for like 48 hours or something and so it was kinda stressful but after the first day, it wasn´t as bad (although i was still pretty jet laggged and the other missionaries say it took a while to get over it). but anyway, i am doing good, and things have been classy. the first couple days, we really didnt do that much in the way of learning, and instead it was just all the initiation stuff that we have to take care of but now i´ve taken care of most of that and i think everythings goign to be pretty straightforward from now on.

my companion is pretty cool. his name is Elder Ekstrom, and he´s from holladay utah which is in salt lake. he cool and nice, and he is also really good at portuguese cause he took a class at the U and so he knows quite a bit. that´s good, cause we talk to the brazilians a lot and i think i´m starting to pick up on some portuguese which is nice. AND....i´m just grateful that i was able to have a companion who isn~´t completely weird. like one of my roommates is so weird. i swear if he was my comp then i would explode. for sure. you in madagascar, the one giraffe that is super weird? i think his name is melvin or something? well he reminds me of him completely. he´s really tall, super skinny, and talks weird. he also has the funniest face i´ve ever seen. i hope this doesn´t sound mean, but yeah he´s so so weird. hahahahaha. maybe i´ll send you a pic and you´ll be able to see the resemblance haha.

and the brazilians that we sit next to are also so awesome. we barely know any portuguese at all so its not like we even can communicate, but what we can say mostly consists of talking about soccer (they are crazy obssessed, i don´t even know) and then what they know of american culture. they say the funniest things and thier accents are awesome so its hard core. we usually just name off like the bands or moveis that we think are cool, and then they´re just like: OH OH!! x-men......ahhhh...muito bem (very good). or if they don´t like it then they shake thier finger. anyway. they[re a lot of fun haha.

oh, and today i had to wake up at 5:30 cause we went to the temple today. it was really good and even though it was even earlier than normal, the temple was aweseme. we went to the sao paulo one, which is like 40 minutes away, depending on the traffic. i don´t think we´ll be able to go to the other one, because they´re cutting back on costs and the campineas temple is a lot farther away.

and then, today is my P-day, so that means that i get to wander around the streets of sao paulo, which is a huge huge city. it was really good to get out and explore, because we can´t leave the ctm any other time and that´s too bad. by the end, i was kinda goin crazy because i hadn´t really been anywhere at all in a week!! yeah. but anyway, my companion and i explored the city a little, and just ran around and had fun.

i really hope that i can find a way to entertain myself for the next 2 months, because everyday i just go to class and then have lunch (which is rice and beans everyday, and then something else which is usually not too bad but not too good. and the juice they have is like the sweetest tropical syrup ever! its so sweet.) but....after i have lunch, then i jsut go back to class, and then its dinner time again which means more beans and rice. and then, i have another personal study time and then we might have gym for like an hour and then i shower and its bedtime. then i wake up at 6:30 and do it all over again. but...like i was saying, i´m going to have to find a way to entertain my self or i will go stir crazy, because although the mtc is fairly big, i can only go out once a week and i think it might be rough. but then again, who knows? the elders who have been here for a while say it goes by really fast so hopefully that´s how it is because right now, i just want to go out into the field and serve. anyway. i think that´s it. i love the gospel and am so grateful for this oppurtunity to serve the Lord. i know that Jesus Christ lives and that through the atonement we are able to return to live with him. i miss you guys but have fun and i´ll be home soon. anyway--

Love, Tyler