Week 5 - Brazil MTC

Hello!! All is well here in the CTM! We did get the letter thing worked out. So all this time we had the wrong mailbox key and we've been checking the wrong one!! But we got the right one this week and it was like Christmas! There was tons of letters in there! I got all the ones from the Mr. Cheneys place and all your hand written ones so its all good! I really enjoyed it! 

So last week I must have slept wrong or something cause I woke up and I had a crazy sore neck! And it got way worse throughout the day! It was awful. I was walking around with my head at a 45 degree angle all day cause I couldn't straighten it out... It got better after a few days but I just thought that was funny! *Note from Betsy - I emailed him back and reminded him that he had Ibuprofen and Tylenol that he could take if this happens again. His response -Yeah I took some of that... it didn't really help. But don't worry I sleep a lot more still now! 

We have a devotional every Sunday and Tuesday and those are always SO good! We have choir practice beforehand and I love it! I love singing in Portuguese. My companions are going to hate me! But anyway we usually just straight up sing the song but sometimes we get a little fancy, and Tuesday we got real fancy! They split the sisters and elders up into groups (I sang tenor of course) and we sounded super good! The spirit seems extra strong through music. 

Yes our Brazilian roommates did leave on Tuesday. It was really sad cause I loved those guys! Elder Souza spoke a little English but Elder Costa didn't speak any! They were so awesome. We used to mess with them all the time and I would get them to help me with my Portuguese at night. So that's sad. These new ones are alright though. One knows Portugal Portuguese but lives in England so he has a thick English accent and speaks perfect English. The other one has only said like 2 words so I don't know... 

The food is great still. I've been trying new stuff. At first I gained a little weight but now I lost about 6 pounds. I dont know how but I'll try to eat more! We get gym time every night so that is fun. They have a lot of basketball goals so we can show our skills!

The language is coming along. I'm learning lots but I still have a looonnng way to go. I've got a pretty good study plan that I hope helps me. 

We went to the Sao Paulo temple again today. Irmã Scaduto took us so that was super fun. She is the best instructor EVER! It's such an awesome temple. 

So I called the people about my debit card and she said it is set up as international. She saw the first transaction from my first week but she said it doesn't even show that I tried to use it again...  She said Wells Fargo isn't getting the transaction or something. It might be something wrong with their system, but it worked the first week and I tried it at the exact same place the next week and it didn't so I don't know what the problem is. I'm gonna try it when we go out today and see if its just the Church's system that's the problem. I think I'm pretty good on cash. I don't know for sure. I spend money like a madman out here. I forgot how much you said the boots are that I have to buy in Belem but I have over $100. I'll try to be conservative today in case the debit card still doesn't work. 

I really like Alma 34:41 "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." I've had to learn a LOT of patience since I've been here and I've gotten a lot better about it the more I have the Spirit with me. During the devotional the guy shared a verse in D&C 93:1 "Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am." So if we take upon ourselves the name of Christ and forget our sins and keep His commandments, we can see His face! The guy said he takes that verse very literal - which I thought was pretty cool. So I'm gonna try to do a lot better!! 

That's it for today. I love y'all and hope to hear from all of you.    

Elder Green