First Week in Brasil!

Oie meu Familia:

Well, this was a crazy week. Holy cow - is all that I really have to say. So, I don't know what really to even say. This week has sucked trying to communicate with people. Elder Teixeira is a native Brazillian from Rio De Janeiro and is learning English. So I have to help him as much as he helps me, and we don't understand half of what the other person says, but it's alright. I guess maybe I will learn faster that way.

Sorry that I can't send very many pictures, but the Internet here is freakin slow. But, man oh man, talk about a whole new world when I stepped off of that plane. Man, everything is different - from people to food to living circumstances down to the quality of life. Everything down here is such cheap quality. Ha. I freakin miss America. Ha ha. The worst part is raw sewage just runs down the side of the road, so it just stinks everywhere. They don't use pipes around here, so they just dig dirt trenches on the side of the road and that's where it runs. Ha. It's nasty and it stinks everywhere we go. Elder Teixeira told me that if you get in the lake that is close to us, then you will come out with like 3 heads because it is so toxic! Ha ha.

And then there are just bugs everywhere. Like, when you go in our house and you shut the door, there are just gaps on all sides, so bugs just crawl in and fly in all of the time. I usually wake up with like 10 bug bites. I got told that I will get used to it. Oh ya, and the doors don't lock either. So that's kinda sketchy. Ha ha.

But anyways, we live in the downstairs of the house I sent you a picture of. And I tell you what, things are so different. Like the worst part in the house is to take a shower, you walk in the bathroom and there is just a faucet with one nob on the wall and the spout is on the roof and you turn on the water and it comes out. Like there isn't a shower curtain or anything or like something to stand in, ha. There is just a drain in the middle of the floor in the bathroom and the water goes down there. And the temperature of the water is crazy. It is never warm like in America. It's just like cold one second, and then like not as cold, but still cold the next. Ha ha. So I dread waking up in the morning because I have to take a shower. So I usually just try to work up a sweat when I wake up in the morning so that it's not as cold when I get in. Ha ha.

And the food, yea the food - it's not very good, so I just hurry and scarf it down. And then the people here see that your plate is empty, and they don't even ask, they just load it up again. And it's just rice, beans, and dry chicken. Ha ha. That's all I have ate since I have been here. It's wild. And like seeing the circumstances people live in. When I go there to eat, it's kinda sketchy to even eat the food because they are so poor that you just don't know where the food and water are coming from.

But anyways, the people around here are so friendly. And I tell you what - they see an American and it's like they have just seen something that they have never seen in their life. I've already had girls left and right coming up to me and telling me that I have beautiful eyes and that I need to marry them. Ya, it's pretty crazy. But I guess that will just help us be able to teach more.

Anyways, Elder Teixeira showed me how to teach a lesson and then expected me to do it. So I had no idea that he was going to have me teach, but we got to a lesson with 3 girls and he just threw me under the bus and said that I was going to teach. So I tried to do what I remembered and they were just laughing the whole time and calling me an Americano and a bunch of stuff. Ha ha. I tell you what, it stinks so bad to try to learn this language. It is so hard.

But we went to Bispos (Bishops) house and he talked to me and understood me and just really respected me for coming here and learning his native tongue. And he helped me alot. He told me to teach him, and so I did. And he told me that it was good for me only being here for the 3 days that I was here. I freaking love the Bispo. He is awesome.

I just love the people in general here (other than no one speaks English). They are just so willing to listen and just talk. It's really awesome. This is definitely the hardest thing that I have ever done in my whole entire life, and I just want to quit sometimes, but then I remember what I am out here for - and that's what keeps me going. We have like 8 people that are supposed to be baptized within the next two weeks. Analuiza already said that she want me to baptize her, so that's a big change from Georgia. We are actually getting baptisms now, so that's good.

And yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and Natalia really wanted me to bear my testimony. And there is no way that I could tell her no. Then she got up and bore hers, and I was sitting behind her and she kept looking at me. And so I got up and bore my testimony. Ha ha. It was rough, but I did it, so that's what counts :)! And then that gave me a free pass to talk to her afterwards because I knew that she would tell me good job. Ha.

But anyways, it was good to get on my email today and to see all of the emails that I had - 22! I've been gone only 3 months now, and I still have 21 to go! But, I found out today that I will only be missing one 4th of July :)! My 17 transfers are over on July 1st, 2015! So that was good when I figured that out. Ha. I don't really know what else to say other than I miss all of you guys and you are all amazing. I love you so much!!! Thanks for all the support and everything. It is really awesome!!! I really love all of y'all. You're the best!

Love,
Elder Blake

P.S. I am serving in Alvarenga - Sao Bernardo Do Campo - SP. And I think that this is the address to the mission office. That is the only place that you can send anything. And remember, if you send things to put pictures of Jesus and the Mother Mary on all sides of the package, and never put more than $50 insurance or whatever on it because if you do, it will never make it. That's what they said at the mission home. I love you :)!

Elder Dylan John Blake
Brazil São Paulo South Mission
R.Dr. Luiz da Rocha Miranda, 159 8° Andar
Parque Jabaquara
04344-010 São Paulo - SP
BRAZIL

 

Me and my companion, Elder Teixeira

Brasil is crazy.

Backyard.

My house.