Cobblestone Roads Kill Your Feet

"Então, this week was very interesting. So we went to the Sao paulo airport in the morning of the 7th, and waited for a while. I almost died in the airport because they were playing ads for Rush´s upcoming shows in Sao Paulo over, and over , and over again. but it's okay. Haha, then we flew to Porto Alegre. When we were getting on the bus to go to Santa Maria, the missionaries going home got out, and one got exited when he saw my nametag, and started telling me he was my grandpa. I was confused at first, but Dad will tell you this means that he trained my trainer. Anyway, then we had a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Maria, met the President, went out to dinner, all that stuff. Then we went to the secretary's house, were there were about 12 old bunk beds in the garage, and all us new guys and our trainers slept there. In the morning we got up, had breakfast, talked to the President more, and then went to the bus station for everyone to leave to their new areas. Mine is Quarai. Right on the border of Uruguay. Anyway, it was then that I found out the next bus to Quarai didn't leave until 8pm, and we wouldn't arrive until 1am. I thought they were joking at first, but no. So my day ended up a lot different than most peoples first day.

I went and hung out with the secretaries, and got to see how the mission office works a bit. I also got to play some old guitar that is in the mission office that was some missionaries, that was sweet. Then one of the secretaries asked me if I wanted to go have lunch with him at the President's house. So we went over to the President's house, and I had lunch with Presidente Ribeiro, his wife, the two APs, and one of the secrtetaries. Who does that their first day? Anyway, eventually my companion and I got on the bus. Got there at 1 in the morning.

My companion is Elder Martini, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo, and he doesn't speak English. One thing I have learned in the past week, is that you don't actually start learning your mission language until you get in the field. Well, kinda. I actually do know a lot of Portuguese, and can talk to people, but there is just so much vocabulary and stuff I don't know.

Quarai is a very interesting place. I would place it as a strange mix between Eastern Europe and Mexico. Most of the people we have been teaching live in houses the size of our kitchen that are made out of cinder blocks. Their floors are usually concrete with maybe an old rug. Tell the kids to be grateful.

Because it is on the border of Uruguay, lots of people here are actually from Uruguay, and there is a lot of Spanish here. Once we had clapped at some lady's gate (that's what you do here, you don't knock) and then Elder Martini told me that, this lady spoke mostly spanish. Sweet. Haha. This has not been an uncommon occurrence. But I can understand the Spanish just about as well as I can Portugues.

A little later today we are going to go to Uruguay. Pretty sweet. Their national currency is the US dollar. Pretty funny, huh? I guess its because the US bailed out their government one time or something. Apparently electronics are really cheap there, so I'll probably buy a cd player, and I think I'm also going to buy a recorder (the flute thing), because my President said it was okay to have one.

This area has about a bajillion less active members. We encounter them all the time while contacting. We have been working hard trying to get them to come to church. My area covers one Branch, but if even half the inactive people were active, we would have a ward. So that is kind of the long, long term goal here We live in an apartment more towards the center of the city with the two other elders in Quarai, Elder Hanks, and Elder Santos Silva. This consists of our district. A lot of the roads here are cobblestone. They look cool, but they kill your feet!"