April 27 2012

Hey everyone!

A ton of things have happened in the past week and a half. They are going to be constructing a huge nine story building here in the next week, so they switched everyone's schedules around. My new P-day is Friday. More importantly, I finally got moved into my Portuguese classes last Wednesday, and I am having a lot of fun there. From the time I walked into the classroom, until today, I don't think that my teacher has said more than 100 words to me in English. I've had to adjust really fast, but I'm also learning the language a lot faster than I expected. It has only been a week, but I can already feel my way through most of the lessons. I still can't speak very well, but it's good enough that people can understand me. On the second day of language study, I already had to teach and investigator in Portuguese. My companion and I taught him four times. Yesterday we found out that he is going to be one of our teachers, so that was really cool. All of the teachers here are great.

The devotionals this week were really cool too. On Sunday, Brother Allen, the director of the Missionary department for the entire Church was here. He was absolutely hilarious, but he still delivered a really powerful message. He said that no matter how hard missions can get, there is almost no reason that any missionary should ever come home. The Lord can help you with any challenges that you face. On Tuesday, Elder Russel M. Nelson was here. He titled his talk, "The Doctrine." It was about the Doctrine of Christ, how powerful a tool it is in the conversion process. He also talked about just how simple, yet powerful the doctrine itself is. It is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I've had that memorized in English for a few weeks now, and I almost have it memorized in Portuguese. With Elder Nelson visiting, I have seen three Apostles in the four weeks that I've been here. It really is awesome to see and hear the devotionals here, especially when an Apostle comes. I'm just hoping that a couple more will visit while I'm here. That is one advantage this MTC has over the Sao Paulo MTC.

Other than that stuff, my week has been pretty uneventful. I love you guys!

Sincerely,

Elder Day