Week 5

oi!

This week went pretty well. I can tell I'm getting better at the language all the time. We had TRC on Friday (we taught a lesson that was filmed to some Brasileros) and did pretty well. It was weird to look back at the movie and to see myself speaking Portuguese. We proselyte in 2 days around the CTM. I've been practicing different street contacts all week and I feel prepared to go out and just talk with some Brasileros. I'm a little nervous, but way excited.

Our district was sick this week. I think we got food poisioning or something, and none of us were really feeling good. I got some of the worst of it. I lost like 7lbs (I put on a little weight before then, but now that's gone..) It wasn't fun at all...but we are mostly all better. One Elder had a temperature of 105.

So, here's a funny story I forgot to tell last week. Dad sent me a letter before I left Seattle so I would get mail here, soon. But it turns out it was missent to Malaysia and got here last Tuesday. It was pretty funny. It just had "MISSENT TO MALAYSIA" printed on it.

We are now the oldest district on our floor. A lot of new Elders are showing up. There are some Elders here from Manaus, so I kick it with them during a lot of our meals. They are cool guys and are excited to tell me about Manaus. They can't say "Stapley" very well, so they just call me "Manaus." I guess I'm down with that nickname! At lunch, I will just hear "Oi! Manaus!" and they will come over and talk about macacas or peixe (fish).

On Sunday, I was asked to give a 15 minute spiritual thought after a district meeting, and it turned into 35 minutes. It was unplanned, but pretty cool. I asked for input and some guys got into it. I think it kinda touched some of them (a few that I know of for sure). I talked about why it's important to still have the desire to be on a mission and serve. I ended up crying (which sucked) but it turned out to be really good.

Let's see....what else happened this week...we started teaching the 2nd lesson in Portuguese. There were some new words I had to learn, but now I've mostly got it down. I can carry on conversations with most Brasileros and can understand what's going on most of the time. I know my vocab is more centered around the gospel, which is good for now, but I need to learn more conversation words.

I got the letters from Erynn, Meg, and Callen.

It's raining today. It's winter here so it can be cold sometimes. Just like Seattle in the fall. We´ve had a few lightning storms. One morning, there was lightning right next to the CTM, right at 6:30. It was so loud it felt like a cannon went off in the hallway and woke everyone up. But it's right when we needed to wake up, so it wasn't too bad. That was pretty cool.

It was the first P-day we had here where we didnt go to the temple (because of the rain). It's been nice to just relax and stuff. I just hung out with some guys in my district, will mail a few letters, pick up some stuff to get me through the week, and go play basketball.

Well, tell grandpa and the fam I love them and am thinking about them. I look forward to hearing from the fam. I'll email home next week. Hope all is going well. Love ya! Tchao!

-Elder Eric Stapley