We have to send e-mails from the laundry room where there are only about 30 computers. It is hot down here and noisy. There are people bustling around and I am trying to remember that I have colors in machine L9 and whites in K15 and a shared load with Elder Anderson in K5. Madness.
Anyway. Things continue to go quite well. I don't have all the letters I received with me, so I am going to try to answer everyones' questions by memory and some notes that I hashed down. So wish me luck. I already have only 20 minutes left on the timer.
Elder Anderson and I continue to have excellent success. He is impatient to learn Portuguese, but this is good because he works super hard and really dedicates himself. He is determined to obey and really get the most out of this experience, so that makes things easy for me to do the same. He is awesome. Yet we are so extremely different. We find pleasure in exchanging movie quotes several times per hour. Still hard to make the adjustment of living with someone 24-7, but I am changing to cope. We are tolerant of each other and respect each others' schedules.
This darn computer keeps messing up my typing and adding extra letters when I only press a key once so I am not responsible for sppeelling errors. Such as that. That was not on purpose. I'm not going to be correcting it anymore.
Anway, the Portuguese for me goes...well. Class can be SO BORING. Because I just know it already or I understand the concept of preterite and imperfect, so I don't need to experience the question-answer session that occurs for two hours over it. So on and so forth. I am trying to view thhiiss as an opportunity to help others and answer questions. We did our first TRC (teaching resource ccenter) visit yesterday. We taught a volunteer investtigator. We had to contact her in Portuguese at her door and then come in and teach the first lessson (on the restoration) to her in English. Elder A had a funny moment where he froze and loooked to me in the Portuguese. That ended up going well. She was a native Brazilian and she said sshhee understood us both, so that is a plus. The English went very well. Elder A is a great speaker and he did a majority of the English teaching. However, as a team we taught a fairly decentt lesson. Success! After much nerves.
I get approached by elders heading to Spanish speaking areas all the time. They practice on us. Sometimes I tell them I speak spanish and sometimes I don't. Last night I had two elders who willl bbee leaving on Monday teach me. I let them know that they could go 100% spanish. I understoodd 100% and it made me miss spanish. They had me reading the Spanish scriptures for part and I started doing Portuguese pronunciation! My brain wanted to explode! But it was an awesome eexperience. They taught really well and I was able to point out some mistakes and give them constrructive criticism. They were excited. They will be in Chile (Santiago) next week. Amazing.
No visas for anyone in our district yet. Rumors fly, but nothing mateerriial yet.
One guy in our district (the Minnesotan) sings like opera-good. Since he and I are the only piano players in the district, he recruited me to accompany him in saaccraament meeting on some future Sunday. The song is do-able but will take practice. I do my best, but practice time is SO LIMITED. I will keep you updated on how thhaat goes. On some parts there are eight notes at once, and six are flat. Shoot me. I amm not going to be playing every note on the page.
Uh...one of the main challenges of Portuguese iis that we only really have each other to practice with because our teachers aren't around that much. Most of thhis language learning is just by the Spirit and HARD WORK. I am literally limited to sayinngg to fellow district members what they understand, even when I know more. It's interesting, but enough about that. Can you telll I spend an average of 7 hours a day studying portugues?
A typical day here consists of waking up at 6:20, then going to gym time (which consists of runnniing for Elder A and I) sometimes we play frisbee or ladder golf after running. The record is 1-1 for ladder golf. Then shower, dress, and go to class. Class is all day until 9PM. If our teacher is there, we do spiritual thoughts and portugues half aanndd half. If they aren't, we choose what to study. Typically, punctuating the class aree llunch (30 mins), dinner (45 mins), and a meeting of some kind like a devotional or large group mmeeeting where we get a lesson from a special speaker or teacher. Then we have planning session at 9, residence halls by 10, quiet time 10:15, and in bed lightss out by 10:30 PM. Repeat as needed. Today is the first p-daayy or free day. At least till 6PM. We have studied, bought supplies from the booksttoore, practiced piano, eaten, gone to the temple (the Provo Temple is incredibly beauttiful!) Etc. Time running low.
Letters are great! However, I cannot write you back unless you send me your address!!!! Things are relatively awesome here. I brush and floss every day. I appreciate the spiritual thoughts. Wish I couulld sit and write more. Blast this stinking keyboard!
Tchau for now,
ELDER JOSHHUUA BODILY I hate this keyboard!!!!!!!!!!
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