Dear Family,

…….To be mayonaise, or not to be mayonaise? That is the question…….

Consistantly, some of the best, yet wierdest things in brazil are the assorted breads, fruits, cheeses, fruit juices, entres, side dishes, drinks and deserts that I eat/drink here. At breakfast each morning there is one thing you can almost always guarentee: the creme of wheat poridge they always serve will be sweet, delicious, and slightly different in taste and minutely different in texture from any other porridge that you’ve been served so far.

Sometimes its thick, and sometimes its thin. Sometimes its topped with a flesh colored skin. Sometimes your porridge is filled with small grains. And sometimes your porridge is textured like brains. About once a week, your porridge is cold, leading to feelins of sadness untold. But if you want breakfast you needent go forrage, Cause a good solid bet will always be porridge. (Yes, I did just write a rhyme about enriched farina… #bored on the way back from the temple)

Anyway, for lunch and dinner, the vast majority of the time, the meal consists of some meat sauce poured atop rice and beans served aside some variety of sesame or cheese bread. Guaraná is the drink of choice for every meal, although every time I drink it I get super bad acid reflux for the rest of the day. Almost* every dinner and lunch so far here in the MTC have been accopanied by some kind of pudding for dessert. There are aproximately a thousand different textures and flavors of pudding so thankfully we havent had the same pudding twice.

I love the food here, dispite the fact that most of the time I dont understand it. And although I’ve tried some of the best barbecue in texas, I have to admist that the bazilians make sausage better.

^^ *Unfortunately once this week for dinner they didnt serve us any pudding for desert. And my friend Elder Brown learned the hard way that a spoonful of mayonaise doesnt taste anything like vanilla.

                             …..Tio Facci, Irmá Correa and how to cast out an evil spirit…

here at the MTC I´ve been blessed with the best language and gospel doctrine teachers imaginable. Irmão Faccinetto (or tio facci as we call him) has been our language instructer since we arrived here. Hes a native Brazilian from Curitiba yet he speaks fluent english in a addition to portuguese. Facci has a GQ model’s smile and more heart than a crate full of middle school crush valentines letters. (Bytheway, interesting fact, the word for gym literally translates to “middle school of sports.” Yeah, I dont get it either.) Facci honestly spends time getting to know each and every one of the missionaries he teaches and hes one of the most gunuine, down to earth people I’ve ever met.

Just this week Facci proposed to his girlfriend after dating her for only a week!! The fact that she said yes is testament of the kind of man he is. My other language teacher is a 5 foot nothing, rugby playin, fire ball of a woman. She has no problem calling you out if you misspell, misuse or mispronounce a word. She honestly brutal, and brutally honest, but deep down shes one of the most caring people I know here; she gently shoves you into the deep end.

Each Sunday here we hav gospel doctrine class in which we can ask the mission president (President Swenson) and questions we have. This week someone asked “what do we do if someone claimes to be possesed by a spirit or wants one casted away?” The following 15 minute conversation about evil spirits was really cool and interesting. 🙂

This week has gone great and has been hard but I know god has been blessing me!!

Love and miss you guys a lot! xoxoxo