A Taste of American Freedom
Hey friends! I'm officially one month old. Crazy I know. Only 23 left but who's counting.
We got to go out into the real world this week!! They finally let us wander the streets for P-day after some stalker dude made us have to stay at the CTM. We hit up this steak house that was fogo (fire) and were free for once, hence the subject.
Substitute Teachers
Subs are either extremely looked forward to or dreaded and when you have excellent instructors, like I do, it's hard for the sub to live up to their coolness factor. We had one sub and holy goodness I can’t even put it into words how much I dreaded that class. We all crashed out. I'll be kind and not elaborate but just know that class sucked. We had two other subs and they were both pretty dope. One knew some slight of hand and cracked some good jokes and the other one was actually a pretty good teacher, although it seemed like he was constantly disappointed in us. Lol. It make me realize how important good instructors are and made me so thankful for Irmão Calado and Holanda.
Temple Trip
The weekly temple trip was fire as always. We went to the São Paulo temple to do endowments and sealings again and it was great. I used my Portuguese and it's improving… slowly but surely! I love the temple. It's so peaceful and I always have my questions answered when I am there. I also attempted to twin with Sister Aguilar so we could flick up at the temple but they sent us to different temples. Sad, I know. I ended up twinning with Sister Tew by accident though so that was funny. Our instructor also went with us so that was nice.
I'm old
Not actually the oldest… technically the week 32 districts have been here a week longer than us but I swear they don't actually exist. I knew the week 31 districts better and we sent them off on Wednesday. Muito triste. We also sent off all the Brazilians that got here at the same time as us so the place feels so lonely now. The new Brazilians just aren’t the same. 10 days and then I'm back to being the young one.
Random
Tried a fruit that grows from the tree in the picnic table area of the CTM.
Going to the outside world made me realize I'm so cooked, I know NADA.
Sister Aguilar is keeping me sane as usually.
I accidentally yelled Alix down the hall… whoops… sorry Sister Aguilar.
Bought some ties from the tie lady that stands outside the CTM and also traded my first tie.
Our language study is definitely language study but it's not Portuguese… it's an English yap sesh.
Next week we sign a contract that says we will only speak Portuguese for the last week… please pray for me.
We get off on so many side quests in class. This week we learned about: foods (good and bad, I won't elaborate for both of our sakes), the rich and sketch places in my mission (kinda spoiled in some areas), and… cursed objects… yep basically no touchy otherwise muito mal things happen to you. Someone in my instructor's mission touched one then got hit by a car on his walk back. Another got super sick… won't catch me near those things.
Y'all. “Old McDonald Had a Farm” goes so much harder in Portuguese. So does “Love is an oOen Door.”
Everything is so cheap, I'm gonna come back to the states and everything is gonna be so expensive. :(
This week was equivalent to the color beige.
Quotes
Sister Bennet: “If you're from Peru and served in Ecuador, why are you in Brazil?"
Irmão Montalvo: “So you're asking me why I'm fetching here?”
“I'm so mad. Someone stole my cow.” -Irmão Calado
God's Hand
The gift of tongues (surprise surprise). Everything we practice is only in Portuguese now and when it comes to talking about Gospel related things I can form pretty coherent sentences and thoughts on the spot and keep a lesson going. Sometimes I'll be speaking and shock myself that I can speak Portuguese. Now when it comes to conversational Portuguese… let's revisit that in 6 months.
The people in my life. I wouldn't be able to do any of this without the people. My family. Sister Aguilar. My BYU friends. My district. My instructors. I know it's all divine intervention. I know it.
I had some cool personal revelation moments that I won't share because of how sacred they are to me, but I can tell you that if you ask something and search fervently in scripture and prayer you will see God's Hand and His answer.
Spiritual Thoughts
Give all thanks to him, your life is in his hands (D&C 98:1-3)
The gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift we receive (Gary E. Stevenson). He is the ultimate best friend. Seek the blessings and gifts of the spirit in all things.
“…because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love…” (Moroni 8:26)
Josiah Queen is one of my favorite artists and my favorite song of his as of late is "a life worth dying."
There is a line that says "i found a reason to keep on breathing" and it made me think. God gave us each breath for a reason. We may not know or understand all the reasons right away but as we strive to be Christ-like and follow him we will find our reason. There have been times throughout my life that I have wondered "why keep going?” As I turn to him again and again and think about the Plan of Happiness he has for us I remember my reason. It's because I love him and want to live with him again someday, and in the meantime I want to bring others closer to him so they can find their reason.
Another line says "you gave your son, i'll give my life” which really applies to me but it also can apply to each one of you. I am so incredibly thankful for the sacrifice of our Savior because it is only through him that I am able to be who I am today. In return I have decided to strive to bring joy to everyone I meet for the rest of my life. God gave his son for us. The least we can do is use our life to spread good. I challenge you all to make someone smile this week and if you want to take it up a notch go out of your way to help someone. I'd love to hear about it if you do. :)
You survived this week's email. More like I survived, it was so hard to find things to talk about. My entertainment consists of dinner debates, throwing a tennis ball at the wall, and side tangents in class.
I miss y'all dearly. Thanks for the emails, I am trying my best to respond. If I missed yours, email me again and I'll get back to you! Talk to you in a couple days!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
