Ice Cubes and Fubecas. Also Sister Aguilar??
Hey friends, miss me?
Two things: I told myself I wouldn't write excessively long emails because no one would read them but… yeah this one is LONG. It's good though and I'll work on length I promise. Also this email is being written way late so if it's not very good, apologies.
Alright what do ice cubes have to do with missionary work? I am sure you’re wondering. Literally nothing. We were in class learning about the weather and our Portuguese teacher (Irmao Calado) didn’t know how to say “hail” in English so he goes “You know… ice cubes… from the sky. It was a good day… you know…. because ice cubes.” It was hilarious.
Now I know you are wondering what the heck is a “fubeca” long story short its three Portuguese words combined that means “a missionary that breaks the rules.” It’s one of my district’s favorite words. Well that and “MUITO BOM!” Alright let’s get into this email. Buckle up, it was a long week.
Am I a fubeca? Probably. (Low-key a rant)
Okay it's not actually that bad I promise… most of the time. We had our welcome devotional and they had their dos and donts… for the most part they made sense-ish but some of the things we were like “seriously that's a little dramatic”. There are so many little things that you “shouldn't” do, that we subconsciously do and like no one's gonna, die if I do one of these things. For example texting your district is a no-no but you can email them. That's literally the same thing… so we just text each other. We were told you shouldn't spend time with your district outside of class… who am I supposed to spend time with then… my bed? (Low-key have done that a few times already though.) The Irmãs that teach here are ops. Every time we’ve gotten in trouble it's been uma Irmã. Still no one tells us anything or gives us any instruction outside of our devotional so we just kinda do things when/ how we want. We are chugging along, don't worry. It's a vibe.
Temple Trip
I love going to the temple. It's such a beautiful house of worship and is so nice to go with people you love (meu districto). We did proxy baptisms and it was such a blast (but like in a reverent way). The font was tiny and so slick but hey we made it work. We were DUNKING people (shout out Elder Balling and Sister Tew for letting me dunk them), like the water was splashing onto the wall (I promise it wasn't our fault). Also dunking each other and a slick floor does not mix…people were sliding around left and right haha… almost dropped Elder Balling whoops. That was in the São Paulo Temple and then we went to the Campinas Temple on Tuesday. That temple is gorgeous and has a stunning view of the city. We did endowments and initiatories. The endowment was in English which was good because I was not going to be able to do Portuguese. The initiatories were in Portuguese and even though it was only a handful of words that I understood it was still beautiful. Portuguese is an amazing language.
Class or yap session?
Well we have officially gotten back in the groove of classes which is lowkey nice, we aren’t just wandering around pointlessly no more. We have two classes everyday. Portuguese class and Gospel class. I love both and I love our instructors with my whole heart. They are so sweet and even more patient. (Irmão Holanda was dogging on us American today. We were talking about how we have to teach our next practice lesson this Friday in Portuguese and his face cringed so hard every one of us laughed when that happened. AND THEN we were learning the seasons in Portuguese and how we call “Autumn” “Fall” and our English Elder goes “Coz American’s are stupid” in the most English accent ever and Holanda laughed and nodded. It was so funny. Love him so much) Our classes are pretty easy in my opinion, we learn a lot but they are also a ton of fun. Portuguese is coming slowly. I have started attempting to speak Portu-glish which is what we call broken English with Portuguese mixed in so that’s good. Class also has so many funny moments I can’t even start telling you otherwise we would be here forever. I will say though most of them come from our English Elder from Leads (shout out Elder Quesne). We have started a district quote book and I think he has like 80% of the quotes in it. When we aren’t learning or yapping (which is highkey like 70% of the time) we are practicing with other districts which is actually really helpful because we practice both our teaching and Portuguese. Holanda also takes us on side quests. We will go from talking about Church in Portuguese to online shopping for candy. Don’t ask me how. And he will take us on field trips (down two sets of stairs and to the courtyard).
Random
Alright, everything else I have for you is just random stuff so enjoy the rapid fire.
Sister Aguilar is here!! For those who don’t know Sister Aguilar is my very best friend from BYU that I love so very much. She came with the rest of the newbies Wednesday morning. I don’t have a picture with here yet but don’t worry there will be one (Google Photos plug)
We went to the store for P-day and I have never been so excited to go to a Walmart like store. Also McDonald’s here cost $5USD for a whole meal.
The Saã Paulo Metro area has 39 cities… muitos pessoas
São Paulo has the largest and 2nd largest Ferrari dealership
22,000 restaurants
There are plans to build an Provo-like MTC in Brazil
Everyone thinks I am Brazilian because of my last name so they try to speak Portuguese with me… nao esta bom
Americans suck at volleyball
Everyone from Brasil is always so happy and humble. They are just glad to be here, we need to be more like them fr.
My ZL grew up with a good friend of mine from BYU
Got taught a mock lessons from an Elder that knows another one of my friends (shout out Sister Olander)
Weather is gorgeous
I love having my camera here (and being the designated photographer of the district)
Meal Ratings
Yeah, I gave up on these once I realized my meal descriptions varied from “steak with rice” to “rice with chicken.” The food is not as bad as I expected though, just not worth rating.
Quotes
Enjoy these instead of ratings.
“Sounds like Spanish but underwater” - Sister Cheney on Portuguese
“I'm colonizing this tie” -Elder Quesne
Elder Johanson: “makes sense cause it's progressively getting bigger”
Elder Quesne: “people in America get progressively bigger”
(Shout out Elder Quesne again, read these in an English accent for a better experience)
God's Hand
My branch president's name is President Sorensen and he reminds me of my grandpa. Another sign I am meant to be here.
Understanding some of the initiatory ordinance in Portuguese.
The gift of tongues, I can have some conversations in Portuguese and understand the gist of things.
Hearing about, learning about, and seeing miracles.
The meeting behind us had a special musical number of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” I teared up.
Connections between missionaries I’ve never met and some of my friends, it brings home a little closer to me.
Spiritual Notes
“Christ is the greatest gift” - M Russel Ballard (Precious Gifts from God)
It's true I promise you and as you draw closer to Christ you will realize it more and more. He's your friend and has an infinite love for you.
One of the strongest ways to feel the spirit is through music. Music is a beautiful thing. Here we sing hymns in 4 different languages and the spirit is so strong and the smile on my face is always so big.
God loves effort, if you seek with intent and a desire he will bless you. Alma 26:22
Wow you made it to the end. I'm impressed. My district is so going to tease me for how long this is. Whoops…I’ll work on that. Feel free to email me (please do I promise I read them) and let me know if I can do anything for you or pray for you!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
