Hello! Well its Elder Flake here just chillin at the missionary training center with my 60 minutes of computer time! I also apologize for the typos because I will be writing fast and I am so used to typing in Portuguese!
Anyways, I am still at the Provo MTC awaiting my visa to head down to Brazil! So basically for the next week, I will be chilling here with missionaries from all around the world!
I must say this week has been splendid! ABSOLUTELY FLIPPEENG HARRD but bery satisfying!
Primero numero: We have to wake up at 6:30 every morning which was a slap in the hiney! But that is nothing compared to the difficulty of study!
Segundo numero: class is in almost all Portuguese, but I have the greatest teacher! Irmao Belchoir is his name! (Brother Belchoir en ingles) He is a stellar individual! He is very intelligent and he is also from Mozambique Africa!!! To build an adequate image of somebody, just imagine an african 5'6" that is a spiritual version of Akon. (According to himself) He is hilarious but also an amazing tutor and mentor! I spend 4 hours of study with him singing, speaking, and eating Portuguese forreal......minus the eating part kinda!
Other then that, it is a 16 hour day of prayer, study, eating, and more study.
funny then spiritual then Funny story:
So, I found out my first day wednesday that I would be teaching a man Thiago in only Portuguese that Friday....That's two days to learn enough language to teach somebody about Christ and the Book of Mormon and also about the Atonement! I leaned heavily on prayer....My companion Elder Crabtree (a beast of a man) and I prepared notes to just read off and teach him. But before we went in the room, we felt like we shouldn't take our notes....so we submitted. We got in there and greeted him, and taught about 8 minutes about prayer and about the Church of Jesus Christ...It was wonderful coming out of there, but we knew it was still pretty rough...
SOO the next day, right after dinner, we came to our classroom and saw a note on the board from Irmao. It said, "Lesson 6:30 Thiago room 430" We didn't believe it. That was in 5 minutes, and the 6 other elders in my district were freaking out. I was not particularly tickled either......I thought it was a joke! I mean, I thought Irmao being a funny Akon kinda guy was playin a joke on us! WAS THERE EVEN A ROOM 430 IN OUR BUILDING? lo and behold, there was in fact a room 430 because our district went to scout it out and yes, Thiago was sitting in there and the 8 Elders (4 companionships) had to go in and teach him two by two. Elder Crabtree and I were last....
So we got in there and after Praying in portuguese and reading in the Book of Mormon in Moroni 10:4-5 where it says "e pelo poder do espirito santo, podeis saber a verdade, de todas as coisas."
And by the power of the holy spirit, you can know the truth of all things.
Fam, after Thiago read that scripture I looked him in the eyes and bore testimony that the scriptures are ordained and true. There were given to us to not only live a good life, but to prepare us to meet our Maker again. I firmly told Thiago that the Book of Mormon is another witness that Christ is the Son of God and that reading and praying, one can know if he really felt the sins of the world and provide a way to return to heavenly father. It was wonderful.
One thing I learned is that before I learn the Language of Portuguese, I need to know and learn the Language of the holy spirit, because once I understand how to open those channels, an outpouring of peace from the Comforter can bear witness of all truth from On High.............and that whilst my Portuguese is rougher then a dead animal haha I can feel the words enter my mouth.
Now in our third lesson with Thiago I realized afterward, while the lesson was decent, I made a grave mistake...
A VERY VERY GRAVE MISTAKE
There are two verbs in Portuguese that are very close to each other. Poder which is to ask and podar which is something else.
So at the end of the lesson I said to Thiago, "Poda orar?" (Using the podar verb and not poder)
I told him "CAN YOU FART A PRAYER"
..........................
...........he kept his composure pretty well but I realized that his chuckling before the prayer was symbiotic with my asking of him to fart.
So yes family times are good here. I have only been gone 6 days, yet it feels like forever. I have learned so much!
The food is decent just don't drink the juice. It is probably the only ungodly thing here excuse my sacrilege.
I study so much and I love it. I never thought that I could delve into the scriptures and another language so fast. I am so humbled by everything and also apologize for such a long email. There are thousands of people here so I feel like a tiny fish in a humongous lake. I am surrounded by great examples too. I learn a lot from other missionaries as well.
I am going to send some photos in my next email when my companion and I do our laundry because I forgot my card ha! I miss Tennessee and I talk about it til lights out at 10:30.
I love yall!
Elder Flake
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