Picture: The tourist area of Rio de JaneiroSo much to talk about!
So, I´m in Rio. It is beautiful! So beautiful! It was a cloudy miserable day when I arrived, and was still the most beautiful city I´ve ever seen. The airport (or one of them) is on the sea´s edge, so the plane looked like it was going to go into water when it landed. Right before we landed a boat went under us, it was awesome!
So, buses here are crazy. There are tons and tons and tons of them, and when you get on they start moving before you pay (they don´t have time to stop for long). So much is incredibly fast paced here.
My area isn´t downtown Rio, but off to the side. My zone is in the same zone as mission headquarters. I sadly don´t have ocean. OH!, so, Cristo, O Redentor, that giant statue in Rio, from the pictures you would think from below it would be a prominent thing that towers above the city. Nope. It's insane! The mountain it's on goes from sea level to what looks like a mile high instantly. So the statue is tiny on top (well, it looks like that). That was crazy! But yes, my area. So, to get to where we are teaching from our apartment is an hour walk. And it's up hill. And the roads are bad. I never knew that it would be so incredibly useful to have had experience with hiking! It's good for me though! Seriously, I´m starting to look so good! ;) Then we went into another area yesterday, and this one is up and over a small mountain. The favelas are crazy. They would be so illegal in America . . . . All of our teaching is in them. Our bishop does construction with them. They are basically a whole bunch of small houses right next to each other. With the electrical wires being tapped . . . . It's crazy. From one Electrical post you have possibly literally 1000 wires coming off. So insane!
So, I´m sure you are wondering how the language is coming. It´s almost has been a week in the field. When I first got there it was so intimidating because I realized how little I can talk about and how hard it is to understand. A lot of times people will say words I know, but they say it in a way so I don´t understand. That is frustrating. But it's getting better. My companion is a Brazilian that knows minimal English, and so I decided my goal is to just try and talk to him constantly. He probably half thinks I´m a freak because I try to talk about everything. But it's so helpful. I already can talk about a lot of things (very slowly though), and I´m using advanced grammar somewhat naturally (well, advanced to a learner at least, especially for English speakers). I must admit it's terrible when my companion during a lesson turns to me and says, talk about this. The first thing I was told to talk about was the law of chastity. Yeah. That was not nice, lol.
Food. So, I thought I would have a problem eating the food. God has blessed me immensely, and I can eat anything. But, the problem I´m having is that I am considered rude if I don´t eat a TON of food. I mean 2 plates filled to the brim with Rice and beans, and then on top of that meat and potatoes and some other stuff. I can´t eat that! And so Brazilians think I don´t like their food. I love the food, and I´m hungry, but I just can´t eat that much! Well, I´m learning how to eat loads, but, really, this is probably just like the language. I´ll learn.
Oh, and so everyone knows, I can´t email you and you can´t email me. And I only get mail once every 6 weeks. So PLEASE write me, but if I don´t respond to something you write, that's why. I´ll still write you, but yeah, it won´t be about what you are writing me until up to 8 weeks later.
I´m out of time, so till next week.
Bom Dia,
Elder Eyring
