Life in Rio

June 12-
I understand my companion pretty well, but everyone else in the ward.... its a little bit harder.  

 Brazil is great.  I love it here!  The people are wonderful and it is absolutely beautiful!  I´ll have to take some pictures to send you!  There are a lot of mountains here and they are beautiful!  I love them.  Yesterday I had to spend all day at the federal police to notify them of my address change in Brazil.  We taught the first lesson to a family last week - they were a street contact we made earlier in the week and they accepted the message really well!  It seemed like, i think we´re gonna follow up with them later today to see how if they read and everything.  But there´s a mom and dad with about six children - and they´re children are super well-behaved!  They´re amazing!  But yeah, hopefully all goes well!  We have several other people that we´re teaching too.  It seems like it is pretty easy to get people to listen, at least initially - they´re all so friendly!  I´m not sure how it is overall, but so far it seems pretty good.  We walk A LOT!  We ride buses every once in awhile too, but mostly we just walk.  and walk.  We don´t use bikes and no one has a car.  Ha. I guess I´ve never really noticed, but I guess most of the streets aren´t paved.  And as for the men bothering us when we walk down the street - I don´t think I understand enought portuguese to tell!!! haha.  One blessing to that!  Our apartment is relatively nice even in comparison to some other homes I´ve seen.  ha. it´s definitely not perfect though!  When it rained the other day, the ceiling above my bed started leaking through and when I got home there was a huge puddle on it!  pretty funny.... And our toilet doesn´t really flush either - we pour water into it to get it to work, but its not a big deal at all.  But yeah, I like it - it´s pretty big for two people. It´s going good though.  We do eat with members every day!  I love them all!!  They are so nice and friendly!  The other day, on Sister D's birthday, the member we ate with made the best meal ever and the most fantastic cake too!  And then she gave us both something - nicest thing ever! And it wasn´t even my birthday, but she gave it to me to welcome me.   The food is delicious.  I really love it.  I´m actually pretty positive though that every meal we´ve been fed has had some sort of rice and beans.  Not even kidding at all - good thing I love rice and beans!  They always serve something else with it though, and I always love whatever they serve!  Sister D is awesome!! I really admire her!! Man.  She has got to be the most patient person ever to deal with me!!  especially with my greatness at Portuguese.  She´s been a trainer three times already, but I´m her first American companion ever.  Oh and I think that I´ll be her companion for the next transfer as well - and then she´s done!! She finishes her mission in August - crazy!!!The work is going well.  I am so excited to be a missionary!!  I can already tell that I am going to learn SO MUCH here!! Hopefully I do and hopefully I learn it quickly too :)  
 
 Man.  Since being on a mission, it has shown me so much how having the gospel in my life has blessed my life.  It is amazing, really.  It makes me wonder why everyone isn´t a latter-day saint.  But that´s why I´m serving a mission, to bring others to a knowledge of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love the way the gospel shapes our lives, brings us more happiness than anything else, and brings us closer to Christ.  I love our church.