First week in the Field

August 20, 2008
K well i made it to maceio at around 2pm along with 5 other elders 4 americans 2 brazis. The mission pres and wife and other elders were there to pick us up and we all went to the mission home. We ate an awesome home made meal that made me realize that the ctm food was não bom and then was got to meet each other while we each met with the president. You probley got our picture by now and not sure if he told you where i am right now. After all that was done he told us our new companions and the first four all had their new comps there at the home waiting for them and then he looked at me and my comp (his comp from the CTM) and kinda laughed and said onibus which meant long trip to your new comp.So my old comp got the exciting 2 day bus trip and i got the one night bus trip. He went to estencia in the state of sergipe and I was sent to arapirca!So I was in maceio for no longer than 5 hours and now am currently in arapiraca. So far, since the plane landed it rains every 10 minutes and this city im in is mostly dirt roads except where the shops are. I met my comp elder guerra after waiting at the bus stop for a bit and two other elders were with him. It was his first day there too and so were both new to the area and really havent unpacked anything at all, in fact ive only been in our home for no longer than 20 min...last night we dropped my stuff off ate the dinner they gave me and then asked if i wanted to sleep or play war(risk board game). i was kinda tired but i havent played games forever so i was all for it. so we got a taxi to the other two elders home and we played war until about 1am and then went to bed. we did the same thing this morning for our pday and just messed around at their home. Oh yeah the other two are brazilian as well and my distric consists of 9 people 3 americans, i havent met any of them except for these two. The church is a street down from my home and can see it from our stairs. I havent taken any pictures yet but will have some for you next week hopefully. i have alot on my mind and things i have to do so might be a while before i figure out how to send a package to you with a cd of all my pics and videos. ohh and if you havent sent me the package yet could you add 2 decks of uno cards please...the brazis love that game and is practically a rule to play it every night. So tonight at 6 will be my first real work except the fact that me and my comp are both new to the area and have no appointments and know nobody and so i think we are just going to figure out our area before we do much, but I’ll let you know how the first week goes. my pdays are the same every wednesday. Yea craig i will be doing my own laundry, i think i saw what was a automatic washer not sure but they also have buckets for that too and we hang dry our closes, we have a small stove, refrigerator, the home is pretty small. Only one light was working i think the others just need new bulbs. K so thats whats going down so far; morning I’m in the ctm and that same night I’m in a foreign land but the air is clean and is so much nicer than in a big polluted city like sao paulo. I love it here and am doing my best to learn from the other elders. To answer the other questions im not sure about how long elder guerra has been out but long enough to train someone. He is i think the same size as me. Most brazilians are small tho, he understands quite a bit of English, but never uses it unless i have trouble saying something. The weather is beautiful, it is a lot more humid but has been nice so far and cant wait till the summer hits. Im sure after a few months I’ll have the language down. So i just need to take my mission pres advice and just survive. He is an awesome guy and i love his wife, all she wants to do is take care of us and feels like another mother for me. So here i am 3 hours from maceio and will tell you when my next baptism is! Hah at the mission home they had me demonstrate a street contact but one where i invite to church and baptism in the first contact which is not what they teach in the ctm, but the people here are really acceptive to it i guess and missionaries have been having great success so I’ll see how it goes.Well i love you all and tell granny hi and i wish here well Elder Roberts