November 28, 2011

I~m going to send smaller email~s back and forth so hopefully we can talk a little in real time. Sorry if that makes it more difficult to put on the blog but I don~t think it should be too bad. I~m going to email the Mission President real fast and then I~ll answer some of those questions.

And yeah we are going to move by December 1st but we still haven~t found a place to live. This is the most expensive area in the mission so it~s difficult to find somewhere under 1000 reais.

We email from a Lan House. Just whatever internet cafe we can find. It costs about 3 reais for an hour so it~s not too bad.

There are three main areas to the mission. Sao Paulo, which is obviously the part that is in the city. Then there is the ABC, which is named after the three towns in that area whose names I dont remember. And then there is the Baixada, which is where I am, it~s the coastal region and the biggest of the three. There are about 190 missionaries in our mission which is the most in Brasil and we have the smallest area. There are 16 stakes I know that, but I~m not sure on the number of zones. They are probably pretty close in number though, since my zone is just one stake. We don~t have true zone conferences we have area conferences because it~s just easier. But they are every other month I believe. And yeah that~s when we receive our mail. I already got your two packages and the dear elder one as well. Thank you very much. Although I haven~t decorated yet because we are moving soon and I thought it would be a wasted effort.

So on Sunday~s they meet in reverse order. Priesthood, Sunday School, Sacrament Meeting. From 9 to 12 and there is only one ward in our building. Our area is only this ward. I think that is how most of the mission is divided up. The feeling at church is a little different. A little less... formal? I don~t think that~s really the best word to describe it. I~ll try and take some pictures of the chapel for you. It~s a nice building. A little different from the ones in the States though. 

The speakers and CD player work great. They are almost always on when we are home. The outlets are different but you can fit an american appliance in. They still send out 220 volts though. I forgot that and fried my alarm clock. But the speakers work in it. It~s written on most products if they will function with 220 or not. I haven~t had to use my transformer thing yet. Well take that back, I should have had to use it with my alarm clock but forgot. 

Today will be my first day of soccer. I~m super excited to play with some Rapazes (young men) and show them that Americans can play too. 

Yeah we~re headed for summer right now. I don~t think it gets too much hotter than it already is, but it~s already pretty harsh. Moreso than heat it~s the humidity. It~s just so oppressive here. Super muggy all day and all night. But the temperature at night is perfect, and we always see people playing soccer on the beach under giant spotlights. It looks super cool.

Next week I~m going to send either a CD or a bunch of pictures through the mail. We~ll see how that goes. 

Sounds like the trip to Megan~s was a success. I entirely forgot that Thanksgiving was even happening. No one here cares and I only see other American Missionaries maybe once a week. So until someone reminded me the next day that it was thanksgiving I forgot. Oh well. Don~t think it would have changed much. Maybe I would have gotten turkey at subway. By the way, we have a subway about 50 feet from our apartment. It~s the only american restaurant that isn~t way over priced. The prices are pretty much the same as American. Which reminds me, I ate at McDonalds the other day. It was a little expensive but I deemed it necessary to try it at least once during the mission. The quality is a tad better here but it~s not worth the price. A happy meal was 15.50 reais. And the portions were smaller. Insane. The dollar menu is like 4 reais an item. Ridiculous. 

So I~m pretty sure I~ve already done enough walking for the next ten years of my life. Let alone the next two years. My goodness we walk so much. My feet kill. But I don~t have any blisters or things of that sort. I~ve been taking good care of my feet.

So Dad will be working in a different clinic? Still on post right? And he won~t be OIC anymore or anything like that? How different is it going to be? Hours? Days? Does he still get every other friday off? 

Ummmmm. I can~t think of much else to say. I can already see progress in my portugues. I can understand a little better. Still is difficult though. Living with a Brasileiro really is helping I think. Everything is in Portugues always. Well that~s all I have to report this week. Unless I think of more in the next 15 minutes. Goodbye until next week.

Oh and what is Brandons address? I would like to send a package home with some little things from Brasil and I thought it would be best to send it straight to Brandons. That~s all.

Oh and as far as the Disney CD goes. Whatever you send will be great. Can~t have too much music. I love the two Christmas CD~s although some of the songs do make me a little trunkie since they~re about white christmas and frightful weather. It~s just wrong here that it~s going to be summer during christmas. I~m not happy about that. I got into an argument (playful don~t worry) with Elder Lobo about how the words for silent night are better in English than Portugues. Because in Portugues it~s Happy Night. Which is just cheesy. We talk about a lot of things like that, where I think something is better in English and he thinks the opposite. There are lots of little things, slang, dialects, and idioms that are hard to understand because they don~t make sense in a literal translation. You just have to hear them and start using them. Although, I still think English is better. Haha. Oh well.

On mondays around this time is when I~ll probably be emailing. If you want to try and send them back and forth.  

So today I might be purchasing a Santos Jersey as my Christmas present to me. It~s tradition to buy the jersey of your first area. Just a heads up. I might not by one too. 

November 21, 2011

BOM DIA!!

 

So these keyboards are a little different. Forgive me for any errors. So let~s start with the best news first. I already had my first baptism. One 13 year old named Leonardo and his younger brother of 8 years Gabriel. It was sweet. I got to perform it and such.

 

Just wanted to through that in first. Now I~ll go over what has been happening. So the flight from New York to São Paulo was horrible. Super long. Luckily I had an empty seat next to me. I think it was the only one on the plane. But I didn~t sleep and couldn~t watch x men first class which was right in my face. So I just read Jesus the Christ, which never ends by the way, but it~s super good so it~s ok. I couldn~t see out the window very well since I was in the middle. But when we arrived I had to lead the group through the airport since I had the most time in the MTC. That was an adventure. I hardly could understand anything that anyone was saying. But we made it through customs and all that stuff just fine. Then we found our ride, but we had to wait for other missionaries that were on a different flight. Which took about an hour of sitting around in an airport. That wasn~t so much fun. But the ride through the city was great. IT IS SO GHETTO HERE. Everything is a piece of junk haha. I~m making it sound worse than it is. But there is a lot of poor areas and graffiti everywhere. The only nice buildings are owned by the church. Not really, but pretty much. The CTM is huge. It~s the largest church owned building outside the United States. I lived on the 6th floor and wasn~t allowed to use the elevator. It kind of stunk. We had one day of orientation and such. Then I met my companion, Elder Brody Stotts. He was super soft spoken but really nice. He had been in a tri companionship where he didn~t ever have to talk. So we worked pretty well together. Classes were taught by Brasileiro RM~s that spoke english pretty well. The classes were a lot more laid back here and honestly I didn~t learn as much here. I did learn a lot more about language I guess and I had two Brasileiros for roommates Elder Porto and Elder De Oliveira. It was really good to have so much interaction with Brasileiros. The food was vastly superior here than in Provo. I mean they only have to serve 280 missionaries as opposed to 2200 or more. So it was always some good meat and beans and rice. Pretty good. I got to go to the São Paulo temple once, but we weren~t allowed to take our cameras, sorry. It was super nice. And the rest of P day you were allowed to wander around the area of the CTM, since it was our last P day in the CTM we went to a churrascaria with our teachers. It was super good. Better that Tucanos and it was just a hole in the wall kind of place. Here the big meal is lunch, so dinner was always smaller, so they always had a snack everynight at 9 30. I always ate so much then. As a missionary you~re pretty much always hungry. It~s weird. Especially now with all the walking. I~ll get to that in a little bit. So then it was time to leave the CTM, I said goodbye to some friends going to other missions and hopped in a van with the other 17 missionaries going to São Paulo South and we took off. We drove for about 30 minutes then hopped off the van into a super cheque (chic, it~s pretty common word here) apartment building. Went up the elevator and the doors opened...... and it was the wrong mission president....... we were in Interlagos~s mission home. So after figuring everything out we went over to our mission home in an even nicer apartment building and met President and Sister Tanner. They are soooo awesome. Sister Tanner just looks like she is meant to be a general officer. Everything about her. President Tanner speaks Portugues super well and is so nice. We went through a bunch of orientation stuff. Not important. Got our credit card. Super important. Had an interview with the president and then we were off. Elder Stotts and I got to ride with the secreteries in a taxi to a chapel. It was about a 15 minute drive, and all of our trainers were there waiting for us. But we had to eat lunch and have a little more orientation before we found out who our new companion was. My companion is Elder Rafael Lobo. He~s a Brasileiro and only has 3 months on his mission (for a Brasileiro that~s two transfers in the field) and he is already training! Insane. He is super nice though. A good trainer and good worker. He isn~t so good with helping with the language. He really doesn~t understand where I~m at with the language and he always talks super fast and when he says something and I go huh? He just says it again just as fast. He doesn~t understand that it sounds super fast to me because it~s so normal for him. Also I don~t think he realizes how much we learn in the CTM. Usually it~s just one or two words that I don~t get but if I ask him what it means he tries to explain things like what a verb is to me. It~s pretty frustrating at times. We also live alone so I have no Americans to talk to. Which is probably good for the language. But we do see the other members of our district every once and a while. Like today. And it~s super nice to talk to them. Elder Platt is my DL and he has 1 year and 6 months already and speaks perfectly his companion Elder Brown only has 5 months and a month of that was spent in detroit. So we~re actually pretty close on a language basis. So Elder Lobo and I are opening this area which I haven~t told you about yet. Whoops. My first area is (drum rolllllll) Embaré Santos. Yup I~m on that little island that~s packed full of people. It~s actually a relatively small area but it~s the hottest one in the mission whoopie. It~s almost summer here and we~re already in the high 80~s. or 30 degrees celcius as they measure it here. If you look on a map of the island santos you~ll see canal~s are area is canal 3 to canal 5 and a little way back into the city. I don~t know if you~ll be able to find that. But if you want to that~s my area. Which means we cover the beach too. It looks so perfect on the beach. It~s got to be about 300 yards from the road to the water of perfect sand and beautiful sunshine. We need to come back here after the mission. Mom I don~t know how much you~ll like it. If we stay at the beach in the touristy areas I think you~ll be fine. But everything else is dirty and run down. I don~t think you~ll like it too much. You would cry if you saw my apartment. And ours apparently is a little nicer that most others. Too bad we~re getting kicked out December 1st. We were renting it for free from a sister in the ward. but she is going to start renting it out to someone else, so we need to find a new place to live. So let me go over a typical day. Wake up at 6 30. Roll out of bed and do some stretching, push ups, sit ups, things like that. Eat some cereal (which I used to hate but now it~s my breakfast every morning) take a shower. Get dressed. Study alone for an hour. Study with my commanion for an hour. Then study the language for an hour. Then we have 45 minutes to get everything we need. Maybe do some laundry or little chores. Then we have lunch in a members house everyday. It~s been super good everyday so far. Nothing super weird yet. I did have one fejoada (rice, beans and assorted meats) that had some shark in it, but you couldn~t even tell. You~re so hungry that everything tastes great. And they try to shove it down your throat. We have to eat a lot everytime. Which I don~t have a problem with. And to drink it~s usually juices which are SUPER good. But sometimes they have sodas, let me tell you one thing. Guaraná is disgusting. It~s the ¨drink of Brasil¨ and its gross. I don~t like most of their sodas. Even Sprite doesn~t taste good. I stick to juice and water mostly. It~s sad. I miss soda. I drink it if it~s all the offer though. Can~t be rude. So after lunch we have appointments with investigators and time to try and find new ones and visit members (since we~re opening the area, which means the two elders that were here before both left, we need to get to know everyone anew). During lessons and meals Elder Lobo does most of the talking. I try to every once and a while and I have my part in lessons and I~ve left the message after lunch a few times. But it~s really hard to converse with people. I thought my understanding was better than my speaking, but it~s the exact opposite. I can ´pretty much say what I want to say. But people speak so fast, and unclearly and with words I don~t know. It~s frustrating. That~s definitely the hardest thing so far. Is the language, everything else is good. After all the visist we have to back in the apartment by 9, we plan, we snack, we sleep. And that~s pretty much every day. I had my first encounter with JW~s! They spoke English too. It was sweet. They just wanted to talk about the Bible and I was like cool, so do we. And then we just talked a little bit and they wanted to make an appointment to talk more, but I politely refused because we didn~t have time or something like that. And we went our seperate ways. It~s probably bad that I wanted to argue more. I feel like I~m becoming quite the expert on the Bible and Book of Mormon with all the studying I do. And it~s not just reading, it~s actual studying now. It~s so great. Ummm I can~t think of any other crazy experiences yet. I think this area is pretty safe. So don~t worry mom. That~s my life up to now. 

 

So to request a few things. So here they don~t have deoderant in normal stick form. So if you could send maybe 6 sticks of old spice fresh. It should smell rather normal and plain. Nothing fancy. That would be great. Um I~m pretty sure I can get a copy of the Liahona here. We have about a million of the past ones in our apartment. And MUSIC, tons of music. Especially christmas would be sweet. The rules are lax in this mission. Anything that~s uplifting. Which means Disney is ok!!! So Disney music would be sweet. Oh and pictures of the family would be awesome. From the past. Now. Some of everyone would be great. I have a little flip book of my family that I share with most people we talk to. And I need more. Pictures of my baptism are good too. Things like that. Just a bunch of them. Oh and I don~t know why I dont have fitted sheets. But they would be nice too. I think I was dumb and didn~t want to bring them. That~s all the requests I have.

 

That~s almost all my time for this week. I~ll try and respond to questions and things a little better next week. I love you all. 

 

Elder Cameron Bruce 

November 18, 2011

We haven't heard from Elder Bruce this week.  Sure hope to hear something soon???
Cameron's Mom

November 11, 2011

Email isn~t working here the normal way. Just want you to know I~m doing good. I~ll try and send a better email soon. If not I~ll write next week.

November 2, 2011

Elder Bruce arrived safely in São Paulo this morning!  His mission president sent a group email to all the parents with a photo.  When I learn how to post a photo, I will add some ;-)  He will be able to email us next week on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Snail mail will probably not reach him before he leaves the MTC in mid November.  After that he should have an apartment address for letters.  In the meantime, if you want to send a Christmas card you can mail it to the mission office at the following address:


Elder Cameron Bruce
Missão Brasil São Paulo Sul
Rua Dr. Luiz da Rocha Miranda, 159 - 8° andar
04344-010 - São Paulo, SP - BRAZIL


It will take a few weeks to reach him so it's not too early to mail a card now!


Thanks for all your support friends ~
Cameron's MOM