So I~m going to answer the short answer questions first. I did not get to watch the First Presidency Message so if you would like to send the talks that would be sweet.
I wish I could have been at the festival of choirs. To be honest the ward sounds terrible here when they sing. It~s hilarious. I don~t think anyone is really into it. And the piano is a little electric one like ours and it~s not very loud so it can cover up the voices and you can~t really hear the melody well. Also there are less people. All around it~s just a little rough. But it~s still fun.
We sing at meetings and other things like that but never really on our own. Sometimes one of will just start singing something while walking. But that~s about it. And we always have music on in the apartment so I sing along to that too, and Elder Lobo tries to sing English. It~s pretty funny when he tries to speak English, but then I feel bad because I realize my accent is probably just as bad. At this point my accent is the least of my worries though, I just want to understand and be understood. The accent will just have to come on its own.
I think there will be a ward Christmas Party in a week or so, I~m not sure. Things here are just slightly less organized. But it sounds like it was quite the party in Lacey 3rd ward. Side note, any ounce of pickiness is already gone. Pretty much everything sounds wonderful now. Except when members try to scare me about some of the crazy things people put in some fejoadas (rice, beans, and whatever the cook wants). From eyes to intestines. I~ve heard a lot but have yet to see anything even close. I think you have to get out in the country a little more to run into those things.
So I asked for Brandons address thinking I would send packages. But then I realized it~s expensive and difficult. All the missionaries say that the two best ways to get things home are to take them with you when you return, or send them with another missionary that~s going home. So I~m sorry that I probably won~t be sending any packages home. Just letters. And when you send packages, they told us to tell you to never mark the package as having more than 50 dollars worth of contents. And to be very general about what is inside, most people just write religious material. Those were the two suggestions Sister Tanner gave us.
So the phone call home will be one of two things. I have heard that we can use skype!!! Elder Lobo wants to confirm that with President first but I~m pretty sure it~s ok. So I can call you on Skype for free. Since there is a 6 hour difference, I can call in the afternoon, we can talk, I can watch some opening of presents, and it~ll be just like I~m there! If that doesn~t work, the second best option is for you to buy a call card and for me to give you a members number to call, that way it doesn~t cost the member anything. And we just set up a time and you call the number that I give you. Next week I hope to have everything planned out and I~ll give you the back up number.
Every companionship has a cell phone. It~s pretty basic. We have unlimited calls to other missionaries in our zone. But only 65 minutes for non missionary numbers every 25 days. It~s a little tough.
My area is pretty small so I don~t really ever ride the bus, and Santos doesn~t have a subway. I was on a division (an overnight exchange) with my Zone Leader for 3 days, while the other Zone Leader and Elder Lobo searched for a new house. And his area is the second biggest in the mission so we rode the bus a bit. I hear that it~s more common to ride the bus up in Sao Paulo though. My feet are doing fine now. I think they just needed to be broken in a bit.
We found one but the papers are taking a little while to go through. We~ll move this week for sure. I~ll get you the address.
By the way my address was wrong last week. I think I said 635, but it~s 645. Or vice versa. Either way it~s not what I said last week. Sorry.
So about the food. Every day except P~day we eat at a members house for lunch. Pretty much every meal consists of rice, beans (normally brown, but not always), and some form of meat. Sometimes there is also pastas, potatoes, and salad. The rice and beans are always there as a steady back up. If you didn~t love the other options you just throw more rice and beans on your plate and eat. They also always have a sobremesa (dessert) usually it~s just ice cream, but they also have this thing that is like flan that I~m not a huge fan of. We also do some grocery shopping but since we are still in our old apartment I haven~t really stocked it. I don~t want to have to deal with moving it all. So I~ve been holding off on that a little. One thing that I have bought a lot of though are cookies. At least that~s what they call them. They are kind of like oreos in that they have cream in the middle with two hard "biscuit" outsides. They come in tubes. They have about a million different types. Everyone eats them. If you~re going to have a snack you buy cookies. I eat at least one sleeve a day. When I come home, I~m packing my smaller suitcase full of them.
As far as a talk on Marriage and Family, all I have to say is that I feel so blessed to have been born in a family that was bound by the Holy Priesthood for eternity. I~ve already seen many sad stories here where families have been torn apart or destroyed because they don~t have the same foundation in the gospel that we are blessed to have. Also I would like to say that nothing makes you more excited or prepared for marriage than a mission. Many of the talks we hear are directed to marriage. I~ve learned how important it is to find a worthy companion to be sealed to for time and all eternity. There is no better place to start a family than in the Temple.
So I also learned that buying a soccer jersey right now isn~t the smartest idea. Often you can trade with Brasileiros for them. And also they are the most expensive now at the end of the soccer season. So I~ll wait a little while for that. I looked at one and it cost 190 reais. I think that~s about 100 dollars so I think I~ll wait and do some more searching.
I have ten more minutes so I~ll tell you about somethings that have happened. So yesterday was the last day in the regular season for Brasilian soccer. So they don~t have playoffs, it~s just whoever has the most points at the end of the year wins. So in order to win Corithians just needed to tie. So everyone was going crazy yesterday and we basically got nothing accomplished because no one wanted to talk to us. We went to a members house for a while and even they were watching the game. We stayed in there home for a little after the game too, because it was a little crazy outside with all the drunk people celebrating. But after a little while we went to another members house (because contacts with drunk people don~t really count, I think part of the criteria is that they have to remember meeting the missionaries) and we had hot dogs, in buns, with ketchup!!! It was great. They are pretty big fans of the US. They have a son that lives in Maryland, and they went on a big trip to Historic Church sites in the states. I like talking to them about their experiences.
So I just remember something about Christmas here. Everyone decorates there house with the same little Santa~s. They have these little santas that look like they are climbling ladders or ropes or hanging from ledges to try and get into their house. EVERYONE HAS THEM. It~s kind of ridiculous. But it~s still funny.
So if you ever send another package, some things that I would like are just things that don~t exist in Brasil. Like Root Beer concentrate, mapleine (maple concentrate for making maple syrup), peanut butter. I don~t know if there was anything more I had thought of. I think that~s it. Well I should be going now. Tchau. Te amo.
Elder Cameron Bruce
