Email 2/17/09

From: Bryan Barney
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Hello one and all! Good news! I was not transferred, so my address is the same! You may all continue sending letters like normal for the next six weeks. I'm staying here with Elder Eliason, which is really good news. We've gotten close, and I wasn't ready to leave him just yet. We don't have any major plans for today, except trying to figure out how to get the Baptismal pictures off his camera. He has a cord to help me, he just doesn't know where it is.

Mara's mom is the parent with whom she lives, and she's not exactly our antagonist, so much as she's just not wanting to let her daughter out of town during Carnaval. Which happens to be this week! What adventures will Elder Eliason and I have this week? We see some interesting things every day around here. Have I told you we have a tree near our house full of bats? Adventures. Every. Day. Haha.

Elder Eliason and I speak Portuguese more or less 79% of the time. I am improving, though, every day. I've already given two talks here in ala Tibery, 1 for 10, and 1 for 5. Speaking of Sunday, we got up at around 615, because we had to pick someone up, but when that fell through, we just rode the bus to church because it was raining so hard. So we got the chapel all open and clean and ready, and then sat down to wait. Come 9, no one was there, and we were a little worried. Our ward has no bishop, and the 1st counselor was taking a test that day, so we called the Pres. of the Elder's Quorum and found out that it was day light savings, and we we'd arrived at church at 7, not 8!

Pão de Queijo is a little hard to describe. The description they give reads: "Irresistible bread of cheese, prepared with the best parmesan cheese, in a mixture of ideal ingredients. Always a little hot and a little fresh."

It's like a bun with a gooey, cheesy inside, only not like cheesy in the normal American Taco Bell sense. It's made with a flour that's made with a type of potato only found here in Brazil, so it isn't so easy to make/get stateside.

TRY MARACUJÁ if you get the chance. It's Bom Demais!

The heat does dry things when it happens to be DRY. Unfortunately, it's summer AND RAIN season, so it tends to be hot and wet a lot.

Well, it's good to know Katie is enjoying having her own space, I suppose. It's true the room will likely need a good rough scrubbing, but hey, who didn't expect that? My room is probably pretty messy and dusty these days. I'm afraid I really did not have the chance to clean well before my mission. I've become pretty obsessed over keeping my things neat and clean here, though, so maybe when I come home the habit will stay. I certainly hope so. Just thinking about that room makes me shivver.

I have to split now. I need to send a quick letter to Matt. I love you mom, and thank you for the time, and the mail. Tell my friends thanks for the pictures, too. I live in the same place, so mail can continue to come to Rua Paris.

Love, Bryan.