Email - 4/20/10

Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 7:10 AM

It finally started to rain again in Anapolis! We passed almost two weeks without any rain here, and let me tell you, it got to be pretty darn dry here. I don´t know which was worse, walking around down-town with the blazing pavement and the glass from the buildings reflecting, or wandering the jungle at the edge of town with all that freaking jungle heat.

This week, we got the Swine-Flu Shot! Yay! Now I can´t die from it! It was actually pretty cool. All over town there are tiny little neighborhood hospitals, right, as if this were a Korean Drama and you could carry your soon-to-be girlfriend on your shoulders to the hospital, and during the week they did a campaign to innoculate the greatest number possible of persons from 20-29 years of age, so we went and got our shots, and I didn´t even cry!

The nurses also had a lot of fun as soon as they saw my documents and found out I was an American. I guess they could tell I wasn´t sure if my documents would count, and joked around with me, telling me that I´d have to fill out a bunch of forms, haha.

Well, until now, I haven´t received my package. We´ve got all this week, next week, and the week after next for it to arrive, then it´s transfer time again. Funny how quickly transfers come now adays, huh? When I started my mission, they would take FOREVER, and now it´s like a blink. Granted that the April-May transfer is always the 5 week transfer, but hey, what can you do?

I? Catch someone? Never! Catching is for Pokémon. I only fish, not catch, people. I´m only saying, it´s important to take a night of the week, sit down, and talk about the gospel. I believe that doing that, we can all strengthen ourselves far more in the gospel. It was one of the things I most observed during this last general conference.

I talked with Sister Tobias about it, and she says it´s more likely my eyes are just being irritated because of the dryness, and that I only need to buy a certain medicine. I will have to get new glasses, but since it´ll only be a year in June, and I come home in October, there´s no real reason for me to renew on the mission, unless it becomes really bad.

Hey, when I get home, the harvest will be pretty much over, huh? You´ll have to can some stuff because I´m seriously dying to eat a dinner that isn´t rice, beans, spaghetti, tomato salad, fried beef, chicken, with the occasional mashed potatos. Not that I don´t like Brazilian food, nor that it´s ALWAYS the same, in fact, I really, really do like rice with beans, and could honestly go the rest of my days eating the two (provided variations were made), but seriously, no matter how much you focus in the work, and lose yourself in the Lord, and put off the Natural Man, NO MAN ESCAPES THE LONGING FOR MOM´S COOKING.

Funny that the title of that movie really doesn´t translate. "The Middle of the World" in Portuguese is "O Meio do Mundo" and "O Caminho das Nuvens" Is "The Way of the Clouds". But I bet the film probably wasn´t too great. Brazilians are the first to admit they put more effort into their "Novellas" than films.
I dunno if I´ll sound like a Brazilian when I get home. It´s funny, actually, there are a lot of people who tell me I speak well enough to fool most people, especially since, for an American, I don´t look the part (Brazilian conception of how an American looks: Colin or Matt, not Bryan. Or rather, Blonde hair, Blue eyes, pale skin, and, preferably tall as well. None of this dark hair, brown eyes. Add in the tan I gained down here, I don´t look one bit like most people think an american looks.) The problem is that, when I speak quickly, I wind up confusing a lot of sounds and words. I have a decent knowledge of how to speak, but pronunciation is one of the hardest parts.

Hey, wait a minute, Katie has dark hair. As far as I remember, her husband does, too. How come this kid is blonde? Oh silly Barney family genetics!


Tomorrow Élder Russel M. Nelson, Élder Claúdio M. Costa, and Stanley G. Ellis are going to be in Goiania, and we´re going to be there! I´m super excited. It isn´t every mission in the world that receives three general authorities in one week! I can´t wait to be there and see and hear from them. It´s going to be so great.

We´re running around like crazy ducks today to get everything ready. To have the van in order, to have our Zone ready, to have all our clothes and papers and scriptures all neat and tidy so that, tomorrow, we can receive a prophet in the quality of a prophet.

This is gonna be an awesome week.

Love,

Bryan