Monday, February 20, 2012

Week Ten - Finally in Belem!

 Wow!  I can't tell you how long it seemed since we got his last e-mail!  Talk about time dragging!  We got a wonderful surprise this morning and finally got Tom's first e-mail from Belem.  It sounds like he likes it there and likes his companion, which is a huge relief!  And, he's still eating beans - such a funny kid!  We are so proud of him and all of the new things he is being brave about trying and doing.  This is going to be a great adventure!

Hello Everyone!
     I hope everyone is still doing good, staying safe, not having any problems, and not missing me too much! Monday is P-day out here in the field so that is when you should start expecting e-mails now. Since I wasn´t able to e-mail last week I have a lot to say, so I hope I can remember it all.
     In the last week of the MTC we had an Elder, from Provo, join us, Elder Funk, and he was really cool. He instantly got a long with everyone and he is just a really nice guy with a very strong testimony. All the Brazilians laugh at his name because Funk, in Brazil, is a not so good type of music that is kinda inappropriate, and they told him if he was going to Rio de Janeiro, which he is not, he would receive a lot of attention. Pretty funny what a name can do. The night before my district and I left for the mission field was special. We all said good bye, one last time, and a lot of uplifting thoughts about each other were shared. I am kinda missing my district out here in the field. They were all such cool people, and I felt like I already knew all of them within the first 5 minutes of meeting them.
     Anyways, the flight to Belém was okay. We got up at 4 in the morning, left for the airport at 4:45, and were on our way at about 7. We first flew to Brasilia, which looked really cool. You could see lots of trees out in the distance and a bunch of high rises popping out of them in all directions. We then left for Belém at about 10 or so and arrived somewhere between 12 and 1 I think. I didn´t get a window seat on either flight, but thats okay because I think it was cloudy the whole way there so you couldn´t see anything anyways.
     Belém is pretty cool though. I think I like it a little more than São Paulo. It is nice to finally be out of the MTC. When we arrived, we first went to the Mission President´s home, which is the 18th floor of a super nice hotel. You could see all of belém and the jungle across the river from there. We had lunch there, which was... okay. I tried some lasagna(?), but I didn´t like it much. The ice cream was good though. After lunch, we went to the church office of Belém, had our interview with the president, and learned where in the state of Pará we would serve. My MTC companion, Elder Fox, and one of my roommates, Elder De la Cruz, are serving in cities about 10 hours up the river, so the get to take a nice long boat ride. Another, Elder Hoch, is serving in Macapá, which is even closer to the equator than Belém. Elder Kaufman is serving in the outskirts of Belém, called Helama, I think, where they have two main, cement roads, and the rest are dirt. And Elder Shaw and I are serving within the city of Belém.
     After we found out where we are serving, we met our new companions, Elder Reis, who is really cool and very helpful. We went back to the President´s place, had a small presentation, some really good cake, and left for our apartments. Ours is tiny. It is the second floor of an old lady´s house. You go up some steep stairs to the first room, our study room, with a super thin hall, that only one person can fit through at a time, going straight back, with 3 small rooms on the right and a teeny tiny kitchen at the end. The place is small, but its nice and I kinda like it.
     Belém has a number of high rises in the center but I think I am serving on the south end of the city, close to the river, and it is mostly just small, kinda run down houses. The people here are nice and willing to talk. We have lunch at member´s houses and it is usually pretty good, they have stuff I can eat. I am trying to eat a lot more stuff now. I don´t like all of it, especially the beans, but I am eating it.
    I did receive the letters from you guys and the valentine´s day package. Thank you very much for those, I really enjoyed the letters and the candy! :) I did not receive anything from Grandma and Grandpa Pratt through Mr. Cheyney´s, sorry :(, so yeah, see if they can send it to the mission home here.
    Glad to hear David is doing better and thats awesome that he got to meet Thurl. He´s soooo tall!! And its also awesome that you guys only had one loss in church ball this season! good job guys! I don´t think I know who David´s friend is, that just left for his mission, but where he is going sounds really cool.
    Thanks for the news. Sad to hear about Whitney Houston. Cool to hear that Dad sold the van and burb. I hope you made some good money off of it. It´s also kinda sad too, though. I´m going to miss takin´ the burb to St. George. Thanks for offering to send more stuff. I think I can find all that I need down here, so don´t worry about sending stuff from home. Thanks for the tip on the powder stuffs. I haven´t even started using the stuff I have yet but I will remember what you said. Also some other good news: I now have an hour to e-mail instead of a half hour!! Isn´t that just great? And pictures... I can´t go to any site on the web other than myldsmail, so I don´t think I can send them through the Costco thing, but I will ask my companion what he does to send pictures home and try to get them to you next week.
    I love you all and miss you a lot!!! I can´t wait to e-mail you guys again! I am praying for all of you! Have a great week everyone! TCHAU!!
                                  Love Elder Williams

No comments:

Post a Comment