September 15, 2009-Email #4

Hey, family and friends,
This week was a great one. My companion and I have been working on our Portuguese and yesterday, we taught the first lesson in Portuguese. We get to teach to a Brazilian family on Saturday as like a progress tester and I feel pretty confident bout it. We went to the Sao Paulo Temple again today and it was as amazing looking to me as ever. I love it. This language is great, we got two new Brazilian companions in our room and I have been able to have some pretty good conversations with them about things. I still have to make some hand gestures but its okay, they understand. Thanks for all the letters this week, too guys. Shelly I did get that card from you. I still have more than all the other people in my district. Sister Hummel sent me letters from all of the seminary students, so my total jumped up from that too. KK thanks a bunch for the Mr. Cheney's certificate, I really appreciate it.
I have been reading the book, Jesus the Christ,(out of the set of books I was given), it is amazing. I have read 274 pages since last Wednesday. It has really helped me gain an even stronger testimony of Christ. The weekly devotional that is usually tonight has been moved to Thursday night, some people think that might mean we are going to be getting a General Authority or someone to speak, but I don't know. We have had the Sao Paulo Sur, and Sao Paulo Oeste Mission presidents speak this last week and they all have amazing stories, which I have written in my notebook/journal. I am still having a great time here and the food is good still. We had some the other day that was totally nasty, but the beans and rice were still good that day so it helped a lot. I really enjoyed it. I have been drinking lots of water, Sunkist, and grape juice, my 3 favorite drinks that they have here. Breakfast gets boring because it is ham and cheese sandwiches everyday. Sometimes cereal or pancakes, but it is not that great. I am really thankful for that last pancake breakfast nana made for me a little before I left, I just imagine eating that every morning when eating the boring food. Pizza night is still great, the regular pizza like cheese and pepp. tastes nasty, the weird stuff is what tastes good here. I guess just how they cook it. But I am not going to complain, I like the food. One Brazilian said that Sao Paulo Norte has the best food (he was from there) and that it is so much better than CTM food....I am really looking forward to that. Well I was a little sick this week, but got some medicine and am better now, so nothing to worry about. We are going out to eat with one of our teachers today, he is hilarious, he just got back from his mission 5 months ago. Our other teacher had a bad experience this week. He drove his car home and as the garage was closing, 4 guys with guns told him to get out and take them into the house to his sage(his family has no safe), so they tie up him, his dad, mom, sister, aunt, and friend, and they steal almost everything in their house. They were really mean until they found out that they had the wrong house and this family was religious. They in all stole about 100,000 REALS worh of stuff. Plus two cars. The mom told one theif (in the name of Jesus Christ I command you not to steal that laptop computer) and he hid it and told her not to tell the other guys that he didn't steal it. Our teacher said that this experience really strengthened his testimony, but he was so mad his car and everything was stolen. Plus he has been trying to have enough money to get married to his girlfriend, but now this has set him back, so they are upset about it, they live in different cities in Brazil. Well that is all I have time for right now. I love you all so much and miss you, I really appreciate you guys sending me letters and e-mails, have a great week.
Love, Elder Caldwell

LETTER SENT TO ME AFTER THE ONE ABOVE:
I love and miss all you guys, keep going strong.... Oh, also, I just ate at an all you can eat buffett.....I had armadillo, chicken hearts, wild boar, cow skin/fat, massive beef ribs, sausage, beans with rice, fries, and rolls. Ha, it was so good. They cook it and jusst keep throwing stuff on your plate. It was great, though sounded nasty. Well, I love you, mom, keep strong and have a great week. I love you. Love, Chase