September 22, 2009 Week Five.....

Hey, everyone. Good week for me. I hope you all have had great weeks. So our devotional speaker on Thursday was the founder and owner of the airline company Jet Blue. It was a really good talk. He talked to us about his mission he served in Brazil. (oh his company also has a big airline in Brazil also) He speaks both Portuguese and English. He just says to focus on the work here 1,000 percent and to do your best. Take advantage of the study time I have now at the CTM because I will be wanting that in a few weeks whenever we are in the field. Saturday at 9:45 we did our teaching practice with the Brazilians and I thought that it went great. We were the only companionship in our district to answer all the guys questions and make it all the way through the lesson within the time limit, all in Portuguese. We had to start with a practice door greeting and had to get into the house(classroom) in order to teach them. We had a big microphone hanging in front of our faces and a camera pointing at us from the top of the room directly in front of us, so after we taught, we went and watched how we did. The first time our instructor Irmao Alexandre watched my companion and I and said we did excellent. I did not realize we knew as much Portuguese as we actually did. It went very well and was great. I can understand a lot more when reading but am getting to the point that I recognize most of the words that are spoken in Portuguese. They sound simialar to English words and Spanish words that mean the same thing so it is not too difficult. I still wish I could learn it faster, but our Branch President told us that we will all be fluent in 3-5 months. Since once we are in the field you pretty much have to speak Portuguese. This Friday is the day that we go proslyting(walk around the neighborhood and try to get appointments and potential investigators for the missionaries that are in the field to teach and place Livros de Mormon) I think it will be fun, yet at the same time I am pretty nervous about doing it. It is easy to go to the store and buy stuff and ask questions. Some words I think in Portuguese I do not even think of the English word for it, I just naturally know what it is. Looking at a book, I think livro now, do not even call it a book. So today we went to the Temple again in Sao Paulo, it is such a beautiful temple. Anyways, I got into a conversation with a temple worker in Portuguese, he asked what mission I was going to and then said that he had been a temple worker for 11 years in Sao Paulo, and a member for 30 years. He has 6 kids and all 20 members of his family are members of the church. He was a very happy man and smiled a lot, it was fun to talk to him. I love talking to the Brazilians here about soccer. It is hilarous, not all of them like soccer, most like either the LA Lakers or the San Antonio Sours, or basketball. The ones that like soccer are fun to talk to because I know a bunch about soccer so it makes for some pretty good conversations. There are 3 big rival teams here in the Sao Paulo area and so everyone is a fan of one of the three and they do not like any of the other teams, its funny. The instructors always try to talk the missionaries into supporting the team that is their favorite. I learned some more Portuguese words and phrases this week, as usual and re-read some of Jesus the Christ and finished it, then started reading in Our Search for Happiness. Great books. The Brazilians are always asking my companion and I if we are related, like brothers or cousins or something, because they think we look alike, and then we are both from Texas (which we tell them is the best state ever). I ran into Elder Hurst the other day (mom) and talked with him for a few minutes. We are a few weeks ahead of him, because he got here late with the Visa thing. But he said his mom had told him to look for me. Well, that is about it for this week. I love you guys and hope all is well. My week was great. I hope you have a great one this week as well.
Love,
Elder Chase Caldwell