August 14, 2012

{Elders at the Campinas temple}

I'mma try to write this as fast as possible, because time is always slim, and pday is super super short today, and I've got a LOT this time to talk about! :)

First and foremost, the mission ties letter you sent me today (Tuesday) arrived saying it had some pictures, and to enjoy them....'cept there were no pitchas! So you know, I sent a few pictures via mission ties your way, i got a couple sweeet pictures of São Paulo, from the view in my bedroom, hope you like what you see! The other picture is of my two first Portuguese-speaking roommates, Elder Santos from Cape Verde, Africa, the other from São Paulo, Elder Fontes. Such good guys! Put those pictures on facebook!

Thanks for the letter, ma, it's good to hear things are moving along (if extremely stressfully!), keep going! Love y'all so much! Good luck getting into the new house:) Also, THANK YOU for the airport picture of us siblings, I've been wanting a good picture of my family to show people, because the Brazilian elders especially ask to see family pictures a lot. Part of it's because they're thinking way ahead, seeing which elders have good-looking sisters they can marry when they get back and go to America :)

So! Turns out a lot can happen in a week! This week, I witnessed for the first time an elder getting his break-up letter, the big "Dear John," as we know it. I wouldn't even talk about it, except the poor fellow had only been in the MTC for two weeks when he got it. So, it also turns out that mail takes 1-2 weeks to get down here, which also means that she wrote it...days after he'd left. Dang! Women...sheesh :)

But on the upside, things are staying pretty dang trippin' here! Got some new Brazilian roomies, and they're both pretty legit! I also, this last week, shined my SHOES for the first time, ON MY OWWWWWN! Yeah buddy! They looked soooo good! I will admit that I had a legitimately cocky strut after that. I ALSO sewed my first button! YEAAAHHHH! Not gonna lie, it feels good to be independent. ;)

In a week's time, the 4-part choir is getting together again for another AWESOME song, and it's sooo beautiful. The song is called, "The Prayer of the Children." It was written, basically, about the starving, enslaved children in various parts of Africa, and it's easily the most powerful song I've heard. Look it up! You'll love it. The thing is, I personally think our version is more beautiful! I nearly cried the first time we sang it, I won't lie! :)

Also...my district is completely crazy. Absolutely crazy. This week one of the departing sisters dropped her notebook off in our district's room so we could write stuff in it, like a yearbook, and write adorable little notes like HAGS (have a great summer) and such. I wrote a decently nice note to send her off, and of course...someone in the district went all middle school on me, conned me into using my pen to, "write her a note," and managed to slide a love poem, IN MY HANDWRITING, right below my note as a P.S. Yeah, classy. SOOO she wrote a poem BACK the next day (yesterday). I tried to convince her the note wasn't me, to limited avail. Well, she's gone now, so it's irrelevent now, so all's well that ends well. :)

Alright, gotta fly, love y'all like crazy!

Elder Reneer