Temple Visit in Sao Paulo

I'm really happy with my district, everyone gets along, but my companion is tone deaf. What are the odds I would get two tone deaf companions exactly? The language is getting easier and I'm thinking in Portuguese.  The world cup is being hosted by Brazil this year and Manaus is one of the cities where the games will be played, so I will have nothing to do for a solid week but sit in the apartment and read the scriptures.

The most terrifying thing about Brazil is the roads. There are no rules! You just go whichever way you want. You want to walk across the freeway? Go ahead. How about bumping the car in front to speed them up? No problem. You want to park parallel touching the car in front and back, after all, there are no lines. It makes for very interesting travel to the temple. The temple, by the way, is incredible. Most of the time I have to use head phones, but they did an English session for us Americans.  The chandelier in the celestial room is amazing.

There is a missionary song I really like, but it's only in the Portuguese hymnal. It's very spirited and listening to the other missionaries sing it is beautiful.

Hope all is well, tudo bem.

Elder Willard

Already out on the Street

It is so weird here in CTM. There are so few missionaries. There are thirty something Americans so it's very different whereas everyone in Provo wanted to be your friend and talk to you nobody here can so you're kind of lonely.

All the Brazilians come and leave within ten or so days so our numbers go from 150 to 60 on a weekly basis. My companion is a very strange person, he's equal parts Guatemalan, German, and Mexican. He’s speaks fluent Spanish so he has no trouble with Portuguese. Our teachers don't speak English, but we can understand them for the most part. The weirdest thing by far is the heat, I don't feel it! It can be 30 degrees Celsius and I won't feel warm at all, it's crazy!

We went out on our third day here to proselyte on the street with our district and it was surreal I felt scared, excited, intimidated, and confident all at the same time. I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the book of Mormon to a man who said the he had a copy but hadn't read it and I gave him Moroni's challenge.

We went to the temple this morning and had a great time. The temple is right next to the road so the sound of cars thundering along is so loud until you close the door and you can't hear a thing. We just forgot about the world. We visited the distribution center near the temple and I got a little Hinos (hymnal) for three dollars and a pocket size biblia sagrada for 1.25. I don't want to buy anything because I’m very worried about the weight issue. 

They have peanut butter here which I didn't expect and a lot of American things, so if anyone wants to send me a package, don't, just put some money on my card. One of my fellow district members mentioned google hangout which is like a multi-person Skype function in google+. So maybe we could coordinate and I could see Katie and Howard and the family all at the same time. I haven't had any emergencies and I’m still in one piece.

 Sincerely,

Elder Willard

Arrived in Sao Paulo

Frazier has arrived, safe and sound, in Sao Paulo at the MTC for three more weeks of training.