Portuguese and Hair Clippers

This past week has been as tough as the first but I'm more adjusted to it now. The temple last Wednesday was incredible! I hardly understood anything but it was great haha. The temple in Campinas in really beautiful, its on a hill next to the city so we could see the whole city and another one in the distance. I'll send pics once I'm out of the CTM! We've had devotionals recently by Elder Bednar, Christofferson, President Ballard, and Soares. They haven't been in person but they've been great. I'm so glad to have the true priesthood authority on the earth today and hear so easily from those incredible men. 

Portuguese is coming along... I can teach lessons with my companion with a 3x5 cards worth of notes and hold a small talk conversation fairly easily. Everyone in my district can also pray in Portuguese without any notes. It's really cool. The language is tough but it's coming along and every small improvement is great. I've set a goal to memorize 50 words and 10 phrases a day and be functionally fluent 2 months from now (lessons without notes and can small talk well).

This past Sunday night I went to cut my hair but my power converter wasn't working so I used my companions but it just converted the outlet, not power so my hair cutters got super hot and started smoking after a minute... luckily I wasn't too far into my haircut hahaha. Hopefully they sell power converters here or have hair cutters I can buy here for cheap. The CTM is tough but great. I love you all! esta igreja e a verdade e eu sei que Deus ama todos pessoas da terra. eu acredito que o livro de mormon e a verdade e ajuda voces vida. tchau! (Translation by Scott: This church is the truth and I know that God loves all people on the earth. I believe that The Book of Mormon is true and can help your life. Bye!)
-Elder Anderson

These pictures were sent to me (Tyler's mom) by another missionary mom on FB. Her son is in Tyler's district and has a wifi camera so the pictures download instantly to her computer. Tyler has a regular camera and they can't sent pictures from the Brazil MTC (called CTM in Portuguese). Anyway, these are the first and only pictures I have of Tyler so far! He looks great!

First full week in the MTC (or CTM as it's called in Brazil)

Family and friends,

I thought football was hard. I thought working 40 hour weeks was hard. I thought waking up at 4:45 for work was hard. The mtc trumps them all. The constant busyness, tons of things to remember and memorize, constant pressure on yourself to keep up and do better and having no free time is killer. Every minute of the day is spent studying the gospel, language, or eating. There's not much else that happens  here. its been a lot to handle but at the same time its great. The people and instructors are incredible. Devotionals are great and church in Portuguese is cool. We have been given so much to do over the past few days. There are around...

120 words

50 phrases

4 scriptures or passages

to memorize in our first ten days. On top of that, we have to be learning the lessons in Portuguese, be having conversations with Brazilians when possible, and setting our own additional goals on top of that. Sunday we were supposed to have completed a survey about how we were handling stress etc. and none of the 20 people in our arrival group had completed it! The leader (from the branch presidency) told us to repent and do better. It was not fun to hear. There is a lot to stay on top of but you have to be able to handle it and stay in control of it all. 

My companion is elder Skinner. He's 20 and did 2 years at byu before coming out. He said he needed to work on his testimony so he waited before leaving. He's done a ton of duo lingo and his vocab is incredible. He can speak and understand better than anyone in our group. We're getting along well. An elder in my district was in a car wreck 2 days before reporting to the mtc and had a concussion but still came. He hadn't been doing well and felt pretty bad so all the elders in the district gave him a blessing which was great and fasted yesterday\today for him. He seems to be doing better.

Reading pmg and the bom a couple times along with going out with the elders helped give me a good head start. Tchau!

-Elder Anderson

CTM!

The airport and everything went well! I expected 5-6 missionaries but there were 22 in ATL! It was really cool. The flight was delayed cause of mechanical stuff but we didnt wreck so we were good haha. Mom, I met Elder Rhodes! He´s cool and we`re rooming together but not companions. Elder Marrow (From EFY) is also in my room but not my companion. I havent met my comp yet. Brazil is cool! the roads are packed and theres a ton of motorcycles haha. I am good! If you want to see a pic of everyone, search `centro de trinamento missionario - brasil´ into facebook and you should find one! I Love you guys! Ill be able to email again Tuesday but im not sure at what time. 

No falo portuguese (yet!)

- Elder Anderson