Elder Dallin Shurts: My First Week in Brazil

Hey mom, I can~t figure out how to make a giant email for everyone without taking up too much time!! Unfortunately, I don~t have much time, and they really regulate the amount of time I get to spend on the email here in the Brazil mtc. Also, I can~t send any pictures from here for some reason. I can receive them all I want, but I can~t send anything. and it the email seems weird, that~s because I~m typing from a Portuguese keyboard. which is kinda trippy!!! Oh, and I~ve been super super busy!! Like so busy, that I have no time to write in my journal!! I've only been able to get to the first day here, because at night, I get to my room at 945, then I have to do all my chores and stuff! So its a little stressful. So I still have to catch up on two days here in Brazil. I fell asleep on the plane, and had to worry about immigration forms and stuff at the end, which was a little stressful. but I got through all right without anything too scary. I do have to go to the police station though later today to register myself here for the next two years. After that, then I'm officially in the green. Everyone here speaks Portuguese, and very little English!! So its really hard to understand anything. But its good for me. Next Pday, I promise to have been caught up on my journal. There's a lot to write about here in Brazil! The mtc is jsut one big building, and our room is on the sixth floor. Way high up. and the windows don't have screens either!! which I though seemed a little dangerous!! haha, because I look out the window and there's a sheer drop for 6 stories down to the bottom! The mtc here is really nice though. And I learned that there are 20 million people in this city, and there are only 2 million in Porto Alegre. So I~ll be going to a much less populated part of town.

Oh! and I can receive mail here apparently. It just takes two weeks to get here. So you can still send me some mail for a little while longer.

And I~m going to type out responses to everyone elses emails later this week at night after I have gone through all the emails! It~s been great though! Ive been fed like a king here, half the time I don't even know what I'm eating. haha, but I eat it anyway, because its really good! It also so hard to remember everything I want to say. We are also able to go outside of the mtc and explore a little during our pdays! which I excited for. Sometimes it feels like a prison here, because we never ever leave the the building. but over all, the mtc is super great! I love it here, and am excited to tell you more next week.

Oh, and I sent you my journal!! haha

Love Elder Shurts