One week wiser and older too. Well, I guess that's debatable. The end of this week marks half way at the MTC, and you might say I'm pretty anxious to get out of this place and start sharing the gospel with my Brazilian borthers and sisters. That is until I go outside and look like a fool. Actually this week wasn't bad, it was actually rather uneventful. Basically I just got some cookies and that was it. As far as the learning is going, I'm can pretty weel understand like 60 to 70 percent of what I hear and I can actually formulate sentences now. My goal is to be able to give the whole first lesson in Portuguese by next week so we'll see how that goes. My companion did it so there's hope. Just a cool story from the week, One of the Brazilian sister missionaries that I was practicing my first lesson with told me about her conversion story. It was pretty incredible, she didn't have any friends in the church or anything but she had a dream about the church and she sought it out herself. I can already feel the increadible faith of the people here and it's pretty amazing. Well times short but, for all those dying to send me letters I'll put my address. Elder Matthew Bangerter,Missao Brazil Recife, Rua Padre Antonio d'Angelo, 121, Casa Verde, Sao Paulo-SP, 02516-040. Look forward to the overflowing mail box! - love Elder Bangster( that's what my teacher called me.
It's been a really great week with tons of new learning experiences for sure! We now have three Brazilian roommates which is pretty awesome for obvious reasons. It's so much easier to practice the language when it's in your face. I'm still working on doing the whole first lesson in Portuguese but I'm really so much closer now than I was last week. I'm really getting to the point where I can formulate sentences in my head without memorizing them which is pretty fun I do say so myself. I know the Lord will help me with the language if I do my part. Funny quote of the week from my little brazilian sister teacher who speaks very little english"Elder Begeder, if you go home, I will kill you!" Pretty funny. That is so stinkin awesome about Doug, I'd love to see the announcement sometime. Give them my best, I wish I could be there and I've gotta hear the proposal story, I expect nothing but the best! I did get the pictures, thanks so much. The car looks so awesome, I hope you enjoy it, I'm glad you can have a car thats fun for you. Thanks also to Crystal, those pictures of Brent are awesome, I miss that kid to death. Also that's so cool about Brent talking.I look forward to the pictures you are sending. As far as the scripture goes, sorry I forgot last week, I ran out of time. I was thinking Hebrews 13:1 would be a good one. The food here is pretty good most days. I've learned to just mix it all together. Luckily I've finally hit a wall and my weight is no longer climbing at catastrophic speeds. Something cool for James, I met an Elder hear who knew you in Manaus. Not as a missionary but just as a member. His name is Rafael Azeudo Anrade, and he is way cool! Also I learned the other pen flick so don't worry my time as a missionary has been extremely productuive! This week for the devotional, we watched a talk given by Elder Holland a few weeks ago that was pretty incredible. His main point was that we must never step away from the discipleship that we pledge ourselves to here. I wish i could talk about the whole thing but if you can find it somewhere he gave it in the Provo MTC last year. As always, I love to hear from everyone and thanks for everything! -Elder BaNgErTeR
