First Email from the CTM

Hey,

I have arrived safely and on time. Please email me at JonathanSteele@myldsmail.net from now on. I can reply to this email here today but after this I have to use myldsmail.net.

The flight was good. It was really really long though. I met up with 3 other elders and a sister at the airport in Dallas. We all sat near each other, but not next to each other. I gave up my window seat so a married couple could sit next to each other, but I wish I hadn't so that I could have rested my head on something.

Mom - thanks for the immunization, I can't believe I forgot that. But it may have helped me not have to get that one shot that I forgot to get.

It was really hot and muggy here the first day but after it hasn't been too bad. We have an air conditioner in the class room. We were the first American elders to arrive in 6 weeks and there were only 12 other elders here. 4 americans left yesterday and we got a sister and another single elder today. So total 12 - 4 + 2 = 10 + 4 (my group) = 14 Americans, I think. Maybe only 13 though. I can't remember.

My companion's name is Elder Collinwood. He is very nice and we get along well. I like him a lot.

I have attached some pictures to this email, hopefully you will get them. It's only some of the pictures I have taken and I didn't have any time to filter them out so you might get some meaningless ones.

There are about 60 Brazilians here. Usually the CTM has somewhere between 250 and 350 elders, around 250 of which would normally be Americans. I don't know why but no one is getting their visas and over 200 Americans are waiting in the Provo MTC. I like being the only Americans here though because the only people we can talk to are the Braziheiros, which forces us to learn the language faster.

I live on the 5th floor of the CTM. We have to use the stairs since there are only 2 elevators, because the president uses it, and so we can get exercise. It's not too bad. In Brazil they count the bottom floor as the zero floor so I am actually on the 5th floor.

Class is pretty long. Almost 8 hours a day. We are learning a lot less Pórtuguese and more about the lessons than I thought. I guess we are going to be learning the first lesson in Portuguese pretty soon which sounds pretty difficult. We do know some Portuguese but definitely not enough to do that.

The food is good. Rice and beans and some kind of weird meat and lots of fruit every day. For breakfast they have bread and ham and cheese. It's not that great. The other meals are fairly decent though.

Sorry this email has no real format. My thoughts are jumbled right now and I am trying to write fast so that I can go walk around the city a little bit and pick up a few things, like 3x5 cards and a water bottle.

My bed is really short. My feet hang off the end about 1 inch. It's not bad though. Please don't send me any packages to the MTC. And get creative when you send them to the mission, because I heard a lot of things get stolen. I haven't met anyone I knew before yet. Just a Brazilian that looks just like Jacob from New Moon and one that looks kind of like Obama.

I will hear from you all next week I guess. Tuto Bom!!!