Week Two

Hey family,

Glad to know that my packages arrived last week to the CTU. I don’t have any friends in the CTU that I can think of right now except for Aaron Swenson, but I do not know if he is there or in Provo. I know of one missionary there that will be coming to my mission and I would be able to get my packages as long as they got to the mission home. His name is Elder Bostrom. I only spoke with him once though. You be the judge as to whether to have them mailed back to yourself or given to the missionaries at the CTM. I don’t even know what was in them or who sent them.

I hope that your snow show this weekend goes great. Thanks for getting my Income Taxes all prepared. I took out around 150 reals from my debit card because I hadn’t received any money on my mission debit card because they weren’t expecting me here. All is well now. Let me know if you want me to send you anything from Brazil. Supposedly they have the 2nd best chocolate in the world here.

That’s exciting that the snow has been good so far this year at Bristol. Is the new chair lift up and running yet? It’s been pretty nice here the past 2 weeks. Only today and yesterday were a little warm. I like both of my companions a lot. They both like to work and my trainer is great. It’s hard having 2 English speaking companions as a language aspect but I feel I am learning more about the mission from them, being able to talk to them in English, than I would from having a Brazilian companion.

Hunter – that’s exciting that you’re having a good time on the slopes. When I get back you’ll almost be able to drive. That will be cool. Maybe you will pose a challenge for me on the ski slopes. Keep practicing.

Madison – Glad you got over the stomach flu. Being sick is never fun. That’s great that you can have fun swimming without your asthma getting in the way.

Canela is great. The president of the branch is really great here and he likes to help out with the missionaries a lot. He is only 25 too. The baptisms last Sunday were great. We ended up baptizing 4 new converts. My companion Elder Green said that it was the most people he had seen in white on his whole mission because there was also one member of the ward being baptized. The fifth baptism that we had planned for last Sunday was moved until next Sunday. We invited members of the ward to baptize all of the new converts to help strengthen their new membership.

I haven’t tried the chocolate yet. I think the name of the famous chocolateir here is Florybal.

We have about 90 active people in the ward. I get fed rice and beans and meat and Coke or Guaraná almost every lunch appointment.

Mom – That’s exciting that you have a teacher to help your work load as a seminary teacher. I am glad all of Grandma’s grandchildren are all coming out to help her out with her back pain. I hope that it can get easier for her. The food here is great, a lot better than the CTM. I haven’t had any Churrascaria yet but I think that the president of the branch is going to make some the next time we have lunch with them.

Erin – Last weekend was pretty packed. We spent a lot of time helping the president of the branch out with the new chapel and with the open house. The dedication was good. We still had church in the old rented apartment they had it at before. But next week will be nice. The chapel even has A/C! I am glad that Ella is learning to talk. Do you know that Ella means She or Her in Portuguese. Probable Matt named her that so that he would never forget. I am excited that when I return Ella will be 2 more years older than she was when I left and Delainey will be almost 2 também.

Matt – I can email you next week; send me a reminder email so that I can remember to do that next week. Thanks.

Anyways, this week has been great. We taught 19 lessons this week.

Mom or Erin – could you get me some recipes like crepes and other things that I could make for breakfast. We have an oven and stove and blender and lanche maker (a little sandwich grille thing). I made some crepes this morning which were good, but I just kind or threw some things in. I think that I am going to but a CD player next transfer or this transfer unless you sent me an iPod. I heard a rumor from Rem before I left that you were going to send me one. But if not I think CDs will be better because you can then just burn me cool CDs and send them to me fairly easily or even email me music and I might be able to burn them to CDs here.

Anyways I got to run. Next week I will send you an email when I get on so maybe we could email live for a little bit. I am not able to use any other email platforms or programs though. Tell Rem and Rose that I said Parabens on turning 17. Tell Grandma Edie and Grandpa Gerry that I said hello also. Wish her a happy birthday for me. I love you all. Tchua!

Com amor,
Elder Steele

P.S. - This week is a 5 week transfer.