Matt: September 22, 2010

Querido familia,

Oi what is up? I know I just wrote you all last night, but my companion Elder Simper from Las Vegas, Nevada didn~t get to email on his p day yesterday, so we are here in the LAN house and I will give you the updates. So I´m super jet lagged out from flying across the world for the last day and a half, plus I just ate lunch at this place that was pretty much Tucanos, but cheaper. So I am super tired from all the meat, and all the travel.

Things are definitely different here in Brasil. I think my area of Curitiba is what Oregon would be like if Oregon was owned by Mexico instead of the United States. It´s super green and hilly and there are trees everywhere, but at the same time nobody speaks english and the drivers are koo koo bananas and the streets/the city just feels like Mexico. Before I got here I heard Curitiba is the nicest, richest, cleanest city in Brasil, and has one of the best public transportation systems in the world. So naturally I had this mental image of Curitiba being like unto Tokyo where the homeless man sweeps the sidewalk and takes off his shoes before entering his cardboard house, ya know? And like light rails running all over the city, and everything being muito chique.... That´s not how it is. ha ha They have busses here, and those busses cover the surrounding 20 some odd square miles around the city, and you can easily get where you need to go if you know the bus routes. And Brasil is unkempt or dirty in the same way that Mexico is. I love it though. I can understand most of what people say when they aren´t talking to me, but as soon as they look at me and talk it just doesn´t make a lick of sense. But the language is coming slowly and surely.

I got to meet up with my friend Steve Hewett who I played football with and partied with in high school. He´s an AP here and goes home in like 2 weeks. He rocks. I also went contacting today with Elder Marx! Meu companheiro do CTM! So elder Sasquatch showed me how it was done and we talked about the mission and it was great. I haven´t taken many pictures cuz supposedly you´ll get robbed if you do, and I left my camera battery charger in Tennessee (woof!). So yeah, I´ll try emailing some of the pics on my memory card home. The one thing I wish I would´ve taken a picture of yesterday was this guy carrying a rickshaw type thing in downtown Curitiba, and his rickshaw was piled like almost 2 stories high with garbage!!!! ha ha ha it was so great.

Anywho everyone tells me how much this mission rocks, and when I got to Tennessee, President Hutchings said, "This is a Preach My Gospel mission, and an obedient mission." Last night president Cordon said, "This is a baptizing mission. Just be 100% obedient" So that was music to my ears. My trainer (who everyone tells me is bem legal de mais) says we have baptisms lined up for this saturday and next saturday, so I am PUMPED!!!

Well I love you all, and if you are reading this on the blog- good for you. Thanks for caring enough about me to read all this.

entou, ate proxima semana. tchau
Elder Matt Gagon