One Month Out

Helloooooooo (kinda like gooaalllll but hello)

So this week was... yep you guessed it great! to start off with our zone has 100 missionaries in it! so for sabados softball we had too many and some of us played soccer. I pretty much dominated. I'll fit right in in Brazil!  Since we have ten zones, zone leader interviews are crazy insane. We spend about 4 to 5 hours in them. I miss so much class and study time between that and my companions doctor's appointments.

This past Sunday I taught priesthood with Elder Foerster it was way fun. We taught about the importance of the laws and ordinances of our wonderful gospel!  Then that night, we had a fireside by Brother Hoaton, I think he is some head church missionary guy. Great talk about teaching with the spirit.

Well my companion is really good at playing the piano, so once a week we go sing hymns and it is way fun... i feel bad that he has to listen to me sing solos. haha

I was sick this weekend again, but im feeling great now. It's so hard to be sick here because you cant miss anything or you fall behind.  So you are sitting there in class coughing up your lung with a fever of 130 and a throat that feels like its lined with sand paper and all you think is, "im so glad im in class and not in bed..."  needless to say i was a grouch for a few days without my sleep.

Oh we have no H1N1 vaccine here.

Oh my comp has been going to PT and we get to leave the MTC for that.   I am best friends with the women at the front desk. When I come in she knows to pull up the BYU score. haha i love it.

Oh the Dear Elder cinnamon rolls are like gold here so if anybody feels like they want to send me some - you can. :-) I love you all haha

Oh Mom you would be so proud of me! For FHE I was in charge of the game and I taught my district Don't Eat Fred!!! haha The teacher made a rule all FHE games have to have a spiritual tie in so I said in Don't Eat Fred, our friends tell us what choices not to make and so it is in life that if we have good friends they will help us to make good choices!

This week Irmao Paires swithced to only portuguese and I still know whats going on! haha it really is a miracle, now answering his questions is another story,  but i can understand everything he says! Well we taught the first lesson this week in portuguese and the lesson was... interesting... haha I'm excited for the weeks to come it will just get better! I mean our investigator knew what we were saying but I couldnt say everythng I wanted. Which was so frustrating because we all know how I like to talk a lot.

Oh the other day I had this thought and it made me laugh.  I was feeling really good with the langauge and I knew everything the teacher was saying but then I realized he is just being nice. He uses very basic language and if I were to hear a native Brazilian I would be lost.  That night i prayed realy hard....

Wednesday night I helped the new districts prepare for their TRC and I felt so good because I could do the basic conversation things.  haha they thought I was so good at portuguese. I just laughed realizing thats what I thought about the older districts when I came in.

Well I love the MTC it is such a great place!!!!! The firesides and devotionals and large group meetings and companion testiomonies, and missionary thoughts its just amazing!!!

Today during the temple I met three guys and all of them served in Brazil it was way fun. I can't wait to go down there!

The oldest district leaves Tuesday and we will be the oldest district it is just crazy.   President Tanner said when Elder Foerster left he would call 4 ZLs which will be nice it is a lot of work for two missionaries to do.

One Elder in our zone is in isolation because he has swine flu. But dont worry its just one Elder!

Well I finally finished with four minutes left! Crazy um.... spiritual thought:  We had a devotional on how are planners can be like the liahona. I think that can apply beyond missionary work as we pray and seek for guidence from the Lord he will give it. But it only works according to our faith and if we don't listen to the guidence he will cease to give it as well.  It's so cool and so true!  I love this Gospel, I love the Savior and I love the Spirit!!

Love,

Elder Mender

Mailing Packages to Brazil

Since it is only a matter of weeks until Mitch is actually in Brazil I thought I would take some time to research what is the best way to send him packages.   I've never had to worry about this before!  I understand the mail service in Brazil can be "challenging" and prone to strikes which cause delays in mail service. 

It looks like the the US Postal Service will allow you to ship using "flat rate" boxes as follows with the prices outlined below.   You can pick these boxes up for free at the post office or order online and pay when you drop off at the post office.

Pricing by Weight and Price Group (Retail Pricing)
Weight not Over (pounds)	Brazil
Flat Rate Envelope (4lbs)	$12.95
Small Flat Rate Box (4lbs)	$12.95
Medium Flat Rate Box (20lbs)	$41.95
Large Flat Rate Box (20lbs)	$53.95

There are some folks who have been creative and developed a way to "fold" a flat rate envelope in a manner that will allow you to put alot of stuff in the small package so I thought I would share that here and if you were inclined you would know how to ship a package at a reasonable rate!

You can take a flat rate mailing envelope from the post office and fold it up about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom (press the  fold flat with a bone folder) and fold it backwards and crease it again.

 You fold the sides in an inch to an inch and a quarter and fold them backwards, too.

(Along the slash lines)

Then you pop out the sides and it turns into a box (trangle shaped), there should be two triangles on the bottom (you don't fold these under or tape them down).   You can also see a side view of the triangle shaped box.   I'm told it is surprising how much stuff you can fit into this envelope.

You know you are in the MTC when.....

You watch every session of General Conference, from the front row!

You "tear up" at least once a day.
Getting letters from home is exciting!
You refer to your male friends from home as "Elder"
You watch the church movie "Legacy" and actually get excited about the "kissing scene"
You look forward to the day you do your laundry
reading a letter is as fun as "text messaging" used to be!


These are just a few of the things we've pulled from Mitch's letters home that remind us that he's at the MTC and enjoying the experience.