Hello Family, Friends, and all!

Hello everyone allow me to narrate the past week for you.

11/22/17

Wow! Never get the second session at the temple on P Day. It makes the rest of your day so stressful. We hardly had time to do anything when we got back.

We finally got to buy things today. One of the things I got was a watch. It cost R$30,00 which is like $10.00 but the watch would probably cost $75.00 in the US. When I get out into the field. I want to find someone who can inscribe a scripture on the back. I got a lot of food today. It probably cost me $15 to buy as much stuff here, as it would in the US but in the US it would probably cost around $50 or something. Stuff is really cheap here.

We saw a drunk guy today. Apparently he had walked up to an Elder and kissed him on the cheek and then started preaching to him or something. You will meet a lot of weird people here. I saw a drunk from my room window the first week I was here and he was running into walls outside. Well that was that day.

11/23/17

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.... Whyyyyyyyyyyy........... I thought I would never get a fever down here but apparently, that is one of the most common sicknesses for missionaries to get down here. (I still have a little cold today but I´m getting better). It was pretty much an ordinary day today. I will probably write about days like these a lot while I´m here. I started to understand a little more this week. We had a surprise presentation from Elder Bednar today, that was awesome! It was a very intense but spiritual experience.

11/24/17

Today was an ordinary day, but it had it´s ups. Elder Stratton has been collecting toothpicks for the past week and we all thought that he only collected like 100. Yeah, add on another 1800 toothpicks and you got the real amount. What makes this real funny is that, Elder Harris came over and knocked his desk over and spilled the toothpicks all over the floor, right as our instructor walks in. I have never seen him so Wide Eyed in the weeks I have been here. The reason for doing that is Elder Stratton wanted to make a ring! Seriously! Why?

11/25/17

Proselyting, Wow! That is hard. It was so hard to go out and talk to people, at first we kind of just walked around looking at places we could look. It got a little easier when we started saying hi to people more. I remember walking down the street and there was a man walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk. At first, I was just going to keep looking ahead and keep walking. But then it was like a chill rushed through my body and kind of forced me to go and talk to this man. I knew it was the Spirit, because we said hello and asked him how he was doing, and got a conversation going. We told him that we were missionaries and he gave us his contact information. His name was João, which is translated to John in English. I pray for him everyday that the missionaries will teach him in Sao Paulo and be able to invite him unto Christ.

11/26/17

Our Brazilian Elders that are staying in our room are leaving soon. It will be really sad to see them go. Elder Harris and Elder Liquin were being kind of dumb today. They tried to climb a fence to get a racquet ball because Elder Harris dropped it out a window. It sometimes gets really boring in the CTM so we try to make our own fun. Elder Geisler came up with a fun game to play and it was called; see if you can make your companion go insane. So we got Elder Stratton really confused by switching all his stuff around the room. I could say he partially enjoyed that but also didn´t very much. That was all for that day.

11/27/17

Today was just another one of those ordinary days, I didn´t get very much sleep last night. I lost my tag today, but then later figured out that Elder Stratton hid it because of the night before. The Brazilian Elders are leaving tomorrow. I´m really going to miss them.

Well my time is up. I really miss you guys and I will serve as strong as I can. I love you all. See you all later. Tchau!

Elder Jacklin

Como você está! Homefries!

Hello family, I´ve really missed you guys. A lot has happened this week. The Portuguese is hard but I´m loving every second of it. It gets hard here sometimes. We´ve had some struggles. There were times that I didn´t know if I could keep on going. But my companions are a great support, (Sometimes they can be annoying), but they´re still a great district to be with. It was kind of exciting to know that we are half way done with our mission. It seriously feels like I have been here for only a few days but we just started our 3rd week here. I´m really excited to get out into the field.

I heard about Carlee, you know. Those guys are real idiots. They´re really missing something in not dating my sister. If you want, when I get back, let me come back and knock some sense into them. But not literally, and I´m just kidding. But seriously they are missing out on an amazing woman.

Zac! What are you doing man! You should be killing all of those other runners out there? Why isn´t your team keeping up with you? Just kidding. Hey keep working hard on the running, I know that you are one of the greatest runners in the state and probably in the country. I know you´ll be amazing when I get back. I might actually be able to run with you, when I get back. We do a lot of running here.

Oh by the way, are you guys mad that I took your home-fries gimmick? ( I don´t know if I spelt that right?)

Hey tell Elder Jolley that I´m really proud of him. I don´t get very much time to write emails here. So I can´t get them out to everyone. He really sounds like he´s turning into a great missionary. Serve the Lord with a strong heart Cameron! See you when I get home! Tell him that he better come to my homecoming, because I went to his farewell.

Jordon and Jen, make sure you let Derek remember me. I don´t want my nephew to be scared of me when I get home. Just kidding, I know he won´t be. Hey I really miss you guys. I hope your doing well down in Las Vegas. Man! I´d love to be in that cold weather right now. It is hot down here almost everyday. Not almost, it is everyday.

Yeah things are going great down here. I also will be sending some Christmas Cards home soon, but don´t open them until Christmas Morning, when you're all gathered around, about to open presents. I also think it would be nice to get letters down here instead of email. But don´t do that unless if I say in the next email, I write. Well it´s time to go. I love you guys! Tchau!

Elder Jacklin

Connor's District at the Temple

Como você está!!! HOMEFRIES!

Como vocês está! Homefries, how have you all been. It´s been great here in the CTM. My companion´s name is Elder Stratton, he´s the one we met at Ryan´s farewell that´s going to my mission, so that´s pretty cool. Hey how are things going? I heard that Zac is doing better in his running, also that Carlee is doing about 6-8 hours of drawing and is barely holding up (I....think? Hm....) Anyway, I got your letter and I thought it was funny that you said it was a quick letter. When has a quick letter been like fifteen paragraphs long? Just kidding, I really appreciate the long letters. Hey tell Derek congrats on being able to stand now. thats Muito Bom! (Heh, like it. I´m going to be doing this for the rest of my mission so you better get used to hearing Portuguese words). I love it here, the food´s great, surprisingly. It´s pizza night tonight so I´m pumped. We get a lot of veriety foods here. A beverage I´m really fond of is Gaudana. It is the greatest drink in the world! It tastes like fruit but it also tastes like pepsi so it is a really interesting combination.

Portuguese is hard but fun. It is sometimes a real challenge and then other times it´s like walking through a field of the softest things in the world. I can´t wait for the first time you guys get to call me. I´ll be doing nothing but speaking Portuguese, I´ll also have a different accent probably. I can already feel it hitting me because it´s getting harder to say things in English. The language is so beautiful, I can see why it is called the Perfected Spanish, ( I know what it´s really called, but I just think it´s better than all the other ones).

The days here are weird, it feels like I´ve been here for like 5 weeks when it´s only been 7 days. Other times it feels like we just got off the bus to the CTM yesterday.

Oh! I forgot to mention. I have  the best district in the world, I mean these guys are just the best! Elder Daniel is one of them, he is our District Leader. At first we all didn´t think he was going to be very good at it. But he fits the role perfectly, and is one of the greatest leaders I have ever met. Then there is Elder Geisler. He was the one that me and Cameron went through the temple with for the first time. He´s the one who looks like an exact replica of Cade, and sometimes I would call him Elder Jolley and he would just give me a confused look. He really is one of the best, he´s always so kind to everyone in our district. His companion is Elder Day and he is like a replica of what Zac used to be, he doesn´t talk very much but he can be really funny sometimes. He is a kind and gentle person and when he get´s the chance he roasts you hard when you least expect it. ( Now I know that´s not exactly like Zac but he´s close). The next two are very special, Elder Harris and Elder Larson. Elder Harris is like a prodigy. He picked up Portuguese so fast and can already say as much as some of the people that have been here for three weeks. Elder Larson has probably broken the record for how fast someone can get sent to the hospital. Yesterday he split his head open because he tried to mug his cabinet. His cabinet didn´t like that so it hit him splitting a less than one inch hole in Elder Larson´s head. ( Really?) They´re both great though. Then you have Elder Liquin who is Elder Daniel´s companion and he really is like Zac. He hardly talks at all. But he still is really great, he´s like Elder Daniel´s secretary because Elder Daniel is the District Leader. Then you have the best of them all, Elder Stratton, my companion. He is really funny and loves to crack jokes and tease a lot, (but it´s nice teasing).

Well I need to go now, miss you all. Tchau Family, Friends, Missionaries, whoever this get´s to after my mom posts it. Tchau!