Email
December 27, 2011
Hey Family!
I´m so glad to hear everything went good for Christmas! Things here were awesome! It was like a 2 day break from everything... On saturday, we got to sleep in till 8. We got ready, in street clothes but no shorts, and went to breakfast. It was weird to see everybody in t-shirts and jeans... After breakfast they let us play in the gym from 9-12!!! It was a blast. My district faced other districts in Basketball and volleyball. My team of 3 only lost one game in basketball, but i tweaked my ankle so that sucked, oh well though. The one game we lost was close but in the end we lost cause one of the guys played for byu hawaii, but we beat that team later, but it was way fun (other than the ankle...) After that we had lunch and went to the gym after for activities. They had board games and tons of other stuff to do and then we watched A Very Muppet Christmas all in portuguese, so after like 20 most of the elders had given up and left. After dinner we had a devotional and watched the REALLY old Christmas Carol from like the fiftys. A couple of the elders and I stayed in one of the dorms with all the rest of our district, the only ones that didn´t come were the ones that had to be in bed by 10:30, so they missed all the fun. Christmas eve is totally different here! They had fireworks and people in the streets all night. It was super fun.
On Christmas, we woke up around 8ish and went to Sacrament meeting. After that we had free day all day. I opened my gifts, which were awesome. Thanks for the sweet p j´s and t shirt! I love the pictures too. My companion really appreciated the candy cause i dont think he got anything from home... After that, we had set up a time to play yankee swap with gifts we went out and bought, but things in our district are sorta weird right now. One half are like robots and wake up early to be early everywhere and study ALL day! Then the other half are like me cause we know how to be fun while studying and throughout the day. Its like high school without the girls ha ha. So before yankee swap, we had to have a huge lecture by one of the elders saying how some of us are not being serious enough because we like to have fun, so that was kinda awkward... After that though, we tried to put that behind and went on with the game. Then with some of the gifts we played baseball with a mini ball and coke bottle, and bowled in the halls. It was a great chill weekend. After dinner, we went to a devotional where we watched the christmas message from the first presidency. Yesterday during class, our teacher had us talk out all of the problems in our district, so hopefully we can all stay close... Also earlier this week, Elder Costa from the 70 came to talk to us so that was cool!
Once again i´m so glad to hear that you guys had a good christmas. I got cards from Grandma and Grandpa Pascoe, Deni and Gary, the Gissemans, and the Baileys, so thank them for those. Let everybody know i love them and miss them and hope that they had a great christmas! I love you guys so much! Tell the boys that i hope they enjoy their gifts and I hope you all have a great new years!!! GO UTES! love you guys
Love,
Elder Halpin
Friday, December 30, 2011
Week #3 - Gaining Weight?
Hi!
The CTM is going pretty good! They´ve had lights up the whole time and some christmas trees here and there, but it doesn´t really feel like christmas ha ha. Yes, i´m still waiting to open the presents and cant wait and ya i write in my journal everynight so i´ll keep track of how i feel. My companion is good, a little tough sometimes though because all he does is study so he is getting good at the language while the rest of us are just decent. He also is just a little closed off so i´m trying to make him realize we can have some fun. He has 6 siblings i think, two sets of twins, which he is a twin, and other brothers and sisters.
I haven´t only gained 2 pounds, its 2 or 3 kilos now so i´ve already gained 8 pounds ha ha ha. But ya the food is kinda just the same everyday, but thats ok cause i like it. The juice is the best and now we put carbonated water in it to make soda stuff. Last p day i had my first coke after two weeks. We went and checked out the stuff at mr cheneys, and ya people were getting pizzas, sodas, cookies and all that, i dont know if you got that thing that they e mail you but ya it looks legit. Laundry is good and ya i can iron ha ha. I´ve taken a few pictures here and there so once i figure out how to send them i will. My teachers are great. they are all brazilian and nice. i can practically understand most of what people say, now i just need to know how to speak it back ha ha ha, so hopefully some day i´ll figure it out. Ya i´ll let you know if we can call at the airport when i find out.
I´m glad things at home are good. Lee and Seth e mailed me and it sounds like they are good. sounds like all the kids are good too from the farewell? what did lee speak about? let them all know i say hi, i haven´t heard from anybody else, so hopefully i get letters or something soon. I hope you guys have a great rest of the week too with some more christmas things. Are al or jack gonna head over with dad to the sony open? make sure you send more pictures of what happens over the next few weeks. keep the scores and sports stuff coming! keep me updated on the jazz, heat, and anything else fun that happens. once nfl playoffs start, keep me updated on that too. I got the post card from cleveland but no where else yet. and ya i got the package, but they said to keep it in the mail next time ha ha. keep the pictures coming!
I hope you have an awesome week! I love you all and have a very Merry Christmas! I LOVE you all tons!!!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
The CTM is going pretty good! They´ve had lights up the whole time and some christmas trees here and there, but it doesn´t really feel like christmas ha ha. Yes, i´m still waiting to open the presents and cant wait and ya i write in my journal everynight so i´ll keep track of how i feel. My companion is good, a little tough sometimes though because all he does is study so he is getting good at the language while the rest of us are just decent. He also is just a little closed off so i´m trying to make him realize we can have some fun. He has 6 siblings i think, two sets of twins, which he is a twin, and other brothers and sisters.
I haven´t only gained 2 pounds, its 2 or 3 kilos now so i´ve already gained 8 pounds ha ha ha. But ya the food is kinda just the same everyday, but thats ok cause i like it. The juice is the best and now we put carbonated water in it to make soda stuff. Last p day i had my first coke after two weeks. We went and checked out the stuff at mr cheneys, and ya people were getting pizzas, sodas, cookies and all that, i dont know if you got that thing that they e mail you but ya it looks legit. Laundry is good and ya i can iron ha ha. I´ve taken a few pictures here and there so once i figure out how to send them i will. My teachers are great. they are all brazilian and nice. i can practically understand most of what people say, now i just need to know how to speak it back ha ha ha, so hopefully some day i´ll figure it out. Ya i´ll let you know if we can call at the airport when i find out.
I´m glad things at home are good. Lee and Seth e mailed me and it sounds like they are good. sounds like all the kids are good too from the farewell? what did lee speak about? let them all know i say hi, i haven´t heard from anybody else, so hopefully i get letters or something soon. I hope you guys have a great rest of the week too with some more christmas things. Are al or jack gonna head over with dad to the sony open? make sure you send more pictures of what happens over the next few weeks. keep the scores and sports stuff coming! keep me updated on the jazz, heat, and anything else fun that happens. once nfl playoffs start, keep me updated on that too. I got the post card from cleveland but no where else yet. and ya i got the package, but they said to keep it in the mail next time ha ha. keep the pictures coming!
I hope you have an awesome week! I love you all and have a very Merry Christmas! I LOVE you all tons!!!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
Friday, December 16, 2011
Week #2 ~ A Thankful Missionary
Email
December 13, 2011
Hey!
Things here are good. I´m starting to get in the groove of things. The first few days felt like a few months, but now time is speeding up I guess. Yeah, my schedule pretty much is eat, study, class, and sleep. Sundays are way awesome because we have like 3 or 4 hours of free time, so I just crashed and took a long nap! (Ha ha). The food here is pretty good, usually just some sort of a meat, fruit, and rice and beans. They also have really good fruit juices that I like to mix. It kind of gets boring, but oh well, that's okay, because when I got here, I weighed myself and I weighed 69 kilos. Now I range from 70-72 kilos, so about 156 pounds! (Ha ha). Tuesday through Saturday we have one hour of exercise time, so we go play basketball or volleyball. On Sundays, we have church and devotionals, and on Mondays, we have service. On Tuesday, we go out in the town and shop and all that. I´m saving my sheets for the field, because they provide towels, sheets and all that, so I'll just kept those sealed, and other than shoes, have kept the other luggage closed. We try to balance gospel and language and they are trying to drill into us just to be ourselves, which is easy for me, but it is pretty tough for a couple guys because they came down ready to be in the robotic missionary mode. The temple session is in English, so that is nice! (Ha ha) It's interesting to see the session in the movie mode too!
I´m glad things are going good at home. Tell Jack happy birthday for me! I bet he´s super excited to be growing up now (ha ha), and good luck with six more years with him! Thanks for always letting me have my friends over. I heard from Seth which was nice, but nobody else. I would love it if you gave them my address and all that! I have not gotten the package yet, so hopefully it gets here in the next couple days...if not, then I´ll let you know later this week or next Tuesday, because I´m going to send a letter with some bracelets in it for Al and Jack sometime this week.
Tell everybody that things are great and let them all know that I love them and miss them! Keep me updated on everything that goes on at home, and tell Peppy "hi" for me! (Ha ha). I love you guys so much and can't thank you enough for being the BEST PARENTS on this planet! You guys have taught me so much and hopefully now I can go share that knowledge of love with the people of Londrina. I hope everything is great back home. I love you so much!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
December 13, 2011
Hey!
Things here are good. I´m starting to get in the groove of things. The first few days felt like a few months, but now time is speeding up I guess. Yeah, my schedule pretty much is eat, study, class, and sleep. Sundays are way awesome because we have like 3 or 4 hours of free time, so I just crashed and took a long nap! (Ha ha). The food here is pretty good, usually just some sort of a meat, fruit, and rice and beans. They also have really good fruit juices that I like to mix. It kind of gets boring, but oh well, that's okay, because when I got here, I weighed myself and I weighed 69 kilos. Now I range from 70-72 kilos, so about 156 pounds! (Ha ha). Tuesday through Saturday we have one hour of exercise time, so we go play basketball or volleyball. On Sundays, we have church and devotionals, and on Mondays, we have service. On Tuesday, we go out in the town and shop and all that. I´m saving my sheets for the field, because they provide towels, sheets and all that, so I'll just kept those sealed, and other than shoes, have kept the other luggage closed. We try to balance gospel and language and they are trying to drill into us just to be ourselves, which is easy for me, but it is pretty tough for a couple guys because they came down ready to be in the robotic missionary mode. The temple session is in English, so that is nice! (Ha ha) It's interesting to see the session in the movie mode too!
I´m glad things are going good at home. Tell Jack happy birthday for me! I bet he´s super excited to be growing up now (ha ha), and good luck with six more years with him! Thanks for always letting me have my friends over. I heard from Seth which was nice, but nobody else. I would love it if you gave them my address and all that! I have not gotten the package yet, so hopefully it gets here in the next couple days...if not, then I´ll let you know later this week or next Tuesday, because I´m going to send a letter with some bracelets in it for Al and Jack sometime this week.
Tell everybody that things are great and let them all know that I love them and miss them! Keep me updated on everything that goes on at home, and tell Peppy "hi" for me! (Ha ha). I love you guys so much and can't thank you enough for being the BEST PARENTS on this planet! You guys have taught me so much and hopefully now I can go share that knowledge of love with the people of Londrina. I hope everything is great back home. I love you so much!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Week #1 ~ First Letter From Brazil
Email
December 6, 2011
Hi family!
WOW! What a week! So I got to Dallas okay, and then headed down to Brasil! It was a major flight and lasted about 10 hours! It felt super long (ha ha), but it was okay at the same time, because I got a little bit of sleep. When we got to the airport, we went and traded our money in for Reals, and I got 414 of them, so I feel super rich down here, and the bills are way cool. Then we got in a bus and drove for about a half an hour and arrived at the CTM. When we got here, we were assigned our companions and a room. My companion is Elder Witter and he is from Las Vegas. My room mates are Elder Rose, Elder Newby, and my companion. That first day felt like forever though because I was adjusting to all the new changes. Then we took the pictures and sent e-mails, but I forgot which one to send it to and just guessed at mom's address, which I think it was totally wrong (ha ha), sorry about that!
My companion is the one in glasses on the bottom right. He is a very solid guy who is very committed, and we keep all the rules to the best of our abilities, so it's a little different, but I feel the Lord's blessings because of it! I am sort of picking up on the language, and Spanish is helping a lot! I already know how to make simple conversation like "hi, how are you", that type of stuff. I also sort of know how to pray, and we learned phrases to use in our testimonies, so it's going good there! My district is a perfect mix of fun people and serious people, so we keep it fun and learn at the same time, so its awesome!
Today, for our first p-day, we went to the temple, and it's a little different because we stayed in one room the whole time and watched the movie, then we went into the celestial room, so it was a little different, but still very spiritual! On the first day, they took us around the block, but soon me and my district are going to go out and shop and look around, so I'm super stoked for that! Oh yeah, the people here are crazy! I love all the Brazilians here in the CTM, but out driving in the bus this morning was kind of scary! (Ha ha).
That's scary to hear about Ann. I'll keep her in my prayers. Other than that, I hope things at home are good! I can't wait to see the Christmas stuff up! They have some trees and lights up here, but it's not the same because its super hot. Sometimes, there will be little sprinkles, but not too much rain! (Ha ha). So we are playing Georgia Tech, huh? I guess that's okay. Make sure, dad and Jack, that you keep me up on the sports because I love it! But yeah, things here are great! I love it, and I'm so glad that I'm here serving the people of Brazil.
Keep me updated on all that is going on there! I love you all so much and miss you!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
December 6, 2011
Hi family!
WOW! What a week! So I got to Dallas okay, and then headed down to Brasil! It was a major flight and lasted about 10 hours! It felt super long (ha ha), but it was okay at the same time, because I got a little bit of sleep. When we got to the airport, we went and traded our money in for Reals, and I got 414 of them, so I feel super rich down here, and the bills are way cool. Then we got in a bus and drove for about a half an hour and arrived at the CTM. When we got here, we were assigned our companions and a room. My companion is Elder Witter and he is from Las Vegas. My room mates are Elder Rose, Elder Newby, and my companion. That first day felt like forever though because I was adjusting to all the new changes. Then we took the pictures and sent e-mails, but I forgot which one to send it to and just guessed at mom's address, which I think it was totally wrong (ha ha), sorry about that!
 |
| New arrivals at the CTM. Elder Halpin~back row, second from the left. |
My companion is the one in glasses on the bottom right. He is a very solid guy who is very committed, and we keep all the rules to the best of our abilities, so it's a little different, but I feel the Lord's blessings because of it! I am sort of picking up on the language, and Spanish is helping a lot! I already know how to make simple conversation like "hi, how are you", that type of stuff. I also sort of know how to pray, and we learned phrases to use in our testimonies, so it's going good there! My district is a perfect mix of fun people and serious people, so we keep it fun and learn at the same time, so its awesome!
Today, for our first p-day, we went to the temple, and it's a little different because we stayed in one room the whole time and watched the movie, then we went into the celestial room, so it was a little different, but still very spiritual! On the first day, they took us around the block, but soon me and my district are going to go out and shop and look around, so I'm super stoked for that! Oh yeah, the people here are crazy! I love all the Brazilians here in the CTM, but out driving in the bus this morning was kind of scary! (Ha ha).
That's scary to hear about Ann. I'll keep her in my prayers. Other than that, I hope things at home are good! I can't wait to see the Christmas stuff up! They have some trees and lights up here, but it's not the same because its super hot. Sometimes, there will be little sprinkles, but not too much rain! (Ha ha). So we are playing Georgia Tech, huh? I guess that's okay. Make sure, dad and Jack, that you keep me up on the sports because I love it! But yeah, things here are great! I love it, and I'm so glad that I'm here serving the people of Brazil.
Keep me updated on all that is going on there! I love you all so much and miss you!
Love,
Elder Chandler Halpin
November 30, 2011 - Chandler Arrives Safely at CTM!
Dear Parents,
We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.
They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.
The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.
Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on individual assignments.
Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”
Please accept our love,
President Donald L Clark and Sister Zaza Clark
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