Week #1 ~ First Letter From Brazil

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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