April 25th letters

Hi guys!

Elder Cook came by on Monday and gave a great devotional. Did you know him and Elder Holland were missionary companions? He talked a little about being a clean instrument of God (Alma 17:11), and the blessings we receive by doing missionary work (D&C 31). He also gave some awesome insights into Preach My Gospel.

Bro Mills, the international MTC director, came on Sunday and also gave a spiritual devotional. I actually felt the Spirit very strongly during his talk. Matthew 16:25 - "Whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it"! That one hit me hard. The secret to success and happiness will be, for me at least, to stop thinking about myself.

Did you know there are 15 MTCs around the world? I don't know if Dad knows this but there's an MTC in South Africa. It usually has only 20-35 missionaries at a time.

Haha, so now I'm actually no longer the district leader, I'm the assistant to the president (The branch president to be specific). There might actually be less responsibiilty in this calling, but I'm still figuring out the ropes. Basically I'm in charge of the three districts in our branch (we don't have zones here). And I'm in charge of all the Sunday meeting assignments. It's a good way to get to know more Elders.

FYI...the missionties letter got put in our mailbox the same day you sent it, so that's working out well.

About Campinas:  Usually, when I tell someone I'm going to Campinas, they immediately click their tongue and talk about how gorgeous the temple is. So I'm pretty excited to visit the temple there!!  Also people have said that Campinas is pretty hot, but not as bad as some of the other missions.

Okay, I have 20 seconds left. Real quick, I am still doing the 9 week program.  There are very few 9 weekers here but our district is one of them [note: some missionaries that entered the MTC during March learning a foreign language were placed into a 'pilot' program -- this was to see if a new (compressed) schedule of 6 weeks (rather than 9) would work.  AJ's group arrived at the beginning of April, so they were not part of the pilot program].

Alright, have a great week! Eu amo voces!!

Elder Bradford

Click on the image below to view a follow-up letter from AJ that same day...

April 18th letter

The following letter was received from AJ on April 18th - click on a page to view.  At the beginning of his letter, he's responding to a question about him having four different missionary companions within the first day of his arrival at the MTC/CTM in Brazil.

Page 1

Page 2

More Pics at the Brazil MTC

Missionaries in AJ's dorm room - four are Brazilian.  He mentioned the only Brazilian Elder that speaks English fairly well is on the far right - he apparently learned from playing video games (Call of Duty being his favorite) 

AJ's cozy classroom

Atrium in the MTC

AJ and Elder Norman pointing out their missions
(not sure what's up with AJ's expression)

AJ greets Blake Russell on his arrival to the MTC

First Pics at the Brazil MTC

Elder Norman and AJ

 AJ's MTC dorm room

View of São Paulo from the MTC

First email from AJ

The following email from AJ includes a number of responses to questions we emailed him this past week (our questions are in blue):

Ay, perguntas perguntas!! Como posso dar as respostas para todas?

[So, an entire week has passed...time flies :-).  We're very anxious to hear about your week]  It's funny that you say this past week has flown by. To me it seems like its been at least several weeks, just because we've learned so much. It's truly a testament that the Spirit is here; I've learned more this last week about Portuguese than probably a whole semester or two of Spanish.  Anyways it's sorta hard to type on this Portuguese keyboard, but ill try to answer as many questions as possible.

[Are you burnt already? Is it just disgustingly hot? And how's the food?] I am not burnt, actually I'm tanning pretty good. The weather is just a tad warm but not really too bad. The food is interesting but most of it is delicious! For lunch today we had kebabs with beef or shrimp or something, and then roast beef and a fried sea cucumber. There are several pots of beans and rice at lunch and dinner, from which thou can freely partake.

Oh yeah, we went to the Sao Paulo temple this morning. It is a really beautiful temple. The celestial room is sorta small but it's really cool. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to bring cameras on the trip, but we got a picture taken of our district outside. It was really sunny so my eyes are probably closed in the picture.

Also, I'm the district leader for district 14-C. Yay. I really think it's God's way of getting me to follow the rules and focus more...but it's all guuud.

[How is it not being able to get on the computer or TV ever? Or are you just too busy to even worry?]  I'm not really worrying about using the computer or TV, although I have been looking forward to sending you guys email for a while now! About half of the guys here are Brazilians. they are all really cool and help you learn portuguese quickly.  I'll have to tell you more later about it since I have 3 MINUTES LEFT.

[What was the little dot sticker on your nametag? Who's your companion? Is he also going to the Campinas mission?]  The blue sticker just means I'm new. It also means I get a free cookie from Mr Cheneys [business across the street from the CTM]. Our district is going there in just a few minutes.  Long story short, my current companion is my 4th [while at the CTM). He is Elder Norman and he's a pretty cool guy. He is a brianiac and knows everything about everything. Sometimes it's a struggle to get him (and myself) to focus but it's all guuud.  I have only met 3 other people going to the Campinas mission. Que pena!

Oh, all my luggage and stuff arrived fine. No peanut butter explosion. Some pancake mix spilled and my razor spat out some hair but other than that it's all guuud.

Okay I am past time. Sorry for being sooooo quick and brief, I had to quickly read through all your emails! Thank you for taking the time to send them!