Wednesday, July 15, 2009

July 15, 2009

Oi! How are y'all?! I'm doing really well still! Things are going awesome! Still struggling with the language of course. Still impossible to understand people, but I think I am gettting a little better. Not much I can do. Everyone tells me it just comes with time. But I think my speaking is improving. I really enjoy speaking it. Everyone tells me I speak well. I guess I just have a good ear, and can sort of immitate the accent. It's a way crazy accent here! I love it! But can't understand it. There are a few people who speak English. There are a lot of people from Africa, like I said, but not all of them are from the Portuguese colonies. Some are from Nigeria (where they supposedly have a lot of different languages, including English) and also Somalia, and all over really. So it's pretty cool to actually be able to converse with people. A lot of the younger people can speak English because they learn it in school. And some claim they learned the English they know from watching TV. Almost all of the TV here is American shows, with Portuguese subtitles. But they do have a few Brazilian, and Portuguese Soap Operas. LLLAAAMMMMEEEE! We are pretty lucky to have good TV in America! Ha ha. Everything is going really well with the Companion. He is a really cool guy, and we have fun. He is a little different. I don't think I have ever known anyone quite like him. He is pretty calm, but sometimes not. I can't explain him. He is cool though. He is really good at teaching, and a really good people's person. That's another I have been trying to overcome still, is talking to people. It's especially hard because I don't know the language. But I am trying to do better with that. I can imagine the heat in Utah right now. But it's actually pretty nice here. I never know the temperature here, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 70s and 80s, and rarely 90s. Really nice. Sometimes at night, it actually gets really cool and breezy. It's really nice here. Pretty humid. I think the humidity has been good on my asthma. I haven't really had any problems with it. I'm really jealous of the garden. I'm gonna miss all the fresh veggies. So good. That's so awesome how many visits you are getting at work dad! That's way more than we got when I was there. So awesome. Is Brennan still working there? How is he doing? Is he still going to go to school in the fall? How is Kaenan? Is he starting Kindergarten this year? How are his swimming lessons? Has he gotten any new obsessions? I'm guessing he is still into Pokemon. I'm also jealous you miss fishing. I miss doing that. But I don't miss getting up early and freezing to death at Scofield. Ha ha. But I really do like fishing. That's crazy you guys got new carpet! I can't even imagine it! Is mom redoing all of the rooms too? Is she gonna decorate them and stuff? I'm excited to get home and see. Congrats on your calling dad! That really is awesome. I know you're gonna do really good at it. I'm not surprised at all about Bailey. Especially with the new carpet. I could have seen that coming. I'm glad she's still around at least. I'm glad everything is going well at home. How are Megan and Spencer doing? Is Spencer liking his new job? What is Megan doing? Still cutting hair? Or is she going to school? Or both? How is Liz doing? What is she doing? Is she staying in Mesa? Or is she going to move down to Utah still? How are Tim and Amy? What new things are happening with them? How are Griff and Gretch doing with the wedding plans? Oh, by the way, if you want to give them all my email address, I am allowed to email family. Or maybe you are just posting on my blog mom, or forwarding my emails. I dunno. Whatever you want to do. I am going to try to send some pictures through this email if I end up having time. Again, I'm doing really well. We are teaching a lot of people. Really awesome people. We are still teaching Oscar, and his soon to be wife Albertina. There are getting married on the 24th, and then Oscar will be baptized the next day! Oscar really loves the gospel, and he can see the blessings is has brought into his life. He is excited to be baptized, and to receive the priesthood one day also. We are also teaching Maria still. We were teaching her family too, but they moved with their dad to England. Hopefully they can find the church there, I dunno. She is also marked for baptism now, and she is doing awesome! She is already living the way she needs to, but she says she doesn't feel quite ready for baptism. She is worried about what her family thinks. So she is marked to be baptized in September. We also have a new investigator named Turé. He is really awesome. We have only taught him twice, but he told us that he felt really,really good while we were teaching. We are teaching a guy from Brazil named Felipe. He is only 20, but seems a lot older. He is a really awesome, upbeat guy, but he is Evangelical, and believes every single word we say, so it will be hard to convince him that this is the ONLY true church. We are also teaching a guy from Brazil named Ronaldo, who is about 21 I think. He is awesome, and also agrees with a lot that we say. But he told us that he prayed, and that the Holy Ghost told him that the Catholic church is the right church. So we are a little bit stuck with him. He is an awesome guy. He is a nearly professional football (soccer) player. His team played against the Porto team, which is a professional team. They are the best team in Portugal, and have won the world cup recently I think. So Ronaldo is really good, and might soon get onto a professional team. Anyways, doing really well. We haven't had a lot of trouble finding new people to teach. It's been really awesome. How is Sonny doing? Do you know? I haven't heard about him or from him since he left the MTC about 9 weeks ago. Anyways, I love this work. I am excited to finally be able to speak the language some day. I know this is the true gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I have been reading it since I got into the MTC. I am in 3 Nephi now. I love it. I love reading the words of prophets and the stories of wicked people coming to Christ. I love applying the teachings in my life. I know this is the only true gospel and I have already seen it bless people's lives. I love this work. There is no place I would rather be now. If I had to come home, I would be devastated. I love you all! Fica fixe!!!
Elder Walker

P.S. Thanks for the perfect pancake recipe! I am totally making them tomorrow!

No comments:

Post a Comment