Not much time, Sorry!

Hey

So I literally havê no time to email but my week went really well. Had a ton of fun and what naught. This keyboard is wack so there might be a few accents here and there. Abd simr misspellings!

But I love you all and will email all that happened next week!

Sorry!!!

Lots of love!!!

[we received this pict, assuming it's his MTC president due to seeing the Christmas lights]

Concordia!!

I'm in the field!! it's been quite a journey! I had to say goodbye to my district and I love them all so much! so the flight to Floripa was pretty short (1 HR). But the bus ride to get here was 13 hours long then we head to take another bus ride here for another hour and a half. We got here and the mission president was waiting for us, we went to get pics, then ate lunch at the church. after that we were told where we are going to serve.

I'm here in concordia which is a pretty big city! and it's just me and my comp here for the entire city!! My comps name is Elder Dos Santos, he is from Sao paulo he's a super cool brazilian, and he's 24! So I guess the apartment we are in is one of the biggest ones for missionaries. we’re on the fourteenth floor of an apartment building.

The church is really cool here! its four stories tall! there was maybe thirty people in the congregation. I got up and bore my testimony. so it went pretty good!

It's really beautiful here! there's jungle everywhere! i've seen some huge spiders and beautiful birds, butterflies and lizards! everything is different here but i'm getting used to it! it's really different than the US. My living quarters are huge and pretty nice actually.

This week has been really crazy!! trying to learning a new language is hard if none of you knew haha but I can understand pretty much everything that is being said to me. it's the replying that's a little bit hard hahaha but all is well!! we've got 12 new investigators and and ton of new converts so I'm pretty busy all the time. everything here is pretty weird though. it's going to take some getting used to haha I made me and my comp german pancakes! those were amazing! just a little piece of home :) miss you all and I'm thankful for all that you do for me and all your emails and support!!!

Love you all!!!!!

Elder Whelan

Floripa!!!

Made it here, alive and ready to serve!! 

I'm so excited! 

Also my first area is in place called Concordia, which is supposedly the most hilly area of the entire mission. So I'm pretty excited to walk up hills all day!!! anyways love you all!! my p-days are on Mondays by the way.

*Pict from a p-day in the CTM.

Last Week in the CTM!!

Hey everyone!

So this week has been pretty uneventful here at the CTM! I've just been trying to learn as much as I possibly can before I get to leave and start for real!! I'm so excited to get out into the field and start teaching!! also, I'm really excited for how beautiful my mission is. every time I say where i'm going to a Brazilian they say ohhhh muito bonito [very pretty] haha so that's exciting! I feel like I don’t have enough time to learn but we have like 2 hours of personal study time and we do three hours with instructors that only speak Portuguese, so that’s been helpful!!

I did splits yesterday with a Brazilian and it's amazing to see how much I've progressed in just a few weeks from the last time i did it. I'm actually able to understand and contribute to the lesson! I know it's going to be a lot faster in the field so I'm trying to psych myself up for that haha but i'll be fine!!! a bunch of my friends left today for their missions and i'm super excited for them!! I can't wait to get out! one more week!! I really hope my comp is Brazilian because I need to learn faster! so that I can teach better and bring more people unto Christ!

I just want to thank my family for being so awesome and teaching me everything I know! I know I'm having an easier time here than some other missionaries because of what I've been taught at home!! as I learn about this gospel, I have come to recognize that families are forever and that they are everything! There are a couple of guys sitting next to me who have been done for a while because only three people emailed them. I feel bad for them. So whoever is reading this I challenge you to give everyone in your family a hug. and if you don't want to do it anyways haha

I don't have much to say about this weeks but I love you all and am soooo very thankful for the opportunity to be here and serve the Lord!!

LOVE YOU ALL

Elder Whelan

New Year, Same Us... Amazing Fam!

So the life at the CTM is great!! I literally had a 4 day weekend kind of because of how many activities were going on! Christmas was great I would send you pictures but I’m not allowed haha so oh well!! There were supposedly some crazy fireworks on Christmas but I slept through them... oops. haha other the the excitement of Christmas there hasn't been anything crazy going on. I’ve been able to go to the temple both in Sao Paulo and Campinas temple which are both so beautiful!! P-days are my favorite because we can roam the streets and buy a bunch of treats or whatever we need. Thank you for buying me cookies from Mr. Cheneys!! They were so good! They were really big and I ended up giving a lot to my friends because I was always so full haha

So I had the opportunity to go proselyting in the main area in Sao Paulo and literally the first lady I try to talk to threw up her arms and screamed! hahahaha It was the funniest thing ever!! There was my comp & two Brazilian elders who were there with me and got the privilege to witness the whole thing haha. Other than that proselyting is HARD! We were able to contact some people but we literally speak in broken Portuguese so its so hard to get them to know what your saying haha still had a ton of fun though!!

The learning here is coming along as well. I’m able to have broken conversations with Brazilians and I can teach the lessons in Portuguese. We have these things called TRC which is were we teach in only Portuguese. Those are pretty fun and I just realize how far I've come!

This New Year was crazy!! I stayed up till 12 and the world was literally blowing up. The fireworks were exploding from every direction and for so long! It was so loud and crazy haha the sky was literally lit up because of all the lights going off! And a huge line of fire trucks with their horns and lights blaring drove right by the CTM so that didn't help with the peace and quiet hahaha but my new year was so good and I hope all of yours was as well. Same with your Christmas! I have come to really appreciate Jesus Christ and what He did for us as I've been here at the CTM this Christmas!!

Life here is starting to get dull and I can't wait to get out into the field! My schedule is literally planned by the second it seems but it's really fun! My district is awesome and we all get along and have a ton of fun!! Some of my best friends who I love so much are leaving this week and that really sucks! one of them was name Elder Mayisela. He is from Swaziland in Africa and he was the coolest guy ever! There's some other elders as well that are leaving who I'm going to miss a lot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON!!! I'm so happy for Simon and his decision to get baptized!!! He's the best brother ever!! I love those three little boys so much and I am thankful to have them in my life! Also Kollin is home and Simon really wanted Kollin to be the one to baptize him ahhhh so awesome!! I'm sad that I missed Simon’s baptism!! But I know he's making the right choice in this life and will be forever blessed!

I might be able to send pics soon, my comp has a wifi camera! That's so cool that Braeden is leaving to school soon!! boa sorte (Good luck)! He's going to do awesome!! I'm amazed at Molly getting baptized! She's so awesome and I'm excited for her.

I love my family and this gospel and am so happy for all those who are brought into it and have to opportunity to share the love that I feel!!

Gotta go!! LOVE YOU ALL!!


Elder Whelan