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

Life at the CTM

So the CTM [Portuguese for MTC] experience is going great right now we are all having to teach entire lessons in Portuguese and stuff like that so its been pretty exciting to see how bad I am at teaching hahaha. It's getting harder and harder because we have to teach a complete lesson to fake investigators now, and we cannot look at any notes. And it's also ALL in Portuguese so that's great. Haha.

The food here is still not good and all my friends who were here before me left for their missions so this place is so flippin empty! There's just a bunch of Brazilians around me and the only thing I can really say to them is hi, how long have you been here, where is your mission, and maybe a couple of other things haha but the language is coming! it's coming much faster than if I was learning in high school or something because I have dom de linguas which is the gift of tongues!!!!

My teachers are so awesome here and they are super funny. the CTM is super decorated with lights and Christmas trees to celebrate Christmas so it's been pretty cool! I've also used the tinsel you sent me and decorated our room with it. I had my first p-day last week and it was sooooo fun. here at the CTM in Brazil we are allowed to go out on the streets which no other CTM allowes. so Me and my district went to a hamburger place and ate some super raw burgers that were really good and then I bought some ties from a guy who sells them out of his trunk of his car. not suspicious at all haha.

I had a pretty good sized cockroach in my suitcase the other day. Don't worry, I exterminated it swiftly, but it was pretty fast. I haven't seen any in there since.

Kollin comes home tomorrow so that frickin awesome!!!! He's been an amazing missionary and I Look up to him and Braeden!! oh!! so I packed my shock pen and that's been sooooo much fun to trick brazilians and other people with. So thats been a good pastime when I'm not studying or teaching.

I'm calling home on Christmas day from 18:30-19:00 and the time difference is six hours so mi familia better be ready haha. I'm running out of time to write but everything is going great here. There's a missionary in our district who is a good kid but he's been struggling pretty hard for a while. I've tried a lot to serve him and make him feel better. Me and Elder Julia gave him a blessing of comfort last nice so he's definitely going to be feeling better after that.

I love you and and can't wait to serve my Heavenly Father and the people of Brazil!! the CTM is already kind driving me crazy so ya. I Can't wait to get out into the field!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Elder Whelan

PS: I sent some stuff to you about the cookie shop, I don't know if you got it or not.

[Editor’s note: if you’d like to purchase a Care Package for Elder Whelan, especially for Christmas, you can purchase things at Mr. Cheney’s Cookies, and he can pick them up on his P-days, Wednesdays. https://www.missionties.com/product-category/care-package/cheney/ ]

First Email!

Hey everyone!!

The CTM is amazing! everyone here is so awesome and nice! We have so much fun trying to understand each other!! my comps name is elder Burbidge and he's pretty cool. super nerdy tho haha he carries a yo-yo and is always flipping that thing around. I've learned so much her and can't wait to learn more. The food at the CTM is kinda gross most of the time but you gotta eat it haha. i found a cockroach in my bag today and i'll admit it was a little surprising hahaha it was literally the size of a half dollar coin so its wasnt small. the weather is hot here and it even smells different haha not bad though.

The language is coming along.. I don't know as much as I feel I should then I realize. oh wait, it's only my sixth day haha as I have tried to serve others I have come to love them. And see them as Gods children!! its an awesome feeling. Literally you can talk to ANYONE and they will have a 10 minute conversation about whatever and that normal haha. they actually want to talk to you all the time. Oh and I was also called to be the zone leader a couple of days ago so that's cool. I have to set up sacrament meeting and get that all prepared and i have several other duties. I really don't have that much time to email so now I totally know why Kollin and Braeden said they never had time!!!!I anyways, when we have our actividade outside we can jump or kick the ball in volleyball and if you do its 10 pushup. its crazy!!! but you already know I ball up and still have fun haha. The days have felt super fast for me because i literally have every second planned from morning till night. we had to give a lesson in Portuguese yesterday and it went horrible hahaha we literally had everything written down and weren't able to understand our ``investigators replies at all`` I ended up just saying en nome Jesus Shrist amen and tchau haha. it was funny to laugh at latter. but I have soooo many fun stories already and i literally can share them all because I don't have the time to do it but oh well haha

Yesterday or the day before me and my district were playing volleyball and my comp flippin hits the ball super hard and it smashes into elder Julias' face and sends his glasses flying! this was right when we got there so bear that in mind. it was super funny but everything turned out to be ok and there were no hard feelings. oh! there are these relic things in the CTM that are passed down from elder to elder and I got the golden plates which are literally a 5 pound stack of flash cards with hundreds of word to study so that's been a blessing haha. some of the elders got some other relics like  green book that you're supposed to write advise in and stuff. that ones is cool because we eat the same thing pretty much everyday day and it tell you how to make some good food. especially good paninis!! Also we are aloud to come outside on p-days and we have about 6-4 hours to go eat all you can eat sushi, hamburgers, or cookies. I can't wait for that because I haven't done it yet. we also have the opportunity to go to the temple every p-day so that's flippin awesome!!!!! can't wait. I swear i've gotten more advice from everyone her about how to survive in the CTM than in my entire life haha and and sorry but there's no spell check here to fix my bad spelling and since I have little time I can't go back and fix those mistakes. I've had so much fun here because the Portuguese people know all about American music and stuff! like literally a Portugues elder just walked by singing ´´ i like to move it move it, i like to move it move it´´ haha and it sounds the same but with his accent haha it's been fun.

A bunch of American Elders left on their next journey last night and I miss them so much because they were literally the most fun guys every. Is like I know everyone here already and can talk to them no problem. for some reason I had no trouble adjusting to anything here. Im tired during the day but that's because my brain is literally trying to comprehend everything at once and its not working HAHA I`ll get better I know it. I have a firm testimony of this gospel and I love everything about it! I am beginning to have a firm testimony in the gift of tongues as well and can't wait until I am completely fluent in Portuguese!!! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! And I´m so thankful for all the support and love! Your all are the best!!!!!

Deus te ama!!!

tchau!!

Elder Whelan