Week 2: Yeeeeee!!!!! - August 7th 2012

Here is Mackenzie's letter from this last week.

So this week has gone by ridiculously fast!!! Me and all my roomates are calling it one big old day!!!  i love it here at the CTM everyone is here to focus on one thing and that is to serve the lord.  ive never been so focused on the gospel in my life and i love it.  the brasiliado elders who are here are only here for 3 weeks and the roomates i have are awesome.  i learn more talking to them then i do in class.  and we dont really have language class that often.  but the language is coming super slowly!!  i know some phrases and stuff but im focusing a lot on the verbs and the conjugations of them all.  SOOOO much.  whats weird is now that im learning a language, some of the french from freshman and sophomore year is coming back to me and im like wait.... this is french.  i need to be thinking in portugues.  i can pray and bare my testimony in portuguese.  not like super long prayers but enought to get the point across.  there is a guy from utah who has been here for 8 weeks and he is actually best friends with a guy from my district, his portuguese is amazing.  i here him talk and both me and elder richards look at eachother like WHAT!!! i wanna speak the language sooo bad.

on to other stuff, the food here is amazing to answer moms question in her email.  every meal rice and beans rice and beans rice and beans.  there is plenty of meat every day!! their deserts are somewhat iffy...  somedays they are good, some days your like what the heck is this, and other days your like ooohhh yeah!! get in my belly!  i make my own little personal chipotle bowl with cilantro rice beans cut up chicken and the hot sauce they have here.  sadly i havent used my cholula sauce yet.  ooh and guess what.  i dont know if i said this last week but... they have GUARANA ON TAP!!!!! oooohhh yeahh.  the wife of the mtc president drinks guarana.  so if the ctm serves it.  its a good drink!!!

so some thoughts i had during the week.  i bore my testimony on sunday.  it was about dads whistle and how familiar it is to me and anyone in the family.  if your lost and you here that whistle you feel amazing.  when i was walking to the tram 2 weeks ago and dad whistled at me and i turned and waved i felt peaceful... sort of.  but i compared that to the feeling of the spirit i get when i pray to heavenly father.  when i pray at night i am straight up talking to him and i feel his spirit and i know he is there for me and listening to me.  and i said that prayer is a powerful thing.  i love everynight returning to that same familiar feeling.

onto some random stuff.  when studying yesterday morning a car drove by the ctm blareing what i believe is a journey song.  the lines go ".... the lights go down in the city..."  and thats all i heard but i recognized it.  apparently in brasil right now american 80's music is huge!!!  other stuff.  the brasil nacional hino is amazing.  swoops the american national anthem of its feet haha.  weird thing here in brasil is that the floor level of a building isnt the first floor like what we would say.  the first floor is the next floor up.  so i am up on the 4th floor and every time i walk the stairs up im like what?!?!?! im only on the third floor.  its because my mind think that since i just climbed 4 flights of stairs that id be done but here im technically staying on the fifth floor.

quote that a speaker said on sunday "if there are no problems, there is no reason to give up!!!" "and that is why we are here, to solve problems.

love you all and hope your all having a great week

love
elder mackenzie sant