Week 3!!!! - August 14th 2012

Here's Mackenzie's letter from 8/14/12

alrighty sooo sorry for the later letter today.  we have a special speaker tonight and our pday is really messed up.  we went to the campinas temple today since the sao paolo one was closed for cleaning.  really beautiful temple inside and out!!! it just took longer for us to get there and back here to the ctm.  our pday was cut short because of a mandatory choir practice.  the speaker tonight is the 1st counselor in the area presidency for brasil.  pretty stoked for that.  the language is sticking more now.  i have been practicing 20 verbs a days with flash cards and reviewing all the next day as well as starting new ones.  its coming but slowly.  but hey as my teacher said last night, we speak better portuguese than someone learning another language in school.  for being here only 3 weeks and starting our 4th he said that we are doing just fine.

Momma i have sent you a looonng birthday letter through mission ties so you should be receiving it within the next day or so.  i hope you enjoy it =).  dad i got yours today as well and i scheduled my pizza party thing for next week.  and by the way thanks for that and the shakes my roomies will enjoy with me.my brasilliado roomates left this morning for their missions since they only had to be here 3 weeks.  also a good friend of my roomate left today.  hes been helping us out with the language alot!!! theyve been friends since before the mission.  his distric also left today so the buses to the temple were less packed thankfully.

oh and dad dont worry worry about those jurseys they were like 10 bucks each from a shop just across the street.  its a member who sells a bunch of ties and other mission bags and stuff.  thank you for the letter it was nice to read before i went here to email you guys!!  i hope you and mom had great birthdays.  dad it was your birthday and i was writing the date on something and i was like oh its the 9th.  happy birthday dad.  i said that out loud.  and then i realized it was Peri Tanners birthday as well and i was like happy birthday karlies mom!!!  and then on sunday it was our lovely 4 hour study/nap time and i was writing a letter and was writing the date then realized oh its the 12th!!! happy birthday mom!!!  i hope you all had fun!!

oh so there is this big old guy in my district who is ripped beyond belief.  even the ctm presidents wife asked how he is that big and fit.  he has an amazing voice and i just wanted to sing.  so like 4 others including us 2 from our district signed up for a 12 man a capella song.  we are singing lead kindly light and we start practicing this week.  im sooooo stoked for that.  since ive been here i have just had the strong urge to sing a good song.  i guess those vocal lessons with jeri clinger paid off!!! and if this email is sent to her.  THANKS JERI!!!  even after i quit vocal lessons i still have a desire to sing.  one of the pieces that we could choose was prayer of the children.  i wanted to sing that so bad.  i told sister steadman here who is the executive secretarys wife that i sang that with my dance/singing group in DC at the holocaust museum.  and told her how great it sounded!!  just fyi i had to ask my companion how to spell museum just now.  is that a good or bad sign =P.  oh another cool musical thing.  during sunday nights devotional when we all sing in the choir.  i was in the bass section with my companion and we were running through it and at the same time we realized that in a couple parts it is the same chord progression as the song Canon by Pacabel.  duhhh duhhh duhhh duhh duhh.  and when you read this you are gonna think its just a bunch of duuhhh's

one cool thing that jeffrey r holland said in a devotional at the provo mtc back in march or may that we watched.  he said that us as missionarieshave no right to be less than what primary children, little kids, nieces, nephews, or his grandkids think of us.  we have no right at all.  and thats what he said and that really hit a couple weeks ago.  cause then i started thinking what have i thought about missionaries my whole life.  oh they are soo cool i want to be like them someday and as i started getting older that never changed.  then it hit that i was only a year younger than these guys out there.  and now where am i??  sitting in brasil learning to teach heavenly fathers gospel to the people here.  and i have that reputation on my shoulders as a missionary to not let those kids down and to be just as amazing as i thought missionaries were when i was their age.

i hope everyone is doing good.  and for people back in good old california where it is only 2 50 boa tarde!!!  and for me boa noite!! have a good week everyone

love

Elder Mackenzie Sant

oh p.s. i bought a card reader today so im going to try and send a few photos to see how it is here at the ctm!!!