Another Week at the CTM

June 22, 2011
Dear family and others,

Well, another week has passed and it´s been about the same thing everyday here at the CTM. We are still learning Portuguese and learning how to preach to others, we are kind of practicing with different scenarios so that we will know what to do In the field. I feel that a lot of the other missionaries in the district are getting the language down a lot better than me, except my teachers say that I am doing really well, so I don´t know, maybe.

Probably there are only two interesting things that catch my attention a lot here at the CTM. The first is volleyball and Gym Time. Except this week they decided that it would be a good idea to work on the gym floor, only the corners, during our time, and our time only. I talked to Elder Craft about this and he said that during his gym time, he´s been able to play in the gym. I was not happy. So instead our district had to go to the weight room and I kind of felt like Brian Regan in there, not knowing how to use the weight equipment.

The second interesting thing over here is the bums that we can see in a little triangular park outside our window. At first I felt bad watching them, but they grow on you. Especially when their way of living improves. One guy brought a mattress to the park, and some other guy brought an office chair and things like that. We´be been taking pictures to document this and I will show you when I actually get out to the field since, for some reason, we are not allowed to hook our camera up to the computers here.

I got a haircut yesterday, with a two on the sides and then tapered it up to I think a four, maybe a three, I´m not too sure. I like it better. I can still comb my hair over and after I take a shower (which is now around 4:30 since that is when we get out of gym) it doesn´t look too bad.

We go to the temple every Wednesday, on P-day (preparation day), and the session is in English. I keep forgetting to bring a camera so I can get a picture of the outside or something because it is beautiful.

The streets outside the CTM is awesome. We went to the post office and dropped our off our mail, we went to a store that sold office supplies and I got myself 100 flashcards, which I cut into 400, to help with learning Portuguese, and I bought 100 envelopes for mail for only 8.50 Reais which will be useful. What I´m looking for today though is a contact lens case. I heard it is possibly in a store where one can just pull up into the store with a car, but I don´t know for sure. For now I am borrowing a lens case from a roommate, Elder Noel (he is not my actual companion). He has contacts that can stay in for a month that is like approved by doctors or something. I also need to find a wallet because the one I have smears all of my cards; I haven´t used it here, of course. Oh I also got two new ties last week, one is black with diagonal white stripes, it´s nice, and the other is hot pink with a red floral pattern that is kind of like that tear drop pattern which I have forgotten the name of.

Our district is awesome and our teachers as well. I will see you all in two years.

With Love,
Elder Brady