CTM Update

Things are going great here at the CTM in São Paulo. I know more Português than I did last week. We on have a couple more grammar rules to go over. I´m not fluent yet, but I´m becoming capable. So, now I just need to stockpile vocabulary and reenforce the rules. Even with a language barrier, I´m pretty good at making friends with the Brasileiros. It´s really cool. My companion twisted his ankle yesterday playing basquete (basketball). So, he was on crutches for a little while. Today, he´s doing better though. Just hobbling or limping a tad.

This morning we went to the Polícia Federal to get fingerprinted and such. It was fun. I met this old couple the old man was from Hawaii and he was with his old lady girlfriend who is from Brasil. They were there to renew some sort of document so he could stay in Brasil longer. They asked me about our temples so I explained to them that in the temple we are able to be sealed to our spouses and families for eternity. It was cool. I didn´t get to utilize my growing Português though. Oh, also today one of our instructors treated us to this fresh fruit juice place. I had him pick out a new kind of fruit juice for me to try. The juice was totally delicious. Something called ´graviola´ , I have no idea what the fruit actually is, but it was way totally awesome. It was white, and the cool thing about the juice place is that they just blend the whole fruit. My companion, Elder Epperson, had acai juice.

Oh! Good news! We have a lot of missoinaries here at the CTM now. My district and I have been fasting every Sunday so that the missionaries could make it here to Brasil. There have been a lot of visa problems, but since we started fasting I think at least 200 missionaries that were stuck in Provo received their visas, and the CTM is running at about 50% capacity rather than 10% when I first arrived. It´s really amazing. Anyway friends and family. I love you all. Until next week. May the Lord bless you and keep you until we meet again.

Love,
Elder Samuel H. Chiba

(p.s. I´ll be here until March 16, so get all your letters sent off before March 1st)