1st Letter

Dear Family!

 

Its tuesday and now its my Pday!!! these keyboards are really hard to type on so excuse my errors and lack of punctuation. so my day of traveling was interesting! my plane to dallas got delayed alot and when we finally started to go, someone got sick so we had to taxi back. landing in dallas was one of the coolest things ever! we were descending into a storm and there ware tons of lightning strikes going every where... one hit our wing and it looked sooo cool! kinda scary though. there was one elder on that flight, elder sanders, then we met up with 15 other elders on the way to brazil. elder anderson was not on the flight and it was super long. i didnt take the sleeping pill and each seat had a personal tv so it was really hard not to watch anything because they were loaded with games and super good movies! i made it to the CTM alright and i love it here! in my room I am with elder adams, ray, sanders, and james. elder james and sanders are my two companions because we have an odd amount of elders so we are a group of three. we have one sister though! they are both american and we get along really well. we are getting two new elders this wednesday and one of them will be going to teresina! nobody else is. our district is getting split in two also because it will be too big. everyone who i have talked to about teresina just say that it is really really hot, and super poor. so im super excited! even the native brazilians say its really hot. the food is exactly like elder smoot said. i have had ham and cheese every day and some sort or chicken and beef for every lunch and dinner. and of course there is always rice and beans. i like the food so far, its not my favorite, but i can always get a full meal in somehow. i gained 3 pounds the first three days! OH! also on wednesday, as soon as we got to the CTM we went straight to the auditorium  to hear elder bednar and elder anderson speak! it was super inspirational and the spirit was so strong! because there are not too many people here at the CTM we all got to shake their hands! it was amazing :) learning the language has been super tough, but we have done some pretty cool things like learn to pray and bear our testimonies, i kinda wish i had taken a semester while at BYU. i love being with all the guys here and i have connected really well with some of them. i made a goal not to play basketball here during gym time, but broke down my first day of gym and thats all ive done so far :) we started teachi8ng a pretend investigator on thrusday! it was super cool but also super scary. that was our first day of learning portuguese and we already had to begin teaching... sunday and today have been my favorite days so far. on sunday we had church in our little branch (about 30 people) and it was super cool hearing from the missionaries and some of the leaders. it was all in english so we could understand. for priesthood, the branch president spoke and it was super good! i really really like him and during my interview he told me that he thinks im going to be a really good missionary because i gave really good answers and was the only new person participating in our branch from our group of new people. it was really inspiring to hear that from him, his name is president Wolffendin. later that day we watched 17 miracels. it was so so good! it was so nice to see a movie and it was super spiritual. i think i left a puddle of tears on the floor by the end. i highly reccomend it. Today is Pday which has been awesome! we had to wake up earlier today because we GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!! we get to go every Pday which is super exciting! it was sooo pretty inside and out and it felt so good to get somewhere quiet and just enjoy the spirit. i found that you can also pray for a very long time while you are in there :) afterwards my companions and i went to the distribution center near the temple and i bought a portuguese hymn book. it was 7.10 Reais, which is about 5 dollars i think. im so excited to go outside! its so wierd being stuck inside a building for a week straight without being to go outside. i got a letter notifying me of the package you sent, so i will stop by that store to pick it up! i think i will also stop by a store named Sonya's to buy the mission bags with the mission names on it. we can only take pictures on Pday sadly, so i dont have any for you yet because we also cant take pictures of the temple. i will take lots and lots today though. and even more sad, we cant send any photos! so you will have to wait for 2 months for me to get into the field until you can get photos :( my fingers have been flying at like a million miles an hour because we only have 30 minutes. i erad all your emials and i hope that i responded to all your questions. It is so stinkin pretty here. dad would really like it i think. there is alot of green and alot of really cool colorful houses. the weather has been cooler here than normal, so it hasnt been to bad. i just sleep in shorts and a shirt with no top sheet and have been fine! i have kept a journal everyday to help myslef remember what ive done and its been really nice, but i forgot to bring it, so hopefully i got everything! oh, and i can recieve emails from everyone, but only send them to family. i hope yall are doing great! and im so excited for michael and natalie to get their calls! times up!

 

Muito Amor! (much love)

Elder derek romney lambert