Week 4 A Thanksgiving gift from Natalie

This week was pretty good! We had the opportunity to go to the Sao Paulo temple today, always a pleasure. I met Elder Jefferson Santos/Tavares(?) from Natal on Thanksgiving day! He told me Natalie told him to give me a hug from her when he saw me, so that was a pretty phenomenal gift. Definitely made Thanksgiving a good one here in Brasil, we almost didn't sit at the same table with him either, fortunately Elder Honstein wanted to sit there haha. 

(Mom note: The young man in this picture with Natalie is Elder Jeferson Santos.  He helped the sister missionaries in Natal and entered the MTC on Wednesday, found Scott on Thursday, Thanksgiving, and gave him a hug from Natalie - another small miracle for Scott)

We went proselyting this past Wednesday, which was scary for me. My companion was good at getting people to listen to us, and I was good at actually speaking Portuguese to people-we were a good team haha. It was interesting to see how unpredictable people can be, some people that look nice, really aren´t, and vice versa. Just goes to show how we look on the outside, but the Lord seeth on the inside. One lady we spoke to asked us `Are you guys German?`´ (sound familiar mom!? haha) Us: Ummm, no-Estados Unidos?`haha And then we explained how we´re missionaries and then just looked at us and responded in this profound manner `We´re all on missions in life, aren´t we?`` We also talked to one other guy who was wearing these army tags with things like `Blood`written on it in English, so I asked him in Portuguese, Oh you like English? Yeah! hahaha The last lady I spoke to was this Brazilian Asian lady on the bus, after she found out I was American she wanted to practice English with me, so we spoke in Portingles. One companionship in our district spoke to one really nice lady who had a house in Salvador, kind of unusual for someone that well-to-do to listen and be so nice to missionaries. Our district is bonding more, Portuguese isn´t too difficult for me, but it is for a lot of other Americans. Sao Paulo is a weird place, most interesting though. I´ll try to spend more pictures soon! I keep on getting asked how long I´ve been here because of my Portuguese, and a bunch of Brazilians say I should be leaving already haha. Kinda nervous though since the Recife accent is totally different and not standard at all-but also excited to have a fun accent when I speak Portuguese there for a while! haha I´m amazed by all the people in the world, everywhere you go. Excited to see the new scenery in Recife! I hear nature might exist there unlike in Sao Paulo! Keep me posted on all the new events! Beyond jealous you guys got to go to Annapolis! One of my favorite places on God´s green Earth! I love all of you! Still trying to figure out how to send pictures! Ate mais tarde!- 

Love, Scott

PS Guess who I happened to run into at the CTM this week?

Levi Pack! He just arrived here this week, he´s going to the 

Fortaleza mission. First Seminary in Hudson, now the CTM

in Sao Paulo, how interesting life can be.

Week 3 Natalie was in the CTM Brazil Video!

This week was somewhat interesting. I saw Natalie in the CTM Brazil video this week!!! I was saying to everybody in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, that´s my sister! That´s my sister! Oh look, that´s my sister again! Oh guys, no way, this is so cool! There she is again!-the people next to me might have regretted their choice of seating haha   (Mom note: Natalie is always looking after her twin "younger" brother.  I think it is awesome that she was in the video to make Scott feel more at home while transitioning in  the MTC - small miracle, but as a mom I'll take it!)

                                                 P-Day to Sao Paulo Temple

                                                            Sao Paulo Temple

Also-we were able to go to the Sao Paulo temple today!

I have to say the interior is stunning. The stained glass and woodwork were gorgeous. It´s interesting while on the road how some people simply turn on their right turn signal and just start turning right-never mind the 5 cars next to them, they´ll make space. No idea how I´d survive driving here. Also, the drivers licenses here cost $1,400 Reais, which is insane considering the average finances of a Brazilian. The CTM has gotten old, let´s just say Recife is my Emerald City and Pernambuco is my promised land. haha There is a new instructor here who looks just like an American-Irmao Etmuller, (his parents are from Germany), so we kept on staring at him like `Wow, he speaks Portuguese so well! It´s incredible!´ Until we asked him were he was from and he said Brazil haha. This week wasn´t as easy for our group. Some of us were missing home or still ill-adjusted to Brazil and the CTM. We had a really great TRC last night, the girl spoke really fast but somehow I understood almost everything she said. I´m pretty sure she had a some what standard accent, which helps. We discussed the importance of tuning into the Spirit, and making time in our stressful, busy lives to stop and listen to spiritual promptings. I´m worried about offending Brazilians in terms of food, there are some things I´ve had here that just went straight to my gag reflex. The salad that tasted like it was drenched in bleach is one example haha. Fortunately, almost everybody here (Americans and Brazilians) say the North has better food (and is just better you know `:) ). There are some cool new Brazilian missionaries that got here, and one really cool kid from Uruguay. My companion and I get along with each other fortunately,  that is certainly not always the case here. I´m told that Recife and Olinda are exciting, hopefully I´ll get stationed in those areas. It´s interesting to see all the Renaults and Fiats here, I actually quite like the Renault Duster. The other somewhat fascinating aspect is the middle class apartment high rises surrounded by multitudes of shacks, you don´t really see that back in America. Volleyball is a nice break, and shopping is fun. I can´t really find anywhere to exchange money yet, and a lot of places rip you off (including the airport), with random ´government taxes´and such. I hope we get to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, our district might have to bring the hammer down with that. Only Americans and Canadians understand the necessity of it haha. For some reason my preparation day today is on a Brazilian holiday, so almost everything is closed-that´s how much our district is loved by the man haha Portuguese isn´t too difficult, the schedule is grueling though. The weather in Sao Paulo is refreshing, and the ornamental onions are blooming, but it´s difficult to feel like you´re in nature at all. Also, one Brazilian guy asked what my name was, and when I said `Talentino`, he said, Àn American, with this name?`´ I just looked at him and slowly said `´Yes´. I guess they don´t really know about black or Italian Americans down here haha xD They should have a primer on immigrants to America in their history class, maybe I wouldn´t get asked about my name so much. haha Keep me posted on all the events back home! I miss it! I can´t believe I´m missing Star Wars! Jango Fett forever! 

Let me know how the fam´s doing! I love hearing from you guys! 

Elder Talentino

Week 2 MTC Life

Hey all! This week at the CTM was interesting. I have decided that

being a vegetarian in Brazil is next to impossible. I have never seen

so much meat served at meals in my life. I get along quite well with

my companion, Elder Davis. Our district seems to be bonding. Most of

the teachers are cool, but some we would be happy without. Some of the

cultural differences are interesting (for example, if you have any

altoids in class, it´s normal for a teacher to just say ´give me

some´in Portuguese, and it´s not considered rude or anything). Natalie

should have sent me a memo about how much people loved her here. It´s

kind of insane-I mean, seriously, I thought those high school type

things would be over by now haha. In Portugese-`Ýour sister is Sister

Talentino. Ela e muita, muita, muita, legal! Eu amo ela! Linda!/She is

very, very, very, cool! I love her! Beautiful! Portugese isn´t as hard

as I had worried, I´m usually able to get by with Portunol.  I did

pretty well in the first practice lesson we had, all the surprised

Brazilians started interrogating me about where I learned Portuguese

haha I just said I studied French and Spanish. Also, in one practice

lesson, we had to explain the scene with Laban to an investigator, and

she then said in Portuguese. Oh, I totally, get that, the

President of Brazil, she´s very evil, I´d love to kill her´. For a

moment we were looking at each other like´, wait, did she really just

say that? haha So we explained it a little more and it turned out

fine. 

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Campinas temple.

It was essentially the definition of beauty. Portuguese in the temple

was a little intimidating, but there was some English there too to

help foreigners, it was all good. 

                             Campinas, Brazil Temple

I am surprised by the amount of Ohioans and missionaries with southern accents (Southern United

States) that are currently here. It seems somewhat unusual. I have

probably meet 6 people from Ohio and 6 with southern accents, more

than I expected in Sao Paulo haha There are also some Japanese people

here and tons of people with Italian heritage. So many people come up

to me and ask me about my name. I have to tell people who usually

already know it´s Italian that it´s Italian on the daily haha Two

missionary very strongly remind me of 2 characters from The Polar

Express, one in my district is so similar to the one kid with the

glasses who yells `You know what kinda train this is?´, he´s pretty

funny, and the other one is like Billy, that kid that stays in the

back of the train that causes all the problems. Except the missionary

here doesn't cause in problems haha Sometimes I do feel like I´m under

house arrest, but I suppose I should have expected that haha I

volunteered to accompany with the piano for a few musical numbers,

that should be uplifting. (For Juliana and Lili especially) There is

one Elder here from Sao Luis, Maranho (the colonial city founded by

the French hundreds of years ago-(he knew about Carolina too). He had

the most fascinating conversion story. He is currently 26, he

converted a year ago. He described his disatisfaction with the mixing

of native superstitions and Catholicism/possibly other forms of

Christianity as well in his local town. He said when he studied the

gospel for the first time however, he ´felt the truth´. Today was his

first time in the temple! Muito legal! He might possibly be the

coolest person who ever graced the city of Sao Paulo. 

The juices here are pretty good, Guarana is only good when carbonated, it tastes a bit

like sparkling apple cider. Isn´s so good when it goes flat though. 

We went to the Federal Police Department yesterday. Never thought I´d be

so excited to go to a police department in my life. Portuguese is an

interesting language, sometimes I feel like a bunch of people just got

together, mixed a bunch of languages together, and decided to call it

Portuguese. The weather so far has been fairly decent, today was

exceptionally humid though. The palm trees are a big plus, one of the

main things going for Brazil. I want to get to Recife but I´m afraid

of that wall of humidity waiting to smack the unsuspecting traveler.

I´ve met a lot of cool people from foreign places, England, Chile, all

over Brazil, Uraugay, Argentina, etc. Sister Madarani, this one girl

from England, was exceptionally funny. There was also this sister

missionary from Chile who was so nice, she was impressed with my

language abilities and went on about how sweet and special I was, and

how cool it was that I studied French. One of her favorite music

artists is from Ohio, so she just loved everything about me haha Also,

the black English speaking missionaries always get spoken to in

Portuguese, they have to stop whatever Brazilian is speaking to them

after a 3 minute torrent of Portuguese. For some reason they assume

all black people in this world are Brazilian haha One guy in our

district just stares at them and says Ýeah, no speak Portuguese.

Americano.´hahaha Also I´ve noticed, some people in Spanish and

Portuguese have voices that are pitched much higher than any English

speaker, (men and women included), it´s somewhat strange and

fascinating The food here is pretty good, the desserts are weird

though. One legitimately tasted like fluoride. I swear a dentist came

up with some concoction and passed it off as a dessert.. The CTM has

its pros and cons haha. I´m sure I´ll  be more than ready for Recife

when the time comes. I do miss the nature and people back home so

much!  

Elder Talentino

Scott Journey has Begun!

 Scott left last night for Sao Paulo, Brazil and arrived safely!

Hey all!

Just arrived in Sao Paulo, not as intimidating as I had thought it would be.
The concrete jungle isn`t that appealing, but the tropical vegetation is most welcoming. I love Portuguese and Brazilians already!! Such a welcoming country.
I have been assigned to be a companion with Elder Davis-a ginger! haha There sending all those British descendants to get scorched in tropical lands! He is also going to the Recife mission. I met Elder Moroni Web today, he is going to the Natal mission! I told him
to tell her I said hi (I bet she´ll cry! haha). Also, if you could tell me how the camera and sending photos works, that would be fantastic! I only have 10 minutes, so I apologize for the brevity of the email. The humidity is somewhat strong-not sure if the Western missionaries were prepared for it though haha. I also met a sister missionary from Peru-Spanish came in handy! Some of the Americans thought I was already speaking Portuguese-tricked ya! haha
Anyway, I hope all is well back in Ohio! Love all of you! We will see how it goes! Happy to be serving the Lord and His children.
-Scott