First week in the City!

So ha ha no baptizms yet for those who are asking. ha ha nobody in my district ended up in my area or zone i think. ha ha my president is a nice guy hes got a really low voice. ha ha um the house is pretty rough ill try to send some pics. ha ha but i dont know if it will work. My area is pretty ghetto .ha ha our chapel is under renovation so guess what we have church in a catholic school. ha ha it was pretty different and we had sacrament meeting on the basket ball court. ha ha and i understand basically nothin ha ha its hard to speak but im growing fast! sometimes when i feel the spirit strongly its like my mind focuses and works double time and i can understand. im speaking more now but when i think i havent really improved. people here are very nice when we went and visited members yesterday every one of them fed us. ha ha to say the least i was stuffed. ha ha ive been having fun but my feet are pretty sore we walk a ton! and my companion likes to walk fast so its hard to keep up when your feet hurt. i love the children ha ha there really nice. meu amigo Ruan is awesome he drew me a picture ha ha and gave me some marbles so me and my companion can play at the house. ha ha we ate at ruans house yesterday and my companion did some magic tricks for them. ha ha it was fun my companion likes to play violin he'll take it to members houses and play a hymn make me sing and leave them with a short message but its hard for me to match the violin with my bass voice. ha ha elder siles is my comp.  we get along but he jokes a little more than id like to but i love him the same ha ha the city is RUN DOWN ha ha its rough alot of the houses are in pretty bad shape including ours id like to do some work but time is short and we are usually out of the house.  Tell everyone i love them and Love you thanks for all you do and use that missionties up! Elder Smith

Hey This is my email para voce telling you i made it too recife the flight was good and its hot here guess what i finally found someone that knows josephcity ha ha i knew i would find someone his name is elder king hes cousins with ralph bushmans family i cant speak much portuguese and its even worse with my understanding mas i am getting better by the way i bought a harmonica its one of the big 2 sided ones its not a guitar but its something by the way my companion decided hed listen to the songs we had on cd it was good to hear your testimony in a song for me its sooooooooo hard to get in the spiritof missionary work when i cant speak with anyone but i am improving greatly oh and also my companion is bolivian and knows less english than i know portuegues so im grateful for that my area i am in is madelina we currently have no investigators i think..... my companion kinda likes to play with me its pretty annoying because i never really know what i were doing. my living quarters is pretty humble to say the least but its cool with me. anyway i think ought to go love you guys i wish i could talk more. i think my pday is tuesday still but like i said my treinador likes tricking me so it might be monday so just watch for it love you guys a ton and i hope to get some letters soon send my love to deid and papa and grandma i know right now it is hard but i know the lord is helping me alot hopefully next time i will send pics next time. love you again

Tyson also sent us a email in Portugeuse. I will include it now and add the translation on the end.

entao eu vou escrever para voce me perdoar se meu spelling is bad eu gosto isso aqui na cidade de recife mas eu nao posso falar  e tambem no entendi muitos muitos muitos  coisas mas eu sei que jesus cristo morrer para mim e tambem joseph smith foi um profeta eu amo voces e tambem meu companheiro eu sou muitos gratos por todas coises voces fazem para mim eu sou muitos animados para falando em portuguese e eu quero falo agora mas eu tambem sei que deus e nossas amoroso pai celestial e ele tem um plano para me eu sou muito feliz por que eu sou de muito grande familia  meu companheiro queria casar minha irma britney e eu amo ela entao eu vou matar meu companheiro.......     brincadeira. eu sei que eu estou aqui para todas pessoas de recife e eu espera que eu posso cumprir meu proposito como um missionario. Agora eu estou escrevendo uma carta para voces em poruguese quando eu estou a meu casa eu  falo muito portugues  com meu companheiro. atualmente eu estou nao comfortable falando em ingles

TRANSLATION......

So I'll write to you to forgive me if my spelling is bad I like it here in the city of reef but I can not speak and also understand the many many many things but I know that Jesus Christ died for me and also was a prophet joseph smith I love you guys and also my partner I'm very thankful for all coises you guys do for me I'm most excited about speaking in portuguese and I speak now but I also know god and love our heavenly father and he has a plan for me I I am very glad that I am a very big family my partner wanted to marry my sister britney and I love her so I'm gonna kill my friend ....... joke. I know I'm here for all persons reef and I hope I can fulfill my purpose as a missionary. Now I'm writing a letter to you guys in poruguese when I'm in my house I talk a lot with my Portuguese partner. currently I'm not comfortable speaking in English

Finally Some Pictures

 Thanks for all the letters. Well, I don't know what the temperature is or what the humidity is, but it's still quite hot. It's getting pretty nice but it rained Hard last night. It's kinda crazy how green it is even in the city. We just got out of the Temple. It was awesome. Our whole District (which is now 12 guys) rode a small van to the Temple and got there very early, so we got in a session with just our District. It was neat. Today P-day is gonna be shortened big time cuz an Apostle is coming!!! :>) Anyways, we got a letter from our old Brazillian roomate. He's serving a mission in the Saluador Mission which borders mine. He says he's having a great time and that his roof doesn't really keep out the rain. ha ha. Saturday we had TRC where we teach members from the area like they are investigators. I was a little worried about it, but my companhiero was VERY worried. So we prayed before our lesson,  and we did VERY WELL. I could  understand most of what was said, and I could even answer questions they had. It was great! It's SOooo amazing how much we can learn by the Spirit. I couldn't even imagine speaking portuguese 2 months ago, but now It's likesecond nature. Granted I'm not fluent, but I feel confident when I speak about somethings. I CAN'T WAIT  TO GET TO THE FIELD!  Yeah, I sleep on the top bunk and as you can see the bed is tiny. ha ha. Smaller than my bed at home, but thats ok. Things are awesome here. I've stopped putting on weight, so I'm bout a solid 195 now. Sounds like you guys are pretty busy. I loved the Family pics. I don't need hardly anything and I can get just about anythingI need here except ranch dressing. But I'd prefer that you don't send me a bottle of Ranch, ha ha. Just watch _ _ _ _ for me. ha ha! It's exciting to hear about home. Sounds like life is better without me there ha ha. Thanks for all you guys have done for me & still do for me.
Love, Elder Smith

Elder Smith and his District at Sao Paulo Temple

Elder Tyson and His CTM Companhiero Elder Passey

Inside the court yard at the CTM

Tyson showing off some brazillian candies

Elder Smith and His good friend, Elder Mackay

Elder Smith showing off his Brazillian Soccer Shirt. One of my Favorites by the way...

Elder Smiths Scripture cover that he had one of the locals make for him.

4-29-12

4-29-12

Ola. Mom Desculpe Por Meu Portugeuse. I'm still learning. It's amazing to think of how much I've learned, but I boast not of my own strength. For without the Lord, I am nothing. Sorry but recently I have been forgetting about home. Ha Ha. Home is ALMOST  a dream now. Being here at the CTM and being "in the world but not of the world", I can't see my life without the Church nor would I like too. Thank You and Dad for teaching me what is right. I am so Thankful for even my CTM experience. I can't wait to get to the field. Speaking of which, I believe 3 weeks, maybe 2 weeks from today I will be flying to Recife. It seems so far away. Love you, Elder Smith

Dear Pai,
Ola Como Vei. As you can see I still need to improve on my portugeuse, but last lesson we taught ourteacher, I spoke quite a bit but I'm starting to think more in portuguese. It's great! My faith is growing tremendously! As for my companhieros, Elder Mackay, Mclaws and Passey are all going to Recife as well as another one in our District. Love You, Elder Smith