Elder Collin J. Andrus: Week 3

Hey Family!

So the President’s wife, Sister Clark, is like the nicest person I’ve met. Last p-day, there was an ice cream party for the new work out gym here, and we missed the ice cream. So she personally served us this huge bowl of ice cream just for us. Haha It was fun, and I love her. I also bought this cool tie and a jersey of a soccer team here in Sao Paulo. Tons of Brazilians love it and tons hate it. They are really into soccer and only like their home team, no one else. The teacher here that knows Sterling is Irmao Ramon, or Sterling would know him as Elder Ramon. He said that Sterling was his trainer and the way he talks about him it seems they were good friends. So Irmao Zamboni told me he added me on Facebook Haha. He tells me he looks through my pictures and everything. He’s a great teacher, one of the best. Another thing he said to me this past week was “I would have been happy to have been half the missionary you seem to be”. I don’t know why he’s saying that because it seems he was a top notch missionary. But it sure does mean a lot to me.

The food here is kinda crazy sometimes but sometimes it’s really good too. I’m definitely gaining weight. I’ve probably gained 8 or so pounds! Haha The goal is 15 by the time I get out of here because I’m sure I’ll lose it pretty quick in Belem. It’s cool here because the contrast between the Brazil CTM and the Provo MTC seems to be just like the contrast between SVU and BYU - such a smaller environment but just as good, or better.

One thing I remembered was that you guys should try to get some pictures of the Neal’s house as “after” pictures. Just a thought because I’m sure it’ll look different in two years.

Being on a mission is such a good experience. It’s really hard work out here though. This week they are really pushing us with the language and it’s really tough. I know I can do it - I’m catching on really well. Man, I really like Portuguese. It’s such an amazing language.

So yesterday, all of the Brazilians we were friends with left. It was really sad cause they were really cool and we were really good friends with them. Only two are going to Belem. I’ll miss them...one of them gave me one of his t-shirts too. They are great people.

So today we went to the temple, and I bought brand new Portuguese scriptures. They are super nice. How did you guys like conference? We got to watch all the sessions and took tons of notes. It was really good and all the talks were amazing – I can’t even pick my favorite one. Yeah today I went over to Mr. Cheney´s and sent a letter and got 3 cookies. Man those are some good cookies! Best one’s I’ve had in a while. It’s too bad I can’t send pictures yet cause it would be cool for you guys to see everything. I’ll make sure to take tons and send them when I can. Thanks for all of your support!

Love you all!

-Elder Andrus