February 14, 2012

It's crazy how fast time goes here! It's weird to think I've been away from home for 7 weeks already. I'm almost 1/12 of the way through my mission! The language is good! Yesterday we got to teach a non-member about prayer (in Portuguese), and it was way awesome. I can't wait to be out in Brazil teaching people like that all the time.
The mission shoes are actually really good. And come with the best guarantee possible for shoes on the mission. 2 years replacement for free? Definitely the best deal. They don't look like the best quality, but they are super grippy, even in snow (we've been getting some this week), and the tread has barely worn at all. The tops get scuffed up pretty easily, and you can't make them look good again, but for the purposes of walking around all day in them, they're great. Also, they're waterproof. Which is awesome. Definitely worth it.

This week was another pretty uneventful week other than teaching the non-member. His name was Fillipe, by the way. We had our oldest district leave this morning. They're all going to Cape Verde off the West coast of Africa. They have soemthing like 39 hours of flight time total, along with a couple of two hour layovers and a 5 hour layover in Portugal. Pretty rough travel plans. One of them that left was Elder Clayton, who was our zone leader. Our new zone leaders are Elder Edwards and Haile. Elder Haile is the first missionary ever from Ethiopia to come to this MTC, and was the first member ever to recieve his Duty to God in Ethiopia and he was baptized when he was 17. He's an awesome guy and I'm really glad I got to meet him.

Well... I should probably go find where my companions went. They kind of disappear a lot. It's a bit frustrating, but I'm trying to work with them on being better with that. Oh, and I'm now the district leader. Which doesn't mean a whole lot since we only have a district of 3, but still.

Hope you have a good week and everything is good! Love you all!

-Elder Hopper

February 7, 2012

I've gained 15 pounds since I've been here. I'm up over 150 now. So I've decided to start running every time we have gym. Hopefully I can drop below 140 again. I'm sure I will lose it once I get out in the field!

I actually have started to hate the food here. I always feel like junk, so I've stopped eating as much. I think it was just the fact that I went from not having any food at school to having as much food as I wanted here. I don't need new clothes! I actually wish the clothes I had were smaller... The pants aren't huge, but I just like them to be closer to my legs when I'm walking around.

I'm not entirely sure how much longer I'll be here; I'm hoping to leave within the next couple of weeks.

I'm so excited for Drew! I can't wait to discuss mission stuff with him! Does he know how long he'll be in the MTC yet? I heard that with this new program, the Spanish and Portuguese programs are going to be shortened to 6 weeks sometime in March, but I don't know if that's just for the Provo MTC or what point change will actually take place.

So I saw off my companion today. I'm supposed to be companions with Elder Tonga and Brown now, but I'm been with Elder Clayton almost all day because both of our companions left. Clayton's not in my district, but he was one of our zone leaders. We just watched a couple of the Polynesian elders leave, and it was really cool. All the rest of the Poly elders and sisters did the Haka and then started singing and hugging and they were all crying. The brotherhood they have in their culture is amazing.

I saw Josh Cabrera again this morning! It's cool to get to talk to him a bit about his experience and how everything is going for him.

Anyways, I'll leave this for you and I might get on a bit later with the rest of my time I haven't used and respond if you get a chance to respond to this. Good luck with the shopping!

Love you guys!

-Elder Hopper

February 6, 2012

I have two p-days this week! My companion is leaving tomorrow, so I have to sit with him as he packs and does laundry today. I guess I've got the curse of two week companions. Which means that I have to leave this place in two weeks because my next two companions (I'll be in a trio) can't leave the states for a while. We'll see what happens, though. Last Tuesday we had Elder Nelson and Elder Holland come talk to us. It was pretty cool. It's early and I can't think of much, so that's prolly all I'll say for now. I'll try to think of more to say tomorrow.

Love you guys!

-Elder Hopper

January 31, 2012

Sounds like the car is fun to deal with! Working on my car is definitely something I miss. Any news with that, by the way? If the spark plug won't thread right, that could be a big fix... I would think that you would have to replace the whole head on that side. Before I left, Dad said there was a noise coming from the front left tire, too. Did he ever figure out what that was?

Do you mean that he still doesn't have his flight plans? If he for sure going to the Guatemala MTC? He's living with the missionaries for a week? That sounds like it would be cool. Would he be set apart as a missionary while he's doing that?

The Portuguese is going well! Not quite fluent, but I can say most of what I want when teaching things about the gospel that I want to. It's a lot of fun to speak in Portuguese to my companion and district and zone.

My foot is good. I haven't done much with it lately. I tore it apart initially (you'll get pictures with the first SD card), but I'm letting it heal so I can see what warts are still there.

 This week has been pretty uneventful, like always. Just more class and food that wrecks my stomach. No one else in my district is leaving yet, so it's still just the four of us. Our zone got 3 more districts last Wednesday, though. 11 Elders and 5 Sisters. One of the Elders already got his VISA, so he left today, so we're down to 15 total from last Wednesday. As we start to learn Portuguese more, we're able to talk with our teachers more and they make more jokes. One of our teachers, Brother Owens, I'm getting along with really well and it's cool to joke around in Portuguese. Our other teacher Brother Dodge, is still really cool, but he's more of a straightforward teacher and doesn't joke around as much. I guess we do learn more from him, but Brother Owens's classes are just more fun. Oh, and Annie, he's single! Just sayin'. Single, speaks Portuguese, from Florida, really funny, tall, and he's pretty spiritual, too. Anyways, that's all I have for now.

One thing, could you get me Cameron Johnson's myldsmail email? I think it's on my Gmail account, but I can't get to that. The password is the same typical one I use.

Oh! And I've been here for just over a month now! Time goes so fast!

Thanks! I love you guys!

Elder Hopper

January 24, 2012

Well Drew didn't send me an email or anything, so I didn't skip your email. But that is awesome! So he's got what, 3 weeks before he leaves? I'm so excited for him!

I haven't used the new glasses yet because I just got them yesterday and haven't taken out my contacts since then. I'll probably take them out soon, though. I will let you know next week how they are definitely!

That's exciting! So many good things happening at the Hopper house!

I have a couple of things to share with you now:

First, my companion left this morning for Brazil. We found out on Friday that he was leaving, so it was a bit quick. Our district leader, Elder Maiava, also lost his companion to Brazil, so now I'm companions with Elder Maiava. I'm way excited cause he's a really cool guy and we're already pretty close. He's from Olympia too, so we share the love of the Northwest.

Second, I got my electronic Visa today, so it shouldn't be too long until I get my real Visa for Brazil. They've said that recently it's been taking somewhere between a month and three months for visas to come through after you get your electronic. So we never missed anything, it just never came!

Third, something I forgot to tell you a couple weeks ago. I was seeing my old companion off, Elder Welch, and we were standing outside the travel office when someone grabbed my arm, and pulled me around and gave me a hug. Apparently Josh Cabrera works here at the MTC doing custodial work and gets off at 8, which is the exact time that we had to bring Elder Welch. It was cool seeing him, we got to talk for a second before he had to leave.

And I think that's everything for this week. We've gotten a bit more snow, but nothing real bad. Only an inch or two.

January 17, 2012

It snowed here last Sunday, but we haven't had any since then. It's just been terribly cold. But it's terrible because our classroom has no AC and it just burns up in there. So we have to wear short sleeved shirts for our classroom, but want our sweaters when we're outside. It's a good thing we're not outside much.

I did think of a scripture! It's Alma 26:36 I believe. It's the one that says something about "For this is my life" in it. I think it's that one. But it's a scripture that our branch president said should define our missions. He shared it with us the first week we were here.

This week has been pretty uneventful. Nobody else has gotten their visas, so no one left today. We're hoping no one will get theirs this week so no one else leaves. Our whole district likes each other and we're all having a great time together. We've already planned to hang out after we all get back, possibly go on a camp out. We figured that Grandma and Grandpa's house is like exactly halfway between where we live and where most of the rest of our district lives. Except for Maiava, but he lives in Olympia, so he could come down and drive the rest with me. It'd be pretty awesome if that did happen.

That's all I've got!

Love you guys!

Elder Hopper

January 10, 2012

It's a good thing you sent me a package yesterday because I sent a letter on Friday that said I need my toothbrush charger! Turns out the visa thing is so random that some people in my district have gotten their actual visas already while I still haven't gotten my electronic. From when you get your electronic to when you get the actual one can vary from a week to a few months. Brazil is really dumb.

I really hope Drew gets his call soon! If he does get called to report any time before the end of February, I'll probably see him since I don't think I'll get my visa before my 9 weeks are done. So I'll probably get a reassignment for somewhere in America until my visa comes in. The food here is really bad still... It's getting worse and worse. I've started eating less since the first week, actually. I probably did gain a little bit, but I'm sure I'll start to lose it again.  

We had four of the people from our district leave today. My companion, Elder Welch, and Elder Lovell (the one from Summerfest), and Elder Hannah (our district leader), and Sister Larsen. So we're down to six left. Elder Cox is my companion now, and we have a whole room to ourselves. It's pretty nice because we can keep it really clean and nobody messes it up. Plus we both have a ton of space for our own stuff. Our district seems to like chilling in our room now since it's so open and clean and just feels good.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. I love you and I hope all is well with you!

Elder Hopper