TUDO BEM? umm. first week in the mtc. hmmm pretty crazy. this week is way different than usual because all the new missionary presidents wer being trained here. so tons of apostles and general authorities were here. but of course we werent allowed to see them. it was hard saying goodbye but the mtc is super rewarding. my companero is elder miller from california. we get along great and were going to be an awesome team. we had tons of introductories to start off the mtc. we heard from the presidency and tons of others. the teachers here are super amazing. but they only speak portuguese. now thats a problem. see i dont know portuguese quite yet so its tough. portuguese is um poco different from spanish because of the pronunciation. muito bem. everyone is happy here. its so great. i get to see my old friends. elder ron mccall from byui, elder steven robertson, from washington. and of course christian. pictures are soon to come. i love my friends. my district is really great. we have tons of fun which i dunno if that is the best but it works for me. im so tired here that i cannot stop laughing. almost anything someone says even remotely funny i will laugh and laugh. so far the portuguese is coming along. weve learned how to pray and to bear testimony. and now a week later i can understand most of the portuguese my teachers fala. so we saw elder russell m. ballard on friday walking around and we got to shake his hand. as you know he is an apostle and ive never shaken ones hand before so really really neat. ive also learned how to snap my fingers brazilian style. it means very good or awesome. not many people can do it. me and christian aka elder smith get to hang out on p days just like old times. oh btw that is monday and my mtc box # is 98. so send me some mail. my mish is bra-cam and my mtc darte departure is july 12. my branch president said i should be able to go to the brazil mtc by then so my visa is on the way. it is also the same day all of my friends are leaving to the field so i am excited. me and elder brown that we met in the airport are in different districts but in the same zone. everyone loves each other and there are tons of elders in my zone from washington. so we have a secret handshake which makes us cool. christian is fresco. on friday night we had a special fireside where we got to hear from elder bednar. he spoke on being a pmg missionary. my goal is to be the best ever. amem. 1000 baptisms no less or ill being muito disapointed. also there were 7 apostles at the devotional. the spirit was amazing that night. i have learned so much here and surprisingly i am always the first one awake. 615 everyday. yaya. sunday we had combined church and every speaker spoke on enduring to the end. thats exactly what im working towards. we have tons of spiritual experiences here but i can only email 30 minutes every monday. so its tough to decide what to write. sunday night we had the best speaker ever. who was super funny and talked about being worthy on the mission. i really enjoy it here and we are way too super busy to miss home. we never have free time which is the opposite of my old life. i love you guys lots and hope all is well. today we got to go to the temple and i did sealings for the first time but the temple is closed for the next few weeks so i will not be able to go again here. send me dear elder mail. i am the only one that doesnt get them and i get them every single day. i love you guys until later....

tchau,

elder d