3rd Week

I got your letters! there were two waiting for me. and since i´ve gotten a lot.

I literally have 30 minutes to read and write email right now. in the field it is an hour but in here it is 30 minutes and the computer shuts down at 30 minutes so it is kind of crazy. The food is good... they put vinegar on all their vegetables so i~m not a huge veggie fan here. but the cafeteria food is really good considering.

Its really great here. I mean its very sanctifying. its good because it brings me closer to the atonement. And our message is really only that. Everything else is auxiliary to the fact that Christ died for our sins. I~ve fasted twice since getting here. Once for strength and once for guidance. Its wonderful to be somewhere with the spirit and be fasting. today i ended my fast in the celestial room of the temple. It was wonderful i felt a peace and relaxation that sometimes is hard to come by here. I wish I could spend some time alone in the celestial room. But that probably won~t happen in the next two years.... haha

Getting in shape is hard. I´ve started doing 100 pushups and 120 sit-ups every night before bed. for two reasons... 1st to keep in shape (cafeteria food is not healthy) and 2nd because i have yet to sleep an entire night without waking up. it is a noisy city on the weekends but for some reasons even on quiet nights i wake up several times. i don~t know why. i miss wrestling. I ran into a kid from deer park here who took 3rd at 189 my senior year and a few kids in my district wrestled for a few years. mostly i miss the competition but i~ll get over it.

mom!!!! I love you. I~m glad your liking relief society. I understand what you mean about service. I~m a leader here and i try to include everyone. But its hard to include those who are awkward or who don~t follow the rules.

I~m glad romney is growing up! im so disappointed that i won~t be there for his freshman or sophomore wrestling season. I love you guys. I hope that you put some stuff on the blog. Ahren wrote me about the mariners and told me that the blog hadn~t been added to yet. but that might have been a week before i wrote. I love you guys thanks for the letters they are great:) i~ve been thinking a lot about the missionary i want to be and who i want to be after my mission. I~ve been thinking alot about how my mission will shape the rest of my life and i want to perfectly dedicate my life to Him so that I can carry those habits into the next stage of my life. I love you mom. thanks for being such a great example to me. send letters!! its kind of a popularity contest here and i have a reputation of having tons of letters so lets keep that up here ok? :) thank you for being such a great example to me and to my sisters. I love you mom!!!!!! - elder noel

Brazil is amazing! I have very little time to write at this point so I can´t update you on everything. But know that I am loving here and can´t wait to get out of Sao Paulo and into Florianopolis. Brazil is a crazy country! To merge here you just put on your blinker and go for it. I have never seen such crazy driving. Brazilians are awesome! They are super friendly and are absolutely crazy. And its crazier because no one can understand them haha. Anyways I need to go. I´ll put up longer posts after the first 9 weeks (ill have more time then)

Love you all ~Elder Noel