I am learning so much stuff about life. haha Laundry doesn´t do itselft!! I know crazy huh. But at least here the washers are automated so they put in the soap and detergent for you. We live basically in dorm rooms with 6 people and study there in the mornings. companion study is done in the courtyard or classroom depending on the weather (i mean if its too hot we go inside) haha its crazy that it is winter here and I am sweating so much everyday.
I did get the cookies. i only ate 2 though. I gave the rest away. There are a lot of people here who could use a cookie so I found ways to give them out. I honestly liked that better. Thank you so much they were such a great birthday gift. honestly that was probably my hardest day. haha Idk why it was pretty much the perfect storm of little things that just made that day really rough. I~m doing really well. The language is coming along well. I can now write out a plan in english and use the plan to teach someone. The hard part is understand other people. the brazilians talk really fast and they structure sentences different than us so it is hard to translate things. For example I ask de onde vocé e? (where are you from) that is one of two ways to ask the same questions today the the temple someone asked me (vocé e onde de)(and you are from where) its just a lot of little things. Luckily portuguese is a really system language. The conjucations are all pretty regular and once you learn the system you can use verbs and nouns in different tenses fairly easily. The hard part is talking like they would talk. but oh well its fun. I hope your camp goes well!! I know how amazing you are and how lucky those girls are to have you as a camp leader. (ps i sent romney a birthday letter today so keep and eye out for it)

The language is coming pretty quick. Its still super hard to understand people and its a spritiual struggle everyday to be surrounded by people who don~t speak your language but its also really fun. I used to think that God sent me here so I would be humble and rely on him not just my speaking skills, and i think thats part of it, but he also sent me here so I would have something to do. I~m so excited to learn the language. Its a challenge everyday and sometimes I win sometimes I lose. I~ve been thinking about how much I need the spirit to teach. I love teaching in portuguese because I can only do it with the spirit. It is impossible for me to teach without the spirit because I cannot speak portuguese. I~m ahead of most of my class in my ability to form sentences. I~m behind in vocabulary and grammar but because I have good language skills I know how to use the words i have to get my message accross. Too many kids try to translate directly what they want to say. The key is using the words you know and keeping your message simple. Don~t get too deep and let the lord speak through you. I love it here. Its hard. This week has been really hard. It is sinking in how long this thing is
. yesterday I did some shadow drilling. I really miss wrestling. I am seriously thinking about trying to wrestle at SVU when I get back. We´ll see. It is easy when I am not getting beat up to think about wrestling in college. but i do miss it. I did mountain climbers and pushups last night just so I could feel like I was in the wrestling room. I put my hoodie on and went at it. hahaha it felt so good.

Well my birthday was a little disappointing honestly. It was just a hard day (one of those days) and I think i got pink eye and I did not get any mail..... oh and I´m not a teenager anymore (a fact I hold over the heads of the other missionaries all the time hahah) But this was a good week. On the 4th they had ice cream here!!!!! It was great. We have had a few portuguese only days where we speak nothing but portuguese and it really helps the language come along. We are speaking a lot now and all our practice lessons are in only portuguese. The Lord really helps you teach. It is a lot easier to say things and remember things when you speak with the intent to practice than when you speak with the intent to goof off. I had a brazilian room mate who is really homesick. We talked a lot (in portuguese) and I gave him a blessing (in portuglish). We are pretty close now. Things are going really well. I had a great temple session today so i^m feeling really good and am really excited about this week. I hope everything is going well. I love you guys!!! (btw you never answered my question about my truck did you sell it?! have you had any offers?! ) love, Elder Noel

Editorial Correction

Well the grapevine was wrong. There was not multiple legs of a flight that took him through NY on his way to Brazil. Maybe there was another elder that had the fun experience but it was not Elder Noel. He flew first class from Seattle to Dallas and then from Dallas directly to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Oh well, we will try to do a better job of spreading confusion, I mean truth.

The parents.

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

plese remember that this portuguese keyboard is of limited functionality and this emial is going to be long and hiccupy... anyways..... I´m glad the trailer is fixed. i kind of felt bad leaving you guys with the trailer like that. by the way... any news on my truck? im excited to hear how much you get for it. though i already miss it. there are several guys here who had trucks like that (not diesels though :) so we talk about them a lot. they are all jealous of the jeep truck i have waiting for me. it is waiting for me right? i love it here. it is very hard. and the whole time i worry that my ability to teach and to talk to people by the spirit will be handicapped by portuguese (or the lack thereof). but i keep treasuring up the words with the faith that when the time comes they will be where i need them. the food here is actually pretty good. its brazilian themed cafeteria food so its very different and actually really good. but at the end of the day its still cafeteria food. the new sport here is volleyball so i~m working on my bump set spike. the brazilians consider your foot as part of the whole volley ball experience so things get really exciting really fast. haha i was worried about a lot of things back home. but i was reading the other day in d;c 6 versus 36 and 37. the lord expressely tells us to look to him in every thought and (doubt not, fear not) he reminds us that he is the Christ and that through him we can do all things. i found great comfort in that scripture and even put it on the back of my name tag. i also put a sticky note there that says (enjoy the day) it is a revelation my companion got and its kind of our theme. i realized that we spend so much time focusing on the forrest a mission and brazil and portuguese taht we forget to enjoy the trees. sometimes its more important to focus on one tree at a time. at the end of the day we can look back and see the forrest but we must not forget the individual attention that each tree requires. bad news... i didnt get to use any jujitsu. it is really difficult to schedule with someone who doesn~t speak your language. oh well i~m sure i~ll pick it up somewhere. HAPPY FATHERS DAY we were at choir practice working on a song chosen by the mission president~s grand daughter at about 7 00 pm. she got up and said ( i~m sure most of you know this but today is father~s day back in america) our entire district looked at each other and our eyes got really big. then we laughed at how much we had forgotten already. i love you dad. but honestly the spirit here is strong so i don~t feel homesick. i miss parts of home and definately being around the family but i know that i~m doing what i~m supposed to and i~m at peace with my situation. i~ve been praying for peace all week to relax and let things at home work themselves out. it has been such a miracle to witness the feelings that have overtaken me as i~ve jumped into the work. i appreciate all your prayers and your support. i love you all Elder Noel
oh and tell romney i love him. also tell him that if you have a car to work on its a great place to hide from any unwanted attention. tell him if he gets really greasy then mom won~t want him to come inside :)

First Letter

I´m alive!

This keyboard is a portugese one so please forgive any mistakes. i dont know how to push enter so i guess that this is going to be a big block letter. haha well my first week has been crazy. i love it here. Because im so good at charades i can kind of communicate with the brazillians. they brazilians are super cool they are really happy in general. though they don~t follow the rules. apparently in brazil rules are more guidlines. also in brazil no one runs on time. they just kind of show up whenever. it really makes me mad. but because i~m a spiritual person now i don~t get mad at anyone. my companion is a kid from fruitland idaho. nice kid. we don~t have a ton in common but we definately like each other. food is good but it gets kind of old. i miss moms cooking (i know mom you thought i~d never say that) it has only been a week.... that is pretty sad to think about. it feels lke forever. i check my watch almost 6 times a day because i can never remember what day it is. we spend almost 8 hours a day in classes mostly portugese but a lot of preach my gosple as well. i got a letter from hannah. i heard that you guys had a party for me the night i left. thanks for inviting her. tell her i responded although i have some skepticism about the brazilian postal system you guys should be getting a letter from me soon. i mailed it the first day i got here. i know this letter is all over the place but so am i so it is a really good reflection of my mental state and personality right now. i~m very excited to get into the mission field. very excited to preach about jesus christ. i~ve learned that our message is really about jesus christ. that is really all we have to talk about. everything else is auxiliary to the fundamental doctrine that jesus christ is our saviour and redeemer. what a beautiful message. it brings so much comfort and joy to know that he paid for our sins. we got to go to the temple today which was really nice. it helped me get some perspective on why we are here on earth. i love it here. some days are hard but i love it. it is crazy how sensitive you become over two days (long story about that on a later date i~m excited to keep learning. i~m trying to get this brazilian to teach me jujitsu. (watch out little brothers) i love you guys so much can~t wait to hear from you love elder noel (btw everyone here knows noel as cristmas. so i~ve become ender santa clause. good thing i brought my christmas tie)