Thanks for the happy birthdays. It was strange being here for it. I didn’t even realize it was my birthday until someone told me, and then I forgot and remembered throughout the day. Pretty weird.
Well, I’ve officially been here a week. My companion, Elder Chidester, is cool. We get along really well. All of the guys in my district (8 of us) are a lot of fun, and it makes the days go by faster. I still feel like I’ve been here for a month already though. Sixteen-hour days in a classroom drag like its no one’s business. I really hope to get out of here as soon as possible; in fact, I might get out a week early because of the Christmas holiday. The first day here was really, really rough because I didn’t get any sleep at all on the plane. I felt crappy, so the entire day was terrible. Since then I’ve been doing fine though. I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would, even though I’m fighting my second cold since I’ve been here. My body despises the humidity.
Sao Paulo is too big, too hot, and too humid. There are too many people, and driving in the city is enough to make me go insane. To quote The Lord of the Rings, “The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume.” The MTC is guarded day and night by armed sentinels.
The food here is okay. I don’t mind it. I weigh the same as I did a week ago. I feel like Samwise Gamgee when he checks his food supplies: “Let’s see what we have. Ooo, lembas bread. And what’s this? More lembas bread.” Except with me it’s, “Let’s see what we have. Ooo, rice and beans. And what’s this? More rice and beans.” They have this milk/tapioca/oatmeal stuff they eat for breakfast. It’s amazing. We get to have an hour to play basketball or work out four days a week (not including P day), which is nice.
I already know how to pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese, and I memorized the baptismal challenge in Portuguese as well.
I’ve had 6 dreams since I’ve been here. I suppose that when you dream in the MTC it represents what you miss most. I’ve had two dreams about my family, two about girls and two about rock and roll (Steely Dan’s “My Old School” and Damn Yankees’ “Don’t Tread on Me.” Awesome.
Hopefully you got my first letter that told you about where or how to mail stuff. Apparently there is a mail strike going on here, so it might affect things a little bit.
The Portuguese word for borrow is emprestar (Spanish being prestar), so I might be emprestaring my companion’s dictionary before too long. That one was for you, Dad.
The other day in the cafeteria I spilled some juice and instinctively said, “Son of a . . .” (without an ending word). Then I looked up and noticed three tables worth of missionaries looking at me. It was amusing.
They basically don’t give us any time at all to email, so I won’t be able to answer all the questions, but I do read them. I’m glad things are going well at home. Have fun trick-or-treating without me tonight. I’m glad to hear that Michelle got the thickest pumpkin again.
My P day is on Wednesdays.
I miss and love all of you. This is by far the hardest thing I’ve done so far, and I’m not even in the field yet. Oh well, this is God’s work, so God will help me.
I went to the temple today too by the way. It was awesome. The Spirit was strong.
All of my love,
Elder Morris
On a side note, Mike's birthday is October 27th, so he left four days before his birthday.
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