E Agora... Portugês!

Olá irmãos e irmãs,

Boa tarde (good afternoon) amigos e familia! It is both incredibly exciting and also somewhat terrifying to be emailing you all already as um missionário da Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias. It seems like I opened my mission call just the other day, and yet here I am! 

Even though starting CTM (as it's known em portugês) on Wednesday means I have not technically had a full week of training, it might as well have been. I may not be in São Paulo agora (now), but I think this is about as close as it could be. We have language classes for over 6 hours a day, but they fly by because of the incredible amount of information that is being thrown our way. At this point, the vast majority of class time is spoken in portugês!

When I say "majority," don't think I'm saying we're by any means fluent, but we sure are heading in that general direction. By week 3, we will have a new instructor that will not know a lick of English, so the pressure is on!

For those of you who do not yet know, I have been temporarily reassigned to the Utah Orem Mission starting the week of September 6th. While this came as no surprise, I would be lying if I told you all that I wasn't a little disappointed upon hearing this... initially. But I'm happy to tell you now that I couldn't be more excited for this "incredible opportunity!"

I say that because when I was set apart Tuesday night, that's exactly what Stake President Tom Newman in the blessing I was given: that I will have the "incredible opportunity" to serve in two very different areas and change the lives of even more people. What's more, I found out that Orem has a very high Brazillian member population, so much so that there are even Brazillian wards! Many of these members are converts to the church that decided to move to the states after joining. How incredible will it be if I am able to get referrals from these members and help play a part in reuniting these families with their loved ones still in Brazil?

All in all, this week has been tough, but it has made me hungry to learn more and excited to continue the work. Thank you for all of the kind messages, advice, and words of encouragement! I look forward to keeping in touch over the next 6 weeks and 2 years!

Obrigado,
Elder Lindsay

P.S. I'll get you a picture of eu e meu companheiro (myself and my companion) next week. I kind of spaced in the wave of information this week.

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