I'm seriously getting cramps in my hands from all the writing I've been doing lately. XD Ah well. Enjoy the update!
Erich at the MTC, Volume 2 – Getting into the Swing
As soon as I got done writing last week’s post and emailed it off so it could get on my blog, I felt a little friendsick…I miss you guys! I know that these first few weeks will be the roughest in that regard, though I can’t speak for when I actually go to Maceió…I’ve never been in a third-world area before.
The cure to homesickness, of course, is love and hard work. I’ve got one of those…and the other was given during this last week.
I always have been rather lazy…and 16-hour days are kinda meh if you’re not willing to utilize those hours. I know that diligence is a Christlike attribute, and that as his representative I’m supposed to try my best to follow his examples…so I thought. It was a good long think.
I know that my friends love me. I’d be silly if I didn’t recognize that – many of you have stuck through the years, and for those of you my age I know that’s hard to do…we’re all turning into adults and that means moving around, and thus a challenge to the roots you’ve established, including me. Even with tools like Facebook, you still have to make the effort to stay in contact. And many of you have done just that. I just want to let you know that I love y’all – it means a lot to me! Every night I consider the story I’m writing…and I’m glad to include characters like you.
It’s for this reason that I must lose myself in the work I’m endeavoring – otherwise it would be a waste of my time here, and a break of the trust I have with you that I will try to be the best I can for you.
Okay. Whew. Got all that heavy stuff outta my system. Now on to the anecdotes!
So, this week we got a new zone leadership – but I never introduced the old one! So. Originally, the zone leadership consisted of two of the neatest guys I know. Elder Rodriguez is from Howe, Texas – also one of the most intelligent people I know (Matt, I seriously need to get you in touch with this dude!). For instance, as a fun thought experiment, he was curious if it was possible to find a penny with a year that could be squared, then have the digits added together to make 42. All because I made a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Elder Govier, his companion, is something people ‘round here call “legit” – he’s from Wales, and has got the accented English to prove it. He’s a master of “spooning” here at the MTC – that is, he grabs spoons from the cafeteria and slips them into your suit pockets like a ninja. There’s been way fewer incidents since he left for Portugal…*sigh*…
The new leadership is awesome, though. We have Elder Gooch, a redheaded fellow who…heh, is difficult to describe. He’s from California, and has a very spunky personality…which is a sharp contrast to something of a lack of tone in his speech. He’s a good leader, and compliments very well his companion Elder Perkins – who speaks Danish, English, AND Portuguese very well. I’m pretty jealous – my friend Andrea would argue against me, but I’d say a good Portuguese word for him is “polyglota”. I’ll let y’all Google that. ;) I think I’m going to remember Elder Perkins in particular, though, because he and I had a random discussion about calculus on Saturday and now some of my precious scratch paper (which I use to draft responses to letters and blog posts so as not to consume email time) is filled with limit equations for derivation proofs. Gaaaah. I feel so nerdy. It’s excellent.
Speaking of awesome things, I got a couple of letters this last week! Technically only one of them counts, though. The first was from my mom using DearElder.com. She only wrote this:
“Doesn’t it cost to use this service? Love, mom"

…please tell me you’re joking, Mom. Seriously? :P I’d ordinarily be disappointed, but I’ve gotten a small mound of emails from her anyway since I got here. Love you, Mom!
We’ve had significant chunks of my district (the group of Elders I do most activities with) get their visas since we’ve gotten here…last week we had 12; 4 left this last Tuesday. 3 more have received theirs this last week…and will be heading to the Centro de Traneiro de Missionários in São Paulo tomorrow. :(

In loving memory: Elders Graves, Higlee, Walker, McLean, Dewey, Jessee, and Polatis.

This bunch included two roomies...and now it’s just going to be me and my companion, Elder Shaw. At least until the new missionaries come in on Wednesday. That’ll be interesting.
I’m hoping to get a gadget that’ll let me attach photos from my SD card so I can get the blog updated with some pictures, and perhaps a couple of the ones I’ve got scanned! I’ve got a picture of me and another Elder who came from Maceió, where I’ll be serving. He’s hoping I can give a copy to his family down there. He assures me they’ll feed me at least once a day down there. XD
I also have a teacher here that seeks correspondence – he promise my district that if we send him a letter from our fields in Portuguese, he’d send us American imports that are hard to get down in Brazil. The item most worthy of mention was peanut butter. I haven’t quite caught on why, but apparently it’s the Holy Grail of food items for American missionaries down there. They seem to have a…worse variety in Brazil, or something. I guess that’s a question for some of the few Brazilians I actually know at this point – know anything about it, Professora Santanna?
Speaking of correspondence, I also need to get some information out for those who either don’t use Facebook or really hate checking Group notifications. I've been informed that my MTC mailing info has been posted here, with a direction towards DearElder for most communication. It's highly recommended you use this if you aren’t sending me a package. Why? Because instead of having to wait for the mail to deliver it, I’m guaranteed to get it the same day. And you don’t have to bother with snail mail, except for when I respond; direct email correspondence is frowned upon for now. Please! Send me something! I promise I’ll love you forever AND get you a response back in the pipe as soon as I can! I can send snail mail any day of the week, so be sure to leave your address!
Whew. That was a lot to write. :P I’ll probably be writing less once the novelty of the MTC wears off. But it’s still heeere…and my hands are tired. Até a próxima semana, meus amigos!