Erich's dad asked Erich about the poverty level around his area. Here's his response:
How's the poverty? Bahaha. We haven't had running water (read: non-drinking water you don't have delivered to you) for the last three days, and only now has stuff been looking up - the downstairs has the tap, and we've had to ferry buckets and other empty containers for showers and the like. Everything uses gates, not doors, and everything's rather dirty. But you know what? I don't mind that much. I'm not having hardly any problems with health, and I have loved 99.9% of the food (can't say everything because of this morning - the Brazilian Elder living with us was given this fruit which smelled hideous, but actually tasted alright). I've been religious about brushing my teeth (sorry, had to say it XD), and making sure that I'm staying clean. I see a lot of kids especially living in the streets here, bone-thin and wasting away in the same spot every day, because they don't have the energy to go find the things they need to live. It's sad. But a sobering thought is that I actually have the richest area in the entire mission.

In the Field
- Vol. 3 of 96(ish)

Well, crap.
Due to some awkward planning, I barely have time to let y'all know I'm alive -
but I'm so freaking writing down everything that happened! I can't wait to tell
people about my firsts that I've gotten here!

To give you
guys at least one anecdote, I performed my first baptismal ordinance, though
the investigator was not from our area. It was a little kid, who was deathly
afraid of actually being immersed in the water...his mom totally thought I was
drowning the poor guy because I had to force him under!

It's so
weird. This is the third week already?! D: Time's a-flyin'!

In the spirit
of all my updates, I'm going to grovel for mail s'more - let me know how life
is! At the risk of repeating myself...you can always visit http://erichgubler.blogspot.com
to see previous posts (because I know I've missed a bunch of you already with
the updates before :/)

Thanks for
the love that y'all give! You may forget that you did it, but I never will!

SO. On to the next update!

In the Field - Vol. 2 of 96(ish)

ALRIGHT. LET'S MAKE THIS THING CRAZY FAST.

So. Technically the second week into the field, with my trusty trainer leading me along. Learning Portuguese. Learning it lots. And man. Is. IT. AWESOME.

Since me and my companion are "rediscovering" the area we've been assigned to (meaning that the last missionaries were fubecas), we did a crapton of street contacting for the first part - now we're doing much less, much more teaching. We've had more than one occasion, though, where a person on the street comes up to us an asks us about when we were going to visit them. We've been trying hard also to get to know the members in the area, because of three reasons:

1) They're the members. You eat with them every day in Brazil. You talk to them at church. The people you teach optimally become members after they decide to accept baptism. You need to love them, even if it is does bear a little risk to your health.

2) References. When you positive impress your members, and demonstrate that you are good examples as missionaries, they feel comfortable giving you the responsibility of teaching their friends, and trying to give them what they have. Generally, references will be more open, because they know other Mormons - and generally they're curious also.

3) Epic perks like getting a FREE HAIRCUT. Happened today, actually. Got rid of the MTC cut that was growing too long and replaced it with the uniform length I like - short, breezy, and not bald. I'm sad Sister Claudete cut off a good half-inch on the middle of my widow's peak, but I love it overall.

Portuguese has gotten tremendously interesting as it's slowly becoming less an obstacle and more viable as a way of expressing myself. I'm finding myself responding automatically to many things in Portuguese, and I feel like my command of the language is getting closer to what I want it to be - my medium of talking with the people here! Teaching, entertaining, showing love for the people of Brazil. Them's my goals right there. If I had to use numbers....I'd say I understand 10% of random sentences now in Portuguese. Which is pretty optimistic, but hey. Nenhuma de vocês pode ver. :P EU determino os stats.

One of the most common tasks required here is asking directions, due to a distinct lack of street signs. We had a fellow in a wheelchair (I think he was grumpy about life) who gave us the following conversation the other day:

Us: "Opa, o senhor sabe qual é o nome desta rua?"

Raspiest voice I've heard in a long time: "Quanto eu ganho?"

"Err....nada?"

"NADA é o nome desta rua. Pff."

Friendly, right? He's the exception - but I thought it was pretty funny. Me and my companion have been quoting him for various things, like when we have vitamina and/or cereal every morning:

"Oi. Elder. Posso ter algumas bananas?"

"Quanto eu ganho?"

So, for those of you attempting to use Google Translate and failing epically, the phrase I'm repeating here means "How much do I gain/get?". It's pretty awesome to repeat as a phrase, when you use THE VOICE. :P

AND NOW. For some guided list discussion. The first of the lists (yup, List) is my firsts. Here goes!

- First district meeting. The district consists of six people: myself and Elder Biddulph, Elders Garcia and Chandler (whom we live with), and Sisters Lima and Percival. The Sisters make me laugh, for reasons I'll discuss later when I've sort of figured them out better.

- First ward council. We only have one fellow, Douglas, but he's really cool, has an awesome sense of humor. I just need to actually understand what he's saying now!

- First seriously gay investigator. Pink underwear. Lounging about. Lisped Portuguese. The works. 'Twas...interesting!

Second list, for the quotes this week:

- E. Biddulph to me one evening, walking around...somewhere.

- "Você sabe quando uma pessoa gosta de você, mas não tem bastante coragem para falar? Agora você sabe." - The back of a random bombom candy I had. So random it made me laugh. :P

ALRIGHT. Well, time to hit the road again. But life is good! Zone conference is soon, and with that I get MAIL. Snail mail, that is. Don't forget to WRITE!!! Loyal writers will get their due!