Week 13: Presidente Kennedy, Brazil

Hello all, the much anticipated time has come and today I write to you from Presidente Kenedy, Brazil in an apartment with three other Elders; there is much to say so let's get down to the details. Monday night I enjoyed Arizona for the last time (there was mist!), packed, said bye to Elder Corless and Parmenter, and headed to a hotel for the night. I woke up bright and early Tuesday morning at 4:00 AM with the missionaries going home for Thanksgiving, we all grabbed our stuff and headed off. We got the the airport and where given a super important envelope with out birth certificate, Visa, and Passport, natural I lost mine within an hour of getting mine. I left it at the check baggage station and didn't notice until about 5 minutes later when I noticed, to my horror, it was gone. Luckily an employee hunted me down while I was looking for it and I made it to my flight in Atlanta, Georgia. After we landed all the other missionaries had connections to make, but I had about a 9 hour layover so I bummed around the airport all day being board, pacing, and getting McDonald's at the end (woo!). Just before the flight a huge group of about 25 missionaries all arrived, including Elder Anderson, an awsome Elder from my MTC district (shout out Distrito 13-E). We got to catch up on our time state side as we prepared for our flight to São Paulo, Brazil. As we boarded the biggest plane I had been on in my life, I was upgraded to comfort class and realized I had no idea what comfort class was like. They handed out hot towels (wich I didn't know what to do with, so rejected) and served Dinner and Breakfast (alas my appetite was shot due to flying so no dice there either). After a horrible night of trying and failing to sleep, we landed in São Paulo. Wednesday we got off the plane and rushed to get our bags checked again for the flight to Fortaleza. We then went through the Brazilian TSA who where so chill; they didn't care about like anything, I walked through the metal detector and like an idiot forgot my watch, the guy held my watch, had me walk through again and then handed it back to me. Long story short we got on our final flight and where finaly off to Fortaleza. On the flight over me and another Elder talked to a Brazilian man who spoke great English and at the end we even gave him a Livro de Mórmon (I did it Irmão Dalglish, LdM dispensed). After getting to the airport we got our bags and got to meet our new mission present, Presedent Fetosa, who fed us lunch consisting of rice, beans, and sausage, and then gave us a rousing speech in Portuguese wich another Elder who had been there for a while translated for us English speaking missionaries. After that, we where off to our areas and one solo Uber ride with a guy who did not speak English later, I got pared up with three other Elders, two Zone Leaders (Elders who manage a large area of the mission) and one other new missionary who didn't speak Portuguese. Before you ask yes this needs it's own paragraph, prepare yourself for... THE BRAZILIAN PIZZA REVIEW! Its good, it doesn't really have sauce or cheese, but it more then makes up for that because the crust is stuffed with the greatest chocolate I've ever tasted, its sounds weird but your gona have to trust me on this; its fantastic. It's a bit of a contrast going from pepperoni and onion (wich is what my pizza had) to chocolate but in a good way, variety is the spice of life after all. As my email is currently mad long I'll keep the rest breif, we've been walking the streets of Fortaleza all day every day, the people are always so awsome and realy nice and the food is great (see my pizza review). Thursday some menbers made us an "American Thanksgiving" wich consisted of chicken, rice, and mashed potatoes, it was awsome and realy cool to get a taste of home day one. That being said, the heat is no joke hear and being dry is a thing of the past with such high humidity and limited to no AC. The Portuguese is a bit rough but I can more or less get my point across and have even taught a few short lessons to members after lunch. Overall it's been an awsome week and I'm starting to get into the swing of things. This Tuesday is transfers and so I get to meet the missionary who's gonat teach me the ropes for the next three months. Can't wait to write yall next week and tell yall about how I probably got heatstroke! Spiritual Thought: I'll try to keep this one breif, the Lord has got you. He wants to help you in all ways and always make sure you can get though whatever challenges you may face. This week should have been miserable and hard for me but I was able to remember that this is the Lord's work and He has am eye on me personally; dispite all my troubles I have enjoyed this week and found found joy in serving the Lord and helping others. Proverbs 3:5 says "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding". I can tell you these words are true, I promise you with all the energy of my soul, you don't have to suffer alone or carry more than you can bear; His job is to make your burdens light and He already payed the price. All you need to do is ask. Lean not unto your own understanding, don't worry how impossible your situation, He's got you. I have leaned on my Savior and because of that I stand today where I truly couldn't be without Him, you can to. - God be with you till we meet again, Elder Bennion P.S, I know it's mad long this week, my bad I'll keep it shorter in the future but lots happened this week so... yeah, tchau tchau!