Howdy neighbors,

Hope all is well. This may come as a bit of a surprise but it seems we will have email access here through a place called Mr.Cheney´s Cookies across the street, (some mormon guy who took the mission scene as an opportunity for business, seems reasonable enough though) Tuesdays are p days for me, and today (along with most supposedly) we got to go to the Campina temple (Sao Paulo is also an option, just depends on the week) so that was pretty cool.

My companion Elder H is from Northern California and seems to be a great guy. The Christlike attributes we´re working on this week are faith and obedience. That's something they put alot of emphasis on here at the CTM (and yes I mean CTM, think portuguese/spanish para mtc) setting measurable goals and accounting for them, and it makes sense, but it'll def. take some getting used to. The other day we (minho companhero e eo) got called in to account and I have to say I felt kinda sheepish at how unorganized we must have seemed (and were). Efficiency I believe truly will come as we learn to plan ahead, set goals, and plan on accounting them not only to our teachers, but ourselves and most importantly the Lord. I feel like I~m picking up the language here pretty well (the key board is a bit diff. btw, so when i go to hit the ` key ill often hit the ~ key, there's also a nice ç key for various words like naçao e maçao) lets see... milestones this week are being able to pray and testify in Portuguese and also to give the first lesson both street contact and medium length. ]
My district is great and we have a ton o fun throughout the day (not forgetting to study seriously though) take for example the other day when one of the elders was trying to remember how to say brincadeira (don~t count on my spelling) which means just kidding, but came up with the word baracao (with a tilde over the last a) which doesn't actually mean anything, its just alot of fun to say, (pronounced bara (roll the r) cao said with a bit of nasal action at the end) don't know if that will make any sense to you guys, but that's the best I can explain it.
The food here is really pretty good, rice beans and meat with 2\3 meals a day usually. They tell us we~re supposed to eat at least 7 colors of food a day and so its probably safe to say I´m eating relatively healthy, at least as well if not better then at home, though the meats here seem to have alot of fat left on if not put in intentionally, so that's kinda gross... but I guess you get used to it. We had a devotional Sunday night where one of the stake presidents and his wife spoke. I liked the way The wife spoke in particular, saying she wanted to speak to us as a mother to her own sons, and offered us a look into eating at members houses on the missions, and really made me think about the situation I~m likely to find out there. Very poor families who have the faith that if they provide for the missionaries they will be blessed, and want nothing more then to serve anyway. Asking us to think what it would be like if we didn't show up, whether intentionally or not. The people of Brazil seem to be very loving humble people by the sounds of things and also judging by the elders who come in, easy to laugh and pal around with. I love to eat with the Brazilians at lunch and try to communicate with a little Portuguese, a little English and a whole lot of hand signals, facial expressions and laughs. One of my favorite things to do is laugh with them, which seems to happen alot.

I know this is where I should be and that a mission, like anything becomes something truly great in small, simple steps.
I love and miss you all,

Your son and missionary,

Elder Pettit