Letter #1

Hello Everyone!

    How is everyone doing back home? it was good thear from you guys and have some mail when i got here. Thanks so much for those letters. And sorry I don´t have time this week to write and regular mail, just this email. We got to go to the Campinas Temple today and because it is a little bit further away it took up a lot of our P-day time. To explain some of the rules, I can only send emails on my one P-day but i can receive as many you guys want to send. However, my email address should only be given to immediate family because I won´t have time on p-days to read/respond to letters from anyone beyond immediate family.

 

    So on with the stuff you guys really want to hear. This past week at the CTM (what they call the MTC here) has been fantastic. The CTM is so beautiful. We are in the middle of a´pretty rundown part of town, but the CTM pops up out of nowhere. It´s like an oasis here. There is such a contrast in appearance and feeling here from the rest of the city. When i send some pictures you will be able to see the view from my bedroom. I´s just a big conrete jungle outside, lots of skyscrapers. My district, the 8 of us that arrived the same day are so immensely blessed to be here. I had heard about the difficulties about getting visas, but I didn´t realize how bad it actually was. There were 30 missionaries scheduled to arrive at the CTM on August 11th but only the 8 of us were able to make it. And I heard that the new group coming tomorrow only has 2. Annd there are over 100 missionaries waiting at the Provo MTC to come here. We are so blessed to be able to learn here at the CTM instead of in Provo.

 

     The Brazilians are such wonderful people. I haven´t met a single one that is unhappy or doesn´t have a great joke to tell. The Brazilian Missionaries love to help teach us Português. And the instructors are amazing, we are learning Português so qucikly. It is amazing how after not even a week I can say so much. We have learned to say basic prayers and bear our simple testimonies in portuguese. My background in Spanish has also helped me immensely. Many of the verbs are exactly the same or just slightly different. Those of us that took Spanish are leaps ahead of others because of it. I had a great experience in one our district study sessions. We sang ´´O Criaturas do Senhor´´ or in English ``All Creatures of our God and King´´. We really had no idea what we were saying but the Spirit was so strong. The gospel is true no matter where you are, or what language you speak. The Gospel is true. O Evangelho è verdadeiro. I know without any doubt that this is Christ´s church and that we are called to serve Him.

 

     Every p-day we will get to go to the temple. These next few weeks however the São Paulo temple is close so we get to go the Campinas Temple. We were there this mornign and it was such a maginificent experience. The temple is so beautiful and it was wonderful to see so many missionaries together. Campinas rivals the beauty of the Sacramento temple.  I am so glad for temples and the sacred covenants we make there.

 

    The CTM presidenct is fantastic. President and Sister Clark are two of the happiest and nicest people ever. We have come to the conclusion that Sister Clark is incapable of any facial expression other than a smile. We were surprised when we got here that it is surprisingly chilly. We all wished we had brought the recommended V-neck sweater. This got broiught up in a meeting we had as a district with President and Sister Clark and they immediately went to action. They tracked down a place to buy some and got one for each of us at a discounted price. They love us so much, and we love them.

 

   I am about to run out of time I look forward to hearing more from you guys soon.  I think it takes a little over  a week for regular mail to get here based on the postage dates on some of my letters i have gotten. I Love you all so much. I love to be here serving the Lord. Alma 31:38 has given me great comfort. I love you all and know that I am safe and well.

 

I.U.

Elder McLelland

*** No editing has occured. Wanted to be just the way we received it! ;-) ***