Misc. Letters from Ancheita

8/1/11 - Dear Family, Como vai?  (How are you?)  Como foi a mez de voces?  (How was all of your month?)  Ok, I will leave the Portuguese there so you can understand the letter.  I hope you're all doing well.  I am having a lot of fun here, although there is a lot to do.  The lanugage is coming along slowly, but its coming.  I am having the most trouble with the conjugations of the verbs, especially the irregular verbs.  I am really liking the food here, meat, beans and rice every day for lunch.  I have a Nutella sandwich with fruit for breakfast and a mango for dinner.  I am usually still full from lunch when we get back to the apartment at night.  I am tanning a little, which is good because it is sunny pretty much every day.  I am studying in 2 Nephi 2 right now, I have had more joy and have been learning a lot about things that I did not realize before.  We should all be studying the scriptures each and every day, and it would be good to keep a study journal as well, so that you can write down what you learn, even if it is just a sentence, it will help you to learn more and understand more of what you are reading.  I love you all and miss you all!  I hope everything is well and will continue to be well.  Elder Adam McBarron

8/8/11 - Muito Brigado peta Parabems por men Anevesario!  (Thank you very much for the Birthday wishes for my birthday!)  I am glad that I was able to email you all.  Thanks for all of the love and support you give me.  I missed being able to celebrate my birthday with you all and with my friends, its kind of weird not really celebrating a birthday.  It is especially weird because I am still doing all of the missionary stuff like it is a normal day.  I am going to have to have a big celebration when I get home to make up for these two years that I won't have a celebration.  I really miss the Birthday to out to eat meal right now, and the birthday brownies too.  I am glad that I was at least able to communicate with you all today.  Mom, Thanks for everything, I am really glad that you decided to start that blog form.  I am very thankful for all of the support that you give me.  I miss being able to just talk with you, but I am really glad that I can write and email you.  Thanks for everything you do for me.  I miss you all.  Keep reading your scriptures often.  Mom and Dad I would ask you to go to the temple and do a session as often as you get a chance to, especially for me, I really wish that I could have the chance of going to the temple, but I have to wait 2 more years before I am able to do so.  Megan when you can go do baptisms for the dead, it will be good for you to keep doing that.  I am very grateful for the support that you all are giving me while I am here in Brazil.  Remember to write in your journals, anything is good, but especially write down your spiritual experiences that you have.  It has already been a blessing to me while on my mission having kept a journal so far, being able to go back and read it.  I miss you all, but I am also having fun here too.  Here's the motto:  work hard, play hard and enjoy!  Balance in all things!  This not only applies to me but to all of us.  So let's all live it.  Elder Adam McBarron.  P.S.  I am now 21 years old!

8/9/11 - Yesterday turned out to be a really good birthday!  I had a surprise celebration/party kind of thing that our investigators Michelle and Victor planned with my companion and 3 members from the Group Marcia (Relief Society President) her daughter Tainah and also the Gospel Principles class instructor Flavio.  It was really cool, Victor made a cake and everything.  It was really cool of them to do that for me.  Sorry if it is hard to understand my writing, I am on a bus to the transfers.  I will write a little about that in a little bit on the back of this paper, the transfers that is.  I got called to the area Serra 2.  It reminds me a lot of Auburn for some reason.  Elder Turley is still my companion, and he is now a District Leader.  Our District has our Zone Leaders in it.  They are really cool.  You will probably have heard all of this and more by the time you get this.  Oh, I got both of my packages!  Thanks for everything!  Especially the shorts and t-shirts, the special letter paper, the green and white tie, and a very special thanks for the tie, hanky and cuff link set!  I really liked all of it!  Oh and thanks for the address book too!  Elder Adam McBarron