This week we heard lots of gun shots...

Dec. 30, 2013

       I can't believe the Steelers almost came back from their terrible start, haha. How’s BYU basketball?? and that made me laugh when you told me that people throw firecrackers at Shane on the trains haha..(Shane is in Belgium) O the life of a missionary, and I know how he feels to not have money.. I haven’t had money for a week and a half now.. all I have is 2 cards.. but around here no one takes cards... and the bank is like 2 hours away and we never have free time. sooo its quite the situation haha... 

       So the good news is I haven’t seen the bat in our house since Fridayish... Elder Chaves named him Brucey... like Bruce Wayne from Batman.. but he’s Brazilian so its Brucey.. so its kinda like having a pet.. sometimes it feels more like a zoo though with the cockroaches and ants as well. Speaking of pets... if you have to cut the wings of the birds to hunt them doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of hunting? might as well take Bandit into Giant Eagle and let him pick out whichever chicken he thinks smells best haha.

       Cole’s taller than Jackson now in that picture! Better start practicing more basketball for next season.  

       This week we heard lots of gun shots.. my companion said thats normal.. people sometimes kill other people to take their drugs around here.. I've learned that anything goes in this part of brazil. For example.. This week this lady came up to us while we were on the sidewalk and started singing in some language we weren’t sure what it was.. something about love... but she was wearing plastic bags on her arms and over her hair and had all these things written on her in pen.. and when she left I asked Elder Lima if that was normal in Brazil, and he just laughed and said no only in Ceará. But the members here are way nice. Yesterday we stopped by the house of one of the member's in our ward to get an address.. and it turned out to be a feast of chocolate cake and this really fancy juice stuff... and they wouldn’t let us stop eating.. after the second piece of cake and cup of juice I told her I was satisfied and I didn’t want to eat all their cake.. but she proceeded to put more food on my plate and pour me more juice haha, it was really good though. Well that’s about all I got for now.. O tell May I see Tampico juice here all the time and it reminds me of the meals at her house,haha good times. Well I’ll talk to you guys next week. Tchau! 

Love, Elder Oogie (pronunciation for Udy in Brazil)

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Ants all over the door

Dec. 23, 2014

View of Fortaleza from mission home

Oiii I hope you’re not sick... so to answer your question I am in... well I don’t exactly know because I can’t really understand much... talking Portuguese here compared to talking at the CTM is like speaking English in America compared to speaking English with a fish haha... so  I think I know how Shane feels... its really hard to understand people.. My companion is pretty much a perfect missionary tho so it's all good... he’s from misnsdfs idk how to spell it but its next to sao paulo.. its like in a volcano so maybe Jackson knows.. maybe its minas gerais.. I’m not sure.. but he’s way good at teaching and he knows English pretty much fluently so he helps me with words I don’t know, but besides that we speak only Portuguese. He’s teaching me alot, but it’s still really hard.

     Our apartment isn’t super nice, but its not bad. There’s only 2 or so bats that live in our bathroom so it could be worse haha. The one night that we came home.. we walked into our room and there were ants just all over the door.. probably about 50.. so I looked at my companion and asked him if that’s normal in Brasil.. I guess it’s not, so that’s a relief haha, so then we looked at the other side of the door and there was a hole like the size of a baseball and just piles of ants crawling out.. so you know I was kinda bothered by the ant farm living in our door, but I figured I’d just get out some bug spray and spray around the edges of my bed and it would all be good cuz my beds like 8 feet away from the door so it would be fine... but then I looked up and there was like 30 of these gigantic mega ants flying around the light in our room.. these things were like each bigger than an inch.. and apparently ants here in Brasil have wings haha.. so we ended up moving our beds to another part of the apartment where there are less ants haha.. 

So my area is pretty small.. like I walk from one side to the other and it feels like I’m walking across Poplar Forest. Our ward is way strong tho.. I think there’s like 150 people?.. Church was rough tho... even my Brazillian companion leaned over to me during one of the classes and said he couldn’t understand their accent very well...so ya after 3 hours of focusing to try and understand you get pretty tired haha but the ward is way strong so it’s all good... I’ll figure out how to speak eventually... there was a ward activity the other day and there was like a good 70 people there it was cool and like 30 youth... I was playing basketball with them, it was a good time.. people here are pretty bad at basketball haha but I guess most people in America are pretty bad at soccer. O and no I don’t have a hammock, that would be pretty sweet tho.. most the houses we visit have one hanging in front of their TV but we don’t have one... maybe I’ll buy one eventually.. kinda difficult right now tho because I ran out of money haha I have like 75 real... and some boot money but that’s American haha and in this part of the state they don’t even take cards let alone american money... but the bright side is every day for lunch we get fed piles of food for lunch.. they just tell me to keep eating haha. I think it might be becuase they want to say something to me and they think that’s about all I can understand in their accent... which is probably true. So one of the members here sent you a message on facebook yesterday for me about using skype today... cuz I guess we can’t on Christmas.. but I guess you didn’t get the message.. but it’s all good because no one here has microphones... we checked like every lan house haha so I guess we’re going to be calling our families instead.. so I’ll tell you tomorrow when it’ll will be, but it’ll be Christmas I know that..  but I'll email you tomorrow more about it so make sure you check you email/facebook . Enjoy Christmas! I’ll talk to you guys soon! 

Love, Elder Udy

I've accepted the fact I'm going to eat beans for the next 2 years

Dec. 13, 2013

Haha I laughed when I read who the 3 wise men are (Branch Presidency).. It sounds like a really good Christmas party though.. things seem like they’re just getting better and better in Slippery Rock... O and I really liked that letter I got from the branch this week with everyone’s notes on it.. I read them all like 5 times haha and as always I like getting letters from you too :) That’s crazy that Elder Colvin’s companion played with Taysom Hill.. How is BYU football doing? Are they going to get a good bowl game this year? and that looked like fun cutting the Christmas trees. Thats crazy that Marshall isn’t allowed to skype! His mission president must be crazy strict! haha I heard mine’s pretty cool. All the elders that come here from Fortaleza say he’s awesome so hopefully I’ll be able to work something out to skype. Im so excited to get out of here and go to Fortaleza, idk how Jackson did this for 9 weeks, haha all the days just meshh together cuz they’re all the exact same thing except I know a little more every day haha. Thats awesome that Jordan got his visa! I bet he’ll love it in Manaus even if Florida was nice. And ya I’ve just accepted the fact that I’m going to be eating these beans for the next two years.. as long as I don’t have to eat the sobre mesas they serve at the CTM :)... O and ya there’s 3 others in my district going to Fortaleza. I’ll point them out in a picture next week when we are allowed to send pictures. O and the scriptures I’m talking about are the kind with the nice leather covers like all our english ones, not like the paper back ones missionaries hand out because all you can buy here are the paper back ones. But I’ll check the mission office. Well that’s about all I got.. Feliz Natal! Tchau :)

Elder Udy

My Portuguese is getting better

Dec. 6, 2013

Boooooaaa tarde. So the scripture I want on my plaque is D&C 50: 28-30. Sorry I didn’t send it sooner, haha and tell Jordan Manaus (Brazil) will be awesome. One of our instructors told us that when he was on his mission there, him and his companion went to establish the church in a native village and baptized 200 people in 1 week.. that’s crazy. 

O also I wanted to know if you could buy me a Portuguese triple :) (I figured out how to make smilies)... like one with the nice leather covers like my English quad... if u don't want to, that’s fine. I’ll understand since I’m the middle child, I don’t expect much.. but if u send me one I’ll be eternally grateful :) and plus I kinda already got the case haha.. 

So it sounds like dad’s getting pretty soft with the lights. My companion said the lights at his house give temple square a run for their money. He said they use so many lights that his mom can’t use the toaster cuz there’s not enough power or something haha.. 

    So I don’t really have too much to tell you yet since everyday is spent in a classroom pretty much all day haha, but my Portuguese is getting way better but then when I hear some of the missionaries talk that are from Fortaleza, it sounds like a different language sometimes cuz of their accent haha. 

So for Christmas they put lights around the courtyard. I’ll send u a picture in 2 weeks.. but it was night time and all the missionaries were out there and we were all counting down for when these Christmas lights turned on, and when we finished counting down, the amount of lights that turned on was probably about the same as our front yard.. but all the missionaries still went nuts haha,we’re deprived of change.. after sitting in the same room for 5 weeks the courtyard with some Christmas lights is pretty much life changing.

Elder Udy and Elder Cavalier

    So ya, I don’t know how you manage to know about my life before I tell you, but handing out the Book of Mormons was cool. I didn’t really know how to say much, haha but I gave it my best and they seemed to understand, so the Spirit must speak Porutuese haha. Some of them seemed really interested... but then again it was kinda hard to tell haha, but it made me excited to go to Fortaleza to teach real people. 

Good luck this week with Cole’s homework.. and tell Jackson good luck with finals idk when that is, but it’s probably soon. Tenha um bom dia! Tchau!

Elder Udy