AHHHHHH!!!!! I don't even know where to start! It's really difficult to put into words all that has happened. So I'll do my best and start from day one.
I reported at the MTC at about 1:30 pm and by 2 pm I had all my stuff in my room, my I.D. card, my key and other things. I was then sent to language study for 3 hours or so. Afterwards we had dinner and a welcome orientation. We had about 840 missionaries from over countries arrive that day. Everyone is thrown into what we call a District. My District has about 6 guys and 5 girls. Then anywhere from 2-5 Districts are made into a Zone. We have District leaders and Zone leaders. I met all these people during language study. That first day I was just so overwhelmed but so was everyone else so it was alright.
The scheduled is quite different here. We have to wake up at 6:30 and get to breakfast by 7 everyday and we go to bed around 10:30. The only time we have to stop and think is during meals or personal study time.
Since then life had been insane! We literally have almost no free time to relax because we're either studying language or gospel study. On Friday, my third day here, my companion and I Had to teach our first lesson to a contact in Portuguese. Oh and for the majority of our class time, our teacher only speaks in Portuguese. It was one of the most difficult things I've had to do in a while. We then had lessons to teach on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's amazing how much of the language I've learned so far! Portuguese is much harder to learn than Spanish. The years of Spanish I took have both helped me and hurt me in learning Portuguese. I already know how to have conversations and generally communicate with people. I've met some pretty awesome people here and I love them already. I think our favorite times of the day are when we can go play basketball, workout or play football. I've already bruised my cheek from playing football.
The food here is absolutely terrible, aside from the chocolate milk which is better than Kroger chocolate milk. I think I've had to fart more in the past week than in the past year before my mission. So if any of you want to send things, send food, drinks or whatever. I'll take anything. For Thanks Giving we were able to help an organization make over 150,000 food packs for starving children. It was an humbling experience. We also got to here from Russel M. Nelson which was a cool devotional.
So I only really have time on Fridays to check emails. If you want to send messages before that day like during the week you can go to a website called, DearElder. Here you write a message and they can then put it in letter form and send it to me that day or the next depending on how early you write it oh and it's free to send it here in the states. Once I leave for Brazil you can still use it but It may cost more than a normal letter. I'm not sure. You'll probably need the information below. Also I'll give you my mailing address here in Utah.
If I missed something or if you have a question then let me know and I'll try and answer!
Amo Eles. Eu sou feliz e aminado ser aqui. Estou consado todos dia e meu vida e` maito dificil. Tenho amor para portugeuse e todos 2,000 misionarios aqui. Nos Pai Celestial tem um plano para voce e Eu. Nao sabo que mas e` importante.
Con Amor,
Elder Shannon.
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