Out 3 Weeks Now!

Oh man Ian got a ticket! Teeter is dumb. Oh well. Anyways the language is coming better now. Um Learning alot. The food is getting better somehow. It was kind of the same ol for a while but now its getting better. Anyways um My comps and I are getting along great. Got some Brasileros in our room now. They´re way cool. one speaks some english so we can communicate pretty well. But he´s way awesome. Learning alot of good stuff for use in the mission. Mostly just useful things for surviving in the crazy heat, but it´s all good. Mom I really need you to send me some stuff. Like a thing of shampoo would be good. And Baby wipes would be a huge blessing. tp here is quite literally tissues. they suck. Um and maybe a t-shirt or two. Oh someone told me to have you label whats in the box and I guess if they think there isn´t anything of value they won´t go through it. but anyways, the baby wipes are a must. get some of the costco stuff or somethin. I dunno. Oh Please and thank you! A few people here have gotten packages relatively fast so if anything just use priority mail. My friend Rene sends me letters quite often from Pennsylvania. They only take like 7 to 9 days. But yeah i think I was going to ask for something else but I don´t remember what. Anyways, I´m hapy to hear from all you in the fam. Oh I remember I was going to ask you if you had sent those letters to the Jorgensens for me. I didn´t have their address so I just sent them to our house. I got another one I´m sending that I want to go to Sean Jorgensen. So please address it to him for me. please and thank you. The missionaries there sound cool. However doesnt sound like they are very hard workers. I would explain but I don´t have much email time left and I gotsta email Hannah. Well tell Desiree I will have fun figuring it out. And then I´ll light it all on fire and laugh. Jk. Thank Maddy for praying for me. And tell everyone I love them. Cool you guys are learning portuguese. And tell Travis Nick saw him on my motorcycle. So I´m glad he hasnt wrecked it. Love you all. Bye bye until next week.

Week 2 in Rio de Janeiro Mission

Sao Paulo Temple Spencer gets to go to!! :-)

Hey mom!

Good to hear the Foster home is filling up. I've been praying that it would. Especially the private pays. So that's wonderful to hear. Hows dad´s MRI business goin? Been praying for that too. Hopefully it´s doing well. I really enjoyed the letters from the kids. That's so awesome. Thank you for praying for me. It means alot. Please tell the kids I said that for them too. And that I miss them all. I want an email from Desiree next week. She better write me. I want to hear from her. Tell her I love her and give her a hug for me. We´re getting a bunch of missionaries here tomorrow. should be cool. most of them are actually going straight to the field because they´ve been waiting in the states for their visas to get approved. So that's cool. Tell Travis it´s cool he gets to update the ward on my mission status, and be careful on the bike, and to be good and be an even better example for the kids. Tell Todd I liked his letter. Haha made me laugh. Thank Maddy for her letter it was really sweet and caring. Give her a hug for me too. Tell Steven to be good and that I miss him too. And Tell Liddie to be good and that I love her and miss her too. and give her a big hug for me. And make sure Desiree writes to me next week. or I´ll be bummed. Love you all miss you tons. Untill next week, love Elder Bender.

Been here about a week now. It`ll be a week tomorrow. So I can`t send pics until I`m out in the field which will be 2 months from now, but I will when I can. If my camera doesn`t get stolen. All the Brazillian elders ask me where I`m going and when I tell them Rio de Janeiro they make guns with their hands and make shooting noises. Then they act like they are pointing it at me and say give me your money! Kinda scary. But, I`m not too worried about it. The mtc here is cool. There are probably only like between 300 and 400 missionaries here at a time. Because of visas. I guess most of the elders here from america are from Washington, Oregon, and California. It`s crazy. So not that many people. Like 90% of the elders here are from South America. Mostly Brazil. I`m doing well it`s not too hot here but it`s also their fall. It`s like between 75 and 80 in our room all the time. Even at night. Turns out the Church owns most of the land around the MTC so we can go shop on P days within a 2 or 3 block radius. So thats something col about being here at this MTC. in Provo you can`t go out at all. Except for going to the temple and you can only go a certain path for that. The Language is coming. Slowly but surely. We`re taking in alot of info everyday. We usually sit with Brazillians at meals and help them with english and they help us with Portuguese. So its good. I´m starting to recognize some phrases. It´s very much like Spanish but alot of their vocabulary is very different. Verbs are very very similar. The Food is good. lots of rice and beans but also alot of other food. So thats good. Not so good for nice smelling classrooms or bedrooms. Haha I forgot my pillow at home and I lost my shampoo the second day here. So, I´ve been borrowing my companions shampoo. I´m in a threesome companionship. Elder Sanchez and Elder Leete. They´re pretty cool and help me alot to not be a slacker and stuff. We are the only ones in our district. Which kind of sucks. But oh well. São Paulo is crazy! It´s the biggest city I´ve ever seen. When i flew in all I could see were buildings. Tons of them. And looking out the window of our room on the top floor of the MTC it´s crazy, buildings and city as far as the eye can see. Not just buildings either, tons of high rise buildings. Traffic here is CRAZY! Motorcycles split the lines all the time. not only that but they go around cars in the opposite lane and stuff it´s awesome. They squeeze through cars and trucks on the highways constantly. It makes me miss my motorcycle. There are so many on the roads. Alot of times there´s more motorcycles than cars on the road. The brazillian elders are really cool. They are way fun and loving. They accept everyone, all accept for Argentinians. they hate them. But only because of Soccer. Major rivalry. Apparently Argentina paid off their game between them and Peru giving them a ton of points in the championship making them win it over Brazil even though Brazil won all their games. Anyways tell mom I´m alive and well. All is good. Send my love to the rest of the family. I love and miss all of you. Love, Elder Bender