Monday, August 22, 2011

**I didn't get an email forwarded to me from Spencer between Aug 1 until now...I'll see if there were any emails that my parents forgot to forward to me! At any rate, here is the latest:

Ok, so, New area, new comp, new experiences. So my new comp is cool. Elder Pinheiro. He, like me, thinks that Japanese is one of the coolest languages ever and that anime/cartoons are awesome. We get along well and he is a really good teacher. Trying to learn as much as I can from him. The new area is crazy. pretty good sized city with a ton of people living in a tiny area. So, there´s always alot of people out and about. We work with members as much as we can and we´ve been working hard. Met some skateboarders here and skated with them for a bit, scratched the heck out of my church shoes. (I know mom it was dumb.) But in the process we made 5 new contacts at once all of which were fine with us coming over and sharing a message with them and their families later. How´s that for using your talents? Anyways, so I guess at some point this week we taught this 17 year old guy who apparently has killed someone. Didn´t know until afterwards when my comp told me about it. I wondered why when we were at the house he came running inside and shut the door and was peeking out the window. Turns out a cop drove by. LOL. The weather here is strange. The first part of the week it was really hot. and all this weekend it´s been cold. I say cold but I mean 63F so cold for what i´ve been used to here in Brasil. Our apartment is kind of big but as everyone knows size isn´t better for apartments when you don´t have stuff to fill it with. Also, it´s on the 6th floor so going up stairs is fun. Um, oh I have had the chance to see some of those people that worship saints or whatever and don´t believe in God. Weird, statues everywhere and stuff and Crosses on their property. Oh and my Comp was on a split with the district leader´s comp and they had a crazy experience with a macumba. Aka Satan worshipper. I won´t go into details but she was absolutely psycho to say the least. Found out there are a lot of snakes here in Brasil. ´´Snakes´´ here in brasil to members of the church are girls that flirt with and try to get with Missionaries.  Haha can´t believe I didn´t say anything about that before. Anyways things are good here and I´m learning alot. It´s very different than Cabo Frio thats for sure. Anyways, thats it for this week, Love you all and miss you as well. Elder Bender

the photo is of me and elder richins on the bus back from búzios on our second to last p-day together in the Cabo Frio area.

 

Fun Fact: Arcos de Lapa: One of the few surviving landmarks from the colonial era, this aqueduct was finished in 1750. At one time it carried water down from the Rio Carioca, it now serves as a viaduct to the wonderful Bondinho de Santa Teresa (tram) that connects the downtown area to the Santa Teresa area. With 42 arcs and at 800-feet long, it is also known as Aqueduto da Carioca. A wonderfully stark example of the old and new architecture that defines this area.

Monday August 1, 2011

Hey thanks mom. Turns out a ton has happened today. So we got up at 4am to go to the airport and get in line for the policia federal thing. Waited for 3 and a half hours just to find out that they changed the way you do everything.......starting today. And so you have to do everything online and schedule an appointment and everything. So we went to a LAN house to get online and the administrative secretary Elder Isom found out that all the spots for today were taken. And tomorrow they had a few times but they filled up by the time we got back to the office. So since we live like 4 hours away from the mission office and it costs 35 reals one way for the bus to our area. We get to stay here until Wednesday night. Oh and 35 reals is alot for us considering we only get like 260 reals a month, it's a huge amount for a bus. Anyways, so today for lunch we went to this Pizza Rodizio. Basically the waiters come around with different pizzas and ask you if you want some. I ate a ton. Including dessert pizza. Pretty sure they have the best dessert pizza I have ever eaten. So good! Anyways, the next two days should be fun/interesting. Because we are in Rio. it's so cool here. Awesome views, and I think it's going to rain tonight, so the sky will be way clear and free of smog so I will be able to take some sweet pictures. I hope. Not much new happened this last week, just alot of looking for people with no success finding them. Made some good contacts this week. Sadly they weren't living in our area. So that's a bummer but we'll find people to teach. No worries. Loving my new backpack. way better than that one CTR one that you got for free mom. It was kind of screwed up anyways. But this new one should last for quite some time. It's really nice. anyways tah tah for now I miss you all and love you too. I will send you some pics. If I get some time on the other computer today. this one has Linux on it and itś way restricted because one of the elders is good with Linux and stuff. Bye bye.

Rio Fun Fact:

Parque Nacional de Tijuca is the largest area of urban rainforest in the world, and is testament to the huge success of a reforestation scheme from the Brazilian government. When the Portuguese arrived, the area which is now the city of Rio was covered by dense green tropical forest. As the city grew the trees were felled and the timber used in construction or for charcoal. However, if you look up from the streets of Zona Sul today, the mountains running southwest from the Corcovado are still covered with exuberant forest, the periphery of the Parque Nacional da Tijuca which covers an area of approximately 120 square kilometres, and is maintained by Brazil's State Institute of Forestry (IBDF). In the seventeenth century the forests of Tijuca were cut down for their valuable hardwood and the trees replaced by sugar cane and, later, coffee plantations and small-scale agriculture. In the early nineteenth century the city authorities became alarmed by a shortage of pure water and by landslides from the Tijuca slopes. Eventually it was decided that a concerted effort was needed to restore Rio's watershed and, in 1857, a reforestation project was initiated: by 1870 over 100,000 trees had been planted and the forest was reborn. Most of the seeds and cuttings that were planted were native to the region, and today the park serves as a remarkable example of the potential for the regeneration of the Atlantic forest.

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