New Companion:  He's from Cabo-Verde (I don't know if that has a different name in English) near Africa. He is the Senior Companion, and he wanted to spend the week cleaning our house, and getting to know the people and the area.  He's really fun when it's time to have fun, and works when it's time to work, gives criticism constructively when the time is right. Yesterday night, we had a "Home Meeting" where we planned the things this week that will affect all of us, talked about bills, cleaning that needs done, etc (I had the idea to do this to unite us all a bit better, etc.) and then we talked a bit about stuff we could all do to improve the lives of all of us... Another Elder suggest that we all try harder to get to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30 (until today only I wake up at 6:30, we'll see if that changes) The other two are a Brasilian who's been here 7 months, and is training for the 3rd time already... And his "Son" who is an American that arrived this transfer. I really like the group I used grandma's birthday money to buy 5 ties and a pair of indoor soccer shoes :) All for $20... next transfer I'll probably use the Christmas $20 to buy a leather scripture cover that's really awesome :) 

Ola (Yes, that is the correct spelling) Mom and Dad :)

Friday, for the first time in 12 weeks, a meal did NOT include rice and beans! It was in the house of a less active Bolivian famiily who we're helping to return to activity because their daughter wants to serve a mission. The food was like steak chunks, pieces of hot dog meat, french fries, hard boiled egg, and ketchup, and mixed together like a sald :D it was awesome!!! 

My district has 3 duplas (companionships)... 2 duplas of sisters, and then E. Millaqueo and I. The zone (which has 3 districts) is made up of 5 duplas of sisters and 5 of elders. A perfect 50/50 split! This is unique to our zone. The other zones have 1 or 2 duplas of sisters (or one zone that has none) The sisters usually serve in the richer, safer regions. But they are usually more difficult to work in because wealthy people are harder to teach.

I heard about Paris, but not much. Only that there were terrorist attacks and that more than 100 were dead... Thanks for keeping me up to date in the world (complex events like that are hard to understand in a new language!)

I found a horse! I don't know how, it's pretty unique in this area. I've passed it a few times now, and it's always there! (Did I already send this?

E. Millaqueo and I made hot dogs because our lunch fell through that day! It was super delicious and cost us about $5 in total :) 

I love you all a ton

Elder Beatty

First of all\; mission plaque scripture: I was studying this week, and encountered a scripture that I like better for the plaque if you haven't already used the other one. The other one is a bit more for me, this one is for all (D&C 68:2-6) If that's too long, I'll let you choose which part to use, just as long as verses verse 4 is included. 

I can't believe Glynn turns 12! He'll be a deacon!! Did I tell you guys about our investigator Pedro already?? He reminds me so much of Sam! Happy Birthday Glynn! Just remember! When I was your age, I was 13 already ;) and congrats on first class!

I RECEIVED A TON THIS WEEK! Both the journal/shirt package (which by the way, I have plenty short sleeves, that day was not hot, this picture was during lunch, at which time I'd temporarily rolled up my sleeves to not stain them with food. In all honesty, long sleeves don't make it much hotter. Suits on Sunday do.) and the smaller birthday package. It's going to kill me waiting a month for that, but I will wait. In respect to those things, mom, I'm pretty sure you receive revelation when sending stuff. The day I received those packages, I'd been talking to an american about things we miss from the US (foods, mostly) and I had mentioned specifically Swedish fish, good carmel, and various M&Ms. Then I opened a package and found those. It was amazing. I also received 6 letters from Grandma, and a letter from Bo.

Grandma: I'm not sure which of these questions I've already answered, so I'm going to try and answer all of your questions here: Plants that grow well, I have no idea. There aren't really plants in my area... or dirt... or much grass. It's mostly streets, sidewalks, and buildings... There isn't dirt at all within a kilometer of our house... Taylor and I can communicate together, but really, missionaries don't share many stories amongst themselves during the mission. Mostly how they're doing! But if you have his mission email, I'd love to mail him! I'm serving in a ward, where I'm not called to pass the sacrament, which is good because we have several investigators to sit with each week. I've only spoken once, and it was just a quick 3 minute intro/testimony. There are about 400 members, about 75 of which are active. My shoes are great (thanks mom) for walking! The mission president says that we walk to the moon and back in 2 years here... I think he's underestimating how much we walk ;) We eat really well... at lunch. Breakfast and dinner are usually up to use to p´rovide, so I eat lots of cheap stuff :) I've gained and lost weight in small enough portions that it could just be the fact that I'm using different scales each time. But my most recent weigh in, I've gained about 5 pounds since I left Texas, but about 7 pounds of that is probably muscle. I know that doesnt add up... I think I've actually lost 2 pounds worth of "extra" and gained 7 of muscle from excersising every mornign, despite having no weights or any other equipment besides a pull up bar. We play soccer every p-day, and at times for a half hour in the morning (almost all the chapels have a small "quadra" which is about like a basketball court with goals on both ends, and we live 2 minutes walking from the chapel, so we play us 4 at times) Our p-days consist of soccer, communication, and (potentially) purchasing stuff we need, if we have money... The weather is pretty similar to Texas, if not a bit cooler. We got to watch conference, in Portugues... I still enjoyed it and even learned quite a bit. Suits on Sunday are optional, but we wear them now so that when it gets hotter in november and december, we'll be able to take them off to cool off. The work is good. We have 3 investigators marked for baptism in the next two weeks, and that's not even unique here. 

We're teaching a ton of people. We make contact in the streets, contact references, on occasion knock doors, but that's weird to do here.

I don't know what else to day, so have a great week everyone!

Elder Beatty

Mom, you included in your package to me (beef jerky and soup mix) a note asking if I'd thought of anything I needed or wished I had. Just send stuff... letters, candy, american things, etc... It's honestly just way exciting to receive physical mail. Stuff I can keep, enjoy, show others, etc.

I am serving in the Penha Zone, Jardim Tietê area. it's pretty urban. I'll try to attach pictures. Id say I can get by in Português decently, and I'm definitely way more immersed. 

 My companion and I are almost always able to convey thoughts and feelings back and forth in some way shape or form. He doesn't actually know THAT much more portugues than me, just that he knows all the words to actually function as a resident that i don't know, and he can understand others easier because he's used to speaking and listening to rapid spanish, so it's not that much different. To get a feel for my struggle, think of a mexican (not a hispanic, but an actual person from mexico) speaking spanish with other fluent natives. Then speed that up. And have them mumble. Then try to translate it. Very difficult but I'm learning. And I know the words for "Please slow down" when I need them ;) the food here is pretty good, actually, that is after I accustomed a bit... From what I can tell, it's pretty similar to other South American countries (with one exception that I will explain in a bit) lots of rice and beans, and also, much to my excitement, lots of meat. Chicken, beef, pork, all of it. Here, BBQ is called Chorrasco (two 'r's make an 'h' sound, like "Chohasco") and we've had 3 different Irmãos make it for us already :D now for the exception: So this week, we had two families cancel lunch with us like an hour before (here lunch is the big meal, so that's the one we always have with members, and dinner on occasion) and the first time, we called Irmão Aleks, an awesome super helpful member of our ward, who has told us repeatedly we can always stop by if we need to, because he says that canceled lunches were a huge problem in his mission. And we can't function without lunch because we don't receive enough money each month (the equivalent of about $70) to be buying lunch very often... Anyway, we called him and he told us to drop by for lunch, so we did. But the second time was the NEXT DAY and we didn't want to call him again... And on top of that, the member actually cancelled like when we arrived and said they were actually on their way somewhere, but they gave us 20 reais each to buy something (which is about $5 each) so my companion showed me this restaurant close to our apartment... A BRAZILIAN STEAKHOUSE!!! AND IT WAS BETTER THAN ANYTHING IN THE US HANDS DOWN. And it only cost about R$35 each ($9 give or take)!!! I was beyond excited :) but we didn't, even with the money given to us, have the funds for it, so I used my personal USAA card. It's difficult to get by with what we receive... I seriously am eating as cheaply as possible for breakfast, about $1.50 a week, but our expenses are just really difficult to meet, and quite often we don't eat dinner with members so we have to come up with something at home. But we get by...

Now for some pictures... (Last time I said I would, but then we got kicked out of the LAN House...) The photos will come in a few seperate emails to conserve space, and I will resend this email with just text, to be safe.

Elder Beatty with his companion at the São Paulo Temple

Elder Beatty after lunch and soccer on P-day

Jardim Tietê

FINALLY I get to talk to you guys, after two weeks. I did receive your package, Mom, and let me tell you it made my day for sure. My first full day in the field and I already had a package in the mail!! I've developed a lot more self control and patience here in Brasil, and thus have only eaten HALF of ONE package of jerky over the past week! Including having shared with my companion(s)! Which brings me to my new companion, Elder Millaqueo: I love this guy. He's 19 years old, been serving for 9 months (in the field) and 6 of those months have been in this same ward. So he pretty much knows the ins-and-outs of every single person in the ward. He does not, however, speak English. At all. Except for "My goodness" and he knows which words NOT to say... There are two other Elders in our apartment, Elder Martinez and Elder Diniz. None of them know English... Except Elder Diniz learned a bit from a past companion, but forming complete sentences is difficult, and he can't say anything that I can't already say in Português. Elder Millaqueo is from Argentina, Elder Martinez is from Guatamala, I believe, and Elder Diniz is from Brasil. I wish I had pictures of them, the apartment, and much more, but I don't because the camera was not working. But I'll try my best to use some great imagery: BLEH. It smells funny in the apartment, only one of the two toilets has a seat, and the one without doesn't flush well, but we have a bucket to pour into that toilet that does the flushing for us. There is one small washing machine, no dryer, the mattresses have holes, we can only drink water we purchase from the store or when offered water that we know is purified from members. Only one of the two showers works, luckily the one in the opposite bathroom of the good toilet, and thank goodness it is filtered, warm water from that shower. However, there is no designated "shower" only the faucet in an open bathroom (I mean there's a door to the bathroom, but no separate shower, it's just opposite the toilet) and so you have to use a squeegee to push the water towards the drain when you're done showering. To sum it all up, I love this place :D and I will never be able to be disappointed by an apartment in the U.S. The demography of heights here is either below 5'3" or above 5'9"... Like no one is in between... There's not much to be said about my first area, yet, because I haven't experienced it much... It's about 1 hour to walk from one end to the other, the members are all great (One family, Irmão Barbi and his wife Irmã Melissa [the men here are Irmão Surname, but the women are Irmã First Name] have been really great to us... They even bought us football (soccer) jerseys for the two teams here (Corinthians for me and São Paulo FC for Elder Millaqueo)... Um, I have a lot more to say, but we were just told that this LAN House closes in 5 minutes and the computers are about to shut off. Until Next Week! 

Elder Beatty

Please note, I've updated Elder Beatty's mailing address. He has two weeks left in the Missionary Training Center (CTM) and will then be sent into the field. Mail will not be forwarded from the CTM, so please send any mail from this point forward to the new address I've listed.

Today's email:

I have 2 more weeks left in the CTM, and yes,
it's the same companion throughout. I wouldn't say I'm ready, but I
don't think without immersing myself in actual missionary life that I
can get much more ready here. We did a bit of proselyting for 2 hours
where each member of our district was given 3 BoMs to hand
out. My companion and I placed all 3 before any other companionship :)
it's really dificult to approach people confidently, but once you do,
they're all really nice here, and if you say "gift" or "free" they get
really excited to receive one :P Elder Ostergaard, my companion, is
the new District Leader, so we now have a couple extra sunday meetings
and a little less free time, but it's good because he can get us into
our district classroom whenever we need (District Leaders keep the key
to the classroom) and I find out before anyone else if anyone got mail
that day! But it's not often that anyone does... Say hi to Justin for
me, and remind him that portugues is better than spanish!! I love you
all, Elder Beatty

We haven't received more than a few sentences from Danny so far. This is what he sent today.

In response to how many missionaries he would estimate are in the training center in Brazil: "Um I would guess about 300-400 in the MTC, with 6 per room (4 americans and 2 Brazilians in my room) and you bunk with your companion. The spiritual training is fantastic. I love the environment. It's like the spiritual high I would get at EFY except all the time here."

His reply to my question of if he'd been warm enough (it is winter there): "The weather is warm if anything, although it gets just cool enough at night that I actually use my sheet, but warm enough that I roll up my pajama pants to make them shorts. I doubt I'll end up needing a sweater at all for this mission, and maybe not even the wool socks."

He has three more weeks of training. He would love getting your letters! (See the address to the left.)

Elder Beatty arrived safe and sound and has begun his training. 

Daniel is supposed to leave for the Brazilian MTC four weeks from Wednesday. We're holding our breath, waiting to see if his visa comes through. We got everything in by the earliest possible deadline. Now it's out of our hands. Some visas have taken many many months.  In 2-3 weeks, we'll know if he'll get to go straight to Brazil or spend some time in the Provo MTC.

On March 17, 2015, Daniel Beatty was called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was "assigned to labor in the Brazil São Paulo East Mission" for two years. He is scheduled to report to the Brazil Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Wednesday, August 19, 2015.

I am making my first attempt at blogging in hopes of keeping everyone up-to-date with the happenings in Daniel's life while in Brazil.