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