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...
Elder Beatty with his companion at the São Paulo Temple
Elder Beatty after lunch and soccer on P-day
Jardim Tietê
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