Força Brasil!

Oí meus irmãos, irmãs e amigos!

Como é os Estados Unidos? Brasil é muito bem! Poco quente, mas ainda bem! O templo em São Paulo é bonito e eu amo ir o templo! A cidade de São Paulo é bom também! Muito bonito e muito muito MUITO grande! Lá é alguém quem trabalham a uma store que AMO os missionaríos! Cada tempo nos adando perto deles, eles dizam "Oí Elderes! Tudo bem?" e nos falamos com eles para cinqo minutos mais o menos!

I think Drew can relate, but this city is HUGE. It puts New York to shame... there are skyscrapers everywhere, and it also puts LA to shame because there is so much smog!

For Mom´s questions

1. Tell us about your companion, 2. How hot and or humid has it been and are you acclimating? 3. Who else is writing (or emailing) to you? 4. Isn’t the mail strike over?

1. My companion now is Elder Heath (from Kennewick). He went to BYU-I before this and he is going to Fortaleza as well. We get along together really well, and there isn´t a whole lot more that happens between us besides normal mission stuff!

2. It has been a little humid, but it gets really humid when it rains, but I´m pretty well acclimated (thank you sea level!). I haven´t been overheating or anything really, its good weather almost all the time.

3. Pretty much its just been minha familia, I´ve gotten a few emails from friends, and a Dear Elder from the Christensens that I really enjoyed, but I didn´t have time to respond since I left two days after I got it.

4. As for the mail strike, it is over, but the mail is still kinda slow. It takes like 10 days or so for letters to get here from the U.S. (7 from Germany... go figure)

As for my week, it has been going awesome! It picked up a little this week, so I am greatful for that, and next Monday, we are going to do Prosletísmo... namely walking the MTC boundaries placing Copies of the Book of Mormon. Exciting!

One thing I forgot to mention from last week... the Distribution Center in SP has garments for 1.80 R... THATS LIKE A DOLLAR! Everything here is ridiculously cheap... and they also have Guarana, which I looooooooooove. I hear they have it in the states, but I´ve never seen it!

My roommates and I have become really good friends... we started just talking in Portuguese whenever we could (They don´t speak a lick of english, which is PERFECT) and I talk to their class all the time to. They call me Elder Gringo, which I don´t mind, its better than Elder Fubeca (that means lazy missionary).

I have gotten tired of the breakfast, but they still feed me well here which is always good. My classes are going good too. I am learning a ton about the gospel, our purpose and how to teach. They teach less Portuguese in class than they do in Provo, but they have us speak a lot of Portuguese around wherever we can.

My teachers are awesome! I love them so much! I pretty much love everybody here... everyone is friendly and they want to talk to you, come up and say hi and chat. We are getting like 50 more americanos tomorrow though, so its starting to get crowded!

I´m trying to think of specific events I can talk about, but I don´t really have any... it is the MTC still after all. So I guess I´ll close with that!

Amo-vocês e têm um bom semahna!

Sinceramente,

Elder Cornwell

A Room With a View

Alright, this has been one of the CRAZIEST weeks of my life. So much went on, it feels like it has been a month! So far the food has been good, but I am getting tired of the breakfast already (not a good sign!)

For Uncle Clark and Brother van Katwjik, the São Paulo Temple ONLY has Brazilian Mahogany... but you can´t harvest it anymore, which is a shame! That temple is waaaaaaaaaay pretty, it definitely stands out in São Paulo.

So, the flights were looooooong but we met some Brasilleiros in the Salt Lake Airport and even got to talk Português with some ex-Brazilian missionaries. When we get to the CTM, it was definitely waaaaaay different than I thought. It´s in the ´wealthy´ part of São Paulo, and we got to take a tour around the area we get to roam today! Then we found out the CTM is way different than Provo. I know this because the Mission President´s wife told us as she was giving all the Elder´s hugs. After all that, we got to just relax for the WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE day. Loved it!

My new teachers are Irmão Costa and Romalho (pronounced Ho-maal-io). They both live in SP and I. Costa went to Curitiba and I. Romalho went to Brasilia. They are soo awesome. The Brasilleiros are like what Drew described the Italians on the street being like. You say ´´Oí, tudo bem?´´ and then they give you a handshake, pull you in for a hug and BAM. You are now best friends. I love it! Unfortunately, some of our favorite Elders headed out this morning for the mission field, but this week we get Brasilleiros going to Fortaleza with us!

My Português is progressing at light speed now. I speak it a ton, and I can say a lot more than just gospel stuff now! Its weird to think that what I´ve been learning is actually intelligible. The Brasilleiros want to learn English too, so they practice on us, and we practice on them. It’s a really good thing we have going.

Most of my events this week are just typical class and so on, so I don´t have a lot of interesting stories for all of you. When I get the chance, I´ll upload a picture of the view from my room (we are on the 6th floor, so we can see a LOT of São Paulo. Now I understand why people pay so much for a view... it is incredible!).

Elder Sant is in the classroom next door, and Elder Clements lives three doors down from me, so I see them a lot, and get to interact with them a lot just because it’s a different atmosphere here. Everyone is friends and everyone wants to talk with you, it’s great!

And to Mom, I can´t tell how good Google translate is (or rather bad) but I can understand what you wrote. I´m really good at understanding what people say, it’s the speaking that is taking time, good thing we do a lot of it here!

Eu não tenho muitos coisas interessante a falar sobre esta semana, mas eu amo O CTM e os Brasilleiros. Eu não tenho tempo agora, e eu quero a ir na cidade e comprir algumas coisas. Deus é bom, e a Igreja é verdadeira! Amo-vocês! Atê proxímo semana!

Sinceramente,

Elder Cornwell

(Translation)

I don´t have many interesting things to talk about this week, but I love the CTM and the Brasilleiros. I don´t have time now, and I want to go to the city and buy some things. God is good and the Church is true! I love you all! Until next week!

Your missionary´s arrival at the Brazil MTC

We received an email from the Brazil MTC this morning telling us Elder Cornwell arrived safely. Here is the photographic evidence.

Dear Parents,

We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.

They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.

The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on individual assignments.

Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

Please accept our love,

President Donald L Clark and Sister Zaza Clark

ADDITIONAL information . . .

DO not send packages to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC and it arrives after your missionary has left for the field, please understand that the package can not be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you. The only other option is for us to open the package and forward the letters and photographs, giving the rest of the content of the package to the missionaries that are here.

WE Strongly eNCOURAGE sENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers. The cost to get this type of correspondence is exorbitant.

I Got My Visa

So, I got my VISA, and I'm leaving for the airport in about an hour and a half, so this is just a quick letter. Nothing really spectacular happened this past week, just learning more Portuguese and whatnot. I did teach one of Michele's coworkers in TRC on Wednesday though... that was super fun!


Eu nao tenho muito tempo, e muito menos historias, entou desculpe para este pichino letter!

Amo-voces!

Elder Cornwell

P.S. thanks for all the letters I've been getting, it is great to hear from everyone! Mom and Dad, I will talk to you later on today!

Elders Cornwell and Clements at the Provo MTC

Elder Cornwell with one of his teachers (who was a companion of his cousin,
Zac Cornwell, in Portugal.

São Paulo, Here He Comes!

Thank you for your prayers on Kyle’s behalf. He called yesterday afternoon to let us know that he received his visa on Friday and will be flying out of Salt Lake City on Tuesday afternoon and arrive in Sao Paulo on Wednesday morning. Kyle will continue to learn Portuguese in the Brazil MTC until November 7^th, when he will fly to the Brazil Fortaleza Mission, 1800 miles to the northwest.

If you haven’t already done so, Please HURRY and write to Kyle through the http://www.dearelder.com site for free. Missionaries LOVE mail that they can hold in their hands.

That address is listed above Kyle's picture on the right of this page.

If you hit the “send” button before 11:00 AM MDT on Monday, Kyle will receive your letter that day. Monday is the last day he will receive mail before he leaves for Sao Paulo.

If you wish to send Kyle a letter for him to receive in the Brazil MTC, you may use the following address (make sure to put 98 cents of postage on the letter…NO packages to the MTC):

Elder Kyle J Cornwell
Brazil Fortaleza Mission
Brazil Missionary Training Center
Rua Padre Antônio D' Ângelo, 121
Casa Verde
02516-040 São Paulo - SP
Brazil

Workworkworkworkwork. That is what I do!

Hello wonderful people!

It feels like it has been a day or two since I last wrote, time is just flying by sooooooooooooo quickly. And what about conference? My oh my, if you want to see the Lord's hand in the world, just look at the Provo Tabernacle. An easily prevented fire was somehow looked over, and here we are, less than a year later, turning the burned out remains into the Lord's House! Baptism by fire anyone? I felt such a strong spirit rush through me the second President Monson said the words 'Provo Tabernacle". I have known from the day it burnt down that it would be rebuilt, I just had no idea it would be glorified above all other earthly buildings. What a joy it is to live in these days!

And as for Mom and Dad, I hope you were praying about whether or not to serve a mission during this time, because Elder Holland (I think it was, I only have access to my memory right now, which is filled with Portuguese) pretty much gave you the answer straight up. A 6 or 12 month mission with the majority of housing paid for you? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!? I think just like the Provo Tabernacle, some of these things happen to us in order for us to fulfill a purpose God has ready for us. The hardest part is recognizing that, and acting upon those feelings.

Last night, we talked about prayer in our classroom time (all in Portuguese too) and my companion and I noticed that the language the Preach My Gospel uses to talk about prayer is the language of describing a covenant. It doesn't say the Lord can answer your prayers or can give you comfort, but he WILL. Prayer is the covenant with God where we recieve spiritual blessings from the Lord, instead of physical blessings. I greatly encourage you to make your plans for the next few years based upon prayer, because there is something we are supposed to be doing for God, and he will tell us what it is we are to do. I'm doing that right now, and I can feel the hand of Lord guiding me in all that I do.

Thus ends this session of Specific Conference.

I can't remember any events of class or anything from this week just because we do sooooooooooo much of the usual grammar and whatnot, so I'll give you highlights.

Tuesday devotional, I sang in the choir again, which was super fun, and then Dan Clark spoke to us. I cannot for the life of me remember anything specific about it, but I remember the great spirit I felt during his talk. Probably one of the best I have heard.

The rest of the week was fiiiiiiiiiiilled with class, but we teach lessons during the first hour of each class period now. With our pesquisadore SIlvana, we have taught all the basic doctorine and commandments, so we are blessed to be able to just focusing on talking about the church with the influence of the spirit. We get to talk and testify so much, it has really strengthened my knowledge and testimony of this gospel.

We also talk a lot about the relationship between us, our investigator and God with a diagram like this

God

/ \

/ \

/ \

Us---------Investigators

Our purpose is to strengthen that relationship with God and the people we teach, so we focus on their testimony and giving them the ability to pray and feel the spirit. Its really cool to see how it all works and I really have a great appreciation for what 'real' missionaries do when they teach.

As for General Conference, I think my favorite part was when L Whitney Clayton (?) talked about missionary work. I testify that this work is just beginning to come forth, and that we have just barely seen the beginning of the great and marvelous work. The rest of conference weekend, we got to just relax and take it easy (which I welcomed with open arms!).

On Sunday, I went for a temple walk and we went around the east side of the temple and I hear a yell of "Elder Cornwell!" I turn around, and I see ASA CLEMENTS!!! It was so crazy! I gave him a hug, and we talked a little about the MTC and Portuguese, since he is taking a class at BYU. I didn't get a picture with him, but I do have a picture with Joe from that night being printed that I will send home to you (we can't get pictures off of our cameras to send in emails here).

That night, we had a fireside, and the speaker was Chad Lewis. Yes, that Chad Lewis that jumped over people in the NFL. He talked about his mission in Taiwan and about climbing Mount Kilomanjaro with some Marines who were wounded in Afghanastan. It was a really great opportunity to hear from him and learn how we can overcome trials and accept help from the Lord. Also, one of my friends from school (Brooklynn) was there as a guest (I guess she is friends with one of their daughters) and I said hi to her and talked for a bit. Also, a fun fact for the BYU football fans that are reading this, there is a Hermana Bosco that is on the same schedule as our district. Yes, she is related to a certain Bosco, and she is his daughter. Chad Lewis had to point it out, because he was their home teacher (consequently, his companion is in the MTC).

Anyways, that is all I have for this week! The Portuguese is coming great, and it is super fun to speak! No word on my visa besides what Mom sent me in that email, and I DID see Elder Clements (and Elder Lamb) off today as they left for the airport.

That is all for now, Love y'all!

Elder Cornwell

P.S. the watch is boss and I am now the most popular elder in the district becuase I have a backpack full of twix.