Everything's fantastic ...

Family!
Hey guys! How're you all doing? Fantastic, I'm assuming--it's almost Christmas =] So, sorry about the late email, but we had Christmas Conference yesterday. Which was fantastic.

I received the two packages & promptly opened the first (which had my contacts [which I'm wearing], rubik's cube [which I've already taken advantage of], beef jerky, 3 Musketeers/Yorks [you guys rock], the colored RSVP pens [which are perfect] and that other stuff too). Thanks so much, it's fantastic to get packages =] However, I'm leaving the second one closed until Friday, which I'll open as a "Christmas Present" =]. But it's not as easy as it sounds, let me tell you... =]
Thanks for the 75 bucks--I'll be able to get a sweet official jersey of "meu time" (may-oo chee-mee -- my team).

So yeah, things are great here. We haven't had a baptism in this area yet, but I'm thinking we'll have one this week--we've been working with Jonatan, who's a fantastic kid.

So I hope all is well--love you guys, have a fantastic Christmas! Can't wait to talk to you guys!

Elder McGregor

Snail Mail from Elder "Mack-greh-low" dated 10/19

In this letter Trent is answering our letters telling him about Conference, the books we're reading, Obama making the Olympic bid for our country, etc. and asking how Brazilians pronounce his name and if the country is abuzz with excitement from winning the 2016 Olympic bid.

Oí Familia!
Tudo bem? So we just got back from getting haircuts, as you may well already know. I just had the cabelereira (female barber -- her name is Daise and she's a member) buzz it all with a 3. Nice and simple, man.

So that's funny about Obama and the Olympics. Didn't know he gave the pitch. And yeah, in my opinion, it's only a big deal if you make it a big deal. So parabéns to all the Obama-haters for making mountains out of molehills, ha.

It's so funny, everyone who talks about conference talks about Elder Holland's talk. Talk about legendary. Last conference (April), his discourse was fantastic as well -- on Christ's atoning sacrifice for all of us. Elder Holland always has been, and will remain, one of my favorite apostles.

So Leese, I'm glad you're enjoying the Redwall books. Man, I loved those books : ) I also quite enjoyed "Mrs Frisby." I remember seeing the cartoon movie when I was really little at the Cushings house in Vernal. Too funny the things we remember, huh?

So Brazilians and my name -- generally it's something like "Mack-greh-low" or "Mack-Gregory" or "M-C-Gregor" the first time. Pretty funny. The letters "Mc" here are like Dj in the U.S., so I'm quite the cool guy, doncha know : )

So the World Cub and the Olympics are going to be here in Rio. The "Olympíadas" are very exciting for Brasileiros, but the World Cup is far more. Futebol is everything here. Everyone has their "time" ["chee-meh"; team). Mine is Palmeiras from Sao Paulo -- I chose them for their colors. Go check'm out. But here in Rio, almost everyone cheers for Flemengo, which, yes, means 'flamingo' in Portuguese.

Anyway, love you guys. Espero que tudo seja bem! (I hope everything's going well!)
Love,
Elder McGregor

Brasil's World Cup bid logo:


And their Olympic bid logo:
And here are the logos of the two teams he referred to:

What are Brazil Nuts called in Brazil? Snail Mail! dated 9/28

The first part is all in Portugese, which I will do my Spanish best to translate. He does finally write in English though, so just skip down to that if you want. I can tell he was writing quickly and I can't tell what some of his letters are ...

Oí Família!
Tudo Bem? Como voces estao? Coisas sao muito bom aqui no Brasil : ) Decidi eu escreveria um ponco de minna carta no Portugues para voces, para que possam desfruitar a idioma como eu desfruto.
Espero que mae va poder entender a maioria das palavras, mas se nao, voces pudem usar o internet para ajudar, neh?
E a comeca do meu terceiro semana aqui no Conselheiro Paulino, e Elder Morries e ue somos acustomado desta área agora. Os membros sao muito bons -- eles querem ajudar o mais que eles podem. E uma bencao quando os membros querem ajudar -- normalmente isto nao acontece. Sou grato por nossos membros. A ala (ward) e um poulo pequeno agora, mas sei com a ajuda dos membros, va crescer bastante. Nao temos uma capela (quando es uso "capela" quero dizer um edifício por si mesmo)-- igreja acontece num edifício encima de uma lojade som )pelos carros) na rua grande (Main Street). Mas, sei que quando a ala vá crescer, uma capela real será construido.

Translation attempt:
How's everything? How are you all doing? Things are great here in Brazil. I decided to write a little of my letter in Portuguese for you. So you can enjoy the lenguage as I do. I hope Mom can understand most of the words, more or less. You can use the internet to help you, yeah?
I've started my third week here in Conselheiro Paulino, and Elder Morris and I are used to the area now. The members are great - they want to help as much as they can. It's a blessing when the members want to help - usually that's not how it goes.
I'm grateful for our members. The ward is quite small now, but I know with the help of the members it will grow a lot. We have a chapel (when I use "chapel" I mean to say the entire building). church happens to be a building on top of a???, not a main street. But I konw when the ward grows, a dedicated chapel will be built.

So there you go. Portuguese. And much better than what I wrote my third week in the CTM, mind you. Although I'm sure there are still plenty of mistakes in there, ha.
So Elise, I finally found out what Brazil Nuts are called : ) They're called Castanha-do-Pará. Pará is the part of the country where they grow. So the world calls them Brazil nuts, Brazil calls them Pará nuts -- I wonder if Pará has another name for them? : )
I got an email from Aunt Linda a while back, so you might already know, but "Linda" in Portuguese means 'Beautiful.' So I wrote her back and addressed it to "Aunt Beautiful." Ha, I'm hoping she got a kick out of it.
So let's see... I'm listening to my iPod right now. Which, btw Mom, thanks for the Conference talks -- I listen to them in the morning while exercising and showering and eating, before Personal Study. I think Elder Makiama (first companion - Brazilian) got a little annoyed after a while, because he couldn't understand. But what's he gonna say -- "Hey Elder, stop listening to the words of the Profet! [yes, that's how he spelled it -- side note here that those who've gone to a foreign language mission already know - his English spelling and grammar will get worse over time : ) ] It's getting on my nerves!" Ha.
Yeah, so I'm kinda outa stuff to write about. Curse being able to write an email to you guys every week... : )
I love you guys. Hope everything is well at home.
Com amor,
Elder Trenton McGregor