Email 1 July '09

Trenton has been at the Sao Paulo CTM for a month now!

We emailed Trent some questions for FHE and today he emailed the answers-

Questions from the fam this week:

From Elise:
-Do you like the foods in the CTM?

Yep. It's really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
-What are Brazil nuts called in Brazil?
Don't know--I'll find out.
-Do most of the Brazilians know some English?
Nope. Some do, most don't.
-Is Sao Paulo desert-like or really green and full of vegetation?
Really green and tree-y. Or, as you said, full of vegetation. Don't grow up too fast, ok kiddo?
-Are there lots of street people who sing and stuff for money?
Not where we are. I'm sure in the more busy parts there are, no doubt.

From Katie:
-"I love you?" is that a satisfactory question?

I guess so? Lazy bum. Stop playing Sims 3 on that fantastic new computer I wish we'd gotten before I left and not after. ;)
-Do you love me? (sung to Fiddler on the Roof music)...
For seventeen years I've lived with you
smacked you (lightly), laughed at you.
Made fun of you for being a book-whiz--
If that's not love, what is?
-What food do you miss the most?
Eh, nothing really. Another thing I've learned is I don't really eat food because it's tasty. I eat it to get full. And the food here gets me just as full as any other.
-Are there any scriptures that have come to mean more to you?
A few. But I don't have my scriptures with me. I'll let you know next week for sure.
-What music do you hear on the street - American? Brazilian? etc.
American. There's not a whole lot of straight Brazilian music, apparently.

[Okay, I'm laughing because we just don't seem to be giving up on the vacuum thing]:

From Dad:
- Do you know where the vacuum attachment is - not the one you used, but the other?

No idea. Am I thy vacuum's keeper? ;)

- How will your monthly money be managed? Are they giving you a bank account or what's the deal?

Dunno. The white bible says this: The funds you recieve from the mission are sacred. They represent sacrifices by you, your family and others. Budget your money. Be thrifty and wise in how you spend it.
-What kind of language study do you do? Memorization? Do you have a study plan? What do you study?
We mostly study grammar. And then during MDST and PS and CS (Missionary Directed Study Time, Personal Study, Companion Study) I try to learn new vocab and stuff.
-Have you had any ice cream and is it good?
The ice cream from the MTC is called Sorvete (Sor-VEY-cheh), and it's terrible. It tastes like frozen cake frosting, but the kind you get on really gross cakes.
-Are your teachers native or American?
All 2 of my teachers are brazilians. We make fun of them for saying, "Now you choo go do thees," and things like that. It's hilarious.
-Do you dream in Portuguese?... yet?
Not yet. I've been thinking about this--I don't really hear words in my dreams. They're more like feelings. So no português feelings yet.
-Have you had plátanos? (bananas) - smashed and fried?
Not yet. I've had some straight fried bananas though. Those are tasty.
-If and when we ever send a package what would you want us to send?
Shampoo. A decent sized bottle would be nice. Like the one I had. Preferably something manly. Manly is always good. And anything else you think would be funny. Maybe a bunch of three musketeers. And skittles. And MeM's ("e" is "and" in Português, ha).

From da Mama:
-I think Dad asked enough for both of us ; )

Love you all!

Elder McGregor

Snail Mail #2

Mailed June 17, received June 27

Hey Family!
So as soon as I read Daw's letter I thought, "I bet Mom read this and told him 'Why would you write to him about ethanol??'" Which was interesting and a nice change of pace. [I didn't]
I sleep on the top bunk and jump down to the hard tile floor every morning. [This is a little insider comment because Bryon was back from his mission when I left for mine and one of his pieces of advice was if I got the top bunk in the (Provo) MTC to not jump out of it because it kills your feet - ha ha. Of course I got the top bunk and of course I had to try it. It killed my feet. The other advice was not to eat the vegetables because they were overcooked and pathetic =) ]
All of the furniture here is rich mahogany because apparently there is (or used to be) a good amount of it here in Brazil.
My companion is Elder Sperry from Nephi, UT. He has one sister and one brother and we make fun of him because his mom is 38 and she looks like she's about 17. I'm not even kidding. She kept all her good looks and didn't pass them on -- poor Elder Sperry : )
My entire district (10 elders, no sisters) is going to Rio, just like me (woot!)
The days go like this:
6:30 Wake up, prepare
7:00 Personal study
7:30 Breakfast
8:00 Companion Study
8:30 AM class (this class is four hours!)
12:30 Lunch
13:30 PM class (this class is 3 1/2 hours!)
17:00 Dinner
18:00 Missionary directed study time
19:30 Dress for Gym
19:45 Gym (we got lucky and got gym at the end of the day, so we basically just shower and to bed - wewt!) [that's a new way to spell woot!]
21:00 Prepare to retire
10:30 Lights out
[he switched from military time to AM/PM time there at the end]

As you can see, pretty interesting day. We don't really get any breaks, but I wasn't expecting them, so oh well. Pretty exciting, neh?
Weekly Devotional is on Tuesday (today), and this will be the second one we attend. Last week was President Didier. He gave a really nice devotional.
... [here there were personal notes to Katie and Elise in response to their letters, which I'll leave out] ...
So I learned a really cool knot for my tie that I'll either send you a picture of or you can see it in two years (is the anticipation killing you?)
Everything is going pretty well. I love you all! Hope Mom and Katie are feeling better by now (I'd be rather concerned if they weren't... yikes!). Talk to you all soon!
Elder McGregor

Week 3.1

Wow, he really meant it when he said he'd 'finish the rest later.' I guess they split up their internet time today because we just got THIS!!:

Finishing up our Q&A:

What do you do for money? Did you exchange the American cash?

-Yeah, when we first got here we exchanged $60 for Reais (pronounced hey-ice. singular is Real, pronounced hey-aw, and say the -aw part with your nose clogged. beautiful, no?). The sign for Reais is R$.

What!? Your comp buys candy and not you? But you help eat it? ha ha Do they have some good candy down there?

-Yeah, I'm largely candy-less. I try not to spend too much money--I'll need it for internet and sending letters, which turns out to be a little costly. Not overly bad though.

What have you seen in your city exploration? Museums, or you just walk around or what? Do you take buses or just walk?

-He didn't answer this, but did say this:

-I see lots and lots of REALLY short people. Like, maybe 4 feet tall? Brazilians are small =]

If I'm looking at the front of the CTM from the street, is it to the left or the right of the skinny track? (we're looking at Google maps.) [see the picture two posts below]

-CTM's on the south side of the road. Big building, looks like y-wing (from the top) from star wars if you use your imagination, haha.

Have fun with your pday today!!
Mum
Love love! I sent some pictures in the mail to you guys today--5, I think. Hopefully they get there soon-ish. Which should be like, 2 weeks, apparently? Oh well.
Love!
Elder McGregor

Hooray!

Week 3

I'm so bummed! I took our car in for service at 8:15 this morning and was back by 8:50; jumped on the computer to see if Trent was on yet and he was already done. What??? Last week he was on til noon our time and until 10:30 the first week. Sigh. Oh well. Here's the little bit we got this week:

This is another back and forth over two weeks between me and Trent:

- - - - - - - - - - -

Just fyi -
Dad and I sent snail mail on Monday. Next week let us know which day it arrived and then we'll know how long it takes. Love you -

Mom

It takes just about ten days to get here. So next Thursday. Which stinks, because I won´t be able to get it to you until the week after. Stupid p-day on wednesdays.

Ten days! wow! Okay, we'll re-think that. Would you rather we just email our letters?

both =]

You mean email and write separately like we've been doing? Or email and send the same letters?

Email and write separately. It's fun.

- - - - - - - - - - -

A 'cedilla' -- are double L's a 'y' sound or a 'zh' sound or what?

Double Ls sound like double Ls; the H makes a "y" sound; G makes a "zh" sound; and D at the beginning of a word, or a the the end of a word when followed by an "E" makes a "J" sound.

There are a lot of pronunciation rules, and all the brasileiros say I've got fantastic pronunciation. Thanks for teaching me so well! [I think he's referring to my Nazi-like insistence on pronouncing things correctly in Spanish so as to not sound like a Gringo].

- - - - - - - - - - -

This week's Q&A:

Do you get to go outside much?

-We go outside on p-days, and that's it. CTM's a little bit like a jail. I'll survive, though. Only 5 more weeks. We're almost halfway done here. Crazy!!

What do you do on p-day besides the temple and Mr. Cheney's cookies?

-On p-days we go to the post office and send snail mail, we go to the supermarket and buy candy to hold us through the week (and by we, I mean my companion and not me, haha), we explore the city within our boundaries (which are surprisingly large), stuff like that. We basically try to spend as much time outside as possible to tide us over =]

What do you do for exercise? Do you run on the track or do calisthenics in a gym or play ball or what (jumping jacks to a chant of the 12 apostles' names)?

-I either play basketball or volleyball during Gym. We do a couple laps on a small track to warm up, and then get down to business (and by business, I mean light friendly games of volleyball. No smashing allowed, haha)

I'll finish the rest later! Love you guys.
Elder McGregor

- - - - - - - - - - -

Darn it - that's it for this week. =[

CTM on Google map?

Check it out! Can you see the really narrow green track just left of center (north side of road) in the picture? The CTM is either the building on it's left or right. Aaaaaah - Google maps!

Okay, we found out the large white building(s) on the south side of the road (across street and west a bit from the track) is the CTM. That makes sense; it looks like a church-owned building with the green out front, etc.

Courtyard of the Sao Paulo CTM  

Sons

Just a little humorous exchange between E McGregor and his mom yesterday via email:

Hey Elder;
Weird question:
When you vacuumed the stairs with the Dyson you'd use the hose thingy and put a vacuum attachment on the end of it. Did the attachment have rotating bristles? I can't find that. Do you know where it is?
Thank you son -
Mum

No, it didn´t. Still works pretty well though. =]

Hmmmm. When I tried doing the stairs the attachment kept coming off unless I held it on with my hand. I wasn't impressed ; )

You´ll just have to work on your vacuuming skills.
Missing my free labor yet? ;)
Love you!

Free labor ! ha!

Hey, Matt was saying to try cupuaçu juice You can get it by turning left as you go out of the CTM and just head all the way down to the corner on that same side of the street. There should be a juice stand there. He said that fruit is soooooo good. It was his favorite.

Love you !
Mom
ps - I just found that you can make that squiggly under the c by typing 'option c' and then 'c' again. xooxoo

I´ll try the juice! BTW, the ç is called a cedilla.
Love you!


ha ha ha - gotta love these boys. Free labor. It was his one chore besides skimming the pool Sheesh! =]

P-day email #2

This week was Trent answering some of the questions we emailed and then some disjointed emails back and forth about what to do with a box of shoes he left and things like that.

Here are the questions from Bryon, with Trent's answers;

Do you think they are feeding you lots of rice and beans so that once you've had your fill, they will put veggies on your plate and you will be overjoyed to eat them?

- I could eat rice and beans and only rice and beans every meal for two years and still be happy not eating vegetables. I think. I´ll just have to try it, no?

How are the desserts (besides Mr. Cheney's Cookies)?

- Every single dessert is made of some sort of gelatin. There are some good ones, there are some really bad ones. We had vanilla and chocolate pudding two days ago--that was a first, and a nice change of pace.

Any new and interesting foods that you've not had before?

- Most of the meat at the CTM is really dry, but we eat it anyway. It´s better than nothing, right?

How's the weather?
- Weather is great. Winter in São Paulo is like spring in CA. Perfect. Except it rained last p-day. That was kind of lame. It´s funny--all the brasileiros wear sweaters because they´re ´cold´. Hah.

What is your day like -- give us a description of what you do each day and when it differs, how? What do you do for exercise during gym time?

- I put my schedule in my letter I sent to you guys today, which should get there in about two weeks or something like that. I just got all your first letters two days ago. It takes about 10 days to get here.

Are you now into 'speak your language' mode?

- We actually speak português a lot less than I thought we would in the CTM. We do grammar lessons in class, and do some teaching, but that's about it.  Sad day.  Speaking all the time in português would really make a huge difference.  

When you went to the temple, do you have to use the headsets and listen in English or have your gone native?

- In the temple they play the english language over the speakers because the missionaries dominate the population of each session. We had about 60 elders in our session this morning.

How are the allergies -- you OK?

- My allergies are totally fine, actually. I´m a little surprised, I hope it will stay this way.

Love!

Hmmm, well we're looking forward to the snail mail he sent, as well as upcoming emails. Tchau!