Sunsets, togas and ties (email)

Yay pictures!Two pretty awesome sunsets,

and a picture of a couple people from my district and an awesome group of missionaries going to Belêm. From left to right: Elder Brown (with the brown blanket), Elder Jensen, Elder Fogg, Elder Sperry (my comp), Elder Stailey, me, Elder Mulvey (from my district). We had a "toga party" before they left.

Good fun. =]

Enjoy!
PS, I tried to take a picture of the new knot I learned for my tie, but it didn't turn out very well. I'll try again next week.

So I guess there's no questions this week? If there are, email me them, and I'll get on later and answer them =]

-Elder McGregor

P.S. The subject of really good burgers and fries came up in our district the other day, and one of the Elders was talking about how much better 5 Guys Burgers and Fries was than In 'n' Out. So there you go. Sounds like a pretty ok idea to me =] (Bry has been checking out 5 Guys to see if he and some other investors want to bring one to the Sacto area)

And, in an email a couple of minutes later:

I was actually able to adjust the brightness and contrast on the tie knot picture, so there you go--pretty sweet, huh?

And here I tweaked it a little more in iPhoto so you can hopefully see what he's talking about:

Letter dated 8 July '09

Note: Katie liked Trent's cell phone better, so when he left she put her sim card in his and then promptly got the phone wet.

Dear Family,
Katie, you're such a stinker. I take such good care of my stuff, you get your hands on it for two weeks and it's broken? I also laüghed at the ümlat in Sprüngli's name, especially the way Katie writes it because it looks like a düfüs-y smiley face. Good stuff.

Leese, "Thank you" is actually pretty fun to say - "obrigado" (oh-bree-GAH-doh). But everyone in the district says oh-brihg-uh-doo, just cuz it's fun. I think it's pretty in Rio - I havent been there yet [she asked him if it was]. I've written in my journal quite a bit, too. Thanks for the picture - it's great.

So my P-Day is on Wednesday, as you well know, but I didn't get your letter until Wednesday the 1st, so I'm onl now able to send you this letter on July 8th. Hopefully future letters will be able to arrive even one day earlier; that way I'll be able to get a letter back to you right away.

Então, eu achei que eu escivía um parte de minha carta em português, por suas felicidades. Mas, eu som falo - lo bem queondo eu digo sobre o evangelho. Entâo eu esou provavelmente faendo muitos errores. LOL (eu nãusei isso em português). Eu espera ue tudos coisas sejam juito bom á lar. Eu vocês ama, e eu oro para vocês cada noite.

Tudo bem con meu companhero. Eu falo (better than) ele faz. Ele fala bem, contudo. Ele som precisa practical mais.

Eu so grato pelo oportunidade de servir, e eu ano ensanando o evangelho.

So there you go. Portuguese. Crazy, huh? And the best part is I don't have to memorize any discussions. Wewt. We learn the points of each lesson (for instance: Lesson One has "God is our Loving Heavenly Father, God blesses families, God reveals his Gospel in every dispensation, Crhist's ministry, the Great Apostasy, the Restoration, The Book of Mormon and Pray to know the truth). For all three major lessons and teach the points that we feel would help the person the most. It's a pretty great system. And I can do it in Portuguese. How sweet is that?
Well, I love you all very much and hope all is well at home.

Love,
Elder Trenton McGregor

S.F.T !
Okay, I'll try using my rusty old Spanish to translate his Portuguese and we'll see how it goes --


So now I'll write part of my letter in Portuguese, for your happiness (to make you happy). then something about it sounding best when he talks about the Gospel and there are probably some mistakes. LOL ("I don't know how to say this in Portuguese") I hope everything is going well with you.  I love you guys and pray for you every night.

Everything is good with my companion. I'm not sure on the rest of this paragraph ... 


I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve and I love teaching the Gospel. 

Anyone speak Portuguese? Frank? Apologies, too, that I may not have typed his Portuguese correctly as he writes in all caps and I don't know if I'm seeing it how it really is.

Photos via Monday's snail mail

Most of the District

left to right TOP: Elders Wilson, Hatch, Mulvey, Eyring

BOTTOM: me, Sperry (companion), Johnson, Murdock

This is our view from out of our window on the 5th (American 6th) floor. Cool stuff.

35 Days, Rants, and Defenestration ... Email 8 July '09

Okay, Trent's email started out with some witty banter about his pictures and congrats to his cousin who is getting married and a reference to a list of his gifts/talents that we made and sent him as part of our Family Home Evening.

Hey,
I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures, and I'm glad the portraits turned out well, haha. They better for how much we paid for them, right? ;)
Parabéns to Cousin Benten. That's pretty exciting for him. Do we know his fiance?
I think learning português has removed some english words from my brain, or Katie is still using her Davis vocab without a leash ;) Convivial? Why.... thank you? (Mr Davis is a high school Honors English teacher they both had)

-Besides Elder Didier, who else has come to give your weekly devotionals?

Um, no one super important. Generally they're mission presidents or area presidents. But they all give good talks.

-Are you in the CTM for eight weeks? or When do you leave for Rio?

About 8 weeks, yeah. 61 days. Today is day 35, so we're over halfway. Good stuff =]

-When do we stop sending letters to the CTM?

Um, just send letters until I find out what my new address will be (which I have no idea when I figure that out), and they'll forward the letters to my mission home if I've already transferred. Yep.

and from Kelsey!:

-What is the hardest thing you’ve had to deal with on your mission so far? (learning the language, companion, jet lag, missionary schedule, etc.).

I'm not really sure what the hardest thing has been... my second teacher, Irmão Perrupato (PAY-hoo-PAH-too) likes to go on long rants about what kind of missionaries we need to be. Like over 20 minutes of him just talking. And when you think he's about to finish he goes right on into a new tangent. And he's really good at catching you as you begin to fall asleep and throws whiteboard makers at you. And you can't interrupt him to tell him to stop because... you can't. It just doesn't work like that, haha. So the hardest thing I can think of at the moment is trying not to drop off while he's ranting. So hard. [Note: Trent can fall asleep ANYtime ANYwhere!]

-What is your favorite part of being a missionary?

This went unanswered. Perhaps he didn't see it in the midst of all the others!

-What is one of the funniest things that has happened in the CTM?

Funniest thing? We have this inside joke in our class about "defenestration," which is throwing something out of a window. It came about when someone said one day, "I'm gonna throw something out the window," and Elder Jibson, who is 26 and has a masters in Piano Performance and 2 Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and something else, says, "You're going to defenestrate something?" And we all just kind of stared at him, and he says, "What? That's the act of throwing something out of a window." Good stuff.
So one day we were learning something exceptionally hard (imperfect subjunctive. ridiculous), when suddenly, Elder Murdock stands up next to me and says, "This is ridiculously hard." And he starts walking toward the pencil sharpener, which happens to be right next to the window, and about three people and me all said at the same time, "Whoa, are you going to defenestrate yourself?" We were crying. It might have been funny just because we were all so ridiculously tired, but funny nonetheless.
So whenever we're exceptionally frustrated, we yell something about defenestration. "I'm going to defenestrate this grammar book," or "Perrupato, you're about this close from being defenestrated."

-And finally: how do you focus for so many hours of class every day!?!?
How do we focus? Truth is, it actually goes by really quickly. It's pretty crazy. I don't have any problems with it at all

Kels asked what we do on p-days, and I thought you might like this little tid-bit of information:

We walk around. We've gone to a rodizio twice--the restaurant is called Rodizio Grill or Tucanos in the states, but here Rodizio is just the style of restaurant--they bring around food to you and you tell them if you want it. They've got pizza rodizio, meat rodizio, all kinds of stuff. It's way good. Like, you could pay 20 bucks per person in the states for that kind of food, and it 13 reais (hey-ICE) for lunch, which is about 7 dollars. Goooood stuff. =]

Love you guys!
Paz e amor,

Elder McGregor

Trenton's mission plaque

Once we got Trent's portraits we put one on his plaque the ward had made. It's now hanging with the other two elders' from our ward in the hall at church.

We finally got T's mission portraits ...

Aaaaaw - what a handsome elder! : )

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