Week Two

Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:15 AM

So to answer some of the questions: the food here is great, but the Brasileiros at the CTM say that it isn´t real Brasilian food, so I´m not sure what to think. We´re going to go out for lunch as a district on my birthday (which is a P-day, thank goodness) and try one of the restaurants in the boundaries of where we can go, so I guess I´ll find out then.

It´s really warm here, even though it´s winter in Brasil, but at times the wind can be really chilling. They say where I´m going is really really cold though, but it still rarely snows, so I know I´m safe. The water at the CTM is fine, but other places may not be. Curitiba´s supposed to be really clean, so I may not have to worry about that, either. I caught a cold from one of the missionaries in my district, but I´m almost over it, so it´s no big deal.

The language is going well, but right now I´m frustrated because I´m not learning as fast as I want to. I´ve only been here for 13 days, but I want to be fluent already! It´s going to be fine, I know, especially because I´m in so many of your prayers. I hope you know that you´re in mine, and that I´m having a great time here and staying safe.

Send me as many emails as you want, but know that my time´s limited and I might not be able to personally reply to each one. If you gave me your address, though, I´ll be sure to write; I promised myself I´d do that.

Love you all, and stay blessed.

Week One - Arriving at the CTM

Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 10:12 AM

Hi guys! I hope you´re all doing well. I´m here and safe in São Paulo, Brasil; tired but excited to get started with everything. This is my first P-day, so this is the first email that I get to send. Hopefully you guys got the email that the CTM president sent on Thursday; if not, I´m not dead and there´s no need to worry. We´re very safe here at the CTM, and it´s been fun so far, even though it is a lot of hard work.

My district has six missionaries in it, including myself: Elder Stevenson (my companion, who´s Brother and Sister Sansom´s grandson, or Justin´s sister-in-law´s brother), who´s really enthusiastic and already a great missionary, Elder Burright (from Wilsonville, Oregon), the district leader and a seriously solid guy spiritually, Elder Croskrey (from Spokane, WA), the missionary I left with who´s an awesome scriptorian, Elder Barry (Provo, Utah), the youngest out of all of us, but very knowledgable, and finally Elder Robinson (Springfield, Missouri), a guy with a great testimony who´s still a little nervous, I think. We´re getting along really well, and we´re all learning the language very well, also. We can all pray, bear our testimonies, and say the missionary purpose in Portuguese!

It´s been a great few days, and our teachers, Irmão Petente and Irma Camila, have a great desire for us to learn the language. They´re making sure we won´t be ineffective when we get into the field, and I´m really grateful for it. Being here has shown me already that God truly does love His children, and wants all of us to do what´s right, so that we can return to live with Him again, even if it doesn´t make sense to people, or at times people don´t support you. I appreciate all of the love that I know there is for me in the US, and hope that you remember me as I continue to learn and grow at the CTM.

Com amor,

Elder Eric Dohrman