Week Sixteen

Sent: Wed 11/24/2010 7:51 AM



Hey everyone!

I hope you´re all enjoying the cold, because it´s anything but down in Brazil! My mission is the Brazil Curitiba mission, which is a part of the state of Paraná. The mission goes from the city of Guarapuava all the way to the beach, Paranagua. The biggest city in our mission is Curitiba, and it has about 1.6 million people. Right now, I´m serving in what´s called the Interiór, in a city called Prudentópolis.

There are a lot of European people that live in this area; some of you probably look more like Brasilians than they do! The people here are really kind, and almost always willing to talk to you. Lots of people will stop in the middle of the road just to talk for a few minutes!

The members here are really great, too. We´re just a branch down here, but they really are a family. Two of the sisters have 6 kids each, and sometimes Primary gets a little rowdy, but I´m sure that never happens there. We meet in a building that used to be a school, but we´re working hard to get a chapel built in the city. There´s lots of really cool places to put one, so hopefully we reach our goal soon.

The coolest part about this area is the Waterfalls. We have at least six in the area, and we get to go to one for a district activity soon, which I´m really excited for. I´ll try to send pictures when we go, it´s going to be great! I hope you´re all doing well, and that you know that this church is true. Keep saying your prayers and reading your scriptures and you´ll gain a strong testimony of that, too. Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Eric Dohrman











Hi Mom!

Holy Cow, things are so different there! I´m pretty sure people would flip out if there was any snow here. It´s been pretty hot this week, but the last couple days have had rain, which is nice. The only problem is that the rain tends to hang in the air, which makes it really hot and humid. I´m getting used to it, though; and who knows, I´ve only got three and a half (more or less) weeks left in the transfer and I could go anywhere! I´ll probably stick around here, though, because Elder Barbosa´s probably going to be zone leader and they´d like to have someone here who knows the area to help the couple missionaries get started. We found out they won´t get here until january, which is kind of a bummer, but they´re headed down next week to look at some places to live. They´re pretty experienced, but they´re really excited to work, so it´ll be good. And the sister served in Italy, which is sweet!

We haven´t planned anything for Thanksgiving because they don´t celebrate it here, and because we´ll be doing a division with the Zone leaders. Not a big deal though, I don´t really like eating a lot. All of the other Elders eat tons, but I haven´t really developed an incredibly large appetite. I´ve actually lost 7 kilos already, so we´ll see what happens. 1 Kilo is 2.2 pounds.




Love you!!!!!








Hi Dad!



Hope you´re doing great. Things are a little warmer down here, not sure exactly how warm because it´s all in Celsius and I never check because it´d just depress me. The photos Mom sent were nuts! That´s what we get for having a mild winter last year. Brasilians celebrate christmas kinda like us: They already have decorations up. I think the first day I saw it was November 5th. Not sure, but it was close to that. I´m excited because we have a mission conference the 16th of december, and it should be awesome! This transfer is only 5 weeks long, we found out, so the guys headed home can get there in time for Christmas. Other than that, nothing big. I met up with my CTM district in Curitiba friday, and they´re all doing really well! Speaking well, too. It was cool to see them.

As far as primary goes, we don´t have classes like valiant 8 and stuff, because we´re so small, so the nursery age kids, sunbeams and everybody else are all together. They wear a lot of the same clothes we do, but more shorts and dresses and stuff. Most of them wear flip flops, too, because some of our members don´t have a lot of money to buy strong sandals or tennis shoes. We sing the same songs and learn the same things, too. I´ll send a picture soon, I haven´t really found a good place to take a picture yet. I´m looking, though!



No we don´t have AC, only mansions here have air conditioning.. I don´t really think about speaking anymore until I make a mistake, but I still read the book of mormon in portuguese aloud to get better and lose my accent.

Love you tons!!!!

Love Eric