Montes Carlos!

Dear family and friends,

So much has happened since I last emailed! I'll try to make this kind of brief so I have time to send pictures though.

The end of my time in the CTM was good! On Sunday we had a super spiritual testimony meeting. Everyone in my district bore testimonies and it was a great way to end my time there! I also got a haircut. I didn't mean to get it cut as short as I did, but thankfully my hair grows fast.

On Tuesday we flew to Belo Horizonte! It was about an hour flight. The guy that sat next to me was super nice. He let me practice teaching on him and I wrote mormon.org for him to visit and request missionaries where he lives!

President Fernandes met us at the airport! I love him. He lookd like he could be my age and serving a mission with me! He played ping-pong on the professional level which is sweet.

Tuesday night I got my area and companion assignment! I am in a city called Montes Claros and my trainer is Elder Vieira!! He's from Recife, Brasil and is an amazing teacher. He works hard, follows the rules, and is forcing me to learn português (he knows like 10 words in engligh), which is exactly what I wanted!

As for Montes Claros, it's a lot different than BH. First off, I love the name because I think of dad everytime I hear it haha! The overriding characteristic here is dust, which I'm slowly getting used to. But I swear, everything is so dusty here. Elder Vieira has been here for 3 months and says it's only rained twice in that time! So this city is kind of breaking my pre-conceptions of Brasil.

We are in Montes Claros 3rd Branch! There's actually two sets of elders in our branch and house. Our chapel is awesome. Probably the only building here that has air conditioning. Our house is built for one set of elders, so hopefully we find a new house this week. Our Zone Leaders are our other missionaries in the house though and it's nice to have them near! One of them is American and the other is Brazillian, but speaks English.

The missionary work has been great these past couple of days! Wednesday we spent all day on a bus, so my first real day in the field was Thursday. I like the field a lot better then the CTM! It's a lot more dificult, but a lot more rewarding as well. Yesterday, we had 3 investigators at church! It was so cool. Jaime, B, and Aliçandra. They are all amazing people! Jaime we met this week from contacting. He basically has the Bible memorized. Aliçandra is B's aunt, and we are teaching both of them. B is such a cool kid. His sister is the only member of the church in his family. He has a real desire to be baptised though! He's been coming to church for a while and hopefully we will finish teaching him this week!

The Português they taught me in the CTM was not the Português they speak here. The language has been pretty frustrating this week. But I guess that's to be expected for now. I'm praying for the Gift of Tongues and getting a little better and better each day so it's all good. I know this is where I need to be and the Lord is blessing me with what I need.

I hope all is well back home! I'm praying for you guys.

Elder Searle

Weekandahalfly steps: 124,327

Bites I've decided to stop counting because there's pretty much no mosquitos in this city.