hey momThat is so cool that john showed up at grandmas house. and i think its Joãn haha or something close to that. lots of people here are named after people in the bible. and it translates into john. but that is way cool he stopped by. now you see how it is for me here haha but the people from down there are the easy ones to understand haha and i can understand almost every thing they say now so that is good but the people from manaus on the other hand not so easy haha i have a real hard time understanding them because they are decendents from the indains here so its a different dialect. but i am leaning the other elders say i am doing pretty good so thats is refreshing to here haha. i can always tell the people not from here though haha and there arent to many in my area haha some of the members know i cant understant them very well so they taesr me a little haha it is fun. this one guy always razzes me haha he is way funny we get along really good. we had the baptism of Jhoyce this week it was great! she was glowing she was so excited. we are teaching this little boy named Paulo Victor and we will mark him for baptism this week. he i so excited about the church. he comes with his grandpa every week this week him and his little brothers came and sat with me during sacrament haha talk about a hand full haha i think they had every one of my hand out booklets out and all the stuff in my pocket on my shirt and my name tag haha thay like that. i am doing good though my stomache is back to normal now that first week i was struggling a bit haha but i am pretty much used to the food now. who ever said the food was bland here hadnt been to manaus haha it is way good! i like rice and beans haha me elder hansen haha bet you never would have thought that. the freit here is amazing we have a bannana tree right out our door like the branches grow and almost touch our door. ans yes they are a hundred times better than the ones there haha. something for dad all the trucks here are deisl! there are chevy s10 deisle trucks here and toyota taccomas and rangers all deisles with twin turbos its cool. all the motorcycles here are weak though haha but they are everwhere. mom you dont got to worry about me here it is just the amazon haha. last night i had to fight off a giant spider with our broom haha we were sitting in our house at nine thirty last night and in comes this spider bigger than my shoe haha it was nasty it wasnt like a trianchala it was like a giant black widdow haha i got a picture dont worry. but we are pretty safe here the people are way nice to us they always want to hear us speak english haha well mom and dad i got to go i will talk to next week love you!

hey momno that wasnt me haha i dont know elder stapley haha. my companions name is elder gallacher. but any ways haha things a pretty good here pretty hot and sweaty but good. it has been over a hundred the past two days with a hundred percent hunitidy so it has been a cooker haha no i am not grumpy though haha. our english lesson went well we taught the numbers and greetings haha it was nice not to be the only one struggling with a langauge. i under stand more every day and have a little more confidence to speak every day as well. the families we are teaching are great we are teaching this girl maned joyce and her husband renioso he is already batized but was inactive and we are batizing joyce this saturday so that is way cool. we had a kind of hard sitiation with the guy named cristinano. we met him while we were with the bishop and he was crying and he told us it was because his wife just left him so the bishop asked if he wanted help and he said yes so the bishop said we could help him so we marked an appointment with him. we went over there two nights later and caught him walking to his house so we walked with him and talked till we got to his house and he said we couldnt go in his house. we asked why and he said cuz i got lots of drugs in there so we sat out front his house with him and talked all about why he does drugs and he relizes that they are destroying his life and that is why his wife left him but he cant stop. so we left him with a book of mormon and a part to read to help him. we came back two days later and caught him leaving his house so we started walking with him and he said he had stoped but couldnt take it any more and he was going to buy drugs to kill himself right them so we asked if he wanted our help and he said no so i dont know how my companion knew what to say but he told him something like this.... god loves you cristiono and you are a very special person to him he will help you tonight. then he started crying a little and told us to leave. the next day we were in front of a members house and we saw him walking down the road he stoped and smiled and shook our hands and left so i was glad to see that. well mom i got to go but i think i am doing good with everything and i have everything i need mabe some candy we have been craving american candy but no chocolate haha love you mom talk to you next week

MOM DAD i am in MANAUS!!! how awesome is that! my flight was good it was way long but good! it was a twelve hour flight to sao paulo then a five hour flight to manaus. i lucked out there were four missionaries from sao paulo on my flight with me and three or them were from brazil so they could talk and help me get there. when we flew in i was thinkin where is manaus i thought it was a big city and then we landed in this tiny airport and got out and took buss thing with president (not a boat) ya they totaly built this city in the jungle! how awesome is that! i went to presidents house and they fed us lunch then took us to the mission home to get our suplies and our trainers/companion. my trainers name is Elder Galacher he is from arizona so i lucked out and got an american trainer. he is way cool he is way nice too he takes care of me real good. so you know how they say thats not the langauge i learned in the mtc well my mission that is really true. we went and taught the first lesson last night and didnt understand anything! i bore my testimony and the end though. i asked my trainer why i couldnt under stand and he told me manaus has a different dialect of protuguese then any where else in brazil! so i am relearning manaus portugues haha you shold see where i live it is nuts! picture those slums you see in the movies and thats it and i live in one of the nicer places. the place we taught last night was missing like half of a wall and was just crazy. i do have a shower but no hot water but you dont really need it here. it is hot but not to terribley bad they said it is really cool right now. we have got lots of rain but you pretty much cant feel yourself getting wet haha. today is my p day so we are going around the city. its is really nothing like a city except down town. i think it is pretty awesome. i have already eaten something nasty it was this shrimp flovored biscut thing and it tasted straight like butt! the lunch we were fed today was good though amazing rice chichen and really good beans. i am liking it here so far just hard to understand anyone and i am tryin to get used to the change. and mom you thought the taxis in newyork were bad you have no idea haha ther are pretty much no traffic laws here and people walking in the road like seriosly we brush people when they drive by them. it is pretty crazy. i cant wait to send you pictures! you are going to freak out haha. anyways we teach some more people tonight and we have a baptism this monday so that is way cool. friday i get to try to taech a group of brazilians enlglish so that will be interesting haha. ya know since i cant speak portugues haha but it will be good. i had this mango last night and it was awesone! o ya i forgot i watched the people at lunch today eat pe de frango or in english feet of the chicken haha. well mom and dad i have to run i think but i will talk to you next week i love you both tell everyone i made it safe and i love them. talk to you later.