4th email is here!!!

hey family
the holidays were awesome here. they gave us all of Christmas eve off so we got to just hang out and play sports all day. then later that night they let us watch a Christmas Carol from 1951 and the best part is that it was in english. cause we got to watch a muppets Christmas and it was in portuguese so we had no idea what was going on and it was terrible. that night was the best though. you should have seen the sky. they do not celebrate Christmas in sao paulo like they do in america. the sky was lit up for as far as you could see cause of the fireworks. at midnight they started lighting them off all over the city. were talkin random dudes just chillin in the streets with big fat fireworks that make the big explosions. basically missiles. so there was people lighting em all over the sky and at first glance we thought it was lightning or but we couldnt here anything cause it was so far away, then we realized that the same thing people were doing on our street they were doing all over the city. it looked like ww3 was going on. cause all you saw was one of the most massive cities in the world being lit up by fireworks. it was definitly a sight ill never forget. even though the mission rules say that youre supposed to be in bed by 1030 no one went to sleep. they even knew no one would. except one terd in my room who would not stop crying about all the noise we were making. we were like do you not realize ww3 is going on outside and its the sickest thing ever. i mean were only gonna be here once in our life might as well have fun while were here. the other day some kid said were here to save souls not make friends. he was also home schooled his whole life and has no friends so for him it works out. youd be suprised how uptight people can be except i dont know if this how they are or there under a lot of stress and breaking down. people here lose it real quick. and i dont understand cause this is by far the best thing ive ever done in my life and nothing will ever compare to this. ive learned more about myself in this last month alone then i have known my entire life. as a leader as a disciple of Jesus Christ as a person and as a man. my eyes have been opened to a whole new world around me that i never knew existed. not only physically but spiritually as well. weve had some good times though and the cultures still coming. one thing weve learnded is that you basically never call someone any kind of animal in this country. i called someone a dirty dog one time out here and my companion heard it and has used it ever since. honestly thats all he ever says or he says basketball jones all the time. anyways he called me a dirty cachorro which in portuguese means dirty dog and a lunch lady heard and she started laughing like it was the funniest thing on this planet. we had no idea why though. so when we asked our teacher about it he said cachorro means pimp or can also mean male prostitute in portuguese. now we know why she laughed so much. then he told us about all the slang in the language and started telling us about how when carnival comes up in febrero how crazy things really get. he straight up told us there will be tons of naked people in the street. he said scary naked people all over. we were all laughing then he said watch out for big groups of gang guys cause theyll beat you up and start grabbing your balls and possible moleste you. we stopped laughing real quick and then we were like seriously? he was like ya GAY guys (hes got a heavy accent) will travel in packs of 8 to 12 and they hate missionaries and will chase you down and beat the crap out of you and he told us straight up theyll rape you if they could. we started laughing so histerically. were talkin tears on elders faces because this is so ridiculous and he said especially around carnival time cause gays come out and party all the time and they absolutely hate missionaries so theyll just star beating you up. so one elder said i could take on 8 gay guys and our instructor said the gays guys here is brazil are not like your femmy gay guys in america. there big macho men here and they hate you so much. he said one time on his mission all the elders were supposed to meet at the church one night and one companionship showed up sweating really bad and when they asked them why they said a gang of gay guys started grabbing there balls and trying to touch them then tried to chase them down so he told us if we ever see gay people run away. i guess gay guys run the streets of brazil, who would have thought haha we got such a kick out of that though. we were laughing forever.
I'm sending a jersey to riley for his birthday too so make sure he gets it, im sending it today. i also dont know if you ever got my letter i sent or if i sent two i have no idea the days blend together so bad here.
This place is awesome though and i love how theres so much to do all the time. it really teaches you how much you can get done in a day. i really liked that little pizza gift thing you got me and so did my comp elder carrell or as the brazilians call him cahhell cause r is an h here and they call me bennettche cause thats just the way it goes so i dont try to correct them cause its there culture. side note some elder here knows how to do good workouts and has got me working out pretty good so im actually gainging weight cause they also feed me so well here. ive gained about five pounds so far so im weighing in at about 162. i know its still skinny but mark my words i will come back a big strong man.
Also, just something to leave you with, something that ive just picked up as im studying the language here. for Christmas we all had a little YANKEEEEE!!! SWAP!!!!! (read in micheal scotts voice) met that elder martinez guy here hes a pretty cool guy. hes got lil philly in his group though so hes a lucky man. woman dont come easy around here let me just say that so make sure that you tell every beautiful girl you see to write me cause elder petersen in my district gets a letter from a different girl every week and he just keeps going on and on so i need to shut this elder up. done made a bet with him who could recieve the most so please tell them to write. im desperate. haha i wrote in my weekly report that i miss woman and my branch president freaked out cause he thought i meant i wanted to be with woman. english isnt his native language so he misread it wrong. we also got elder costa to come to speak to us hes an area 70 and he spoke english spanish and portuguese fluently so he could talk to everyone in the crowd and translate for himself. it was amazing, someday i will speak spanish also after i learn portuguese. someday though. im getting to write a lot cause i am totally disregarding the rules and have been here for an hour. ya it happens. tell dakota to keep losing weight and that i love him too.thats awesome for dustin and ronni too! but seriously tell dakota i hmmmmm Weight loss! itll help him out so much out here.
Alma. in the book of mormon is a prophet whom you all know of that was a great missionary and was a great prophet. Joseph Smith was also a great prophet and and translated the book of mormon by the power of God. i say the power of God because there is no way on this earth that Joseph Smith, a man with a 3rd grade education could write such a testament of Christ on his own. in six months he writes a full 500 page book complete with hundreds of characters, dozens of prophets and as much wisdom as the soul could need. not possible. in todays world he would be considered an idiot. honestly though; a fully grown man with a 3rd grade education, thats as much as cambria, but with God he had all the knowledge in the world. he trusted in God and all imperfections he might have had God made whole. the book of mormon is also a record of the people that lived in the americas which is the native americans, incans or mayans or of the other people that lived here on this continent. brazilian portuguese is a mixture of french, spanish, original portuguese, and whatever language the natives in brazil spoke. i say that because Alma in brazilian portuguese means soul. its an acual word in there language. theres no way that Joseph Smith could have ever known that and theres no way he just got lucky and the very peoples ancestry record he was translating for just so happened to contain a word from there language. the Book of Mormon yet again proves itself to be true and always will be. if only the world could know of its message there would cease to be problems in this world, and everyone would feel of the joy that we feel everyday. thats why im here to bring others to Christ so they may know of his great plan for them on this earth. keep Christ in your hearts always. remember that you should always be sharing the gospel every chance you get cause i wish i did. i love all you guys and every time i write back i miss home, mainly my home none of you though, ya mainly just the couch and basketball but every once in a while i find myself missing you all also haha. love you so much. - Elder Bennett-