First Email from Curitiba

"I am now in Curitiba and loving it."

In his email, Dallin reviewed his last days at the CTM and then his journey to Curitiba. He said it was really hard to stay focused when he was so excited to get to Curitiba but he did it.

"I got up at 4:30am yesterday to drop off my companion at the front desk and then at 5:30ma I checked in for my departure. I was the only one who was going to Curitiba so I pretty much got dropped off at the airport by this guy who doesn't speak English and was told to find my way through the airport. We only had about an hour to pack so I didn't check the weight on my bag and it ended up going over..."

"...Eventually my flight left, it was only about an hour so we were there in no time. My baggage got through with no problems and President Cordon met me at the airport. We then went to the mission office where I met my companion, Elder Brown. He is from Atlanta, and has been out here 11 months. He is super enthusiastic and we are going to work super hard together. After that, we went to the Curitiba temple and President Cordon took a picture of me and Elder Brown outside. After that, we went to the mission home where we ate with President and Sister Cordon and their family. I'm the first missionary they've received and they were pretty enthusiastic."

Dallin said that the mission home is actually on the 13th floor of an apartment building in downtown Curitiba. Apparently in all the cities there are apartment buildings with 15+ stories everywhere.

"Riding around Curitiba was cool, its very green and MUCH cleaner than São Paulo. Its also very chilly. Ive been wearing sweaters since I've got here, which beats São Paulo and me wishing for a pair of shorts."

"After lunch, President dropped us off at our apartment and told us to get to work. I'm in a place called Pilarzinho (little pillars). Its the very farthest part north of the actual city of Curitiba with our area going a little over into another town. It is VERY hilly- I'm going to start dropping weight way fast and I have a feeling I'm going to develop legs of steel quickly if I want to survive. There's a pretty well-off area and there's also a not-so-well off area so its pretty diverse. I've also already started to develop a hatred for dogs. They growl and bark and sometimes they follow you until you act like you're going to pick up a rock and throw it at them- that usually makes them scamper."

It sounds like the language is a little more difficult than originally thought:

"I understand maybe 60% of what everyone says so having a conversation is kind of difficult at times."

"I'm super excited to be here and I know its going to be hard work but I am super excited to be out there doing it. I know that this gospel is true and I love sharing it. I'm going to do great down here."

Finally in Curitiba!

Dallin is officially in Curitiba, Brazil. His mission president is brand new so Dallin was the first missionary they received. They did snap a photo with Dallin though...

In the email they sent to my parents, Brother and Sister Cordon said:

"We are thrilled to have your son arrive yesterday in the Brazil Curitiba Mission. He has been given one of the best missionaries, Elder Brown as his trainer.

Elder Marx will be serving in Pilarzinho area. The Lord has prepared many wonderful people for him to teach there. We love your son. He will be a great addition to the Lord's vineyard."

Also, here is Dallin's new address for those of you who would like to send him a letter:

Elder Dallin Scott Marx

Brazil Curitiba Mission

Caixa Postal 9501

Portao

80613-991 Curitiba - PR

Brazil

Just keep in mind it takes about 2 weeks for mail to arrive!

Last Week in the CTM in Brazil

"Life here is going great. Thanks for all the good emails, Ive been looking forward to them all week. Life here is CRAZY busy. If you haven't been counting, this is my last week here in São Paulo. On Tuesday I leave for the magical and mystical land of Curitiba (also, apparently it really does get cold there because every Brasileiro I've spoken to about Curitiba says its cold). Were spending most of our time prepping on getting ready to go now. You know, make sure you actually know how to talk to people, make sure you know what to do in the field..."

Dallin mentioned that he can't believe he has already been out for 2 months- time sure does fly! He doesn't know when his p-day will be when he gets sent to Curitiba (so that means we don't know when we will get emails from him!)

"I had been praying all week trying to be ready and actually understand what people say when they speak and it really helped me when we were out there. We placed all six of our LDMs (Livro de Mórmon) and we had a little time to spare so Irmão Zamboni, our instructor, took us on a tour of this huge old catholic church nearby. It was cool, but the priest wasn't too happy we were there. Oh well. It was really cool to get a taste of what its like to actually be a real missionary and actually go out and talk to people about the gospel. I'm so stoked (well, there's a healthy bit of nervousness thrown in there too) to go out and be a real missionary..."

Dallin says his Portuguese has come a long way and he feels like he can actually function in society and understand what is going on around him. He doesn't like socialized health care but he loves the Brazilian food!

"Oh, so for lunch, since this is our last P day, we went to a Rodizio. Think of Fogo de Cheio, but only 15 Reis (about 9 American dollars). It was AMAZING!!!! Dad, if you were trying to make me trunky by mentioning Texas Roadhouse, nice try but I've got better down here. For an hour there was this never ending wave of meat (and amazing isn't strong enough of a word). I LOVE Brasíl!!!!!!!!"

New Pictures

A senior missionary couple in Dallin's mission took some pictures of his district when they went to the temple this past week.

Here they are:

First Week in Brazil

Dallin has now been in Brazil for just over a week and he says he is "freaking loving it here". He had nice plane rides and even got to have 2 seats all to himself for the long flight to Brazil. He did mention that it was hard to stare at his shoes for the whole flight while everyone else was watching movies... way to be a trooper Dallin.

"Once we landed here in São Paulo we got picked up and started driving across the city to the CTM. However, as we were driving the van broke down in the far right lane of the freeway, and we don't have any shoulders on the roads here. The driver just hopped out and started working on the engine right there in the middle of the freeway! It was nuts!!! Cars were whizzing by us and I learned several rude Brazilian gestures, but we were just laughing our heads off. Eventually some random person in a truck took pity on us and pulled us over to the shoulder on the left side of there freeway. There we spent about an hour and a half just sitting on the side of the freeway while they tried to fix the van and coordinate someone else to come get us. It was awesome. Eventually we arrived at the CTM, where we met our president, President Clark. I also met our new district. They are all really sweet."

Dallin has nothing but good things to say about Brazil...

"The food consists of pretty much nothing but beef, chicken, rice, beans, fruit, and guarána. Yep, I love it here."

"I am in love with the brazileiros already, they are just so incredibly happy and enthusiastic about everything."

"But yeah life here is going great."

"...I am here in Brasil and I am doing amazing."

Dallin also had a really cool experience:

"We had a really cool experience this week though. We got here in São Paulo and Elder Ludlow (my new companion) and I had to handle this really difficult TRC scenario two days later while everyone else had been prepping for it all week. What happened was we had fifteen minutes to try to teach this family and after that we get pulled out and critiqued and then we tried again. Well the first time was just plain terrible. For some reason I couldn't speak any Português for the life of me and Elder Ludlow was the same. It was awful. Let's just say our professor who critiqued us had plenty to cover. Before we went back in we said a prayer and asked for help so we could speak the language and understand what was being said. When we got back in there, Elder Ludlow just took off with practically perfect Português. It was seriously amazing. It was seriously the gift of tongues and the spirit kicking in and we taught what we needed. Amazing. I just need that help 24/7 now..."

Sounds like Dallin is going to have some great experiences in Brazil. Enjoy it Bubba!

"I love you all and I am loving life. I love Brasíl and I love the gospel."

Finally there!

"We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC."

Dallin is officially in Brazil! My mom received an email from the mission president and his wife (President and Sister Clark) letting her know that he had arrived and was doing well. My mom also got to talk to Dallin on the phone while he was in Atlanta waiting to fly to Brazil. She said he sounds very grown up and is doing well. He is happy and was SO EXCITED to finally be going to Brazil. For those of you who want to send Dallin a letter, his new address is:

Elder Dallin Scott Marx

Brazil Curitiba Mission

Brazil Missionary Training Center

Rua Padre Antonio D'Angelo 121

Casa Verde

02516-040 Sao Paulo SP

Brazil

The mission home asked that we do not send any packages to the MTC. Letters are always wonderful and usually take about 2 weeks to get there.

(When Dallin leaves the MTC I will post the address of his mission home.)

And He's Off

Dallin will be flying to Atlanta in just a couple hours and then on to Brazil! We are so excited for him! Have so much fun Dallin!!!

I'm Going to BRAZIL!!!

"Ola familia! Como vai? Eu vou bem..."

Dallin thoroughly enjoyed the "top secret fireside" and got to hear a great talk from Elder Oaks. All counted there were 8 Apostles present for the fireside and Dallin loved the experience. He also got to meet his new mission presidents, the Cordons. Dallin described the experience as being "super good" with more details in a letter he sent home to the parents.

On Tuesday the 2 missionaries who got their visas were dropped off to fly to Brazil and when Dallin's district got back to the MTC he heard his name being paged over the intercom and was told to report to the travel office. Once there they told him that his visa was in and he was going to BRAZIL! He leaves tomorrow, July 6th and will fly to Atlanta and then on to Brazil. It will actually be the morning when Dallin lands in Brazil so he will be one tired boy.

"I am really super incredibly uber mega psycho stoked, to understate it."

Dallin says this past week has been a bit harder than usual as they have been trying to speak Portuguese constantly.

"We have trying to speak as much portuguese as possible and now I understand what dad means when he says "Helen Keller Days". We asked on of the teachers how we could best prepare for our lesson in Portuguese and he challenged us to a 72 hour fast from english. This was on wednesday @ 11. I'm in the middle of it still. Not. Very. Fun. Especially when everyone around me is speaking english. Oh well. However, we had a lesson with one of our progressing investigators a half hour into our English fast and so we had to give a lesson we hadn't prepared for in portuguese with a half hour prep time. Needless to say, we ferventely and desperately prayed as hard as we could and we were amazed that our lesson was a huge success. However, this really gave us a lot of confidence for our two 1st lessons in portu that we had prepared for the next day so we went in over confident and totally fell flat on our faces. Lesson: rely on the spirit and not on ourselves and we can succeed. Cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh."

One of Dallin's friends is heading into the MTC soon and he listed 3 things as good advice for him. Here they are:

1) don't trust the chicken (apparently Dallin doesn't like the chicken at the MTC)

2) pray hard, pray often

3) don't be afraid to ask lots of questions

"Well, this will be my last email from the Provo MTC. Thanks for all the dearlders and packages and everything else. I guess my flow of mail will start to slow, but that means I expect larger and longer letters. (Just kidding... well, kind of...) Thanks for everything. Love you guys."

1 Month Down... 23 To Go

"I can't believe I've been here from a month already.. That means I only have 23 more to go!! Time Flies!!! Life here is great, but starting to get repetitive, its the same things every day.. I'm not complaining though, I love it here.. Some extra spice and variety would be nice though..."

Dallin has officially been in the MTC for over a month! He is having a great time with his district and they are all rooting for the USA and Brazil to win the World Cup.

He mentioned a funny story in his weekly email about the "power of missionaries". One of Dallin's teachers is married and the other isn't. As his district was planning out their weekly goals they decided it would be funny to make one of their goals be: get the single teacher to be engaged. Apparently some of the missionaries prayed for this teacher to have success and get engaged. The next day the teacher saw the goal and laughed really hard because he and his lady-friend became "official". They have become completely head-over-heels for each other and are now "engaged-to-be-engaged" (whatever that means). Dallin said that he and his district now talk about the "power of missionaries" and that when they are all praying for the same cause, anything can be accomplished. Funny funny.

"...It struck me how much I've learned and grown these last 4 weeks.. It crazy, I mean I'm going to be teaching the first lesson this week IN PORTUGUES! How crazy is that? I am learning super fast.. Apparently my pronunciation is pretty good too, my teacher mentioned to me how he thinks its the best in the class.. Not bad for someone who used to only speak gutteral languages, speaking a romantic language, huh? (PS I came to the conclusion that Portuguese is far prettier than spanish, just saying)..."

At the MTC it has been "new mission president week" which means that all of the new mission presidents are at the MTC for some training and such. Dallin said that the entire first presidency has been there and at least 8 of the 12- very exciting. There will be a secret fireside by someone and it should be really good, so all of the missionaries are curious as to who will be speaking.

A couple of missionaries in Dallin's district got their visas. There district will be shrinking down to 9. Dallin is a little envious but he knows whatever happens will happen for a reason and he is staying positive. If per chance his visa were to come in, he would get 5 minutes to call home so he is excited about that as well.

"...Well I'm almost out of time but know that I love you all and I am having the time of my life here.. I seriously feel better and happier than I have in a really long time and I know that's because I'm putting all my time to serving the Lord..."