I'm in the "bible belt" of Brazil (Oct. 5th, 2015)

Hey, this week has been great...and extremely difficult. As I learn more of the language (I´m beginning to understand more, and even forget English words sometimes haha...) I´m beginning to understand more of the difficulties surrounding this area. more on that later though, first off! The food, I still can´t get over it, it´s delicious, and they have a ton of it here! Sometimes we have to buy food because a member won´t be able to make lunch for us that day, so they just give us the money for it, and we go down to this place called xaviers that´s one of those rotissiery meat cooking places, so good! and for 10 reais, about 2.50 in American dollars I can buy a bowl of food enough for lunch and dinner that day! Also, we always have lunch with a member, but half the time we have dinner from a member also. Two nights ago, we were returning a bowl to someone that had given it to us for dinner one night, and she gave us hot dogs! They were the best I´ve ever eaten. They were wrapped in lettuce with like spaghetti and some type of crunchy sweet root, and then the bun, so good. Anyway, I can´t leave a members house without eating like 3 plates, so much food, always. I really payed attention to the culture this week, or at least tried to. btw mom, no, there are like 10 Americans who arrived the same day as me, and then plenty in the mission, but there are more brazilians here then americans. Anyway, they are not so different from Americans but some differences are they all have walled in houses, with either barbed wire, electric fences, or broken glass on top. Also, they are very free I guess?? What I mean is that the guys never wear shirts, the women wear as least as possible, and I´ve seen like a million people making out in the streets in broad daylight. It´s a little awkward but that´s just how they do it around here. School is very different here, high school is more like college where you have classes at different times over the day, not just in one sitting. Other things are different, but in general you find the very same people here. One thing, which I found interesting about my calling here is that I´m kind of in a way in the bible belt of Brazil. There are a ton of different churches in this area and the people are very religious! It´s not like that everywhere my companion says, so i think it´s cool that it´s similar to where I used to live in that aspect. About my mission President, he´s amazing!! He actually leaves in like july of next year, so he´s been here a while, but when I first saw him, i had just got off the plane, and I had been barradged by Portuguese all down and to be honest I was not doing great. But, I looked through the door where people were waiting for those who had just got off the plane, and I saw a husband and wife in name tags with huge smiles on their faces!!!! Oh, it brightened my day so much. I haven´t had much time to really get to know them to well, but I know they are amazing people. Also, if you baptize a family, you get to have breakfast at their house, so a nice incentive there. They are such great people, and I really love them. So, working with members. There are kind of problems in this area from what I understand is that members won´t give out referrals to missionaries about their friends unless they live in their area. It´s really pretty sad, but we´ve been addressing these problems with the stake presidency who are really awesome people. We are really working to get the members involved. We have a great ward mission leader, the one I gave a blessing to, and he´s super excited for the work, always talking about it with us. btw, I participated in two more blessing this last week, and we actually have one scheduled for a sick member on Wednesday, it´s been so awesome! So, I have received so much help this week, I feel like my language has improved so much, and I receive so much help when teaching and talking to people. The gift of tongues is so real, and you don´t even notice, but I wouldn't be able to learn without it. For general conference I actually attended the 1st 2 sessions and priesthood in portuguese, but that was because they didn't have the key to the family history center. Anyway, I could understand quite a bit, but it made it difficult to get a whole lot from it, and the last two I watched in english. So blessed to hear from the prophet and apostles, and the new one´s will be great! Anyway, I´m taking the ponderize challenge, and I think everyone should! In Portuguese it´s called Ponderizar mixture of ponderar and memorizar. Hope all is well at home and love you guys!!!! I am always praying for yáll! Boa Sorte, Te Amo! Can you share my address please, I would love handwritten letters from anyone! Encouragement never hurt anyone... Elder Wyatt My Address Elder Caden Paul Wyatt Rua São Sebastião, 1003 Centro, Ribeirão Preto-SP 14015-040