Aug. 26 2013

Hey happy birthday to you best sister ever. Hey sorry I forgot to tell you but yeah the plan is that I’m still going to go to Brazil and this is just temp. When I mean temp it can be 5 more months. However I think that I have heard that if I don't get my visa in like a year they will probably just keep me here.

However things are pretty cool here most of the time. I am defiantly getting a little bit of culture over hear. I just got my hair cut by a Dominican guy. It doesn't look like I usually wear it so I will probably fix it up a little tonight. I also went to a bodega or a corner type convenience store run by Dominicans.

I got your Birthday present there and if things work out you will get it this week. The work here is going. Some days are quicker than others. Yesterday I taught a lesson in Spanish to a super catholic guy with a weird accent it was kind of weird cool and funny all at the same time. Like when he pulled out this card thing with all these prayers that they recite in their country. Also we asked him about prayer and I was telling him why we pray and why it is important and my companion challenged him to pray with us without using a card or a recited prayer. So he started to explain it while we were kneeling and he said something like we say what we are grateful for and this old Dominican guy started praying and extended his arms and said the things he was grateful for while he looked up towards heaven. And he would say some things and then kiss his hands and do a circle around his head with his hands while praying. It was a little different. And when we started with prayer my companion would day something and the guy would like repeat the words to himself out loud, super weird. 

  

We are always looking for new people to go teach and this last week we got a bunch of new investigators. And it kind of sucks sometimes they fall through or we go and they are not home it's a bummer. Well things are going good here and I like it a lot. I'm working on my Spanish and it is improving a little… I hope. And my companion and I are working hard. Oh happy anniversary too. I totally forgot until a day after it was over. 

The days fly by and I am almost always tired around here. Especially when we play soccer and basketball. We played basketball for our exercise one morning on this ghetto black top court in a park it was cool. And we try to play soccer every Saturday with investigators and people in the ward. My foot still hurts from being cleated and my calves are a little tired. Oh even though we are walking every day I have gained a little weight and I even work out every morning. Maybe I should fast more often for my visa and for our investigators.

Hey I love you a lot. Thanks for your emails there the best. I am a little disappointed in Cory he told me about going on this date with this beautiful girl from Lacey and he told me about it when I called from the Dallas airport and he never wrote me or told me about it. And it's been like 3 weeks. Hey I need to email some more people from my MTC District there really awesome and I miss them a lot. But not as much as you and Josh and Ellie. Tell Ellie I said hi and give Josh a big kiss for me 

Love Elder Tyler Richardson