Buses are a DEATH TRAP!

HEY!!! 

SO Handing out Books of Mormons was scary/awesome!! The buses here are a death trap!! They take turns going 40 KPH kilo per hour. And they are super crowded!!! But, we got off the bus and I swear it was like a dream come true!!! We were walking down this road with buildings on either side of us walking into this park in São Paulo and there was a band playing live music ( it sounded like it was from the 80´s)!!! So here is me and my district, first time outside the MTC and we are listening to some 80´s music as we walk toward our destination!!! AWESOME!! 

Handing out the Books was a little scary, but I handed out 3 and Elder Tew gave out 3. And the park we were in had about a 1000 people, all smoking some stuff if you catch my drift.... Then we moved to another part of the city and there was some gathering of indivduals, and what they were chanting was mildly scary!! But, all in all a very fun experience for the first time out!!! 

How do Mckay and Kenna like their teachers? Oh and next week I will send a little letter for Mckay and Mckenna, I got Mckay a For Strength of Youth in Portuguese and I got Mckenna some Young Women emblems in Portuguese that she can use in her scriptures!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! I sent you a letter in the mail so I don´t know how long it takes but there is a letter for you!!!  Yeah the first couple of weeks were hard, it still is very hard, but the language is coming along well. I see some of the other missionaries relaxing a little bit because we can talk and understand fine, but I have never been happy with fine. I´m really hitting the past tenses hard because I have a lot of stories I can tell to investigators and if I can get that down, things will be so much easier!!!! 

The schedule here has been killer, it is the same thing over and over and over and over it really starts to wear on you, but o campo (the field) is close and it makes me excited that in a few weeks i get to go proselitismo every single day!!! The language is super frustrating but, I knew it would be, I´m fighting through and learning. Prayers are much appreciated, and it is not like I can´t understand everyone. When I get into conversations I can hold my own and I can usually understand everything that is said, it just makes me mad that some words I don´t know and I can´t reply to everything like I would like to, but I know the time will come that this language will be easy!!

Ok, grandma bought 12 cookies and you bought milkshakes at Mr. Cheneys for MTC hump day for us! Thank you! LOL I have already gained 10 pounds here!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahaahaha

Well, like I have said in other e-mails, the schedule is very restrictive, I know I have not said much, but seriously I sit in a classroom all day.... So the field will be super nice!!!!

Love you Guys!!! Talk to you next week

Love Elder Burnside 

Campinas Temple with my district

Hotchie Dogies

This week was great, Portuguese is just getting better and better! I´ll be praying for Taylor and his surgery! Hahaha tell dad they eat Hotchie Dogies (Hot Dogs) here so he can just call it good there!!! And yes I ate hotchie dogies last week!!! I´m glad mckenna and Mckay are doing well! Yes, so we will just be handing out books of mormon! I´ll have to figure out how to say " Sehnor nos samos represetatives de Jesus Cristo, e nos queremos você um Livro De Mormon por você e sua Família!" Let´s hope I can say that fast lol! But send some prayers my way come Friday morning!!!  Ahhhh... nahh no running. I´ve been doing plyometrics and a few sprints but no one at the CTM likes to run .... so i´m kind stuck! Favorite meal .... EVERY WEDNESDAY IS PIZZA NIGHT AND HERE THEY MAKE THIS PIZZA WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE AND BANNANNAS AND OH MY GOSH I GAIN LIKE 5 PUONDS EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!! The weather is great! it stays in the 70´s and 80´s constantly! São Paulo won´t get to much hotter, it stays pretty mild all year round!

This week we got some new sister missionaries from Provo, and it was sad to see the frustration on their faces from not being able to speak Portuguese. The good thing was they had a room full of people who could connect with them! 

So today we went to Campinas Temple again, and I decided to go through the veil in Portuguese this time, and it was a really cool experiance, My sotaki ( accent) was pure Brazilian and I was able to pronounce everything perfectly!! Me and Elder Tew also blessed the sacrament in Portuguese and that was awesome as well!!!! Well, Mom I´m sending you a letter for your birthday today and it should be there in about 5-8 days!!!

Love you Guys have fun starting school!!!

Love Elder Burnside

I got a free cookie at Mr. Cheney's....but I dropped it in the street.

This happy picture must have been before he dropped his cookie.  This is Carson and his companion Elder Tew from Florida.

Wow......slow down professor!

Hey Family,

Well the Elder who called me Elder Texas has left, so no more hallway gunfights.  We get to go to the temple every Wednesday while in the CTM, so we went again today, but to a different temple that was just as cool!  It was the Campinas temple, in case you wanted to know.  This week has been Awesome!  That frisbee guy is actually my instructor.  When we were doing practice lessons, I pulled out a Book of Mormon and said "feliz annevarsario!" and gave him the frisbee.  He laughed and said "thank you".  So while at the temple I actually met President Dalton.  He is my mission president.  He is a second generation president.  I also got to meet and hear him speak on Sunday.  He is like 6 foot 7... He is super tall, but after his talk I know he is a great mission president.  This week we are getting 3 new missionaries from our district from Provo.  They will be shell shocked when they find out we don't speak English here.  Sunday was Brazilian Fathers day and I am sending a letter to dad.  Last week we ACTUALLY GOT TO GO OUTSIDE THE MTC!!  Brazil is kinda SCARY...lol!  It was awesome.  The part of the city I am in looks exactly like progresso, man I wish I could send you guys some pictures.  I got a free cookie at Mr. Cheneys for being a new missionary AND I dropped it in the street....it was very unfortunate! (go figure right) Just my luck.  After this email we get to leave the missionary farm, I have been looking forward to it this whole week.  The CTM is great.  Our instructors are great, until they get excited and start talking fast, then it is like "WOW SLOW DOWN PROFESSOR!"  This week has been good.  The CTM will get old, same schedule everyday, same times, same places.  I can't wait to get out of here and be out in the world...lol.  We had 2 brazilian roomates just leave for the field and they were the nicest guys ever.  We got to hear a devotional from President Neilson yesterday and it was amazing!  He talked about how the church was never just a Utah church and our purpose as missionaries.  It was very powerful, I took some notes, so in two years we cal all look at it and see if I have lived up to his expectations.

Love you guys,

Elder Burnside

Call me Elder Texas!!

Hey Family,

Portuguese is going awesome!  The gift of Tongues is real, only after a week I can pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese.  I can get by expressing most of my intentions in Portuguese, but still learning.  I went to the Sao Paulo Temple today and it is my favorite temple.  It was absolutely amazing!!!  The celestial room has stained glass pictures all over the place and it was just amazing.  The MTC is great, the food is really, really good and the people here are so loving.  They don't care that your Portuguese is absolutely dreadful. they love the fact that you are trying and smiling while doing so.  Funny story for you, there is an elder here from Brazil that only calls me Elder Texas and makes cowboy noises and sounds when he sees me.  We actually had a standoff and a gun draw in the middle of the hallway!  My companion is absolutely amazing!  We get along very well and if all my companions are like him, my mission will go by super, super fast.  Just so you know I have eaten beans and rice EVERY SINGLE DAY! It is actually pretty good!  Our Preparation day is today.  I am sending a letter in the mail with some other information and my testimony in Portuguese! I hope all is going well and I will talk to y'all next week. (I can't send pictures in the CTM, the computers won't let us upload anything so in 6 weeks prepare for a flood of pictures!)

Talk to you soon!

Elder Carson Burnside