Oi!

wow so i have to start off by saying i hate you morgan and whitney! half a mile from the beach you have no idea how jealous i am.. but it wont top my first apartment in blythe cause its gonna be SICK! so happy for you guys. youve worked harder than anyone i know so you guys deserve it. pray for you guys and the baby all the time glad to hear everything is well. except for byu football they need to step up their game i hear.

okay just to answer your questions, im not sure when im leaving the CTM but palavra no a rua (word on the street) is that im outa here october 31 or the week before! same day park leaves for the MTC. but thats not for sure. saturday is my half way mark its absolutely flying by in here its just crazy. you better belive ill do something rad for my half way mark like part my hair down the middle or tie a tie that comes down half way. ill think of something and send you guys a picture to make your day better by getting a good laugh. still love it in here. the language has really jumped this week and it is so fun! i never thought id like being such a nerd but i love it studying all day. too good, i still probably sound dumb to the  braseleitos but hey its cool beans. yes we do get to watch conference and i am soooo stoked! how awesome will that be?! watching conference as a missionary here. so fun i cant wait. plus itll be something diffefrent from the normal rutuine which will be super nice.

its actually raining here finally. longest stretch in sau paulo history that is hasnt rained. it was close to like 70 days without rain which is crazyness here. but it feels so good cause its super cold now so finally sleeping feels good.

Dad youll appreciate this. i got some ice cream and guess what flavor i got.. BANILHA! haha when the person asked me in portuguese what i wanted and i said vanilla then he pronounced it exactly how that one guy did for you. i started laughing and the guy couldnt figure out what i was laughing at so i told him it was a brinkadera (joke) but i was cracking up. your the best. and on top of that there was an air show here which was so sick! theres an air base like 2 blocks away so all day we were just getting buzzed with plains and helicopters your woulda been in heaven.

youll be happy to hear im not okay with the idea of me getting small yet, so ive been doing ghetto workouts like curls with my suitcase and all that good stuff. i feel like such a meathead when my brasilian room mates are just watching me. too funny but its been great. plus me and a couple studs have been doing that P90X ab ripper workout. haha i did it last night and i could barely sit up out of my bed this morning it felt so good. im still around 200 and i promise im not getting fatter so im stoked. and if i am and you can tell in my pictures that i am, dont tell me haha you can just all laugh at me but i dont wanna know if im getting fat.

i brought the chair handstand i learned from president vidmar to the CTM. i can do a handstand for as long as i want on a chair, its hard to describe but ya thats whats up. its just like the pillow spinning talent.. pointless but awesome.

my friend i met here who played volleyball at byu just left. such a bummer so now my vball partner is gone. we were having a blast. quicksets and all that fun stuff it was too great. it felt so good to finally have a competitive game the other day we had like all the studs on one court playing and it was awesome. im tryuing to turn my sport competitivness into being a competitive nerd trying to be the best at portuguese. mom youve taught me well!

yesterday we played a whole game of volleyball and they didnt score one point. i aced them litterally every point of the while game i felt so good about myself but then realized i was at the CTM so i couldnt get too stoked. but i just wanted to celebrate!

so one of my teacher ill tell you about is imrao israel. hes the man. he's 5'1 and hilarious ill send a pic home. haha hes so great. he got converted by watching the mormon episode from south park. then he called the missionaries and the rest is history. hes like the cutest person ever as weird as that sounds. such a stud he speaks like 5 languages and is learning finiish now for fun.. who does that?! but he literally gets 3 hours of sleep every night so when were teaching him sometimes in like 2 seconds or like mid reading a scripture hell just fall asleep. its so funny.

Elder Taylor with Irmo Israel

Elder Taylor with his other CTM teacher

this week in TRC (morgan you know all about that) we taught a "real" investigator. usually we teach like kids in the ctm who are about to leave but this week we taught members from the church by. It was so SWEET! it felt so real and we nailed the lesson, thanks to the gift of tounges and all that good stuff. it was so fun to think we just nailed a lesson in portuguese after only being here for not even 4 weeks. coolest thing ever to see. but that just got me soo excited to go teach real people and find them. im that much more motivated to go work hard in the classroom now to be the absolute best that i can.

this church is so perfect. i just cant stress that enough, everything about it is just the absolute best. it makes you so happy. God loves us so much and wants us to succeed. you really can feel his love for you in here.

anyways my time is all up but yea i love you guys a tun! i feel your prayers all the time and when i think my brain is fried and cant study or learn anymore that day i just think about you and all the people supporting me and i can learn that much more.

The book is blue... The Church is true!

ate mais, Elder Spencer

Tudo Bom

Tudo Bom familia!

you asked last week how to say hi and there you go! its like an all purpose statement that works for just about anything. if someone rips some portuguese to you and you have no clue what they said, just throw out a tudo bom and smile and then walk away haha. it happens a lot here.

 

so yea i dont know what everyone says when they say the food here is bad! its so good i pork out everyday but hey, im a Taylor so i love food. just yesterday was the first meal where i wasnt 100 percent satisfied with what i ate. word on the street is that its just a chopped up pig (everything) and just tossed in a pot and let it brew. its sketchy every bite your not sure what your gonna get. a kid in my district got an eye ball in it haha it really just doesnt taste good, but mom youd be proud of me because i didnt eat it!  but other that that ive loved everything. it was national chile day the other day and they hooked it up here! im talking about ice cream and just awesome meats. last pday i went to a choascaria which is like a real tucanos.. holy cow! and it was only 10 bucks, i couldnt even move the rest of the day it was awesome. everyone here is so nice though its so great.

 

soo crazy austin is home!! im so excited for you guys to get to see and talk all about his mission with him, hes a stud im bummed i couldnt see him. all i can say is ryan pick his brain about any questions you have because hes somewhat fresh off the mission and might know what hes talking about. it really sounded like he just loved the people there and thats the key. weird to think were on complete opposite spectrems as far as the mission goes.

 

okay, so cool. devotional the other day President and Sister Ferrin (unreal tedd ferrin on the lacrosse team) spoke! they are mission presidents of the Sou paulo leste mission! talked to them and that was so fun, but whats even cooler is that theyre wil's mission presidents! i was talking to them all about wil (Wil Bangerter is a family friend that used to live on our street). please share this with susan but they were absolutely in love with wil. they said if they could have 10 missionaries like him they wouldnt need the other 150 missionaries in the mission. they were praiseing him so he is absolutely killing it.

ps maybe in the near future you guys could send some deodorant to my mish because word on the street is the deodorant here is awefull and doesnt even work. so ill talk more about that with you guys when im close to running out. but there hasnt been a day go by without getting compliments on my gravatas (ties) everyone loves them people want to trade all the time but i just cant do it. i love them too much.

we got new brasileiro's in our room and one of them absolutely hates taylor swift.. first of all how is that even possible, but untill he likes it I corner him in my room everynight and belt a T Swift song to him from the bottom of my heart. its for sure growing on him though. he loves me.

gosh so im sorry if my emails are getting more and more boring but the CTM just kinda goes on repeat everyweek so i dont have too much juice to tell you guys, but just know that everyday is awesome and i love it. the people, the spirit, the language, food, everything.

so my portuguese is getting so much better! i can pretty much say whatever i think, i probably sound so dumb while im saying it but hey you gotta start somewhere right!? so glad to hear im in your prayers for the gift of tounges and everything else, you guys know i need all the help i can get haha so i appreciate it big time.

we go to the temple every pday here just like morgan said. its about an hour away on a bus, which the whole time your just praying you dont die because its so crazy driving here it looks so fun. but yea we get there nice and early and have a special session in enlgish which is rad. that temple is beautiful, just like every other temple accross the mundo. but this time was so great. so about 5 minutes till the film was gonna end, the power went out. it was absolutely pitch black like absolutely no lights. because of the fantastic tours from grandma and grandpa i know that there is double of everything here so if it was just like a genorator or something i was just waiting for things to turn back on but they didnt. we wound up in there just absolutely pitch black for about 30 minutes untill we wound up having to just go change back into our clothes, in the dark. there wasnt a single light on in the temple. i wanted to see so bad the celestrial room just to see if it was lit up at all or anything. so while everyone was changing i felt my way to the celestrial room and what do you know.. it was lit up. it was the coolest thing to see, just everything was as dark as it can get but the celestrial room was lit up, no clue how wheter it was the sun or lights or something else, but the only thing inside the whole temple with light was the celestrial room. just thinking about it is so rad, how light will always be there and how the world might be dark and whatever, but just always know we have this to look forward to if we just keep his commandments is so cool. such a cool experience.

i have to go but i love you guys a tun! thanks for every prayer and everything i feel them all. you guys are the best family ever

Love Elder Taylor!

From "Your Favorite Son".

Mail is gold here and I love getting mail in the mail box. Hearing from you guys makes me feel awesome and I feel so popular so keep them coming! Shout out to Ryan Taylor with the first letter I got, what a stud. Everyone who wrote me is now written back so be excited. I have no clue how long it takes to get there--I wanna say like two weeks-ish.

Answers to your questions...

I absolutely love my district--they are some of the coolest people ever. Half of them are kids I would never hang out with normally just because we have different tastes but I have an absolute blast with them. They're all so great. We have 9 elders and 3 sisters. It's a bigger branch which makes it harder for the teachers to teach and stuff but I'll take it. They're so awesome. Prob my best friend is a kid from Salt Lake--his name is Elder Spencer (figures he's so rad with such a cool name). He looks exactly like Kipp and that's who he reminds me of. President Sugiyama (branch president) is hilarious and I absolutely love him. It's such a great time here. The food is freaking awesome... it's like a 5 start Chuck-A-Rama everyday. I'm losing some weight and it's not cool! Haha. Luke: when you said you were gonna be bigger than me in every way, it might just be coming true... (pause) NOT! Haha. I'm growing like a week height wise. I'm already like 6'3. Okay maybe I can't lie because I'm a missionary but I like to think I'm growing just a little bit. I'll pull my pants up a little when I look in the mirror so it makes them too short on my legs so it looks like my pants are too short. It's just a daily confidence booster I have to do cause I got the short gene in the family. My comp (Elder Simpson) is from Washington and he is awesome.

So my black eye is basically all gone and I kinda miss it. It was the best black eye I've ever had. I felt so tough it was great. So yea the dude who hit my eye never even appologized to me which is kinda lame but hey it's okay. He was probably just mad I was dropping threes in his face. Haha. I didn't even get mad. I just Mathew 5'd him and turned my other cheek and would have let him hit my other eye.

I think ill be sending some pictures out today so look forward to them! nothing too exciting but itll give you a little taste and mental picture of whats going on in this wonderfull place called Brasil (SEE PICTURES BELOW).

I've brought the straight face competitions to the CTM... Irma Matos, one of my teachers, always beats me. But it doesn't compare to your's mom so don't worry.

So the CTM is wonderful. It really is what you make it. If you wanna be a bum and not have fun, it's easy. If you wanna have a blast while your here it's easy too. And you guys know me well enough to know that I love to turn anything into some fun.

It is so awesome here. 

I would just like to bear my testimony to you guys that this church is so true. If we live worthily of the Holy Ghost and look out for his promptings we can know the truth of all things. How cool is that. And the atonement... It is just mind blowing to think about how our Savior atoned for all of our sins just so we could return with Heavenly Father again. I love it. Everything is so true. I can pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese already so obviously the gift of tounges is real. It's such a cool thing. If we put in our best, Heavenly Father will always make up the rest.  You guys are the best examples and missionaries ever so keep on that. I think about you guys all the time but I love it here more and more. I can't wait to be out in the field bringing happiness to everyone I see through the simple but so awesome message of the gospel.

Love Elder Spencer Taylor

The Black Eye...

Evidence of the swollen eye that he could not ice because he could not get the steri-strips wet!

Elder Taylor's friend from Cape Verde who is sporting his soccer gear.

Mixture of native Brasilians and Elders in his District.

Elder Taylor's view from his room at the CTM.

"My Brasilians! The ones on the end are unreal--one weighs 120lbs and the other 110lbs. The one on the left is the one I call Elder Eskelitor. They are the #1 way to learn Portuguese."

"They needed a flexing picture... They're the best."

(To see a larger view of the pictures, please click on it and a new window will pop up for you!)

Tuesday Teaser.

FUN FACTS from Elder Taylor.
1. There are more private helicopters here than any other place in the world.
2. Joao Pessoa: I 've heard/seen nothing but awesome things. So stoked.
3. Two of my favorite Brazilians here are Elder Vestia and Elder Bisbo. Vestia weighs 110 lbs and is short. Bisbo is probably 5' 10" and only 120 lbs. I call him Elder Eskelito (Nacho Libre reference). Brazilians have seen that movie and thins his nickname is unreal funny.
4. I am a star choir bass singer. I'm going to come back an awesome singer just for you dad when you said I can't hit a note and can't sing! I'll prove you wrong.
5. Irmo Israel, my favorite teacher, served in Joao Pessoa.
6. I'm already craving Tapatio and Sweet & Sour sauce.
7. Preach My Gospel is absolute GOLD. I just want to read/study it all day.
8. Language is fun, super challenging. Morgan, I've gained crazy respect point for you and having to learn freaking Chinese. You're the man.
9. Mom: I love to study with flash cards but hate to make them. Wish you were here to make them just like when I was a little Chancho look-a-like.

Elder Taylor (back right) pictured with the other missionaries that entered the Brasil MTC on 29 August 2012 and with the MTC presidents, President and  Sister Degn.

(Part of a hand-written letter on 5 September 2012).

First Letter from Brasil MTC

So i love you guys so much and miss all you guys a tun but it is absolutely amazing here! the spirit, the people, my friends, the food, the city.. everything is just awesome. i have so much to tell you guys.  the first 3 days were the absolute longest days of my life. between the plane ride, no sleep, new culture, time difference, the language, 16 hour work days. just absolutely exhausted and i couldnt even tell what day it was haha it was like that for all 11 of us in our district. but once sunday hit everything is just great. it already feels like this is all i have been doing in my life. 

so the flight to salt lake.. piece of cake, and it was so fun to see uncle mike i love him. i met up with two other missionaries, one sister and one elder. flew to Dalas which gosh that place is huge you werent kidding whitney. met up with like 4 other ones. ate MCDONALDS as my last american meal before loading up on the plane. couldnt have asked for a better way to go out haha im talkin like a 3/1 ratio with sweet and sour sauce to an item it was awesome.

the flight to brazil was the longest thing ever but i slept pretty good and my back held up great! when we landed there we did customs and all that good stuff then some cute little old lady who couldnt speak english just waved for us to follow her so we did and we met up with other people. then the drive here was absolutely crazy. haha its seriously like if theres a 10 foot gap and a 10 foot car is by it theyll cut into it. its like bumper cars i totally understand why i will never be driving here. remember how i used to say the more agressive you drive the better...i take it back! so drive like a grandma luke its cool beans.

first thing when we got here we got assigned companions, i got elder simpson whos going to my mission. hes 6 4 like 290 so i guess hes a big boy. us togetrher just weigh more than everyone else here in the CTM. (center for training missionaries or something good like that) the brazilian people are always joking about us being super scary. but my companhiero is wonderful we have a great time. got some studs in our district who i absolutely love. its so cool cause people i usually wouldnt hang out with at home are in my district and i love them all.  what a difference it makes when you just love everyone.

i cant find my soap but hey thats okay i found some someone left in the shower so that worked out perfect. what was i looking forward to all week?! excersice day. and boy was it great. played some basketball and let me tell you the spirit helps in all things luke youd be in trouble if you were playing me. i was 6-7 with 4 threes on our super ghetto courts (luke and remember i smoked you in pig in our last game so sit on that for two years sucka haha) until some elder was going to swat the ball away from another kid who was shooting, missed completely and smacked me in the face. i may be elder taylor now but im still spencer taylor. i now have a SWEEET black eye and a nice little cut over my eye haha just my luck right? so ya things still dont change. dont be worried momma its totally fine i just look like a hoodrat now so its awesome.

the people here are so nice its unreal. i absolutely love all the brazillian companions theyre seriously nuts and i love it. ill tell you more about them next week and hopefully send pictures of like my eye and the town and what not.

the CTM is surrounded by electric fences and security people.. so awesome. you know in the movie fast five where van diesel walks out of the favellas and says THIS IS BRAZIL (click on link to see what Elder Taylor is talking about...)! well thats what i keep waiting for to happen haha its seriously just ghetto around here but so cool.

the language is great i can mess with the brazillians enough to make some conversation, i am friends with all of them its like the best way to learn.

Well i love you guys all so much. i know this is where im supposed to be. this church is true.

such a simple and powerfull mesage. have faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end.. how easy are these steps?! if we do these we are promised to be lead on the straight and narrow to the celestrial kindom and eternal life. ah i love it i cant wait for two years of this. 

you guys study 2 nephi 31.. like verses 5-7 11,12 and 17-18. just somerthing to ponder about.

i love you guys so much always remember that. now a prayer goes by where i dont mention you guys, even when im praying in my broken portugues. ill talk to you all next week. 

love you all so much, i hope all of your wildest dreams come true...

love elder taylor

Elder Taylor sporting his black eye with his companion, Elder Simpson to the right.