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!)