Week #3: Contraband Items and Video Games

Elder Maynez lookin' good and enjoying a treat at Mr. Cheney's! 

day 20.  Almost a month.  We've only lost one person from our district.  We are all still going strong.  Satan is trying to discourage us with portuguese.  IT works 0% of the time, all the time.  I have a bowl of açai sitting next to me and i think its melting.... yup i was right. its melting.  

   

 so everything here goes by really slow.  Well days go by really slow but weeks go by really fast.  Make sense?  nope. not to me.  well portuguese is coming along.  Its weird though.  I speak fluent (by fluent i mean i don´t struggle a lot) in the ctm but as soon as i step out i become a babbling idiot.  Idk what the dealio is.  so i was smart to take notes durante esta semana da coisas que aconteou que eu quisse escrever sobre.  whoa... i promise i didnt use google translate for any of that.  lol.  Well here are my notes

~~everyone do yourself a favor and look up the "hino nacionale do Brazil".  we sing that er´fireside (so every sunday).  The thing that makes it even cooler is that our presidente da missão plays it on the piano.  he´s kinda old n feeble but as soon as he starts playing .... ya words cant describe.  seriously youtube that right now.  coolest thing eva!

~~I play my ukulele every night and everyone comes in my room and come and listen to me.  I love that i learned how to play.  Not gonna lie but i wouldnt be me without it.  jus sayn...

~~so the other day a guy got locked in his room.  idk how.  the door jammed or something.  anywhayyyys no one could get him out.... so the janitor.  freakn (sorry no other word would suffice) awesome super man just jumped up in the air and kicked the door with both feet.  It looked like a video game. UNREAL.  then the damsel in distress was saved.  hahah highlift of the year so far. 

~~so i have a contraband item (my uke) and one of my roommates has a radio... i can~t turn him in cuz he can turn me in. They know one direction and justin bieber.  The love bob marley and jason mraz.  Well they happened to have Gangnam style on his ipod.  He played it one night and then i got up and started dancing to it.  Thats when we knew that we were perfect roommates for each other lol 

.

   thats about everything.  You guys are all awesome.  The church is so true,  my testimony is so strong.  almost as strong as my biceps.  lol jk its waaaaay stronger than that.  well keep being good and making good decisions. Return with Honor.  #churchistrue

Week #2: To Teach Them Is My Real Call...

Week 2 down fo da count!  wow things fly when youre having fun.  Where to start with my adventures?  ok.... so i was cooking na... never mind.  ok so about the CTM.... on a scale of 1-10 ... I love the CTM.  So like a 10.  Everyone here is so cool.  We are all on the same team.  (whos on the Lords side... who who who who. hymn 260)  we all have the same preposito and we all are rocking the same name swag.  PS i feel weird speaking english.  so excuse any typos because im basically braziliero.  So much happens in one week and it all happens so fast so writing emails is hard.  its really hot right now.  I dont like wearing pants but ill do whatever it takes to serve the lord.   

    So im learning to become a missionary.  I love it.  Im learning to become a better teacher,.  I taught swim lessons over the summer so im a good teacher, but now im learning how to teach ppl sobre o evangelho de jesus cristo.  I have two investigators that I teach.  They are my portuguese teachers and they pretend to be investigators.  One is Fátima and the other is Irma.  Fátima is really nice but just not into religion... my comps (elder sly n elder mayo) have almost cracked her lol.   Irma on the other hand is impossible to teach.  She yawns and dozes off while we~re teaching and having her read scriptures. . . .what the what right: sei lá haha.....

     So I~ve got this joke i play on all the brazilians.  I ask them what does "sei lá" mean? they say, "it means i dont know"  Then im like what? you dont know?  dont you speak portuguese?  I keep that going for like 2 min then they get that im playing a joke on me and they love it.  Brazilians are funny ppl.  I blend right in.  except I dont speak portuguese.  If im having this much joy in my life right now just learnign how to serve I cant imagine the joy I will have affecting peoples lives.  Every morning I wake up I know I have another 16 hours to learn and prepare to become the missionary the Lord has called.  I want to make the Lord proud and have him remember why he called me to where he did.  I want to become the best I can be.  I wanna be the very best.  That no one ever was... to teach them is my real test to baptize them is my call.... i will travel across the land. searching far and wide.  each investigator to understand.  The spirit thats inside!!! pokemon! haha i hope some of u caught that and sang along with me.  I used the rest of my time to write that.  Wow...... i need to grow up.  put on my big boy pants and stop using pampers,. 

     Feel free to write me.  I am doing the best i can.  Be good and remember dont run with scissors

     Love Elder Elan Maynez

Pics from the Mission

Elder Maynez visted the Sao Paulo temple on Tuesday. 

Here he is with his district. 

And here he is on his p-day!

Write him ya'll. 

He'd love some letters from you guys/gals. 

Week #1

Dear Bubbs, 

  Im alive and i dont know how to use this keyboard.  All the punctuation is weird. . . . eh whatever.  Well Im ok and everything is good.  I feel like ive been here forever.  for forever. foeva. its not even been a week.  lame sauce.  but ya im learning so much.  they kind of throw you on the ground and expect you to start being a missionary.  it was hard especially with my district especially because they are all 19 yr old boys.  thats all i need to say.  well the mission president and his wife love me.  Maybe they are just nice to everyone. . . nahhhhh they love me.  Well today is my first pday and i went with my companions (im in a trio) to the grocery store and to all sorts of stores.  Im one of the best portuguese speakers in most of the ctm (minus the brazilians) but when we were out in the real world I didnt understand anything.

     I went to a store that had alot of really cool soccer shoes buuuuut i already have some.  The guys inside asked me to do some tricks with a soccer ball they had.  I did my stall and then put it on my neck and did some pushups... Oh ya we went to the Sao Paulo temple today.  IT was awesome.  It was cool because it was in english and i could understand something for once.  I love being here in the CTM because everyone here is on the same team.  They all have the same goal.  So theres really never any contention here unless we have idiots trying to start fights.  That still hasnt happened but im waiting for one.  Theres this one roommate situation where the american boy thinks hes the coolest thing since sliced cheese so he acts all cool.  HIs roommate is the Brazilian Juijitsu national champ.  My money is on the brazilian..  haha welll enough of that.

     The language is easy to understand in the ctm.  out in the real world tho... not so much.  I dont get it.  ITs ok tho.  My ears just need to hear it more.  My testimony is growing so much.  I study all day every day.  Its crazy.  I went from a bum on byu campus to doing something every minute from 6am-1030pm.  Its difficult but this is something where you can see the benefits right away.  I would describe my district, theres only 7 of us. 

Buuuuuuuuuut no one really stands out.  My two companions are elder mayo and elder sly.  Haha mayo and maynez. . . perfect combo.  HEs easy to get along with buuuuuut kinda creepy sometimes.  Its whatever. . . then theres sly.  hes cool.  We have our arguements pretty often because we have similar egos.  ITs ok.  Well live.

      My goodness im tired of sitting down.  I wanna just run around and be out in the sun buuuuut im too lazy to do that.  I do 100 pushups every morning and night.  My chest hurts. . .hehe the ppl here are really good at volleyball.  PS bubby i get your emails and I understand them hehe

     Love you guys so much

    CHurch is almost too true haha jk

       Satan sucks. . . imma do some damage to his plan

      chupa uvas hehe

    Be good... this email is shortish but my time is up and i have 23 seconds to send it.   OMG I feel LIKE IM DEFUSING A BOMB!!!!!   TCHAU

Elder Maynez' Address

Write Elder Maynez lots of letters yo.
Keep it classy.

Like this gentleman. 

Elder Alexander Maynez
Brazil Porto Alegre South Mission
Brazil Missionary Training Center
Rua Padre Antonio D Angelo, 121
Casa Verde 
02516-040 Sao Paulo- SP
Brazil 

He Made it to the MTC!

Elder Maynez successfully made it to the MTC!
Mom is happy.
We all miss him.

But look how happy he looks! :)

Brownie in the middle.

Elan is Leaving today!

This is Neltje, Elan's older sister, and I will be in charge of the ol' blog. 

Elan is leaving today!!!!

He was set apart last night, and we are all so excited to have him serve the Lord for two whole years!

We hope you continue to support him in his cause! 

He reports to the Brazil MTC, and he is beyond excited!