Hi family!! 

It´s great being able to email you all just a couple days after we skyped. That was so great!! I´m really grateful we didn´t have any problems with that. And it was so good to hear that you´re all doing well. 

Sorry if my English isn´t as good or if it all looks funky on the computer. I´m emailing from a LAN house. It´s like an Internet café where you pay like 5 reais for an hour and a half session. The Internet just got back up today after being out all afternoon. That´s why I´m emailing a little later than we normally would. Hope you haven´t been waiting all day at the computer.

Being in Brazil has been thee biggest change of lifestyle ever! Luckily I have an awesome and hilarious companion Elder B. to help me out. We´ve been working nonstop. Well, the only problem was that after a solid week of walking everywhere his toe got some infection. Lesson learned: that myth about wearing sandals in the shower is TRUE!! I´ll spare the details, but there was a lot of puss and skin. But it´s all good now. Elder B. has another appointment Thursday, and between now and then he has to wear Crocs to make sure his feet are ventilated. People normally stare at us anyways (and they have good reason to). Two Americans in white shirts and ties, one of which is wearing black Crocs! haha He calls them his ^fourth quarter shoes^.

The temple today was great!! Sao Paulo´s got a great little temple right smack in the city. Our session started at 9, but because traffic was so bad, we had to leave our apartment at 7. We barely made it in time because while traffic was backed up, we got out and speedwalked it all the rest of the way there. Walking around the Magic Kingdom for fastpasses was great practice. It was the first time I did a session completely in another language - it was so cool too!!! Super grateful for temples. 

After the temple we went shopping at Walmart (yup, they´ve got em here too) and at a cheaper supermarket, then we started for the LAN house. We´ve been waiting here for over an hour for the Internet. Here´s some of the things I bought: lunch meat, cheese, bread, milk (in boxes), orange juice, and Hershey´s chocolate. We´ve made a lot of bus trips this week, way more than missionaries normally use. So I´ve had to use some of my money for bus fare. 

On my first night here, the night Elder B. bought me a chocolate border pizza, we went shopping for some basic stuff I needed. I was looking for a plastic water bottle that I could carry around with me, and when I saw Elder B.  putting one in his basket, I did too. Later that night, when I took a drink, my throat started to burn and I ran to the sink and threw up. I looked at the bottle (and it looks exactly like a cheap little bottle) and I recognized one word: lava, which means wash. I DRANK DISH SOAP!!! Luckily I drank that before the pizza and not after. I´ll have to get a picture with it so you all can see. This place even puts laundry soap in water bottles!! Where am I? haha

And B, just to let you know, I´ve only got 1600 pushups left before I´m all caught up. Next Monday I´ll have it! Are you doing the challenge too?

Elder B.  and I are both learning a lot from each other, and we know we´re gonna keep seeing miracles in this area. We´re both not fluent, but it´s ok, because it makes us rely on the Lord all the time to speak and understand what our investigators need. I´m grateful for the gift of tongues, and it´s real!! The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, I can´t thank Him enough. I´m so grateful for my mission. I have grown and stretched a lot. I´m so grateful for my family - the gospel has blessed us so much. Skyping with you all was awesome! 

I know I didn´t have as much time as we did in California to Skype, but thank you Mom for being the best. I´m grateful you´re my mom. You have and continue to help me become the person I am and want to be. You´re a wonderful example of Christlike love. I probably didn´t say this a lot back home, but I love you a lot Mom. Thank you, I´m grateful that I will always be your son, and you´ll always be my mother.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. I´m thinking about each of you a lot. I´ll be sending letters soon. We can only write letters on P-day, so I´ll have one sent off next Monday for sure. 

Here´s my mission office´s address:

São Paulo West Mission

Rua: Eusebio De Souza

Bairro: Jardim Londrina   no 121

CEP: 05638100

São Paulo, Brazil

You can double-check online, but I´m pretty sure this is everything. 

Love you all a lot,

Elder Nissinen