Brazil - April 6, 2011

Dear Family,

Well I tried to call you from the airport but something didn´t work. I could hear conner and Sams voices, but then when you tried to put in the card number it didnt work. Oh well. I made it here safely.

Ok, well i left monday at 1:45. There were 4 of us from Salt Lake, but lots of missionaries. We transferred in Atlanta, where we picked up a bunch of missionaries. It was kinda cool. One terminal had about a hundred soldiers, and ours had about forty missionaries. It was cool. Anyways, we were supposed to leave Atlanta at 9:30, but we had too much weight or something, so we burned of 2,500 gallons of fuel.... We all just sat on the plane for an extra 2 hours... It was great... But, we eventually left. We were fed dinner at 2 in the morning. It was like a 10 hour flight. Soooooo long! It was tough to sleep. Anyways, we landed in Sao Paulo about 11 oclock. so, i missed my next flight to Recife, so they rescheduled one at 5. So, i got to explore the airport a bit. It was weird being in a different country. We got off the plane, and we were behind these glass walls. Immigration and customs were a blast.... It was all just super different and definitely a new experience. Anyways, the flight to Recife was great. I finally got a window seat! Oh ya! We got to walk up those cool little stair things to the plane! It was very exciting. Then we landed in Recife about 8:30 at night. Got my bags, and walked out the doors and there was a little welcoming party! Sister Emerick, the mission presidents wife, and 3 other elders.

My companion is Elder Paiva.... (I hope i spelt that right) The other two were the AP´s. I found out that Elder Paiva was the AP before this. He was also the Executive Secretary, and now he´s a district leader. I get to learn from the best!

Oh man, Brazil is super different than the United States. First, I don't understand portuguese. I know i tried to learn it for 2 months, but i lost a lot of it during those 2 weeks. But, i´ll hopefully learn fast here. Second, it´s super hot here. Got off the plane at 8:30 at night, and it was about 90 degrees! Man, i was sweating when i walked off the plane. It´s tough to sleep because it´s super hot. No blankets, windows open, fan on high.... It´s just different. The sun sets and rises differently too. Didn't really think about that before. But the sun set probably around 7ish last night, and rose at like 5ish this morning. It´s like its a whole new country!

But, i´m super excited. I'm going to learn so much. I already have. This is going to be a great experience. I am so excited for this opportunity and will tell you more about life here in Recife on Monday. Love you all

Elder Tracy