#4

Sorry, I am terrible with computers! Anyways! Yes I am the new district leader!! Pretty cool huh?! They change it up after a few weeks in the MTC so Jarivs was released and I am the new DL! I feel like so official now! So, that is pretty cool! Also, it snowed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you can probably tell from the pictures that I sent it snowed here and it was so fun! I have never seen it snow that much I was like freaking out! So that was also really really cool! I loved the snow so much! I also found out that it might snow in Porto Alegre and it is the only place in Brazil where it snows every once in a while! I am so excited, I taught TRC (which is when you teach native brazillians that are already members to practice) and they all said that Porto Alegre is beautiful and definately has the best food! Yay!!!! I am so sick of the food here... Seriously its either a burger or a salad so I go with the Salad!

But, still no visa yet, so i will get my reassignment next wednesday! I think they might let me call home when I get it, but that might be just a rumor! I just want to get out in the field and teach whether its in Brazil or not! My Portugues is getting a little better! Sometimes in my journal I will accidently write the Portugues words instead of the English words on accident! Carson! Parabem para beisbol! Isso e muito otimo!!!! Eu gosto as picturas! You rock buddy! I loved getting your letter! And that was a very good self portrait you drew on the back! Hahahah!

I hope Connors volleyball tournament went well! That is so exciting! It sounds like there is alot of cool things going on at the house! I miss you guys so much its ridiculous! So this Sunday is a general authority sacrament meeting so everybody is going to be meeting together with a general authority, porbabaly one of the apostles! Im so excited! I am going to use my district leadery powers and try to sign our district up to pass the sacrament so I might have the chance to pass to a general authority! We will see!

Also!!! I finished the Book of Mormon today! I started reading it from the beginning the first day of the MTC and I just finished today while I was at the temple! Oh my gosh, it was one of the most powerful experiences, ever. I finished it and like felt absolutely amazing I can't even describe the feeling! So cool! So now I am on to the New Testament and I'm going to try to finish that by the time I leave here!

We are starting new Progressing investigators (our teachers acting like investigators and never breaking character) and so I am excited for that! I can officaially teach a whole licao em Portugues without any notes or anything! Its pretty cool! Its funny becasue I can teach about almost any gospel lesson, but if I had to buy something at the store in Brazil I wouldn't know where to start! So, thats what i'm working on this week is non gospel talking! Its is going to be pretty fun!

I also love my district! We pulled an awesome prank on Elder Wilkinson yesterday! He always is worrying and talking about visas and so I walked in and said Elder Harris and Lydikson needed to go get theirs form the zone leaders and he was like flipping out!! Hahaha I love them.We know how to have fun, but we do a great job of working hard I think!

Anyways thats whats happening here! I hope everything is going well back home! Love you all!!!!

-Elder Hoopes

Elder Hoopes in the snow!

New haircut!

SNOWWW!

#3

Oi familia tudo bem?!

So today has been a great week here at the MTC! Its still just kinda the same ol routine with everything but its crazy that half of my time here is already gone! Only three more weeks and then i will get to Brazil (hopefully)!!!! Update with the whole visa thing, they had my whole district come into the travel office and sign a sheet for like a Provo police letter and an American indian letter thing or something, which I guess they just started requiring at the beginning of the year, which means they are processing it and the guy said they should be pretty close to done. The whole thing is ridiculous though, there was a missionary who put his visa in like Decemeber and he already has his, but nobody in my district has theirs. So I guess we just have to wait and see!

 Sorry I accidently just sent that part but I wasn't done! Um me and Jarvis are getting along very well! He is a great guy and I am super lucky! We ended up not getting new missionaries in our room last week (Hallelujah!) But other then that things are alright here! I am doing pretty well in Portuguese! I know all three past tenses and one of the future tenses! Im getting pretty good, but I need to work on my accent becasue I sound too Spanish. When I speak I sound like a mexican speaking Portuguese, but real Brazililan portuguese, at least my dialect, is super Italian/french sounding! Super cool! Two German missionaries were talking to us yesterday and not gonna lie, their language sounds so goofy! Potuguese sounds legit!!!

Im eating super healthy here too! Like salads and fruit everyday and then everyday I work out at the gym they have here! Its actually not too bad!

Nothing really is happening up here though, its like day after day of the same thing, but it works becasue I feel like I can speak Portuguese better then Spanish now! My biggest problem at the beginning was speaking Spanish words before I spoke the Portuguese ones, but now I speak Portuguese more and can barely remember Spanish! One thing that drives me nuts though is that in Spanish, "but" is "pero" but in Portuguese its "mas" and so when I am teaching our fake investigators I always say "pero" and they always give me a weird look... But I am picking it up surprisingly fast! In spanish I never could understand past tenses, but I picked them up so fast here! Its pretty cool!

But anywasy I miss all of you guys! Im so jealous that you went to Puerto Rico! It sounds like you guys had alot of fun! Brazil is still cooler... How's taco doing? And Scout? I miss those pooches so much! Im so excited for the day I come home and Taco goes nuts!!!! I miss all of you guys but what Im doing is the right thing! Also, Connor!!! MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE MASTERY! All my district things I'm so smart with the scriptures becasue I know all of them. It helps SO much! So take it seriosly in Seminary!

Yeah but I just got my haircut and about to go do laundry... Ah the joys of P-Day... I love you guys so much! Eu espero voces estao bem!

- Elder Hunter Hoopes!

"I was reading in the scriptures and when it said utter destruction... the cow picture came in my mind. Hahaha"

#2

Tudo Bem minha familia!

Hey guys! I hope you are all doing well! I miss you so much! So not much new happened this week, just learning Portuguese and reading the scriptures and whatnot! I am so excited to go to Brazil though! About the Visa, I dont know whether I will get reassigned or not. For a while almost every Brazillian missionary was getting reassigned, but one of the districts here just got theres and arent being reassinged! I guess its been a while since that happened! 

Thank you so so so so so so much for the package! It made me so happy to see all the stuff you guys sent me! That is so funny about Scout eating my Jerky... that rascal1 And where did you get that autograph of Mike Piazza?! That is so cool! That is so cool!

In Portuguese I just taught myself how to speak past tense, and now I feel like I can say so much! Its crazy how fast you pick up the language in the MTC! The only thing is my Spanish sometimes gets in the way of my Portuguese and so when  Im speaking ill use the Spanish grammer instead of Portuguses. its a little frustrating, but it isn't too bad!

I hope everything is going well back home! Joanthan, one of the missionaries you served with is a teacher here and I saw him the other day! I dont remember his name but it wasnt familiar so Im guessing he must have just been like in your room or something!

Tommorrow we get two new roomates in my room for a grand total of six, yeah that wont be too fun. Me and my companions who I love are going to play a trick on them though... We are going to take on different personas! Elder Fairchild is going to be like short tempered and have anger issues, Elder Wilkenson is going to be a clean freak, and Elder Jarvis is going to be a pushover district leader, and I am going to be gross and like leave my stuff everywhere and make messes for Elder Wilkonson to clean up! This is going to be so funny!

But the Spirirt is very strong up here, I love how easy it is to feel promptings while I'm up here. Last weak, Elder Auidokaitis of the seventy came to speak and he is actually from Porto Alegre! It was a great talk! There is another one tonight, but I dont know who is giving it! I understand what it means to be tired up here though. Seriously from 6:30 to 9:30 every second of the day is planned out and it is exhausting! But, I am working hard despite how hard the work is. I hope you guys are doing well, I really love hearing from you guys! I seriously get so excited when I get mail haha! Speaking of the Uncle Paul sent me a Dear Elder and it was so nice of him to think of me!

Anyways, thats how Im doin! Not much new but I hope you guys are all doing well back home! I miss you all so much but I know Im here for the right reason! I love you! And Jonathan, do you think you can get me Brendon's email so I can add him to the list? He asked if I could so he could keep my friends at Jamba updated! Thank you! P.S. Sorry my emails are all over the place and the typing is bad... the computers are timed and I have a hard time typing... Love you!

-Elder Hoopes

FIRST EMAIL!

Oi Tudo Bem!

Hello everybody! So this has been a crazy first week! But I love it so much up here1 So first of all my companion is Elder Jarvis, and he is a super awesome person! Me and him are actually super alike and its veryu cool! He is the district leader and I am the senior companion so thats fun! But i love everybody in my district and I am very blessed. The spirit is so strong up here I absolutely love it, even though I miss you guys. As far as Portuguese goes, I'm doing probably the best in my district. I know alot of Spanish so it helps in some areas but I actuall ycobnfuse myself to death with it. No muito bem. Its not hard necessarily, but I just know so much in Spanish that I get the small words mixed up. Like for example in spanish the is "el" and in Portuguese its "o". But its not to bad. I actually can teach an entire lesson in Portuguese, pray, and bear my testimony in Portuguese. So cool! And Carson, the word for epic, is otimo, pronounced (oh-chee-mo)!!! OTIMO!!!!!!!!

I miss Taco alot... does he miss me? Please tell me that the Snout remembers me!!

Jonasthan your engagement pictures are so cool, I hope that everything is going well with the wedding. Im sad that I am missing it. I just went to the temple today and that was super awesome, and one of the best experiences in the MTC.

Oh! So every day we can go play basketball tor gym time and for some reason I am actually decent!!! They call me Elder Baller Hoopes! Haha! Im not the only missionary that didn't get there visa. Pretty much every single missionary that got called to Brazil didn't make it to the Sao Paulo MTC. So im not too sad about that!

I actually am loving the MTC. As many rules as there are, it is actually still alot of fun! I love my companions and my district and everything! As far as pictures go, I can't send them every time becasue you have to go on special computers to do that and so there was too big of a line to do that. Im sorry:( I will as much as I can though, and once I leave Ill probably be able to send them every P-day!

Um a few other things is I think I probably will need temple clothes, and in garments get like 36 waist and medium shirt, the mesh ones if you can. And the 50 50 for the bottoms. And no, I didnt pay for the retainers so I hope that clears things up momma.

So let me tell you about our "investigator" Jairo. He is like a BYU student that can speak Portuguesae and so he is an actor investigator. But he doenst ever break character. Anyways, Ive been here a week and yesterday we taught him for the third time and it was OTIMO!!!!!! I went in with noth but my scriptures and a few verbs and I taught an entire lesson on the Plano de Salvacao! (By the way de or di in portuguese is pronounced as a je sound. Very confusing!) So that was an amazing experience! I am getting pretty good though not gonna lie... But I really love hearing from all of you! One of the best parts of the day is mail time at 9:30 at night! I hope everything is going well down in ol AZ. I love you all!

Ciao!

-Elder Hoopes

New tie! :)

Elder Hoopes and his district!

Elder Hoopes and his companion, Elder Jarvis.