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.