Message from Braden-17 February 2010

Braden arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday morning and wrote us.  He said that they have a lot of American businesses and some American fast food places there, so his last name makes him pretty popular.  He wrote, 

Right as we were landing, we looked out the window and this city is amazing! It is enormous and so pretty! Never seen anything like it and I love the culture and the people here so much already! This CTM is a lot different than the Provo MTC and it is deserted! There are only like 200 missionaries here and half of them are from Brasil. We are heading out to Rio on the 26th of February, which is next Friday! I´m way excited!! Right when we got here we saw some Brasilian Elders and they just come up and give you hugs and stuff, it´s the greatest! Everyone loves me here because of my last name! I´m pretty famous and pretty popular around this place.. I´m glad I get to go to two cities here in Brasil. they are building a chapel here up the street and it is gorgeous! It is two stories and a cream building with the red ceramic shingles... The skyscrapers here are huge as well! It´s pretty funny, we sleep with the window open and the fan on and it´s nice because we are on the top floor. The fruit and the juice and the food here is so good cause it´s all fresh; I love it! I met up with all of our old district... We get to go to the Campinas Temple next week on our Preperation Day because the Sao Paulo Temple is closed for cleaning so I´m way excited for that! I hear it is beautiful! The houses are all kinds of different colors and they are all pretty small and cosy. All have gates, the cars are all really tiny, lots of motorcycles and scooters, and stuff like that. There is this building right outside our window that is orange and blue and it is the sweetest! The shops don´t really have doors, they are just open and you just say "hey" to everyone when you walk past them. Each store has different stuff too, it´s so sweet! The money here is amazing too, way colorful and pretty! I still have the same missionary companion which is awesome and we have a whole new district that is pretty cool! Won´t be with them for too long though. We are going to go out and look around and buy some stuff maybe. I´m excited! I still need to sleep off the jet lag, but that will come later. Love you all! Talk to you next week! The plane ride didn´t take too long cause I slept for like five hours, surprisingly! Anyway, talk to you soon! Tchau.