I'm alive!

Elder Merrill has officially left for Brazil! He  was sent off from the airport at 6AM yesterday by a group of family and friends. We love him! We received his first letter this morning! Here it is:

The President of the Brazil Missionary Training Center (CTM) sent us this picture! 

Hey everyone! They're giving us time to tell you that we actually made it to the CTM and are all happy!

As the plane took off in Wenatchee, I thought to myself "What the heck did you just do?!" It was a bunch that hit me all at once.... I went from peaceful to scared out of my brain every 30 seconds. I was able to talk to the people next to me on the plane a little bit, but they weren't super interested. It wasn't until after I was in Atlanta for a while, sitting and reading my Book of Mormon (my only form of entertainment while traveling) until saw a guy in a suit with a nametag go sit down across the terminal. I joined him, and over the next few hours more missionaries joined us until there were 12 of us! It was so relieving and I finally felt like I belonged somewhere haha. All nervousness went away and it was so exciting to be talking with other missionaries! 6 of them had already been out (visa waiters), and 6 of us were coming straight from home. It was great to hear everyone's stories!

The flight to São Paulo was a long one, and it was overnight so I got 5 hours of sleep (some of the missionaries didn't get any). I learned very quickly after hearing a bunch of passengers speak rapid-fire Portuguese that mine has a looooong way to go still hahaha. Thank you Mannings for the bag of food! It saved my life multiple times, and is now with my wonderful stash of food (I'll figure out how to send pictures later, I don't have much time) Our flight landed at like 5 am and then we went through customs pretty smoothly, then traveled to the CTM and arrived at about 8, then ate and were able to unpack and nap for a short while. My body clock is so off, I don't even know what time it thinks it is! I've been on and off sleeping for too long, I'm so disoriented. But I'm excited and ready to learn! My companion is Elder Hughes, who is also going to São Paulo Leste! Maybe we'll be comps out in the field too! 

So yeah, I'm actually in Brazil and I'm alive!

Tchau! I love you all!

Elder Merrill

p.s. Our next P-day will either be next Wednesday or Friday, those are the days they give the Americans.