Oi !

Como estao voces? Eu esto muito bem, o idioma e poco difizil, mas esto apredendo muito!

I'll answer the questions first.

Dad i got to bethel on wednesday! and no i didn't travel by myself, my companion picked me up and drove me back up here. my address is

Elder Zazueta

67 Hoyts Hill Road

Bethel, CT 06801

 

and no we don't need to buy a bike, we drive cars here!

 

Alright now for my life. things are completely different up here. My apartment is way smaller than the last one i used to live in. and CT is so different. so quiet compared to the bronx.. My companion is way cool tho, we get along a lot better than i did with my old companion. this one actually talks to me! haha the work is a lot different too.. we drive around, pick a neighborhood, and then start knocking doors. people are a lot nicer up here, but still not interested. and it sucks because the sun sets at like 5, so when we knock doors around 5:30, people get mad and say "shouldn't you guys be doing this during the day time!?" or something along those lines..  I had to give a talk on sunday.. it was weird because it felt like the chapel was empty. we are a branch.. and at church were about 40 people..  and my ward technically is only like 5 people, because we only have a few people that speak portuguese, everyone else speaks spanish. so when we sing hymns, we sing portuguese and spanish at the same time and that makes things interesting. Portuguese is so similar to spanish! it's so similar that it makes it hard to learn.. because it's hard to break habits that i'm used to when i'm speaking spanish.. and some things are pronounced differently. i can understand a lot of it, but i can hardly speak it.. and its frustrating because i can never say what i want to say.. i just have to sit there and hope that my companion has things to say. we're learning together. hopefully i can catch on a lot faster so that he isn't the only one that teaches .. i feel bad because i feel like i'm learning slow. i know i've only been here a week, but going from being the guy who people ask for help in the language (spanish) to the guy who always asks for help is frustrating. i hate not being able to teach and fully understand what people are saying. especially being a missionary because it's our job to listen to people and clear up their concerns.. so its just super frustrating that as of right now, i can't really fulfill my calling as a missionary. and it's a struggle because i used to be able to just focus on learning the scriptures since i already spoke the language.. now that i'm trying to learn a new one, i have to focus more on learning the language and less on learning the scriptures and doctrine. it's just hard. hopefully i can figure it out soon so that i can start being an effective missionary again. and i'm totally gonna get fat up here. we drive, so that takes a lot of walking out of the picture, and then nobody in my apartment wants to run with me.. so i do what i can in the morning, but i don't think it's enough to keep me in shape.. and we eat a lot more up here too. its just not looking good for my figure in the near future haha man.. life is so different right now. and i hope the mail isn't always that slow. just gotta stay positive! oh, in case you were wondering. when i first got here, me and my companion drove a 2011 ford fusion, but they just traded us cars to fix the bumper on ours.. now we drive a 2010 toyota corolla.. hopefully we get the ford fusion back soon because we don't like the car they gave us haha but yeah.. things are a little hard right now, but i know if i dedicate myself to learn and get better, then everything will fall into place. the church is still true in portuguese. I Love you guys so much, and miss you guys too.. especially now! i hope everything is going well, let me know if there's anything i can do for you okay? be safe, and love one another.

 

-Elder Zazueta