Hey family I love you so much, and thank you so much for actually emailing me but I don't have like any time today, tell dad everyone I love them and thank you for always being there for me and doing everything for me. I wish I could have said more before I said goodbye but I would not have wanted to go. I love you and miss you a ton. I promise I will send more next week but this is what was sent in my group email that I did earlier this week. Love you mom and I promise I will talk to you better next week but I had to make the group emails again. The MTC is awesome and show this to dad and Chris and tell him to talk the Lord and rely on Heavenly Father. I have been having a hard time here but I use him every day as help. Love you all so much and tell Manny and Devin i will write in the group email next week.
(This is his group email)
"Hello everyone!!! Tudo Bem?!
That is what everyone says here ha. sorry about my spelling and grammar and stuff, we don't have much time to email and the computers are in Portuguese. This first week has been absolutely amazing. Flying was ok ha, it was lonely until I met the other missionaries but then we all just talked forever. I had an elder Calhoun moment (from the movie Best Two Years) where somebody said something to me in Portuguese and I just stood there dumbfounded and I said, I am a missionary, hahaha all the others laughed at me and then the same thing happened when we got to Sao Paulo.
The Brazilians are so amazing and they are so loving. I have made so many friends here. My companions name is elder Allen and he is a super awesome guy, he is from medford oregon. So far i have found no one going to my exact mission, but I have found people from my mission and they think we are best friends now. They are Brazilian. Funny story about the Brazilians, the night we got here they had a party for us in the hall, which we aren't supposed to do, but it was so awesome. They were talking to us in Portuguese, then elder Allen knew I could do a backflip so he told everyone to back up and I did a back flip and they went so crazy. They were bowing down and they call me Spiderman and the quickster now too. We play basketball every day for exercise time and elder Allen and I are the best here ha we smoke the Brazilians. Its so funny.
One of our best friends we have met that is Brazilian is Elder da Silva, he is the Brazilian version of Michael Oher. the football player. He is huge and so cuddly, he calls me the best Bestenlehner. I told them I play soccer for a living as in I play it all the time and they love me now and try to get me to disobey the rules haha. Our Portuguese is coming along pretty well. every day is really hard but that's ok, we know that the Lord is helping us. Funny story, so we were teaching a lesson in English our first day and it was about charity, and I was talking and I said to the lady, chastity is so important, it is the pure love of Christ. I didn't know I said that till four hours later when my district told me ha. i was so embarrassed and now its a funny story here. my roommates are all so amazing. me and elder Allen share a bunk bed and then share a room with four other Brazilians, we communicate with them all the time. They are super nice and I love being with all of them.
Gosh I just love this gospel. The devotionals and stuff have to be translated down here so it makes it really hard to not sleep but we stay awake and keep each other up ha. . I just want to thank all of you for helping me become such a strong person because it gets super hard and frustrating down here, but thats just when my faith grows stronger. We have great instructors, irma passos and irmao duran. they are so nice and one is a boy and the other a girl. Mitch she would be perfect for you ha, i told her that she should call you even if you are so many miles away. At night the missionaries cut each others hair and i dont know if i am going to let them cut mine ha, i heard the barber is worse. so not any time soon ha.
Crazy thing, Elder Allens first name is also Andrew and his dads name is David. What a coincidence, God knew i was supposed to have him as my first companion. Sometimes he makes me mad but I love him anyway. Its just so stupid to get upset or mad at anything when we have so much in the world. One phrase I love to say is sorriso sempre. Always smile no matter what. That is one thing i love about brazil - the people are so amazing and i love all of them. the Americans here are great too but the brazilians are better. I bore my testimony during testimony meeting on Sunday and it was so cool. i used the lord of the rings quote again and did half in english and the rest in Portuguese. The gift of tongues is so real.
We teach an investigator almost every night. We are teaching a woman named gabriela right now and its awesome to see the lord touch peoples hearts. All of you about to go on a mission or thinking of it, i promise it is worth it and i have only been out a week. It is so hard, one of the hardest things you will ever do. but I promise it will change and bless your life. just take that leap of faith. and never give up.
oh the fourth of july here is awesome, they served us american food and it was so good and we had ice cream and i was so happy because i dont get as much sugar down here. but the food is absolutely amazing and i love all of their food. the drink guanara is so amazing, i dont think i spelled that right but it is seriously liquid gold. better than all of the other pop.
Today we went to the sao paulo temple and it is so beautiful, i mean seriously you can feel the spirit so strong and it is so amazing. all of it is amazing. sorry i cant send pictures, the wifi isnt good enough. anyways i love you all and i know this church is true, without a doubt. i promise if we do our part in this gospel the lord will do his part. I am so grateful for my savior and I am grateful for everthing he blesses me with. If you would like to email me personally feel free to do so!! EU SEI QUE A IGREJA DE JESUS CRISTO DOS SANTOS DOS ULTIMOS DIAS E VERDADEIRO! also good luck to manny this sunday man I know you will be so great and go kill it in the mission field, also good luck to my homeboys kobe and brodee on their talks and go kill it in the mission field. Its hard but its worth it, the mtc is so pretty and i love it in brazil.
Elder Bestenlehner
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