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Querida Minha familia,

First of all the shift button on this keyboard doesn't really work, so expect very few capitals. Second of all, estou muito feliz aqui a o MTC. Oh desculpa, sometimes I slip into Portuguese. Well I'll get right down to it. I am so happy to be here, to be serving a mission. It's not all hunky-dory, but we all knew that going into it. I feel so disorganized, I have so many things I could say but I only have 23 minutes left after I figured out this program. I try to scrounge up the time to write you when I can, and I'm sending off another letter today, but I might not be able to keep that up. Some of the elders in the district have been a little jealous by the amount of letters I get. They dont know that 90% of them are from mom haha. I did get a letter from Kal and Gab and Ashley Alley and a guy from spring term and Ricole. Letters really are great fuel for me and I appreciate them so much.

The first day here was crazy. Ricole kicked me out at the curb into the hands of some elder and then I went through an assembly line of sorts and got a id card, a key, and minha plaqueta! I've been so excited to get my black nametag. I look awesome with it on. Meu nome e Elder Rogers e sou um missionario para a igreja de Jesus Cristo dos santos dos ultimos dias. From the moment I got here until today (p-day), basically every minute has been scheduled.

My district, which has 12 elders and 2 sisters, is so awesome. I think we get along much better than most districts and everyone tells us we're bigger than most districts. There is elder from my hall in spring term. I met one of the sisters in the cougar creations store and we talked about our missions to Brazil, then I met her again here. My companion, Elder Powell, was in my mission prep class actually, and after we both got our calls to Santa Maria, a mutual friend (Kim Johnson) introduced us officially. I would see him at BYU because he lived on the other side of the same floor of Budge, and we talked about how cool it would be to be companions. and now we are ghaha. Of the 14, 3 are going to Santa Maria, the others are in other Brazil missions. My zone, which is made up of like 8 other districts is all Portuguese speaking, but some people are [going to] Portugal and some are Angola or Mozambique. I had Book of Mormon and American Heritage with my zone leader and so I kinda knew him. He's such an amazing elder. It's weird but even elders (btw, we aren't supposed to say "guys, dude, man" etc. haha) even elders that have only been here for a few weeks seems like they are soooo way far ahead of us. I mean, I knew Elder Richter (the zone leader) and he is my age, but he is just so far ahead. I hope that I can be where he is at 5 weeks. I have seen a lot of males from my Budge Hall too. We usually run into each other in the cafeteria.

It's super busy here but it's great, I wouldnt have it any other way. After I got used to the intense schedule of study, I was feeling quite good. I felt humble, but I felt comfortable. I knew I had a lot to do and to learn, but I was willing to work hard.

I got the box of cookies yesterday! Thank you so much! I gave one to each of the elders in the district last night because we had 12 cookies and the sisters live in a different building, so they'll never know that we had them haha. Our district is really amazing. From day one we have been cohesive and we get along so great, sometimes too great, and during those times I feel like I have to do something, but I'm not sure how. The language has been coming along well. From minute one the teacher has spoken 90% Portuguese and because he speaks really slow and because I know some Spanish, I understand most of what he says. Spanish has helped a ton. Well, I'm out of time.

I love you all.

Elder Rogers