Nanuque

Finally in the Field!!! My area is called Nanuque. in not in Espirito Santo, its just north of that state and west of Bihia. i dont remember the name of the state but i think its shortened to MG. Im in a poor area. some spots are carzy poor. i dont see how people live like that. its wild. but my apartment it decent. kinda nice. im in a branch of about 50 people. its been ok. but i dont speak much Portuguese at all so its been frustrating. im trying to work on it but right now i cant add much to lessons because i dont know how to say it. my first day in the field i was in virtoia. that night we went to the bus station to take a bus to my area. 8 hours away. they said a bus leaves every morn and night. but the next one was 1:30 the next afternoon... so we stayed at elders apartments in vitoria. it was crazy. 8 elders all packed in the same room. mattress everywhere haha. good thing they had like 9 mattress haha. finally got to my area and im trying to get the language down. its hard, walking around and having no idea what going on. theres a bunch of hills and im sweating all day till i fall asleep :( i hope ill get used to it soon. sorry i only put one pic in. it takes forever for them to load! and i didnt start at the beginning so i dont have enough time. well im out of time. but its a pic of the dining room and kitchen. its not a good picture though. we have a decent frigde and freezer, microwave and stove. i want to get some ingredients so i can make some awesome food! here the main meal is lunch. so thats pretty much all we have. until i buy food. and every luch, rice and beans... haha. its funny here. the appliances look really nice. people will have like nothing in their house, barley a front door, but they have a sweet looking frige/freezer, and a tv and dvd player haha. its weird. well i think i have time for one more picture. this is the view from my mission presidents place. looking to the beach and vitoria. its soooo cool. i watched a guy kite surf there. the richer people here live in apartments. their pretty nice. thanks to everyone who sent my a birthday card! and thanks for everyones support. i love you all!
Elder Cluf

Week 8

Oí! Its my Birthday!!! :) finally 20! so update on Dallas. i told you he broke his foot. friday hot got surgery on it in Salvador and it went very well. hes recovering good and will be back to missionary work soon. he got it dont in salvador because if he went home he cant come back and he really likes it here. and everything that happens to him happens to me... i jumped out of my bed the other night and landed bad on my foot haha. but its not bad, just sore. itll be fine im 2 days i bet. :)

Im picking up the language ok. I will get it. Im excited to be out in the field soon! São Paulo is so hot. but last week it was pretty cool, but today its back to very hot. 

Im enjoying my time here.  not much happens here exciting enough to be emailed.  if you sent me a letter or anything start sending it to my mission address. ill sent that in a seperate email. sorry. i dont have much time to write at all. but im having a good time. loving reading the book of mormon daily. It been fun being with a huge group of kids my age doing the same thing, working for the same pourpose.  so thats about all i can thin of now. i hope everythings going well for all of you! sorry if i have bad spelling errors, im in a rush. but i love you all and hope your doing well!

Elder Cluff 

News and Update

So first off, if any of you haven't heard. My brother Dallas who's on his mission in Brazil too broke his foot 2 days before Christmas. And he hast to go home to get surgery on it... Its broken in a bad spot. but hes not in much pain. hes always been tough with that. i watched him crash his bike a few years ago and break his wrist. we didn't think it was broken so he kept riding till we got where we were going. I'm not sure how much pain he feels... :) So I hear he should only be home for like 3 weeks and he will come right back to his same mission. So that's really good! So that's the big news. Well my sister Shira is going to have her second baby any day too. 
So here in the MTC there isn't much variety. we go to class, learn Portuguese and such, in Portuguese, and study the rest of the time pretty much. Christmas ever we didn't have classes. he had some time to play games. that was fun. we watched a movie but it was the Muppets Christmas. I'm not sure why they picked that but they did and it was in Portuguese without subtitles so i zoned out and studied. On Christmas we just had a relaxing day. We didn't really do anything which was ok with me. I'm slowly learning Portuguese. I didn't learn the grammar terms in English like present subjunctive and such so I'm kind of struggling with grammar but ill get it. Ill send an email with my mission address and starting around the 8th of January if you write to me write to that address. But if any of you are so inclined to send packages no matter the date send them to the mission address that ill email soon. Thank you to everyone for their support! Im so blessed to grow up where I did and know the people I know!  Tém um bom dia!
Elder Cluff

First Week In Brazil! (Plus, An Address!)

Hey! its so humid here! not supper hot though. like 80. Brazil is sweet. todays p-day so i walked around the town a bit. where we can. its was way fun! The food is weird here. i dont like it very much. but its not too bad. its crazy listening to Portuguese everywhere! im still learning and im excited to get into the field! soon. on the 16. so my address in the mtc is Elder Weston Cluff. Box 5 DST 45-A Vitória mission.  Rua Padre Antonio D´Angelo.  121 Casa Verde, São Paulo-SP.  02516-040 Brasil. so write to that untill jan 9th, then write to my mission address. ill write that next week. sorry i dont have much time at all. If you send packages wait till after jan 9th and send them to my mission address. and dont mark a high value on the package cause they wont give it to me without making me pay taxes on on. so make a low value. I love you guys. sorry i cant write more. im thinking of you all. and im doing good. picking up the language ok.
Com Amo Elder Cluff

Last Full Day in Provo

I fly out tomorrow morning. i fly to Atlanta, wait 2 hours, then fly to Brazil. flight leaves at like 8pm and gets to Brazil at 7am... and there's only one time change on that flight. but i like flying so I'm excited! Ive got my bags packed at the max weight. I'm ready to go! Its been fun here! Ive learned a ton of Portuguese for 4 weeks. Its been a great experience! I'm so excited to be in Brazil! But its going to be mostly Portuguese so it'll be different. Ive made some friends but ill prolly never see them again...

So i told you about dearelder. but that only works here in provo mtc. So dont write me on that anymore. I wont know my address till I get there so if you want to write just email and keep it short. I'll try to get back to you. Thanks to all of you for your support! I'll email my address when i get it and remember if you send a letter to Brazil you have to put a international stamp on it. Its 98 cents. But so worth it :)  I hope all of you are doing good!!! See ya in about 2 years!

com amo Elder Cluff

VISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT CAME TODAY!!!!! I'm going to Brazil a week from today! (Tuesday)

AH I'm so excited!!! SO if you want to send me a letter send it through dearelder.comand ill get it before i leave as long as you don't send one after Monday at noon. again next week. I'm finally going! I'll email again when i get to Brazil with my address for there.

Elder Cluff

Tudo Bem

Week 3! well tomorrow it will be but close enough! So nothing too exciting has gone on. the biggest news, everyone says once you turn in the electronic visa application it takes like 5 to 7 weeks to get your visa on average. so its been 7 for me now. i had Dallas on online and check the status. And! it says ready for pickup! which means its been approved and its in the mail! So i goes to salt lake then down to me in Provo. I'm hoping it comes today!!! if not this week sometime I'm sure! well my fingers are crossed! i like the MTC here and all, but i want to go to Brazil! and its so cold here! but there hasn't been much snow at all. so if it come today ill leave later this week or next week sometime. So if you want to write me, go to dearelder.com and you cant write me a letter and put my mailing address in for it to be sent to and they print it off here and put it in my box the same day! Ill send another email when i get my visa, and i wont know my actual address down there till i get there, so ill email again and tell everyone what it is.

Its been 3 weeks in the MTC and we learn language Monday through Saturday like 3 to 4 hours each day. So in that time Ive learned so much. Were learning conjugations which they didn't teach in school for Spanish till a few months into the class. We teach lessons about each day and I can say about what i want to. its really choppy and not all right but its enough that they can understand know what I'm talking about. Its amazing! My comp and i set a date for one of our "investigators" to be baptised on Christmas eve. He's our teacher acting as a investigator.

So nothing special has happened this week. Learning the language and how to teach. Well i cant think of anything else to report and I'm about out of time! thank you everyone for your support! I love you and I hope your all doing good!

Com Amo  Elder Cluff