How is it going - Monday, October 17, 2011

I love getting you emails and mail, it is a lot of fun to read it.

I have had a great time here and it is always interesting.

My companion got his visa so he is leaving tomorrow and that will be a change.  I am going to be moved to another room on the same floor.  I am rooming with my zone leaders who are also in my district.

I am getting very excited for the field.  Time is closing in.

Lots of things are always happening around here.  Finished JESUS THE CHRIST.  That book is amazing.  JAMES E. TALMAGE does such a great job concerning the events around Jesus´ life.

It is weird how people who we thought were brand new in our branch are suddenly leaving because their 3 weeks are done.  Although it isn´t much time I have been gone, it seems like forever here.

Had a devotional where we were taught some table manners and that was pretty interesting.  That was done by Sister Hacking.  It only shows as to how important manners in front of others is.

I have made many friends through soccer.  There is bonding here is unlike that on a competitive team.  It is fun to play soccer and not be to serious about how you perform.

My Portuguese is coming along.  I can get most of the lessons down in basic sentences.  At some point i am going to have to learn to talk about things other than how "Deus ama nos" which is god loves us.

I saw Danny and he seems to be doing pretty well.  He is not on the same schedule as I am so i have not seen him a lot.

 

Well I have to go, we have a 30min time limit for the day on P-Day for email.

Love Elder Kramer

From Elder Kramer - Monday, October 10, 2011

How is it going,  i have been having a great time here.  The language is very hard so i put all my free time into studying it.  Every day is learning something new.

It is great to hear about Dan.  I can't wait to see him.  He might even come to my building.

I am fine if you send my letters to others.

As for my coat size i have no idea.  It is getting a little chilly here though.  There is snow on some of the mountains.

I really enjoy the time here to prepare.  I could not imagine going into the field without this experience.  There is so much to learn.  On Sundays i have been reading Jesus the Christ also i read it during quiet time.  It is truly inspirational.  There is tons to still learn here though.  Acquiring a knowledge about the language and the scriptures plus being able to teach effectively is very hard.

I am very excited to go into the field and the days are closing in.

I was able to hang out with Mckenna on Sunday and get some pictures with her.  It was a lot of fun.

Two of the people in our district were called as zone leaders which is pretty cool.

I have not had the opportunity to write anyone so i am sorry about that.  There is just so much to do.

You never go hungry here because of the mass amounts of food you get to eat all the time.  I hear people gain lots of weight here but i don't think i gained any.

This morning after a great temple endowment session me and my companion had the opportunity to do some service for the people in the temple by preparing some clothing in the laundry room.  They were low staffed so they really needed some help to make sure all the missionaries were able to have clothing.

The MTC is undergoing lots of renovation and one of the buildings is being closed down.  This means that my room might get a third bunk in it.  Things are already crowed around here and it is only going to get worse.  However this will probably give the church reason to expand the MTC.

It is suit coat season now so we have to wear suit coats all the time now.  I really like those Stafford shirts you purchased from JC penny.

Ask grandma and grandpa Timmons and Grandma Gilchrist to send more stories.  It is lots of fun to have real life experiences from you family around here.  Keeps things interesting.

Keep on sending me lots of home life news.

Thanks for the support

Elder Kramer

Hello - Monday, October 3, 2011

That was very interesting hearing about Jefferson.  It seems like forever since i have heard from him.

In terms of coats i have heard some things about Brazil in the fact that it rains tons there.  So i would rather have a good solid raincoat to keep me dry.

General conference was great and it was really alot easier to pay attention here.

On October 2 after General conference we had a person named Chad Louis come and speak to us and it was pretty cool.

I get to play soccer just about everyday here.  However we are not allowed to head, slide tackle, or wear cleats.  This and the fact you try not to hurt the other players really makes the game totally different.  However it is still lots of fun.

I have really gotten into reading Jesus the Christ.  It is such an amazing book.  It takes all we know about Jesus and analyzes his goodness and kindness plus cool facts pertaining about the circumstances he was in.

I feel like i have no time at all around here and in just a few days i will have been here 4 weeks.  Also Sister Kramer is leaving soon which will be awesome for here but i will be sad not to be able to see her.

Even though i am not that great at Portuguese yet i am able to give some basic lessons and try to get what i want though with some hand signaling involved.

It seems like for the past week no one has gotten any visas so i am wondering what is going on with that.

If Garrett is around you should invite him to dinner so that he will have something to with our family.  I really appreciate the example he has set for me in being kind to others.

It would be nice if you and Grandma Ivy and Grandma and Grandpa Timmons could send me some cool stories.  Tell them i love them.

I will Try again to get letters out but there is always so much to do here.

Elder Kramer

Doing Well - Monday, September 26, 2011

How is it going?

I am have a great time here and it is a great experiance so far. Can't imagine what it is like in the mission field.

In order to solve the question about how we are being taught portuguese: we go into a classroom for 6 hours a day and have a teacher who only will speak portuguese for the most part teach us about vocab and other things he thinks are neccissary. During that time we will go and teach the teachers who are pretending to be investigatiors compeletly in portuguese. It it pretty hard since we dont speak the language really but it is fun. We have a couple more hours during the day to do personal language study which is very benifical.

We have had a great week this week. We had Elder Nelson come and speak to us on Tuesday which was pretty cool. It turns out he has a granddaughter that goes here.

 

My companion and I had to teach a lesson to our district on Sunday and the Branch president was there and it went incredibly well.  It has just been a good week for studying and focusing on the task at hand

 

Thank you for the letters you have been sending, they are very fun to recieve.  Sorry about not sending letters out.  There is very little time to do things like that around here.  I have yet to send mail to anyone but you and David.  Hopefully i will be able to send some mail out to some other people today.

 

Cool Story, There is a Elder Thomas in my district whose dentist is apparently Alan Timmons which i thought was pretty cool.

 

If i was to have done one thing before i came out here more it would definatly be to know The Book of Mormon inside and out.  It always it the topic of discussion around here and it definatly is nice to know what you are talking about. 

 

Tell Dan and Sarah that MTC is a little different in how we do things that the field.  We have gym every day so keep that in mind and bring lots of shorts and shirts.  Also to bring pants for service if they already are not doing that.

 

The MTC has been great but it seems like we have been here forever yet no time at all due to the fact we don't know much portuguese yet.  Every day seems like forever.  The day before seems like a week ago.  However this makes it nice to get lots of things done during this time.

 

Hope you are having fun out there.  David pretty much said that he would hook me up with food which i thought was nice. 

 

Have a great Week

 

Elder Kramer

From the MTC

Monday, September 19, 2011

Hello From the MTC

To answer some of the questions

The flight went flawlessly

The Package Mom Sent Came and i enjoyed it

I see Sister Kramer almost every day and i got to visit with her on our temple walk

Lots of fun here.  Learning the language is hard but considering i am only a week and a half here i don't mind the fact that i don't know the language.

It is nice living in a place were everybody is willing to work hard and try to be their best.

Tell David that i am very grateful for him waiting for me at the MTC when i came here.  I will try to send letters when i can on P Day, however there is always something that needs to be done

That was a pretty neat story about the people who live at the Fordhams old house.  Hope that turns out well.

Whenever we here a devotional here it makes us very excited to get into the field even though we don't know Portuguese yet.  Everyone just wants to go out to the field and teach.

It is kind of interesting to see how desperate people here are to hear from home.  Everyone loves letters and packages.

One person in our district got his new flight itinerary to go to Sao Paulo.  It is very random it seems as to who has been getting their visas.  I figure the lord still wants me to learn things here before he sends me out. 

Something random that happened though was that i found out that one of my pants we ordered was a size 34 by 34.  I thought it was strange that all the other ones fit but this one.  The Stafford shirts we got are very nice and i like them a lot.

Elder Ballard and his wife spoke at last Tuesday's devotional and that was very awesome.  Mckenna will probably tell you if anything cool happens.

I get to play soccer here almost everyday.  It is a lot of fun.  However here there are no cleats no headers and no slide tackles.  Even though this was to be expected it took a while to get used to the change and start playing well.

Thanks for keeping me up to date.  I have almost no idea what goes on beyond the MTC.

From Elder Kramer

Re: test

Monday, September 12, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad:

This is the new email address.  So Far i have had a great time here at the MTC.  I sent a letter briefly explaining the first day i had.  It has been pretty fun going self study and then Portuguese Class.  I am able to see Sister Kramer almost every day which is fun.  My P day is Monday.  My companion's name is Elder Edgington.  He is a very "legal" guy.  It is almost as if he knows half of the people here.  My district is very close.  All of them are very "legal".  It is enjoyable to be able to work with Elders who are dedicated to the work and very nice to each other.  On Sunday we had the opportunity to  watch a 9/11 presentation which was very heart touching.  This morning we went to the temple and had a great time.  It is strange but only a day after we came here it seemed as though we have lived here for a long time.  I am interested to hear any news from Jefferson or anything new in the family.

Elder Kramer