First Letter

Here is Elder Firl's FIRST email! Misspellings and all! Enjoy it! We sure did!

Oh thata is so crazy! I cant wait to see him! He will love it here. Just like I love it here. Sorry if the email will be rushed but i only have 30 minutes. So where to begin. we ended up making in safely in dallas. Holy cow that airport is HUGE! in fact, we were late getting off the plane and had 30 minutes to make it to the next flight. So picture 4 missionaries running in the giant airport. Thank goodness i met an Exchange student from brazil that went to La Center High school. Some of you may know of Otavio. haha i couldnt believe i saw him on the flight. Anyways, the flight to brazil was really long. Probably the longest time of my life, i got lonely and wasnt sure what i was doing. However, after we arrived in Brazil i knew that this was the place i am supposed to be. This country is truely amazing! the People are so friendly here and are so humble. Like i expected everything is a little dingy and dirty. But i didnt expect the drivers to be insane. Holy cow! These drivers are NUTS! I think we almost died 4 times when driving from the airport to the CTM. haha people dont stop at stop signs, they yeild. haha and motorcycles just fly by! nobody stops when the police are trying to get through. Its pretty crazy. Being at the CTM has been a great experience! we have been learning the language intensly. Its incredible to see the lords hand in it all! Im picking up on the language so fast. Thank goodness i took spanish because it is helping a lot. Although i tend to get words mixed up all the time. haha anyways, my district is so tight! we get along really well and same with my comp. Elder Acosta. He was the red head at the airport we saw. We get along really well and are on the same page when we teach. In addition, we have 2 brazilian roommates. haha at first it was reallyhard to communicate with them. But its a little easier now to communicate, now that i can actually speak a little portugues, rather than spanish. The CTM is smaller than i expected. There are only 250 people, and abouthalf of them are brazilians. Its way tight. Just like the food! As expected we eat beans and rice everyday. But its not as bad as it sounds. The way they make it is delicious. In addition, the fruit is fresh and amazing! However, i do miss you all, but i am so happy here, the harder i work the less i miss home. btw mom i didnt need scriptures, they provide them for us. haha i though you would get a good kick out of that. I hope to hear from you all soon! I check the mail everyday hoping there will be something, but this mail system is so stinkin slow! on a random side note, they dont have an enter button, so it kinda hard to break things into paragraphs. BUt i went to the temple today! It was the most amazing thing ever! It was so cool to actually be there rather than look at the picture in the kitchen. Love you all and cant wait to hear from you! MA: thank you so much for the letter and stickers:) i absolutly love them!

Goodbye Pictures

Elder Jake Firl's name tag

The family picture

His second family picture with the Wood's(minus Pa Wood)

Brother picture

Mom and Dad

Eric saying goodbye

Alex saying goodbye

Dad saying goodbye (there wasn't a picture of mom)

And Jake is off!

Stay posted to hear about Elder Firl's experiences and updates.

"Teary" good-bye

It was a "teary" good-bye at the Portland Airport this morning. When Jake gave me his cell phone -- the last "sacrifice" of worldly possessions -- it finally sunk-in that he really is leaving and we won't be seeing him for a while. It was an emotional moment for Tom and me. Ma Wood, Aubrey & Courtney Wood and Kayla Pickett all came to see Jake off! There wasn't a dry eye.

Eric was very sad to see Jake go. Even though Eric argues frequently with Jake (neither one likes to back-down), he admires Jake a lot and knows that one of his greatest role-models will be gone for a long time. I could tell that Alex was excited for Jake, and that he was thinking about what his "good-bye" will be like when he leaves in about 5 years.

Tom and I were comforted to meet several other missionaries who were also headed to the MTC (CTM) in Sao Paulo. We were worried that he would have to travel alone... Although Jake is very smart, he has a propensity to get flustered in stressful situations. I could tell he was relieved that he would be traveling with several other young men.

Yes, we are looking forward to the letters and seeing Jake's character and testimony mature, month-by-month. We are so happy for him!!