Cachupa

Elder McMullin posted that he finally got to try cachupa. For anyone wondering what it is, here is the explanation and a few variety of pictures.

Cachupa is a famous dish from the Cape Verde islands, West Africa. It is a  slow cooked stew of corn ( usually hominy), beans, vegetables and fish or meat (sausage, beef, goat or chicken). It is  referred to as the country's national dish. Each island has its own regional variation.

Week 10- February 23rd, 2015- Carnival

Well this week was super crazy. Carnival makes people insane.... and a lot of drinking and nudity go down, so the whole time I was just thinking of our members and recent converts and investigators that were out partying and hoping that nothing crazy happened! Especially because we were just inside our house not doing very much. A lot of other cool things happened this week as well.

I had my first cachupa. But since we can’t eat at members houses we had to have it at a cheap restaurant. So it was tasty, but the other missionaries said they have had much better. So that’s something to look forward to in the future, maybe. Going along with that rule, one of the members found out that my birthday is next month. And I guess she used to feed the missionaries like every single day and she absolutely loves birthdays. And she knows about the rules so she is trying to figure out what to do. It’s quite the conundrum. But I’m hoping I will somehow magically have a cake that I am allowed to eat, but I’m not crossing my fingers because I highly doubt it will happen. The best part is if it doesn’t she will probably be more upset than me. One time we went to her house for references and we said we couldn’t eat the flan she made. She was super mad when we left. But it’s okay because she’s super cool and a really good member for the ward, she actually teaches the sunday school for the older people. Oh also she is one of the two people in the ward that are fluent in english so she helps teach me portuguese.

Hmmm… saw a couple of people face down in the street passed out. That’s not something you usually would see in Logan. But I guess just about everything I see here is that way.

This week was our first week without a baptism of our own but it was the first week the other companionship here had one so that was pretty cool. Especially the part where I didn’t traumatize any of the members with my blood or my tight pants.

The downside of the week was lots of our recent converts and investigators that have good strong testimonies didn’t show up to church for one reason or another. That is something that is super frustrating I’ve found out. It’s one thing when they don’t do something because they haven’t gotten a testimony yet, but when it happens afterwards just because they have bad friends or are lazy is when it really gets frustrating because you care for the people and want them to make the right choices. But you can’t hold everyones hand and walk them all to church at the same time. Even when you try to do that. But the plus side was we were able to befriend a couple of the less active members and we got 2 of them back to church this sunday. That was super awesome. Now if we can get a week where everyone shows up that will be super awesome. It’s crazy how important ward families are especially here where the ward is small like 50 people and everyone can know each other well. And they do for the most part. Ward activities that we are at for a short amount of time are really cool.

I know I’m pretty bad at picture sending but I’ll send a couple today. Hopefully they can hold you over. also as far as the mail and package and dear elder situation is that they all go to the main island first so if you  live there you can get them within like 3 weeks I think, but since I’m on a different island I have to wait til someone comes out from Praia for some reason or another so its super random but it can take like 2 months depending on things. Not sure when I will get stuff! Oh well.

I’m still getting used to being in Africa. It’s kinda weird especially seeing as I’ve never left the U.S. before but it’s cool here. 

Well I think you can figure out most of the pictures on your own. 

The food one was probably the best meal I’ve had here yet that we made on carnival because we were inside forever and had time to make a super nice big lunch. Well if you have any other questions about them ask and I’ll try to answer next week but as you can tell I’m not very good at answering them all. Love you all

Love Elder McMullin

Pictures from Elder McMullin (some are repeats)

How Elder Zuniga wrapped Elder McMullin's foot so he could shower.

First week baptism

Second week baptsim

Zone Conference

Elder McMullin's first zone conference was this last week. The mission presidency met with the north zones this last week. The first met with the the zone on Sao Vicente (which includes two other islands, Sao Nicolou and Santa Antao.. some missionaries from Sao Nicolou couldn't make it because of the busy flights because of Carnival. Then they visited the island of Sal (where Elder McMullin is). that zone includes the island of Boa Vista.

Week 9- Feb, 16th, 2015 Second Baptism

One more week down. This one was kind of a long one. But we had another baptism! Our investigator Liandra. She is a fourteen year old whose parents own a bar and she has had her baptism pushed back several times but each time takes it surprisingly well especially because she is a very emotional girl. But she is super awesome and a great member for the branch. so i will try to answer as many questions as i can remember were in emails and if i repeat from other weeks or something don't blame me. i cant remember anything that i sent by the time its the next letter time. My brain is all sorts of confused. Both baptisms Elder Zuniga baptized and I was a witness. Both were in the ocean because its right next to our church. Our church was one room but they are doubling its size as we speak. Its super loud when everyone is in there together but its a good time. We usually have around 50 people at church and the number should be growing each week if we can do our job right. 

This week was super interesting. Mom asked about valentines day. and yes they have it here. BUT they pretty much just use it as the first day of carnival. I don't fully understand carnival because everyone says different things and its all in portuguese. but there have been different activities each day since valentines day and the real carnival so the biggest of them all is tomorrow. im not sure if they will let us outside for it for multiple reasons. So far we have seen sooooooooooooo many drunk people. To explain and answer a question Sal is an island and has two main cities i know of. Santa Maria (where i am) and Espargus. It is 20 minutes away by hiace (yas) its a van that's like a taxi but less expensive. We have only went to Espargus three times. once for zone conference that was this week I'll get to that later. and we also go on p days to play football (soccer) with the Espargus elders. So on Sal there is 8 elders. 4 in each city. In Santa Maria its me and Elder Zuniga and Elder Chevalier and Elder Sampson. We divide the area by a street down the middle of the town. Pretty much every single bar, is on our side. and its not a few. There are  a ton! So while it's party time which is all day here especially during carnival most the people we see are either children or drunks which makes contacts pretty hard.A whole lot of grogue (Cape Verdian alcohol). We have spent a good amount of time in Liandra's dad's bar and I'll say alcohol smells terrible. 

My foot has pretty much healed but this last baptism has another good story. Well after the foot fiasco I forgot to wash my white pants... so i had to wear a pair they had there. It took two elders pushing and shoving and lifting me up and another elder taking pictures to make those pants fit. let me tell you it was not comfy. So I wore a sweater over it too try to make it less noticeable but I had to take it off to witness. The members found it quite entertaining......... I felt bad taking away from the experience but Liandra also thought it was quite hilarious. Don't worry. I only reenacted Nachos' recreational pants scene once. 

I hear packages take 2 months to get here I'm not sure about letters though. also I don't know my mailing address but I'm sure you could find it somewhere on FB or LDS.org or a blog of another missionary. I think Elder Zuniga's sister has a blog that I'm on a little if you want to take a look at it. And yes this is the best email its the only one I check.

So zone conference was cool but it was like 5 hours of translating but we also had some nice food in it. Another different thing is there is a ton of hugging here. like a constant thing. you handshake like 5 times in one contact per person and sometimes some hugs too.

Chum is your roommate the Bo that i know? Bodey Yonk or something like that? i know he was one of our friends. Also Chum and Tim you need to wingman each other. get Alex to move up there and all of you go wingman it up.i wont take no for an answer. 

So dad asked about transportation. We walk everywhere except to other cities we take hiaces and taxis to airports and depending on the island sometimes you have to take boats but not my island. We stay in Santa Maria pretty much all the time. Its a really nice town because of tourists and what not. I'm really bad at cameras because we are told not to take cameras unless its p day or baptisms. and p day i don't have pockets. its a hard conundrum. but my trainer has some pics that i will send to you sometime. 

Sundays are pretty fun. church is at 10 and lunch everyday is from 1-3 because everyone takes large lunches and small dinners so we don't have dinner because its prime working time. sometimes we grab a burger or some ice cream or some other food real quick. burgers are just sausage patties though pretty much... But not on Sundays! After lunch we usually have a member named Igor with us and its like every other day with teaching except he is with us.  Oh yeah one thing people do is people light up grills outside of the house on the street and just cook chicken to sell to people walking by. Sometimes we grab some chicken for 100 escudos. Escudos are our money. 1 escudo is pretty much a penny. but we only get 4k a week so 40 bucks to live off of. and this is one of the most pricey towns due to prices being upped for tourism. This island is a tourist hit especially for kite surfing. its super windy. i think the world champ for kite surfing actually lives here in santa maria. 

Apparently i don't talk enough. some of the members thought i was so dumb i couldn't even pray in portuguese yet. I was like Posso falar portuguese(I speak Portuguese)!  Another one thought i  was 30. 

Whats up with the no email sissa and alex? all of the older siblings sent me one! 

This was my first week being sick here. I am still sick right now it started yesterday. not sure if I'm dehydrated or what but I'm trying to take care of it. It's not fun being sick without Sissa and Mom listening my every command.... just kidding! but its really not fun. but i am blessed enough that we can still get out and work with it. its usually just bad during morning lunch and night which luckily is when we are home. 

The music here is hilarious. and just one sentence per song about a thousand times. luckily sometimes they blast some american music and I'm sane for a few minutes. One of the members and me and Zuniga actually had a conversation about it it was pretty funny. he was listening to some of the bands I've listened to. Well that's it for this week. love you guys. write me. its nice to hear about america and you guys.

Love 

Elder McMullin

Week 8- Feb 9, 2015 First baptism

Holy crap. well this week has been crazy  so the elders ended up being sent back but i think they got to cape verde on saturday but since we are in sal we will not being seeing them until transfers. There is about two islands per district and one or two areas on each island. We didnt see the other portugal elders in portugal because they didnt get there until about the time we left. too bad.

So in sal i am in santa maria. sal is one of the main tourist islands so half of our towns are resort things. so its a pretty cushiony area but the downside is it is also an expensive area to live in. Seeing as ive never been out of the us coming here was a huge shock. especially after staying the night in portugal. cape verde is warm pretty much always except in the mornings for me. its pretty chilly. we live about a 5 min walk from church if its just us missionariels walking. and from the church you can see the beach which is where we baptise our investigators. in fact this last saturday i have a story about that. ill leave that for the end though. save the best for last right?

My trainer is elder zuniga. he is a mexican from texas but also spent a ton of time in mexico. Hes a cool guy and is teaching me quite a bit. he has been out a year. in fact out of everyone i met he has been out the shortest. pretty much everyone i have met has been out a year and a half..... it sucks. not that i dont like the mission but they are all experienced and have been out for awhile and go home pretty soon. so i cant speak portuguese and i dont have much experienced and its pretty frustrating but it is really fun. 

another pretty annoying thing is im not suppose to speak creole. but people love to speak it. and sometimes they use portuguese and sometimes creole. when the conversation is all portuguese i can usually understand most of it. but when they start mixing them i get confused very fast. my speaking isnt all that great but the members are awesome. and when i dont understand they just laugh and try english. the people here are soooo nice. you can say hi to everyone and they talk back. 

There are a ton of bars here. like if you walk down any street you will see some. they are just like one room bars with a table or two and some people drinking. in fact one of our investigators (liandra) is 14 and her parents own the bar so we have to go in there to talk to here and its pretty funny.

We have quite a bit of investigators because everyone here is so nice that if you ask them if they want to here your message they almost always let you in their house. since ive been here ive invited 2 people to be baptized and they both accepted. the most tricky things here are the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, and then staying active in the church after being baptized. that one is probably the most frustrating but we are working on it. 

a couple complaints though.. the day i arrived a rule was put in place that we can not eat anything from the members. anything. it sucks! so we get to cook all of our meals and buy everything and we can only make what we know how to. we also only have two meals usaully. breakfast and a big lunch because everyone else takes one.and then we work through dinner. its fun but i wont be much of a big boy when i get back thats for sure.

I am lucky enough to be in an area with hot water. it was broken until today but now i have hot water. the house is pretty nice too. and when i say house, i mean apartment because thats what most people live in.

so we baptized kevin last week. my comp baptized and me and another elder witnessed. that means we had to go in the water. well tide was low today so the rocks were sticking out. he had to try it like 10 times before he could get everything to stay under. well while we were trying to find a place to baptize i cut my foot and didnt want to interrupt so i didnt mention anything until we were back on the beach. well by the time we got back i was bleeding a lot. like it was pouring out. the members noticed and suddenly everyone was making sure i was okay. we walked back up to the building and by then my sandal was filled with blood. they clean my wound vigorously and bandaged me up. i said i was fine to go back to the house and they said i still needed to go to a doctor so we started walking home. part way through blood got through 

the tape and the bandages and was pooling in my sandal again. the clinic for our town was closed so we had to go to the next town over. the elders gave me a blessing just in case. they were worried because i lost a lot of blood and we went over. the doctor said it wasnt too deep and sealed it with adhesive and a bandage that i cant take off or get wet for 5 days. so i have had the joy of proselyting in my sandals. so its been quite the eventful week. The members were the coolest part though. all of them wanted to help even though it was bleeding and what not. they are a very kind group of people. everyone here is pretty much. oh yeah speaking of which a drunk guy hugged my companion. it was super funny.

well i think thats it for the week. i love you all and thanks for the updates. talk to you in a week!

love 

elder mcmullin

Week 7- Feb 5th, 2015 Cape Verde- first area assignment- Sal

Hello from Cape Verde,
We just wanted you to know that your son arrived here safely – finally. We have been very anxious for this group to get here and I am sure you were too. What an adventure they have been on! But they are here and all doing well. Unfortunately because of their late arrival they did not have the time to write an email. We were just able to give them a quick orientation and send them to bed. Some will be leaving very early in the morning to get to their first assignments. (Those tickets had been bought assuming they would arrive yesterday.) But they have all been assigned excellent trainers who will catch them up on things. And we will actually be traveling to all the islands in the next week and a half to do Zone Conferences, so we will be able to check on each of them. Attached is a picture of Elder McMullin pointing to where he has been assigned with his companion.

All the best,
Sister Mathews

Week 7- delay in Portugal- Feb 4, 2015

so quick update I don't have much time. we weren't able to get another flight so they had the Portugal mission presidents pick us up and stay the night and feed us. everything is well and we will be heading to cabo verde tomorrow at 2ish here. and im guessing they will let us write again when we get there. so hopefully I will be able to get more information then. love all of you, tchau

love

elder mcmullin

We are sorry these great young men are not staying in Portugal!  We've enjoyed getting to know them. They will leave for Cape Verde about 2:30 this afternoon.
Sister Fluckiger
Portugal

Week 7- plane flight- Feb 3, 2015

Sooooooooooooooooo i dont think i will be calling. the card that i got doesnt seem to work on the dumb international phones.

Well to give an update we are still in spain. when we got to spain our two african elders got taken for visa issues so we missed our flight and they are most likely being sent back to the us, We have gotten like no sleep in the past like 30 hours and it succccckkkks. we are headed for lisboa in about an hour tho. and then we will be in that airport overnight and should be headed for cabo verde in the morning. I hope some of you see this email right now. and if you do tell the others about it so i can at least talk to you guys like this until i board.

flying was fine. a little nervous the first take off but that was it. i actually enjoy turbulence. we hit a toooon in the ocean. we all had to buckle up. good times

Week 7 departure- Feb 2, 2015

I am getting pretty crazy nervous. In about 24 hours ill be starting my first plane ride since i was just months old. And its gonna be sooooooo long! And then ill only be speaking portuguese! ahhh! Im super excited. 

Well i guess i should fill you in on the last week that we have been here instead of just talk about leaving! It was mostly a normal week besides having to say goodbye to all of our awesome teachers. Its so wierd thinking that most of our teachers were chums age. In fact one of them i even treated kind of like chum. Irmao machado probably the most. He was a really good teacher and he was the only native portuguese speaking teacher. He grew up and served in brazil and starting writing one of his companions sisters as a joke to tease his companion. well eventually they met and a little bit later they got married and he moved here. So now his companion from his mission is his brother in law and one of his best friends. its pretty funny. he also has fun learning games that we get to learn with. They all do his are just more often. He works at techanos (or however it is spelled) so if you guys are ever headed there and are served by a brazilian named vini thats probably him! So we mostly said goodbye to him but i think we will see him one more time tonight but he will be teaching a different class. We said goodbye to irmao nothum also. He is also about chums age. Hes the one that has been here since the beginning but took a break to visit his family. We are actually his last class because he is getting into teaching middle school kids and has a lot of other things going on so he actually quit after he finished with us. He was also a really great teacher. And he informed us his last day that he has a girlfriend now. We were all super excited for him. Our last teacher irmao clements we have one more class with tonight. He reminds me more of myself then the others. They all served in Brazil. So all together in the mtc i was taught 2 times by a cabo verde teacher, and i think 1 time by a portugal teacher and a bajillion times by brazil teachers. Its really wierd because a lot of them are pretty close to my age. In fact if i had come out a litle bit later the 18 year olds that left that are my age would be back and they might be teaching. that would have been kind of wierd. haha. 

So quite a bit of interesting things happened this week. Everyone in our zone that left the time we did was reassigned except the cabo verde missionaries and Sister Young (the sister heading to brazil in my zone). Which means like 23 missionaries heading to portugal go reassigned to various places. It was rough. Because everyone that goes to brazil is expecting to be reassigned but portugal missionaries almost never have visa issues. Anyways a day or two later it turns out their visas went through and all have been accepted so far except like 5. so only 5 reassignments. But we wont know any of the portugal missionaries travel plans until 2 today. i might get on to give you all an update. But im not totally sure yet. 

Well yesterday being the last sunday in the mtc and also a fast sunday i was in meetings pretty much allllll day. It was nice but it was tough to stay awake at a lot of times. I think they only time we werent was dinner and the sunday walk and like an hour and half of study time. so about 3 hours werent in church. haha so no complaining about 3 hours of church little boys!

Well i think thats about it for this week stuff that sticks out. This morning sister Young left for brazil. the fact that she got her visa is pretty crazy and we got up to see her off a little bit early this morning. Now the rest of the day is going to be packing and cleaning and stuff to get ready for the trip tomorrow. Its crazy leaving. Not so much the mtc, i mean the mtc is fun and its very good for learning but im pretty ready to be out of here. But the hard part is leaving behind the district. I cant speak for the rest of the mission yet but after you leave your family and you need people to be around and grow close to you are with your district at all times so thats pretty much what they become. Im hoping it gets easier as you go to leave areas but im not so sure especially because we will have to leave investigors and members too after we are in the field. But i will do my best!

I love you all at home and thank you all for everything you do. I have the last physical letters to send off today at somepoint for you all. Boa sorte with everything that you all are doing.

Love Elder McMullin

these are the teachers. not sure if you can read the name tags. the black sweater is nothum the brazilian is machado and the white shirt white guy is clements

Week 6- January 27th, 2015

This week had quite a bit going on! ill start by saying we got to hear from M Russel Ballard on tuesday and it was pretty awesome. We also heard from the 70 dude that is in charge of all of the missionary stuff for the past 17 years. he was a really cool guy. I think his last name was allan.... maybe i cant remember haha. And a lot of uplifting class sessions so it was a very nice week as far as spiritual growth goes. 

On a downside while no one else at home is getting sick i am sick once again. bleh i hate being sick! oh well! I have to get my haircut today because i leave in exactly a week so i might take a nap after to try to get rid of this sickness. 

I enjoyed everyones emails and letters about their personal lives. Keep them coming! i cant be totally clueless for the next two years about what you are all up to. Ill tell you all a little bit of the random things that have happened this week!

Well first thing is first we all got our travel itinerary! except one sister. ill explain that in a bit! but we all know our flight plans now and ill go over it briefly. instead of our whole portugal and cape verde group going together they are split up. so all the cape verde elders are together and we have a group of 8. we leave here at 6am on the 3rd. and we are suppose to be arriving in cape verde at 6:30 pm the next day. that will be fun. we will be going through georgia spain and portugal. But the portugal elders are leaving at 4 30am on the 3rd and getting to portugal at like 11am or 12 the next day. they will be headed through michigan and paris. so that should be cool for mthem. The funny thing is we are leaving after them but we will be in portugal before them. in fact we get there an hour before them and have a 5 hour lay over there so we are going to try and find them while we are waiting to have a final good bye. That will be pretty cool. Im not excited at all for packing. it will be quite the difficult time. Ill probably just give up and take nothign with me. Ill make it work. 

So the other sister didnt get her visa t obrazil and she was reassigned to portland oregon and for some reason left a week before us so she left yesterday morning at 3 am. So that meant our whole district got up at 3 to see her off. BLEEEHHHHH i hate waking up so early but it was nice that we all got to say goodbye to her.... except the elder that didnt wake up... haha. So the sister that looks like the twins is now gone! So now we only have one sister left in our district and she leaves the day before us so far she is leaving for brazil unless she gets reassigned because of visa problems in the next week. so we get to wake up at like 4 to send her off. so much waking at strange hours makes for a cranky elder mcmullin. 

Anyways as for cape verde which i am leaving for in a week, it sounds like i can use either the brazil or the portuguese dialect there so i get to talk whichever way i want which i like a lot. especially because ive been pretty much speaking a mix of them depending on how i like to say certain words haha. i guess i will know for sure when i finally get out there.

So at the start of the week one of our teachers found out due to here hours she cant work here again until a but after we leave so we got another new teacher. we are up to 10 ish teachers here in the mtc. its crazy switching so often. but luckily the three last teachers that we will end of having might be my 3 favorite. irmao nothum irmao machado e irmao clements. machado is hilarious because hes from brazil so whenever he learns english words hes proud of he tells us. this week he learned the word cracker, as in a white person. it was super funny. 

speaking of super funny. there has been a bit of gambling going on here at the mtc... and by that i mean i made a bet with elder moeller. i dont remember if i told you but he deferred to USU before he came here so when he gets back he will be in logan with me. so the bet is super awesome and has super  serious consequences. so elder moeller has a reputation here as being quite the lady killer. the best part is he hates it because we are on a mission. so it bugs the crap out of him. he doesnt even do anything to provoke it. anyways we always find girls and guys saying things to him about his looks or his muscles. so the bet was 5 people would do it before we leave next week. the ocunt is up to 4 and we arent even halfway done yet! so im gonna win. if the count gets to 5 i win and if it doesnt i lose. if i lose i will not try to bug him or contact him while he is in logan. but if i win he has to come to my house and join mine and Elder birkys manly friendship. needless to say im gonna win and it will be legendary. 

well thats most of everything that is going on here in mtc. just one more week of it and then it will be off to Africa! oh yeah i met a sister that was in cape verde a few months ago for humanitarian stuff. she was super jealous thats where im going because thats where she wanted to be called. she said it is super awesome and also super dirty. pretty crazy.

As for the last care package that a few of you asked me about, ive been seeing some people with some krispy kreme donuts..... hook me up! and some cans of guarana if you would please. and some more ramen... and something to make the guarana cold. i bleivle in you sissa you can find a way to do that! as for hangers id say no because i already have very limited space. especially with the books and everythign i got here that i need to take with me. we do need quite a bit of forks though. The atm in here is broken so i am gonna have to wait til the airport to get the money i need for luggage. mother as for the account id prefer checking so my debit card has access to it. i found out the currency for cabo verde is called escutas or somehting like that. ill know more about that as well when i actually get there. 

Well i think thats about it for this week. i will probably get a chance to do some stuff on monday next week seeing as i leave on tuesday but im not totally positive. Im glad that things are going well for all of you at least as far as you are telling me. keep up the good work peoples. ill try to get some letters out to all of you before i leave because lets face it once im there youll be lucky to get 1 physical letter, alexs will probably be in the envelop heading to logan so mother its your job to take it out and send it to alex. 

I love all of you and am praying for you! until next time!

Elder McMullin

Week 5- January 20th, 2015

welp this letter probably wont be as long as the others have been. if the timing with when we came in would have been correct i would be leaving for cabo verde in exactly a week but since it is different we will be leaving in exactly two weeks i believe. its nice because its more time to learn but im pretty anxious to be leaving about now. 

so a few highlights of the week is our mtc presidency changed so we had a devotional from someone high up again. and it was russel m nelson again! it was really cool. i enjoyed his talk this tme even more than the one on the christmas. this time he talked about how he talked in general conference in the last few years about "if you have a problem ask the missionaries!" and he listed all sorts of problems. afterwards he said guess what you are the missionaries. so it is up to you to fulfill the promise that i made. so that was pretty super awesome. The new mtc presidency all have been portuguese speakers due to missions and being mission presidents in brazil and portugal so that is pretty sweet too.

I feel like my portuguese is coming together pretty nicely with help from above and a lot of it. my vocabulary is pretty decent and unlike french class when i learn a word here i usually remember it. like ill see it and i can think of both english and portuguese so thats really cool. im not so good at sentence structure still but i make it work with what i have.reading the dictionary is a surprisingly good time. Also some of the things gods always blessed me with when it comes to learning. if someone explains something i can usually understand it pretty well and grasp it pretty quickly and i feel bad when other people cant do it here but everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and for a reason. 

another highlight is i am up to 210 lbs and elder birky told me he was 202 so after 14 years i finally win. its been a long time coming but its been worth it. now i can say little man to him. good times.

That care package was amazing and just in time. those many cups of ramen have brought happiness to many a missionary here at the mtc. Also those stroopwaffles were absolutely amazing especially with cookie spread on top. no wonder i am 210 lbs. id like to think some of its coming from muscles getting bigger but im not so sure..... 

Pheonyx is adorable as always. im pretty sad that im gonna miss all of the first time things but i know i am where i need to be. and ill have plenty of time to tease her when i get back. that goes for the little boys too.

you guys dont tell me much of whats going on there besides the parents. what are my brothers up to? mainly chum and tim. the other siblings i get pretty good updates on and sissa keeps me updated with their little group and luckily christine and jordyn pick up dads slack (just kidding pops) but i dont here much from tim and chum about whats going on with them. a little bit but not much. alex too. whats up with that guys? i expect a letter detailing something important. whether it be a funny story from recent or the latest lady dates (bro dates dont count unless it has a cool story with it) Get something to me. even good old Bruce has written me! If you see him thank him for me.I love hearing from all my families. also if anyone sees dalton tell him i need some updates from him. i dont want to find out anything life changing 3 weeks after it happens! that goes for everyone! 

Well the mtc is going well like i said. I get to go to the temple again later and another devotional tongiht so those should be good and uplifting. I think thats about it for this week. oh yeah and we hosting again this week so round two tomorrow! Love you all and i hope everything is going well with everyone.

Love

Elder McMullin

Week 4- January 13th, 2015

well this week was a long one. well in a way. time is very odd to me here. some people say days are slow but weeks are fast. but for me its both go fast but super tiring. trying not to nap in class is a challenge. and its not because class is boring but because i am just super tired. i actually highly enjoy class. im pretty much about to pass out as i write this. haha. oh well. so i guess ill start with wednesday.

I forgot to mention it last week but on wednesday we hosted the new missionaries! Hosting is alright. And for jordyn guess what? i saw david archuletta again! this time i was like 3 feet away from him. he dropped his cousin off and i would have hosted that car but because it was a girl cousin a sister got to host them. but oooohhhh well. i hosted an elder from california and one from Idaho. the one from idaho elder hall is going to cincinatti ohio ( i know its not spelled right but i dont care. and elder taui from cal is headed to the philippines. i talked to them both later in the week and taui remembered me and was super nice and i talked to elder hall and he spoke as if we had never spoken before so  i guess he just put up some sort of mental block so that was pretty hilarious. Its not super eventful hosting but it was alright. it tried to bring up some sad memories so i just pushed them down and was like not today zerg! 

So we have had like 9 teachers now and one of them is preggers (you are welcome sissa) so we will probably have at least one more before we leave here. i guess feb 3 which is our estimated leaving date is elder birkys one year mark so thats pretty dang cool. still quite awhile until i see him again. but he still writes me the most after parents and sissa! 

Well we had a cool little teaching class where everyone was getting frustrated with just talking to people to find out what their needs were so our teacher decided to let us try the activity in english. like ten minutes before we had watched a talk of elder hollands and i had written something down to help in another lesson and i put relate fundamentals of gospel to lacrosse team story. and then the teachers person taht she was portraying as the pesquisador (investegator) said that she had been doing all the fundamentals and i was like way to not beat around the bush spirit! so i related the story to her and got it started. she said it was a really good thing to relate to the investigator and that was pretty cool. i like knowing that i do things good every now and then. 

We have been teaching the teachers still and we had another trc with members these ones were recently returned missionaries. it was super strange because one of them kind of took over the lesson and it was like they were the missionaries but it was an overall good experience. I feel like i did a lot better then when we did it in trc last week. 

We got a new dl this week and its oen of the guys in my room. he changed quite a bit which i mean you should as a leader but i felt like he was super different but he has now settled out so thats good. thanks for all the packages and what not. we are almost out of cup of noodles so if you could send more of those that would be greatly appreciated! we have plenty of hot sauce though! 

so i think i mentioned this but me and bannerman and moeller started going to the weight room. elder moeller is a pretty big guy. and defined. so allllll the sisters heads are turning in the gym and hes super funny because he HATES it. he feels super uncomfortable going ahahha. anyways ive gained 2 pounds everytime i have weighed myself at the gym. i have gotten up to 208. wooooooooo! more than elder birky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want to be 220 before i leave the mtc so 3 more weeks to make it happen! goodness knows when i get to cape verde i will probably be losing it. i hope not though!

the sisters also take pictures of him at the temple when he doesnt know because i guess he always looks like a model. its a real good time. wanna know something funny? elder meller deffered to usu before coming out here. so when we get back he will have to suffer even more!!! i want to see him and elder birky interact. that would be awesome. 

out of the other group of elders going to cape verde two companionships have one canadian and and one south african. its a pretty good time. 

also im called santa claus because im fat forgot to shave once and they gave me milk and cookies. 

well thats about how this week went. also elder krull has like the same taste in music as me and chum so thats a real good time. so thats about it for this week. thanks for all the support and other stuff! Love you guys!

love

elder mcmullin

Week 3- January 6th, 2015

Another crazy week down! And mom the way we usually say hello is oi. its like hi. and its pronounced like oee. as in o then e. oi. ill correct your other portuguese at the end. Thanks for all the letters i have recieved this week and for the packages as well. unfortunately they did not get before new years. well i think they did but my dl didnt check the mail before it closed that day so oh well. i still showered elder moeller with silly string and confetti when i got the chance. New years wasnt super exciting here not much went on and they wanted us asleep at regular time. i had no problem with that though. i value my sleep. oh yeah and i forgot on christmas too. feliz natal and feliz anos nouve. merry christmas and happy new year! and happy birthday to dad as well. i dont here much from you but you are lucky that Christine picks up your slack! Just kidding its all good. I enjoy hearing what is going on in everyones lives and im glad my letters are getting to you. although my sos letter to sissa for cup of noodles took 2 days longer than my letter to mom and john and the younguns for some reason. oh well. but yes our room is in desperate need of cup of ramen with cholula sauce. elder moeller and i share a mutual love for cholula sauce. and the others share a love for cup of ramen. SOS! haha now that that is out of the way time to get to the good stuff.

So our district is having some seperation issues. the funny part is it is not from home it is from teachers. because of the break and all these other things we have had about 8 different teachers when all the other districts have had about 3. and they stay just long enough to get attached to them then they leave us! my favorite one so far has been irmao machado and he was just a sub and has now left us so that kinda sucks a lot but all the teachers are great in their own way. but he was a native of brazil so he was extra good and awesome. 

SO i have had a tooooooooooooooooooooooon of super awkward moments this week. and 90% of the time it is with sister lee ( the one that reminds me of the twins). dont worry its not page 33 violations. well its not meant to be. ill go through them quickly and as little description as possible to make for less embarrassing times. even though its suuuuuuuuuuuper hard to make me actually get embarrassed. so you know how people have things they do when they become friends? like they have their own thing? well the sisters call me names in portuguese and i return the favor. apparantly my half smile is creepy looking so they started calling me creepy. so i decided to call them creeper. long story short i called them creeper in front of irmao machado one day and he asked me to repeat myself. so i did. and he was like you should never say that. especially to a girl. and i kind of put 2 and 2 together..... well i was rigth. apparantley that is pretty much calling a gril the b word. and that was pointed out mid class. needless to say that might be my new most embarrasing moment. i had been walkiing around all week swearing at sister lee and not even knowing it. and all the other teachers apparantly had no idea because they had all heard me before. like i said him being a native to brazil was super awesome and now i wont have to learn that in an even harder way outside of the MTC! although that way did suck and i felt pretty terrible the rest of the day. but the sisters are cool and they forgave me luckily. they also asked for a story of mine from back home and after awhile i gave them some of it. it happened to be one of my break up stories. and now they want to beat up one of my exes..... so thats another funny random story. its pretty cool how close the district can get in some short weeks. when i go to cape verde ill have a ton of mixed emotions. ill miss this district quite a bit but im still super excited for it. speaking of which because of when we came in we have 7 weeks here so thats good and bad at the same time. oh well! the date we leave is feb 03 i believe so thats what should be on packages. its wierd. 

ill give you some more funny stories about our district before getting into the spiritual stuff. So teachers technically cant teach us slang. but i managed to convince one of them to tell me how to say come at me bro. so our dl is a strange individual. hes a good guy but kinda strange sometimes. we just finished a lesson on spiritual stuff and the minute it finished our dl is like now teach us slang. kinda ruined the moment hahahah. well he wont be the dl for much longer seeing as its only 3-4 wekks so a new one will be getting called here soon. i feel bad because i feel like we are all against him because he does all these things then he goes to the presidency and like tells them any of our faults by name and just leaves himself out then in meetings with us he gives us a stern talking to from his soapbox and then he continues doing the same. its frustrating but i try to be as nice as possible. so in the end we said you lead and we will follow. and we sat him down a few of us and discussed that you dont single people out at presidency meetings you talk in general about over all probelms and personal problems should be brought to people personally. so i think it should start getting better. although he still roams and we look up and wonder when he left and have to go find him. 

some other quick funny stories. 

dl called moeller his jasmine. its on going joke and elder moeller hates it so naturally i love it. 

there is a misisonary thats kinda creepy towards sister lee so we have to like be on the lookout 24/7

you know how i say you are dead to me a lot? well its caught on. and any time that happens you pretend its the persons first day and you get to start your friendship anew.

i also may or may not have started a throat chop war. in fact i know i did. woopsies.

anytime anyone thinks of a movie they find me to quote it to and i get about 90% of them.

you will be suprised to find out that my weight is pretty much the same as when i came in. im 202 so ive lost 2 pounds.... not very much! me and elder bannerman and moeller have started lifting during gym time instead of playing basketball because i think they enjoy it more. in fact elder moeller is a gymahollic.and bannerman doesnt like much of any physical activity so i think they both enjoy it more and i need to lose my belly before i get out to cape verde! 

turns out elder moeller has the voice of kronk but the singing voice of ... i dont know. but its pretty suprisingly good. so i spend a lot of time singing songs i have found out he finds are catchy to get him to join. so far the best have been some whitney houston. i can go the distance. your man. and big brass bed. gooood times.

so i think thats enough of the fun temporal stuff. portuguese is going well. especially in lessons. except in our first TRC which you get to teach members that arent teachers. i lost like my whole vocab. and with each day bannermans vocab gets better and he doesnt really leave spaces for me to talk. its slowly getting more and more frustrating but if i try to take it a way he usually looks at me like what is going on so i try to stick to testifying of what he says and sharing personal stories and asking questions. which i mean its not bad. our teachers sya we are the best at asking questions. and i usually feel pretty good about the lessons but elder will complain about my not talking when he never gvies me a chance to. i expressed that i felt that way and he stopped mostly. everyonce in a while he still talks mess on me behind my back. almost always to the sisters. so usally i just say whatever. but one day he blamed me for something he did and i lost it at lunch and said you did that dont blame me and stop selling me out to look good to the sisters. that kinda ended the meal conversation..... oooopsies. but we got over it by the night time and i think he does it less. or at least is more sneaky about it. either way i said what i had to say and the rest of it is out of my hands.but still in general i think our companionshiop gets along the best out of the district. but i guess thats just my point of view. 

On a happy note the temple finally opened again yesterday and we get to go their later today. gotta enjoy these last few times before i leave to cape verde! 

well i think thats a lot of it. its impossible to remember everythign and to get it into these letters but i do my best. everything is still going great here. tudo bem! that means its all good. its used a ton in portuguese. especailly because the majority of their questions are just made my rasing your voice so the start of the conversation is Oi! tudo bem? tudo bem! tudo bem! haha. but seriously. i got a kick out of all the letters. oh yeah before i forget. bridger there is candy and sometimes chicken nuggets. there are also frozen pizzas in vending machines so thats good for you and ryalnds. also ryland i appreciate your support with the language and how you related it to your french. i sometimes accidently use french words in place of portuguese. and sometimes i use portuguese instead of english. my english vocab is going down as the other goes up but thats just fine. im working on it. sometimes i open my mouth and half of each comes out. haha. my razors are working fine. and on that favorite scripture thing i will have to get back to you on that one. its a big decision what to put on that plaque! ahhh other questions? i cant remember them all when im typring. oh yeah. mother i have not heard from the birkys but i have heard from elder birky. i know that they think about me along with elder birky and it means a lot to me. me and elder birky send each other about a quick paragraph. i hope to hear from all of you soon! also tell candith that im working on that picture. sending pictures in the mtc is super wierd becomes you have to use certain computers and i dont take much of my own so ill have to get them from other missionaries but i should have it by next week. i showed our whole district the picture and everyone said it was crazy the resemblence between them. also i have a suitor for one of the twins if they are interested in 2 years. ( dont be hes the dl ive spoken highly of.....) but in case you are interested! i hope everything is going well where everyone is! i miss you all but this is a great time honestly! read those scriptures and pray it makes a big difference! love you all.

Love

Elder McMullin

p.s. my hankering for noodles is getting out of control! send some forks with it too! thanks again!