October 22, 2008 Updates

You are invited to write Bryan at sbryanbriggs@myldsmail.net or snail mail to the address on the right. He can't email you but he can write via snail mail and promises to write everyone back as soon as he can...every card and letter means a lot to him. You can also comment below, just click on comments at the end of this posting and say hello....

First photo is of Casa Verde, or thesuburb that the CTM is in, and the other is our view of Sao Paulo.

The city is freaking ginormous. we actually went into the city of sao pualo this last week, place is crazy.soo many poeple everywhere! unfortunately it was a bit more run down than ihad expected...plus there were a lot of protests going on. and also, getthis, there is a rift between the city and state police! they call it thepolice wars here..crazy right? basically both are trying to get the upperhand and do more stuff so they get more funding, gosh its intense. but yeah,sooo many people just walking around, kind of reminded me of shinjuku,except not as technologically advanced and a different ethnic group walkingaround. next week we go to the avenida paulista, im sure that will be muchdifferent. from my research i remember it being the 8th most luxurious street in the world? somehting like that anyways...bascially wall streethere in sao paulo, those with money in the bank, as my teacher likes to say,will be there.

More from Elder Briggs...

well, the last email was deleted, so i dont even remember what i said haha! but it was truly excellent, very long and full of details..i am running short ontime so some of that sttuff will most likely be forgottenwell the park was definitely intense. it was right smack dab in the middle ofsao paulo..there were freaking people everywhere! plus it was hilarious, therewere tons of upper teens in costumes! i dont know if it was for halloween or aparty or protests or what...but yeah, you have not lived until you hear abrazilian try to be austin powers...ohhhhh so funny. but anyways, so they gaveus a bunch of pass along cards and a book of mormon. oh gosh it was thedefinition of intense. i had to just swallow my fear and begin talking topeople...in portuguese! it was a little frightening when they talked back...theyspeak it soo fast and i dotn yet have an ear for the language...but that willcome as i get used to it. my mission pres told me that eventually i will belike, why did it take him so long to say thatt? just spit it out already!about ten days ago i told my district that starting tonight, no more english. iam definitely pretty scared, but excited...for it is going to force me to learnthe language. plus it will help everyone focus more, my district is very social.some of them are trying to chicken out because they wont be able to talk asmuch! kind of makes me a little angry, since we all agreed, but whatever....nocontention. i hope it helps me learn a lot faster and begins the transferr of mythoughts to portuguese instead of english! i really need that to happen..i dontknow if i will ever be able to speak fast enough though...i couldnt even talkfast in english!whats next, oh yeah, packages! i am so happy that you sent me some stuff! ithas not arrived yet, but i cant wait for it to happen...getting letters isalmost better than christmas, and then pday is christmas and birthday onsteroids, just so relaxing and good to communicate with you guys! and eitherreeses thing, bt probably the pieces, i do love the pieces. btw, major kudos toGJ and Jason Olmstead, you two are the only people i have received letters fromthus far! you win the prize of everything good...yeah, and thanks to daniel,katrine, jason, and morgs, your emails rocked! i will reply with letters as soonas i canthanks for putting my address on the facebook, i did like receiving the emailsvery much, good idea mom. i know you feel awkward on the facebook, but i reallyappreciate it!what else, gosh, i dunno, learning the language is intense. there are 4 hours aday that we arent studying...and that is for meals, gym time, and getting readyfor bed...every other hour is dedicated to studying the language, the lessons,or the scriptures. i am happy you are reading the scriptures...im doing the sideby side, in 2 nephi now, already i can feel the side by side helping me with thelanguage! my goal is to go without the enlgish BoM by the time i get through Alma!i love you all...