Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

Another week here in Provo! Dang it is already cold here. There is snow just a couple hundred feet up on the mountains! Ready to cruise into Summer in Brazil soon. So no Visa this week. I was a little upset at first, but honestly I'm liking it here and gonna enjoy the good ole USA while I have it. I also was given the opportunity this week to be the zone leader. Its kind of a leadership role over all the people in this MTC speaking Portuguese. There are about 30 missionaries in our zone. I'm super excited for the opportunity to lead by example. I know God wanted me to stay in Provo and learn something from this experience before I head to Brazil. I know He does and always has a plan for me in my life. This week me and my companion had the awesome opportunity to talk to someone who will speak in General Conference this weekend! His name is Elder Parrella and I believe he is speaking Sunday afternoon. His house is in my mission in Sao Paulo and he came to watch one of our Por...

This week was so good here at the MTC. It went by much faster than the first and I'm sure that will only continue. Its a big week cause this is the week I could get my visa and go to Brazil! If I get it this week, I will leave a week from today to head down to the Sao Paulo MTC. If not, I'll stay all 6 weeks here. So I will definitely let you guys know about that.  Portuguese is going super well. I'm progressing pretty quickly I think. I actually love going to class every day and learning more and more. I even lead taught 3 lessons in Portuguese this week! It's crazy to think about. But I can have basic conversation and understand a lot of what people say now. I really have a desire to continue learning in the language throughout my whole mission and keep improving even once I get home. In Brazil, they use the pronoun vocês which means "y'all" which I thought was awesome. So sometimes I'll say it in a country accent and think of back home since I ...

Hi guys!! So I am alive and well in Utah in the MTC (Missionary Training Center). I'll be here either 2 or 5 more weeks depending on if I get my visa, but then I will head to Brazil. Pretty much I just learn Portuguese here and learn how I'll be teaching investigators of the church once I'm down in Brazil. It is a lot of hard work, harder than I've ever had to work for school. It's 6:30am - 10:30pm  every day, and I feel very busy. But that is honestly the best thing for me.  My 3 years of high school Spanish is paying off!! I think I actually learned a lot in those 3 years and its a huge help with Portuguese because they are similar, especially verbs. So shoutout to Coach Flores for that. I've been told my Portuguese is very good for only being here a week so thats exciting.  Funny story of the week is when I first got here people trying to pronounce my last name in Portuguese. I've heard the Brazilians will really struggle with it so I may just end...