6/28

Seriously, it was an amazing day. Diego and I got up after much alarm snoozing and finally walked to work. I found out that today wasn’t an ordinary work day, Brazil had a game against Chile. So we started off the work day with a tour of the awesome building and offices. Diego and I spent a pretty decent amount of time catching up on all of our social networking which was very helpful. Later, he started to fill me in on the project we would be working on which is basically introductory images to some video sermons. Shortly after, Daniel Gardner, another really cool guy who works at Fiel came. He was a missionary kid when he was younger so he is great at both languages which is immensely helpful! After awhile, we had our lunch at a restaurant that is free to us for lunch which was pretty good! We came back to do some more work until three o’clock came around. Game time. Daniel let me borrow his Brazil jersey for this came. So we put on our shirts and wore big Brazil flags as capes and started getting pumped up. Watching the game brought a whole new level of appreciation for watching soccer. Maybe it was the excitement of a bunch of Brazilian guys cheering at every little triumph and jeering at every poor call. Or maybe it was just being in Brazil in general. Nevertheless, I got just as into it as them. Every one of the three goals would send us flying into the air cheering. Also, after every goal, people all over Brazil shoot off fireworks which added nicely to our noise. After Brazil beat Chile 3 to 0 (no big deal). We all ran out into the streets cheering and waving our flags. A ton of people were outside dancing to music, blowing horns, and cheering the cars that would drive by honking. At one point they even stood in front of a bus and got it to stop so that they could cheer to it. It was crazy but so awesome! Best part of the summer so far.. Later, we went to the mall and I got a sim card for a phone that I can use here which is pretty nice. Then the guys and I got some pizza and went home to the Denham’s house and played some wii sports and fit. Diego dominated everyone including me in tennis but I was eventually able to beat him. That was about it! Waking up to go to work still feels like ages ago. It’s a good thing I’m writing this down otherwise I would probably forget it!

6/27

This morning we woke up and went to church! A lot like the Bible study, it was really cool to hear a church service in another language. It really broadens your view of God when you meet awesome Christians from another country. At one point during the service, the pastor asked if anyone was there for the first time. He had me stand up and started asking questions but I had no clue what he was saying so Diego of course stood up and told the congregation about me. The best part was that for some reason, the people here can’t figure out how to pronounce my name.. I think they think it starts with a P or something but they all sound the same to me. So at the service I Diego and the new friends would say “Beau?”, “No, Beau” , “umm Beau?”, “No, not Beau. Beau.” I still haven’t quite figured out how they keep saying it wrong.. Anyways, during the service, a woman gave me a Bible with both translations side by side which was awesome. I spent the whole service trying to learn more words. After that I got to meet people from the church and a lot of them knew a decent amount of English. One of them even used to live in Minneapolis and even Duluth when he was my age! After church I went out to eat with Rick’s parents and sister. It was really funny sitting in the backseat while Faith (Rick's sister) drove around town trying to find this restaurant while receiving completely opposite directions from the two parents. It was quite the adventure! At the church we go to, they have two services on Sunday that they both go to so we went to the evening service which was a lot like the morning one. A lot more of sitting and listening to Portuguese which I can't understand.. They speak it so fast! It's still really fun though. After that though, we went out to eat for Diego's birthday. He just turned 24 and a lot of people came to celebrate! I got some delicious bruschetta and had fun talking to people who wanted to practice their English. It was a very eventful day! By the end of it, I felt like that morning had been a couple days ago. Having a great time so far:)

Brazil 6/26

I’ve been here for about a day and a half. It’s been pretty interesting coming here and not actually knowing anyone but I’ve already made several friends and we’re having fun! Diego and Mr. Denham Sr. picked me up from the airport and we had an interesting time on the way home getting a little lost. But we eventually got to Diego’s family’s house. He has two younger brothers and a younger sister and parents that basically speak no English so that has been pretty fun awkwardly walking by them and just knowing how to say hello. Language, has been very fun. I’ve heard people say that Portuguese is a lot like Spanish and even with a couple years of taking Spanish classes, I still have no idea what they’re saying! It has helped a little though. I have a decent understanding at how verb conjugations work and general sentence structure. I just can’t understand the words that they’re saying.. After trying to sleep off some jet lag, we went to a small bible study that Diego and his friends have. They were all so friendly and eager to talk to me and I made some good friends. Some of them spoke very good English! It was so cool listening to an entire Bible study in portuguese. After awhile I just took an English Bible and a Portuguese version and compared it to try and pick up some more language and it actually helped quite a bit! After that I came home and listened to some Relevant podcast, it was good to hear words I could understand for a bit!