We were so happy to hear from Tyler and to know that he is doing so well. Below is a copy of his most recent email this morning. I understand it's difficult to type on a Portuguese keyboard so I cleaned up his letter a bit. No address for you yet, but hope to get on next week. Thanks for your love and prayers. Below are stock photos of Beja, Portugal and the castle tower Tyler mentions he can see from his apartment.
Hello everyone. How are you all doing? I am doing wonderful. Portugal is so cool I really love it over here. It is very different from home. The plane rides over here where LONG but very interesting. The first plane ride was from SLC to Dallas TX and I sat in between two ladies. The one on my left was actually from San Paulo Brazil and she spoke Portuguese which was way cool! She was also a member of the church was even cooler. She spoke English as much as I could speak Portuguese. The lady on my left was from Texas and she was also a member of the church I got to talk with both of them which made the plane ride go a lot faster. I would like to send a shout out to my aunt Heidi and say thank you so much for giving me and my companion our goodie bags in the airport. That was so nice of you, thank you! When I landed in TX I was able to call my family which was so nice, I miss them so much.
Funny story, so I had a calling card for the phone and when I used it, it somehow ended and cut me off from my family and I was like WHAT!!! So, I tried to see if I could get money to go and talk to them again and there was a man at the bank and he asked if I need to use the phone. He was so nice to let me use his phone. I was then able to get back to talking with my family. The next flight was the BIG ONE! It was about an 8 hour flight from TX to London, England. It was a long flight. I think I only got about one hour of sleep on that flight. The flight feed us dinner and breakfast which was yummy. On that flight I was sitting next to one of the Elders that came with us and an older fellow on my right. He said he had family members who were Mormon and at one time he was, but isn’t anymore. We were able to talk to him and give him a lesson on why it is important to attend church every Sunday. It was a really good experience for the both of us.
Once we arrived in London we had about a 4 hour layover which took forever so we walked around the airport and looked around. Don’t worry Lauren I got you a magnet from London England :) I got your back Lo. The next flight was straight to Portugal. I got a window seat this time and I felt like the happiest person on that plane. I got so see us fly over the ocean and fly over Paris and all the white and fluffy clouds. It was very cool. I got video of us landing in Portugal and it is so beautiful looking at the houses with the orange rooms and all the cobble stone roads. All the roads are made out of cobble stone yep the roads, sidewalk, everything. The air smelt fresh, but that was probably because it was a little breezy. When it is not windy it smells like smoke because everyone here smokes. And I mean EVERYONE. Kids will start to smoke at age 11 which is very sad. Plus the clothes these people where aren’t really church approved either, very sketchy.
Weird thing about the girls here is that girls from the age 14-20 are called snakes, which means they love to flirt with young white American boys. My very first night here we went to do some street contacting and when we were about to go back home some snakes came up and started to talk to us, it was very weird. Sometimes we will be walking to an appointment and we will walk through a park and there will be snakes there and they will either come up to us or try to flirt with us or they will just whistle at us, it is very weird. My companion whose name is Elder Beckstrand told me if you ever see any snakes just RUN! ha-ha he is a funny guy. He is such a great missionary as well. He has been out for about a year and a half. He speaks the language
very well and is very good with people. He will be a wonderful teacher for me. I am very grateful that he is my companion. We get along very well.
The language is so different from the MTC it’s like it’s a whole different language over here. But I will learn it soon enough. So my first area in Portugal is Beja. It’s kind of a poor area but it’s still pretty good. Our church building here is really close to a castle its cool when we walk out of the building we can see the castle. We live with 2 other Elders in our apartment which makes a total of 4 Elders in our house. My P-day is on Monday so I’m happy about that. So for food we have to buy and make it ourselves. We buy the cheapest stuff we can buy so it can last us a month it’s not the best of food, but it will keep us alive haha. So in Portugal they have food products that they try to copy from the U.S. but it’s not even close to the food from America, but it is still good.
Yes, I was able to watch General Conference; I was also able to watch it live as well. The talks were so inspiring and strong. I love how a lot of the talks where about loving the prophet and following him. I am finding out my address and other info soon so don’t send anything just yet I will sent more info with my next Email. Well, my time is up but I will answer any questions you have in my next email.
With all my love,
Elder Rusnell
Funny story, so I had a calling card for the phone and when I used it, it somehow ended and cut me off from my family and I was like WHAT!!! So, I tried to see if I could get money to go and talk to them again and there was a man at the bank and he asked if I need to use the phone. He was so nice to let me use his phone. I was then able to get back to talking with my family. The next flight was the BIG ONE! It was about an 8 hour flight from TX to London, England. It was a long flight. I think I only got about one hour of sleep on that flight. The flight feed us dinner and breakfast which was yummy. On that flight I was sitting next to one of the Elders that came with us and an older fellow on my right. He said he had family members who were Mormon and at one time he was, but isn’t anymore. We were able to talk to him and give him a lesson on why it is important to attend church every Sunday. It was a really good experience for the both of us.
Once we arrived in London we had about a 4 hour layover which took forever so we walked around the airport and looked around. Don’t worry Lauren I got you a magnet from London England :) I got your back Lo. The next flight was straight to Portugal. I got a window seat this time and I felt like the happiest person on that plane. I got so see us fly over the ocean and fly over Paris and all the white and fluffy clouds. It was very cool. I got video of us landing in Portugal and it is so beautiful looking at the houses with the orange rooms and all the cobble stone roads. All the roads are made out of cobble stone yep the roads, sidewalk, everything. The air smelt fresh, but that was probably because it was a little breezy. When it is not windy it smells like smoke because everyone here smokes. And I mean EVERYONE. Kids will start to smoke at age 11 which is very sad. Plus the clothes these people where aren’t really church approved either, very sketchy.
Weird thing about the girls here is that girls from the age 14-20 are called snakes, which means they love to flirt with young white American boys. My very first night here we went to do some street contacting and when we were about to go back home some snakes came up and started to talk to us, it was very weird. Sometimes we will be walking to an appointment and we will walk through a park and there will be snakes there and they will either come up to us or try to flirt with us or they will just whistle at us, it is very weird. My companion whose name is Elder Beckstrand told me if you ever see any snakes just RUN! ha-ha he is a funny guy. He is such a great missionary as well. He has been out for about a year and a half. He speaks the language
very well and is very good with people. He will be a wonderful teacher for me. I am very grateful that he is my companion. We get along very well.
The language is so different from the MTC it’s like it’s a whole different language over here. But I will learn it soon enough. So my first area in Portugal is Beja. It’s kind of a poor area but it’s still pretty good. Our church building here is really close to a castle its cool when we walk out of the building we can see the castle. We live with 2 other Elders in our apartment which makes a total of 4 Elders in our house. My P-day is on Monday so I’m happy about that. So for food we have to buy and make it ourselves. We buy the cheapest stuff we can buy so it can last us a month it’s not the best of food, but it will keep us alive haha. So in Portugal they have food products that they try to copy from the U.S. but it’s not even close to the food from America, but it is still good.
Yes, I was able to watch General Conference; I was also able to watch it live as well. The talks were so inspiring and strong. I love how a lot of the talks where about loving the prophet and following him. I am finding out my address and other info soon so don’t send anything just yet I will sent more info with my next Email. Well, my time is up but I will answer any questions you have in my next email.
With all my love,
Elder Rusnell