Leaves CTM and Arrives in Goiania

Updated 5/21
Over the 3 weeks or so we received no letters... with one exception... we recieved the first letter he sent which was from the day he arrived in the CTM. It only took 6 weeks to get here! Apparently Missionties.com has lost the last couple of letters from him, but he has been receiving our letters. All was made well on Mother's Day when we had the opportunity to speak with our son for over an hour.

Since the timing of his departure from the MTC was the week before Mother's Day, he didn't have a chance to email us that week because he was in route to Goiania. So we had a two week communication dry spell. NOT FUN! Thankfully the Catron's did receive a couple of letters during this time and kept us informed. THANK YOU JAMIE and KIM! We knew we were supposed to be able to talk via the phone, but because we didn't know where he was, we didn't know how to reach him. We even emailed the mission home to see if they could tell us how to make contact. We must have used the wrong email address, because we never did receive a reply. Anyway, Mother's day came rolling around and we decided that Tamara would go home after the sacrament to wait for a call. He called at about 3PM and said to call him back at 4PM. Tamara called me at church and was pretty excited. He called her and said "I only have two minutes on my calling card, so write down this number and call me back". So I grabbed the kids and left church a little early so we could be home in time to call.

We called right at 4PM and connected pretty quickly. Ahh, the sweet sound of Cam's voice. It was great! The connection was pretty bad. During the hour and twenty minutes or so, we dropped the connection 3 times and sometimes it was hard to hear him due to static etc., but it was still great to hear his voice. Hears some Q & A from the call: (as best we can remember and from a few notes)

What town are you in? What's it like there?
Goiania, proper. I guess Goiania is known as the desert of Brazil. It hasn't been too wet here yet. It's still pretty green in places though.

What's your new companions name?
Elder DaSilva. He's been out for one year and doesn't speak a lick of English! We have two other elders with us; one is Brazilian and one American (He's Tongan, but was born in America - Elder Fa)

Are you in an apartment or a house?
It a small house, but we'll be moving next week. Right now we're living out of our suitcases because it's pretty bad living conditions. You can't hang clothes in the closet or the bugs will eat them. We have mold in the apartment too. Lot's of sugar ants everywhere and big flying cock roaches. (Dad responded... "ahhh memories what memories... Any rats?") No rats in the apartment. (You haven't lived until you have rats the size of cats climbing out of waterless toilets and into your quarters!)

What was your experience like at the mission home? What is President Tobias like?
The presidents home in beautiful. It reminded me of entering in the temple. We had dinner with them too. I didn't sleep at the mission home - they put us up in little hotel close by. President Tobias is great! He's very young and has a strong presence. He seems to know how to motivate the elders really well. I really liked that he interviewed me prior to assigning me to a companion. I feel like this was a good thing and that he prayerfully considered who would be my trainer.

Any good stories?
Yes, I've got a good gross one. It's bad manners if you don't ask for seconds. We were eating at this members house and before I could ask for seconds, the sister just kept piling on the rice. I kept eating and eating and got fuller and fuller until I couldn't eat anymore. Unfortunately I ate too much and I think some of the rice wasn't cooked all the way because it expanded in my stomach.... I had to excuse myself and literally ran to the bath room and got sick. It wasn't a pretty sight. Anyway, the food is pretty good and oh... the fruit is excellent, it's soooo good you wouldn't believe it.

That's it for now...
There were lot's of other small talk type questions etc, so we won't bore you with that. We ended the call with a thankful (and tearful) prayer. Hopefully at Christmas we'll be able to hook up with video conferencing!