Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 12:43:44
Subject: Futebol

Hello all,
	Things are going very well here.  The language learning is coming
along nicely, and I have had some good conversations with nationals.  I
think I have adjusted to life here almost completely ("almost" is
stressed).  Life at my family's house is good.	We have both settled into
a routine and seem to understand each other fairly well.  Henry (my
host dude) thinks that I am learning quickly and my teachers at school say
that my pronunciation is very good.  I am encouraged by this.  However, I
won't be satisfied until I can have deep philosophical discussions with
any Brazilian (I may not ever get to that point though).
	This last weekend was very good.  I went out to this ranch with
the youth of the church that I attend.	They had music, preaching, pool,
ping-pong, a swimming pool, and most importantly a soccer field.  We
played a lot of soccer (soccer here is called "futebol" and is pronounced
"foo chee boh").  The rag tag group of Brazilians I played with was
probably the best team I have ever played on.  It was pretty awesome.  I
stayed within my playing abilities and held my own.  The Brazilians were
surprised and told me that I played very well.	I took that as a great
compliment.  Henry said that I was the only American he has ever seen that
could play well.  We had a blast and I was very sore the next day.
	This weekend is a holiday weekend.  We have no classes tomorrow.
I am going to a camp for the weekend with a church youth group.  We are
going to have a costume party apparently.  I am going to dress up as
Karate Kid (this dude is letting me borrow his outfit, it wasn't really my
choice).  I am going to learn a lot of Portuguese because of course hardly
anybody will speak English.  It should be a ton of fun.
	Pray for:
		Language acquisition
		That I may find a way to minister with my limited skills
		That God would prepare disciples for me in Sao Paulo

	I hope everybody is doing well.  I will talk to you later.

Justin