In keeping with our
week, a lady at the bus stop said to us “You are always running” as she snapped
her fingers, Brazil style. It seems that
we are living our own version of “fast and furious”. We spent our time this week doing a variety
of things.
Our thought has been
that we don’t want to tell everyone how soon we are leaving. We don’t want it to become about us. We just want to do what has to be done and do
our regular missionary work right up to the end. But everyone seems to know or at least they
are asking about our departure date.
We were walking up the
street when Renato, the hot-dog man, drove up the street. He saw us and pulled over. He was leaving town on vacation for a couple
of weeks. He wanted to give us one last
good-bye as we will be gone by the time he gets back. That has been typical for us this week. We
have tried to visit as many as we could, some on the street, in the stores
where they work or in their homes. We
will miss these good people! We will
worry about them. Some have promised us
pictures when they finally make it to the temple or when they get
baptized. We hope those blessings will
be realized.
Gabriele requested
another follow-up lesson for Thais. She
invited her mom, Claudia, and grandma, Iná.
We presented the first lesson again, using figures on the white
board. We left the white board with
Thais as she has enjoyed helping with each lesson and placing the figures on
the board. They want us to come back
next week for one more lesson.
As some may have seen
on FB, we were invited to teach an English class at the Honorato school. It is a little country school a bit out of
town. The director of the school picked
us up at the church and gave us a ride.
The kids were really great! They
were interested, paid attention, participated and seemed to enjoy it. They seemed to like the games we incorporated
into the English lessons. Even the
teacher got up front to challenge a student in one of the games. It was fun.
The director told us that these country kids were sweet and simple, not
like the school kids in the center of town.
We really enjoyed them.
Afterwards, two or three of them gave us little pictures they had made
in school or hurriedly wrote little “love notes”. We told the director that we wouldn’t bring
up religion, but asked (and received) permission to answer any question asked
of us as to what we were doing here in Brazil.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher asked us that very question. So we had a brief opportunity to do our
“missionary thing”. Mika, the director
has been to church once this month with a family in the branch that lives close
to the school. She invited us for coffee
afterwards, or at least tea. She was
amazed when we declined and it gave us a brief opportunity to explain the word
of wisdom. She wanted to be “friends” on
fb. By the time we got home, we had
received her “friend request”. Pics were
posted on fb shortly afterwards and one of our daughters is now also friends
with her. Amazing!
Our apartment also is
in disarray as we have begun the process of cleaning and packing. It is amazing how much even missionaries can
accumulate in a year and a half. We had
some good news though. It appears that
the Cachoeira branch Elders will be moving into our apartment when we leave. It will be much nicer for them than the one
they are living in now. These are the
only two Elders in the District who haven’t been to our apartment yet. Sister Castro asked them to come over and
check it out. So they came one morning
so we could show them around. We also
made a little breakfast cake for them.
Had to make the place look and smell good! We are excited too as we can leave a lot of
things here for them. It will make the
move easier for us.
We were supposed to
visit at the home of Julio and Rosangela on Saturday. We saw Julio downtown on Saturday
morning. He wanted to postpone the visit
until Sunday afternoon. He accompanied
us on our little shopping trip, helping us find a couple of non-missionary type
items for our tour, like sunglasses, a hat and mascara. He knew the best places to find these items
at the best prices. To buy mascara, you
have to go to the “farmácia” (pharmacy). (They keep it behind the counter). It was pretty funny seeing Julio describe to
the clerk what kind of mascara we were looking for. Sunday was the day Julio had promised that we
could take a photo of him down on his knee, proposing to Rosangela (since we
won’t be here for their wedding). But
when we arrived he wanted to do the photo next Saturday. We tried to explain that we had a dinner
appointment with President Torres on Saturday at noon and a baptism to attend
later in the day. But he insisted that
we could make time for the “important people”.
They wanted one more visit. He
promised that if we would come on Saturday, four of them in the family would
come to church next Sunday. Reluctantly, we agreed. We would love to visit them
again next week, but were worried about time restraints. Now we just hope the baptism is late enough
in the day that we can squeeze in a visit to Julio and Rosangela and family in
between lunch and the baptism.
Anyway, we have just
been trying to really see and appreciate the sights and sounds here in Brazil
and, especially the people we have come to love. It is a full week ahead. On Sunday we had the opportunity to bear our
testimonies one last time. Afterwards,
we received many hugs, warm wishes and dinner invitations for this next
week. We want to be missionaries up to
the very end! So we have a couple of
Family Home Evenings scheduled, and several lessons to teach. Every day and every evening is booked. We also have lots of packing to do! We aren’t
quite sure when that will happen. This
is our last week. We have one more
Sunday! In order for us to tour Brazil a
little after our mission, we will be released by our Stake President sometime
in the afternoon next Sunday via the internet! We really can’t believe it! We are both sad and happy at the same time. We love the people here. But we have missed family a lot. This week we missed a couple of
graduations. But we look forward to
being home soon for many upcoming happy occasions!
We know this week will
fly by! The week ahead looks like it will be “fast and furious”! Hope all is well with each of you! We love you!!
Eu te amo!
