Zone Conference in
Porto Alegre was the highlight of the week for us. The Elders and Sisters went the night before
the conference. But we boarded the bus
to PA early (6 am) the morning of the conference and caught a taxi to the
mission office. The theme of the
conference was “Padaria Pao da Vida”
(The Bakery of the Bread of Life).
They had good messages for us and “dressed the part”. We were spiritually (and physically) fed. It was a very enjoyable day.
It was fun to see again some of the
missionaries who had been transferred from Cachoeira. We always enjoy President Castro. Sister Castro had hurt her ankle the day
before the conference and was unable to attend.
We also have fun with the married couple, Burnetts and others serving
there in Porto Alegre. We are the only
couple from the U.S. Then they always
treat us to a good meal too. We, along
with the Elders and Sisters, started the 3 hour trip back to Cachoeira at 7
pm. The young missionaries always make
the journey fun. They are a really
likeable bunch of missionaries and always “look out” for us! Rogerio, from the Uniao branch came to pick
up the Sisters when we arrived at the bus station. We ended up getting a ride with him too. Elder Ritz insisted that we not walk home
that late at night. We told him that we
had done it before. He said that doesn’t
make it the right thing to do. Sounded
like something we might say to our own kids.
Nice of them to look out for us.
We spent most of our
days this week visiting and finding addresses for branch records. The weather was so nice this week. So it was nice to be about and about. It was a cooler week and is really feeling like
fall. Besides meeting new people, we
made visits to old friends like Paulo from the car dealership. He and Caesar have just lost their mother. Paulo agreed to a visit in his home with him
and his wife. We are excited about
that. The fruit stand lady, Rosane, was
not so excited to see us again, I think.
She said, “To be honest, I haven’t read anything.” (in the Book of
Mormon). Elder Shirley said, “To be
honest, you really need too.” She seems
to avoid us when she can when we have gone back for additional visits. Sad! We
have bought a lot of fruit this week at her fruit stand though. So we have had our ups and downs. Ariele who used to be in our English class
until her night school classes started, always greets us warmly and also agreed
to an in-home visit. We have set up a
number of Family Home Evenings for this coming week, some with members and some
with investigators. We are excited about
that. Some visits will be quite a
distance away and kind of late in the evening.
Guess we will be taking a lot of buses and taxis.
The Sisters in the
Uniao branch had a baptism on Saturday.
Elder Ritz, from Farmington, UT, did the baptizing. Elder Ritz will be
finishing his mission in April and is thinking of going to BYU-I. It was
a sweet baptism of Erli Beatriz. She
bore her testimony and was so happy. She
had a family full of non-members in attendance.
They seem like a great family.
There was another investigator there to observe the baptism. He had lots of questions for Elder
Shirley. It was a really nice evening.
We felt fortunate to
skype with all of the family on Neal’s birthday…a great birthday present! We were able to visit with most of the
grandkids too. We got e-mails from lots of family and friends
too. It does
our hearts good! We are grateful to
all! We are well and happy and feeling
very blessed!
Love to all….
Eu te amo!
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