Happy Brazilian Father's Day!

The swing at Per Tutti Grill

Exploring another trail

Marcia enjoying some warm chimarrao before a cold church meeting

With Dionne at church

Father's Day gifts at the "Chocolate Show" store

Saying goodbyes to Sisters Holden and Morales

Kaleb and classmates

Kids singing at Father's Day party

Loving the meal at Per Tutti Grill

Father's Day poster: "Papa, I love you to the moon and back"

Luanna, Gilmar and Kaleb at school program

Lucia and Eduarda - she loves Elder and Sister Shirley!

Maximiliano showing off his ring purchase

The meat department at Tischler's market

P-Day with 4 of the sisters at the apartment

Richardt and Sisters Picula and Morales

Sisters Holden and Morales with Venicius and parents

Sisters Morales and Picula

Baptism of Venicius

Youth choir

Youth reenactment of Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and a great photo bomb by Sister Shirley

August 11, 2014

Every week is busy, but this week has been especially full of so many and such varied activities.  It’s been great!

Last Sunday night, President Castro was in town for the priesthood meeting.  Elder Shirley attended that while I spent the time visiting with Sister Castro and their son, Lucas in another room.   On other occasions like this, we have ended up playing “hangman” with Portuguese words.  Lucas didn’t waste any time requesting a repeat session of hangman.  It always turns out to be fun and is a good class in both Portuguese as well as English for all of us.  We had a good time and the time passed quickly.

Monday, P-Day, we met the Elders and Sisters at Per Tutti Grill (our favorite restaurant) for lunch.  Sister Rosado and Sister Mendoza weren’t able to come as they were off to Porto Alegre for an appointment. And the Elders from Cacapava weren’t able to be there.   This was in anticipation of the upcoming transfer and especially because Sister Morales has finished her mission and will be leaving for home.  Per Tutti is a buffet and everyone really got their money’s worth!  It was a rare treat for everyone. 

After Per Tutti, the Sisters came over to our apartment to visit and to send off emails and transfer pics.    The last of the Sisters left in time for us all to go to the home of Presidente Samuel to have a meeting and pick up invitations to deliver for the upcoming fireside.  We love having things like invitations to deliver.  It gives us a really good reason to drop by and visit people.  We spent a portion of the next couple of days doing just that. 

We visited Nelson (the pan-maker) and Lucia.  We were fortunate in that Lucia’s daughter was there with their granddaughter, who they are very proud of.  She is a cute, animated little red head by the name of Eduarda, 16 months old.  Lucia kept telling us that she looked like Americanos.  And Eduarda liked us.  She even gave goodbye kisses!  It was a good visit. 

The home of Nelson’s daughter Luciane and her husband Edson was our next stop.  Edson was home, but Luciane wasn’t.  She was in Porto Alegre with a son, Railandr, who had an emergency appendectomy.  But it was a good visit with Edson. 

Another good visit was with an inactive member we met last January or so by the name of Elaine Scortjanha.  Her husband, Geronimo, was home, as were her three kids (a boy and two girls), Vitor, 11, who likes to make cupcakes, Valentina, 5, and Teodora, age 1.  We had a really enjoyable visit.  Geronimo is not a member, but indicated he would be interested in having the missionaries visit.  They told us of some fun times they had with some Sister missionaries some time ago.  He said he was open-minded and wanted to hear more about the gospel.  Sounds like a good referral for the Sisters.

We also made another friend waiting at the bus stop one evening this week.  We struck up a conversation with Christiane, who was in the neighborhood visiting her grandma.  She works at the grocery store, Tischler’s.  She invited us to stop by and see her at work.  We did that the next day.  She was surprised.  And then we saw her on the bus on another day. 

Artur is still interested in having us come.  So we gave him the lesson on the commandments.  We talked about tithing, the Word of Wisdom, fasting, chastity, etc.  We reviewed with him all the things you have to do in order to be baptized and challenged him to think about a date to work towards for baptism.  He still seems very agreeable.  However, we have become aware that there is some big stumbling block for him, something in his past.  He wants to talk with Elder Shirley about it on the next visit.  And once again, he had family come on Sunday morning to take him out of town.  So he told us on the phone that he would have to miss church.  So we will see how things go with him.

Elder has had his shoes shined a lot this week.  He can never turn down Alex or Maximiliano.  Maximilano did stop us once this week, not to give a shoe shine, but to show us the ring that he had bought to give his fiancée.  He was pretty proud of it.  We had just been candy shopping for Father’s Day at a cute little store by the name of Cacau Show (Chocolate Show).  So we shared some of the candy with him in celebration of his ring purchase.  Elder suggested that he have President Glauber perform his marriage ceremony.  He is a really likeable young man! 

We have been anticipating our next visit with Maria.  But we got a call from her wanting to postpone for a week as she was really busy.  So we set up another appointment with her.  We have been unable to get the whole story on her yet.  She appears to never have been married.  Yet she lives in a really nice, big house with a sister who needs special care.   She seems to have a lot of people coming in and out all of the time.  It all seems a little strange. But she wants another visit. 

Gilmar and Luanna and Kaleb got moved into their new home.  We stopped by to visit and drop off a little “Lar, Doce Lar” rug (Home, Sweet Home).  Gilmar was there and Luanna was just getting home from work.  They insisted on taking us to the Father’s Day program at Kaleb’s school.  Kaleb is 4 and has gone to this school (a type of daycare) for 3 years.  It was like a little kindergarten program with songs, skits and stories, etc.  We really enjoyed it.  It was interesting to see the similarities to programs at home.  They even had a big poster that said “Pai, I love you to the moon and back!” (in Portuguese). They were leaving town to visit Gilmar’s mother for the weekend for Father’s Day, but insisted on taking us home instead of letting us ride the bus.  We really enjoyed the evening.  It was good to see that families and their activities are the same wherever you are at!  It surely made us think of family!

Yes, Sunday was Father’s Day….”Dia dos Pais”.   Mother’s Day is celebrated on the same day as we celebrate in the U.S.  But we had thought that they must not celebrate Father’s Day as nothing was said back in June when the U.S. celebrated father’s day.  The Marina branch had a special night to celebrate on Saturday with videos, pictures and food and songs by the kids.  So it was another party night for us.

Sunday, Elder was the main speaker in the Marina branch.  And the Uniao branch was having branch conference.  So after attending sacrament meeting in both Marina and Uniao, we went home for a quick bite to eat.  And then we were back to attend the baptism of a young man by the name of Venicius Morais.  He is one of the young men who danced with us at the Baile.  Sister Morales and Sister Picula, as well as Sister Holden have worked with him.  This was a wonderful way for Sister Morales to spend her last day in the mission field.  Venicius is a great young man, friendly, outgoing, and talented.  We continue to be amazed at the number of youth who have been baptized recently.  As we sat in sacrament meeting, we could see so many new converts in general.  The church is really growing here in Cachoeira!  It is great to see.  It was another wonderful baptism.

Following the baptism, the Uniao branch held a “Serão”, a type of fireside.  Under the direction of Presidente Samuel and his mother who is the YW president, the young men and young women did a re-enactment of Anti-Nephi Lehies when they converted and determined that they would never again shed blood and made a covenant and buried their swords.  The youth were in full costume and really acted out their parts well.  This was followed by a special speaker they had invited.  The youth ended with a special musical number.  The whole program really touched our hearts.

Sister Morales was there bidding her goodbyes, as was Sister Holden who had received word that she was being transferred to another city.  Tears were shed.  It was a good way for them to spend a last day in Cachoeira.  Both of these sisters board a bus at 6:30 am tomorrow.

We have had a big variety in the weather this week.  Some days have been cold and rainy.  Other days we have seen the sun and it warmed up a bit.  We don’t know if it’s weather related or not, but our internet decided to start working.  We had talked with the repairman on the phone and he was supposed to come configure a new modem for us.  He told us that lots of people were having trouble with modems right now.  He kept postponing his service call, telling us how busy he was.  But then our internet started working.  And we never heard any more from the repair guy.  We have begun to wonder if it was a problem with Oi, the internet company, rather than with the modems.  Anyway, we hope things continue to work.  Maybe everything just needs to dry out a bit.  August is the last official month of winter.  September, October and November are considered to be spring months.  And December, January and February are summer months.  So, we probably don’t have much “winter” left.  We had better enjoy winter while we can!

We look forward to whatever the next week will bring.  There are always surprises in store!  What a variety in the work we do.  We are also curious to meet the new incoming missionaries.  It looks to be another great week!

Hope things are great with each of you!  We love and miss you!

Eu te amo!