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| A selfie at the bus stop |
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| Posing at the supermarket with their favorite checker Jessica |
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| Claudio, water deliveryman extraordinaire |
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| Claudio has them supplied with water for the week |
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| Arriving at Antonia's house for a visit |
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| Winter's ending in Brazil, which means summer is ending for us :-( |
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| Beautiful mangoes at the supermarket |
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| Front gate of the fiercely independent Maria Alica |
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| A menacing sky as seen from the veranda |
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| More early spring flowers |
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| Orelhao (Big Ear) phone booth |
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| "Hmm, should I go healthy or pick the sugar-coated cereal?" |
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| Enjoying lunch with the sister missionaries at the apartment |
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| Portuguese word of the day: Pare!
August 18, 2014
Well this was the week
of transfers. Sister Morales finished
her mission and left for her home in California. She has been a great missionary, a real force
for good. She has been in Cachoeira for
quite a while and we have had the opportunity of getting to know her quite
well. She left with mixed feelings, as
they all seem to do. She worried about
what comes next in her life. We will
miss her, but know great blessings are in store for her.
We were also sad to
see another California girl leave Cachoeira.
Sister Holden was transferred. We
are thrilled that we get to keep (for a while at least), Sister Pikula
(Australia), Sister Rosado (Brazil), Sister Mendoza (Peru), Sister Munoz
(Chile), Elder Hiatt (Arizona) and Elder Hoopes (also Arizona), Elder D. Alves
(Brazil). New ones are Sister Souza
(Brazil), Sister Costa (Brazil), Elder Lopes (Brazil). From the U.S., there are the two Elders and
us. That is 5 of the 10 from Brazil and
7 out of 10 from South America. It’s
great to see that kind of strength from South America. We got to all meet at District Meeting and
heard some strong testimonies born. They will be a great bunch.
Tuesday was the travel
day for most of the new missionaries which meant some of the missionaries here
had a bus trip to Porto Alegre to meet and bring back their new
companions. Sister Pikula, Sister Rosado
and Sister Mendoza came to our place for lunch on Tuesday. For reasons that we don’t really understand,
they were supposed to be bringing food that a member was preparing for
them. They just wanted to eat it at our
place. Just in case, we made some soup
and baked some bread. It was a good
thing that we did as the member preparing the food thought we were actually
providing it and she had to scramble to come up with something for them to
bring to our place. It was all quite
confusing, but turned out great. With
everything together, we had plenty of food.
In addition, Gilly, from Pedal de Ouro had made another treat for
us. So we shared that too. They had a 1 pm bus to catch, so they ate and
had to literally run up the street to make the bus. We enjoyed having them here for lunch and
being able to fuss over them.
Later in the day, we
stopped by one of the Tischler supermercados.
We wanted to visit again with Cristiane who we had met on the bus. We had a nice visit with her. She works in the bakery and told us she had
hot bread just coming out of the oven.
Of course, we had to buy some. It
was a day for hot bread! But you can’t
beat hot bread. And the Sisters pretty
well ate what we had made at home. So it
was good!
One day we were
walking up the street, when Maximiliano (one of our shoe shine guys) overtook
us on his bike. We later commented that when we don’t go to them, they seem to
come to us. Amazing! He didn’t even ask to do a shoe shine this
time. He apologized for missing church the
week before and said that he overslept.
But he showed us his new ring tone, loud. He asked us also to be his 8 am wake-up call
on Sunday morning. (Interesting, since
Artur also has us calling him at 8 am on Sunday mornings.) Unfortunately when we called Sunday, he was
still in bed and still didn’t get up in time to come. Guess we keep trying with him.
We didn’t have a set
appointment with Artur this week. So we
just decided to stop by. We caught him
just as he pulled into his yard. He
welcomed us warmly. We had a good
discussion with him. He had tears in his
eyes as we talked about families and he told us how much his family meant to
him. He is so proud of them. After his wife died, 30 years or so ago, he
was left to raise the three kids himself.
They have turned out well and he is really proud of them. We plan to get
a copy of the Family Proclamation to him this next week. He told us that he had a few things to clear
up before he could be baptized. Elder
told him not to wait too long to decide to be baptized. We want to be here when that happens! Even though it was raining, he showed up to
church this week, without a wake-up call!
And since his car had an expired
license, he walked. And he has some
difficulty walking, so we were really impressed and pleased. He participated a lot in Sunday School. He has actually had missionaries in and out
for about 4 years or so. So often we
hear people say they aren’t quite ready yet or that they are too busy right
now. Guess we all do that. Hopefully we don’t wait too long!
Don’t know if you remember
Renato, the hot dog vendor, we love.
(The hot dogs are good too!) He
is an inactive member and has been for many years and he is married to a
non-member. His kids are grown and are not members either. But his parents were
members of the church. His wife has a
restaurant at the other end of the street that is only open in the
evenings. We paid him another visit this
week. We hadn’t seen him for a while and
we have had members of the branch telling us that Renato has asked them why we
aren’t coming to see him anymore. He
actually sets up his hot dog stand in the Cachoeira branch area, which is down
the street quite a ways from us. He is
only there after 7 pm in the evening. We
just haven’t got down his way in the evenings for a while. He was just setting up, but stopped to
visit. He jumped right into a gospel
discussion. He evidently had been
thinking about our discussion from a while ago about the life after this one
when Elder told him he didn’t want Renato calling to him in the next life
saying “Why didn’t you tell me these things?”
He told us that he thought what we were doing a beautiful thing. But he asked Elder what he would do if I hadn’t
been a member. Elder demonstrated that
he would get out the Book of Mormon and convert me. We all had a laugh, but we could see that
Renato has been thinking about things. As
we waited in line for our hot dog, we conversed with a family in line ahead of
us and had a pleasant conversation with the man and his wife and 9 year old
daughter. Renato even joined in, telling
them that he was a member of the church and he liked us. It did our hearts good to see that! Hope he keeps pondering and decides he would
like missionaries to come visit more with him and his wife. We have such a
beautiful and important message for families. He tells us that family is “tudo”! (everything!)
He is a really good guy! It was a
great visit. We would sure like to see
his family have the blessings of the gospel.
We plan to take the Family Proclamation to him this week.
We sought out the
little solteira that we met some weeks ago, Maria Alice Trindade. We were curious to see how she had survived
the winter and the cold weather. She
barricades herself in her house, putting bricks and vines to block her front
gate. We knocked and knocked and called
to her. Finally, she opened the shutter
on one of her windows. She was all
bundled up. Evidently it was cold in her
home. Last time she moved the door to
her home which was off its hinges in order to let us in and moved the stack of
bricks blocking her gate. But today she
just visited with us through the open shutter.
She is very independent and insists that she doesn’t need help. Once she got started, she talked and
talked. She told us that she had food
and everything that she needed. Although
she did complain that some family members had been there and took her tv. No wonder she doesn’t want to let anyone in! She told us she likes things natural. So she has turned down any offers to clean up
her yard. What a fiercely independent little old lady. We keep worrying about her.
Saturday afternoon was
the day for our lesson with Maria Antonia.
Turns out she prefers to be called Antonia. We taught about the Plan of Salvation. She pretty well agreed with everything we
said. But she doesn’t want to leave her sister who needs special care in order
to attend church. There are three sisters living there and another lives
close. None of the sisters are married
although one has been married and divorced.
Antonia does have caretakers
coming in to help every day though with her sister. She especially liked it when we suggested
that we kneel in prayer. She felt like
that showed such great respect. Thought
it was beautiful. She could remember the
steps of prayer too. Once again, we
mentioned the Elders to her. This time she
agreed to have them stop by and teach the next lesson. The Elders are excited to do that. We will be anxious to see how that goes. We hope they can get her to agree to attend
church. We really wanted to take some pictures of
her. Her home is very nice. But it didn’t feel right to ask. We hated to spoil the spirit that was
there. Sometime we will have to get a
pic though.
Although we didn’t
attend, the youth of the Uniao branch had an interesting activity this past
week. They met for a skype session with
some youth in California. Because of the
time difference, the youth here met at 9:30 pm and the youth in California met
at 5:30 pm (California time). They
skyped for two hours with the help of some translators. It sounded like a very fun activity. They hope to do it again with youth in other
locations.
On one of our late
evening walks home, we saw an interesting thing. It was dark and we were walking down Avenida
Brasil, one of the main streets here.
Coming the other direction towards us on the sidewalk, a man on a
bicycle evidently hit the branch of a tree.
It must have hurt as he was really mad.
He got off the bike and started to attack the branch of the tree. He was hollering (we didn’t understand many
of the words…maybe that was good) and pulling, twisting and ripping at the
offending tree branch. He was right in
front of us. So all we could do was stop
and watch. We weren’t sure what we
should say or do. But the man won the
battle and ripped that bad branch right off of the tree. It was hard not to laugh. But we were afraid of further offending
him. So we stifled ourselves til later. Guess that branch learned its lesson!
We have been out
looking for and visiting more less- active members this week. That has meant lots of bus rides and walking. We enjoy that. Mostly the weather has been great, just
perfect. We have had a few rainy, cold
days, but we can tell spring is coming.
Although we see blossoms all year round, we are seeing more that remind
us of spring. There has sure been a
difference in temperature though. It can
be rainy and cold in the morning and then turn sunny and warm in the afternoon.
Sometimes, it is sunny and warm outside, but still freezing cold in our
apartment. When the weather is cold, the shower is not as hot either. As a result, we have seen quite a few people
with colds, now including Elder.
Hopefully, it passes quickly.
Hope this finds all of
you healthy and happy! We love you!
Eu te amo!
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