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| Sister Costa with the Shirley's |
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| A few of the 2,000+ horses in the parade |
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| Catiele, Fernanda & kids |
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| Churrasco with the Uniao branch |
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| Tending the meat at the Uniao branch churrasco |
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| Color-coordinated for district meeting |
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| Cristina and daughter Isabela at the gaucho dance |
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| Elder Shirley and Aerton |
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| Elder Shirley and Elder Lopes |
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| Five sister missionaries watching the gaucho parade |
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| Elder Shirley checking out a gaucho display |
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| Jose, prepared with scriptures and questions |
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| Lucas after his baptism |
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| Lucas and Elder Hoopes - he was one happy kid! |
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| Marching band in gaucho parade |
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| Marcio Medeiros and Elpidio at the churrasco |
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| More celebrating in the Marina branch |
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| Sister Shirley checking out some gaucho displays |
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| More scenes from the gaucho parade |
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| More of the gaucho parade |
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| President Samuel, Viviane, Aerton, Gorete |
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| Renato, the hot dog man |
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| Sisters Munoz (Chile), Souza (Brazil), Picula (Australia) |
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| Uniao branch cuties dressed in gaucho style |
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| Sister Shirley and Sister Rosado |
September 22, 2014
This week has kind of
been a blur! It’s been packed with a variety of activities. We can’t even remember what the weather was
like. So I guess we have no complaints.
We had our District
Meeting, the last one before transfers.
It was a fun one. We all brought
a gift to exchange. Sister Rosado
brought chocolate bolo (cake) and Sister Shirley brought cinnamon rolls. We had some good lessons too! No one knows yet who will be going
where. But it was fun to speculate. Next Tuesday will be “transfer day”. An interesting thing we think we forgot to
mention last week from our District Meeting….missionaries in our mission are
being encouraged to use Facebook or WhatsApp as a missionary tool. Missionaries here don’t have access to Facebook
themselves. But we are being encouraged
to ask members as we make visits to them to go to their lists of “friends” and
invite them to events or to receive the missionary visits and to make those
appointments right while the missionaries are there. President
Castro wants a report in a month or so.
Interesting how much social media is aiding in missionary work all over
the world!
It was another nice
visit with Artur in his home. He had
fresh juice squeezed for us again. We
brought a freshly baked loaf of French bread.
It’s Carolyn Quayle’s recipe for “Finnish French Bread” and works out
well here. We don’t have any bread pans
and we don’t need any for this recipe.
So we had Finnish French bread, baked in Brazil by an American. Artur was pleased with what he called
“American” bread! He said it was a good
present. We also enjoyed a good
discussion with him. He offered to say
the closing prayer. This time he gave
the prayer without reading it from a paper.
He also gave the closing prayer in Sunday School class last week. He is growing in his confidence to pray.
Visits with Renato,
the hot dog man in Honorato Park and with Jessica at IMEC (super market) were a
couple of our favorite visits this week.
Jessica, 19 years old, is a checker at IMEC and wasn’t feeling well. Her
throat hurt. But since she needed the
money, she was at work. She wasn’t happy
about that. We offered to buy her a
soda to help her throat. She hesitated
at first. But when we told her that we
were buying, she accepted. We had a
short, but good visit!
Across the street from
IMEC is our favorite hot dog man, Renato.
He was just setting up. (His
business is only there in the evenings).
He likes to talk and had requested a Liahona on a previous visit. This time he asked to have a picture of us
with him. He had his helper take a pic
and then wants it printed so we can sign it.
We walked back home to get his Liahona and a framed picture of the
Family Proclamation that we had made up for him. He told us that he had just the spot on his
wall at home where he could hang it. One
of these days, we hope he will feel like his wife is ready to hear the
missionaries and that he will decide to become active in the church again. We also got a couple of his hot dogs. His business is called “Cachorro do
Galocha”. The hot dogs come loaded with
salsicha or calebresa for the meat, peas, corn, lettuce, cheese, mustard,
ketchup, mayo, pimento, oil and another sauce and topped with “palha”
(something like shoestring potato chips).
It’s definitely not good for us, we know. But once in a while it is fun. We have become accustomed to the peas and
corn. Well, maybe! And we also get the “mini” hot dog, which is
still huge! For our health’s sake, we
don’t dare visit him too often!
We also met with Jose
again this week. He always greets us
saying, “I have been waiting for you!”
He meets us with his open Book of Mormon and a list of questions. This week, he asked us where in the Book of
Mormon he could read for more hope in his life. He still likes to speak a little English and
wants to learn more. Since the weather
was nice, we sat outside of his house.
His mom was at work. At the risk
of offending the neighbors, we decided to sing “I am a Child of God” for
him. We sang first in English and then
in Portuguese. That was his English
lesson for the day. Even though he had
such a bad drug problem, we continue to be impressed with him. He is very intelligent and perceptive. When it was time to pray, he invited us back
into the house. When we asked if we
could kneel in prayer with him, he shut the door for privacy. He is a good guy! He rode the church bus again to meetings this
week.
Since President
Glauber decided to take a bus around again this week (and every Sunday this
month), we spent some time notifying people that they could catch the bus
again. It has been a good success. We don’t think they can afford to keep
sending it around every week. But for
this month they are going to do it. We
had a warm welcome at Julio’s home again.
Julio was at work, but his wife, Rosangela, was home. She was so nice. She is about 8 months pregnant and not
feeling too well. So although the bus
helps the rest of the family, she doesn't always feel like coming. Anyway, the bus on Sunday brought a lot of
people. Our benches in the Marina branch
have certainly been a lot fuller since the branch started using the bus. And in
the process of inviting people to come, we always meet new people. Catiele and her daughter Isabella were two we
met on the bus. She invited us to come
to her home. We made our visit to Jose
and then went to her place. Her friend,
Fernanda, was there too. She had a few
visits previously from the Sisters and had decided that she would like more
visits. So we made a call to the Sisters
and they were able to visit the next day.
This was Gaucho week! September 20 is called “The Day of the Gaucho” and marks the date of the Farroupilha
Revolution. In the mid 1800’s, a rag tag
band of rebels fought and gained representation and more fair taxation for the
state of Rio Grande do Sul from imperialist Brazil. It is remembered as the greatest day for
gauchos. They say it’s when gauchos
remember why they are gauchos. They
celebrate their independence, liberty, equality and a love for this land. They sing their state anthem which is more
widely known that the national anthem.
All three of the branches here in Cachoiera had big celebrations. Every one of them included a churrasco! We hit two of the three, Marina and
Uniao. Marina cooked chicken. Uniao cooked chicken and lamb! They had salads (mostly a type of potato
salad) and rice, and tomato/onion salads.
Marina celebrated on Friday evening and Uniao celebrated on Saturday. Uniao's celebration included another “Baile”
(Dance). With Presidente Samuel, of
course, they had a dance too. The youth
love it! Both were well attended and
lots of fun!
The Elders in the
Cachoeira branch managed to fit in a baptism on Friday. But first on Thursday,
President Castro authorized Elder Shirley to interview the 13-year old young
man for baptism. Elder Hoopes and Elder
Hiatt had prepared Lucas for baptism. We
met the Elders at the home of Lucas in a bairro in Soares. We weren't familiar with this neighborhood. So we took a taxi. The taxi driver got lost too. But we eventually made it. Lucas’ mom was baptized about 14 years ago,
but is inactive. At first she wouldn't
give her permission for Lucas to be baptized.
But she changed her mind. She is
actually a very nice lady and was so polite and welcoming to us. We enjoyed meeting this family. The baptism was on Friday before Marina’s gaucho
celebration. When we arrived at the
baptism, the Elders asked Elder Shirley to be the speaker and Sister Shirley to
pray. Elder wanted to trade
assignments. No way!! It was a nice service. Lucas was so thrilled when he came up out of
the water that he gave Elder Hoopes a huge hug!
The Elders were really good with him.
After the baptism, they gave him a watch engraved with his name and the
baptism date. On Sunday, we attended
sacrament meeting in the Cachoiera branch for the confirmation of Lucas. That was after we attended sacrament meeting
in the Marina branch. We wanted to be in Marina for all of the people we had
invited to ride the bus. It’s a tight
schedule to attend both meetings. But we
were blessed to have a city bus come along at just the right moment and we got
there in time for the confirmation. (Also
good news from the Elders: Maria
Antonia, who we had taught a couple of discussions to, accepted an appointment
for a visit from the Elders this week.
We are so excited!)
Saturday was the day
of the big gaucho parade. It went down
the street right in front of our apartment.
The streets were packed with people.
You could hardly get down the sidewalks. They had loud speakers with
music, etc. Four of the Sister missionaries came to join
us too. We took some chairs out on the
sidewalk. Rexburg may have a parade of
mostly tractors. But this parade was of
mostly horses. According to Elder’s
calculations, they were approximately 2,000 horses and was about 2 ½ hours long. Really?!
We like horses and cowboys. But
that was a lot! But it was a fun
time. And we think we drew a lot of
attention with six missionaries with their badges!
Good things are
happening here. From what we hear, good
things are happening at home. We are so
grateful for our many blessings! Stay
healthy, happy and faithful!
Eu te amo!
