It seems like a lot
has happened this week. Weather-wise,
it’s been a week of extremes. The first
part of the week we had a heat wave. Temps
were in the 90’s+ and very humid. We
heard lots of complaints from natives as well as missionaries. We have also had some windy, rainy days, the
kind that turn your umbrella inside out and we had to resort to jackets
again.
P-day was fun. The four Sister missionaries came for lunch
and to do their e-mails. Little did we
know that this would be the last P-day that we would get to spend with Sister
Souza. We called a taxi and went to pick
her and her baggage up on Tuesday morning and accompanied her on the bus her to
Porto Alegre. President and Sister
Castro took her to a doctor there to have her knee evaluated. Before her doc appointment though, they took
us and Sister Souza and Sister Nerenberg out to lunch in Porto Alegre. Sister Nerenberg was catching an afternoon
flight, headed to her home in Lehi, Utah. She has completed her mission. Hers was one of the first missionary faces we
saw when we arrived in Cachoeira last year.
She was transferred from Cachoeira just before Christmas and we haven’t
seen too much of her since then. We have exchanged a few emails and have heard
many good reports about her. She made a
lasting impression on us. She has been a great missionary! We were excited for her and for her reunion
with her family. Even though we haven’t
seen too much of her since she left Cachoeira, we think all of the mission will
feel the lack of her now. She will be
missed!
Someone else who will
be sorely missed is Sister Souza! We
received the sad news that Sister Souza needed to return home to take care of
her knee problem. We anticipated this sad news, but were hoping it wouldn’t
actually happen. She has struggled with a bad knee for some time now. She lives somewhere around Rio and left for
home the end of the week. She has been
an amazing missionary, a really knowledgeable and strong missionary! We will miss her a lot! We have felt especially close to her. The two sets of Sister missionaries are now
one set of a trio, at least until transfer day in 10 days or so. We
know this was especially hard for Sister Souza.
We wish her the best and hope she can heal quickly (her knee, as well as
her sad heart)!
While in Porto Alegre,
we visited Farroupilha Park (now called Redençao). Forty-six years ago this park was in the
district of Elder Shirley and his companion and brother, Elder Shirley
(Dale). They taught some missionary
lessons in this park. So this park holds lots of significance and good memories
for Elder Shirley. Elder has been anxious to re-visit the park
and see how things have changed. Not too
much has. It still has the same lake
with turtles in it. It still has boats to take out on the lake. Although they
have added swan paddle boats now. It is
still a rule for missionaries not to take out the boats. The amphitheater has been closed in to become
a concert hall. The street cars that
went around the outside of the park are extinct. But most everything else remains the
same. It was a trip down memory lane for
Elder Shirley! It was a hot, but fun
afternoon. We caught a late bus back to
Cachoeira.
The next morning, we
had District Meeting which was followed by a call from Gelson and Rosi. Francine had to go back into the
hospital. She had just been there the
week before. She had fevered up again
and was coughing. Gelson was at work and
Rosi was at the hospital, unable to leave Francine to get lunch. So we packed up a lunch for Rosi and went to
the hospital to visit. The hospital was
packed! They will only let one person at
a time visit. They are really strict about this too. So Elder went up first and then Sister
Shirley went up to take Rosi lunch.
Francine had to stay in the hospital for about three days, but is home
and feeling better now. Hope her health
improves now. The extremes in the weather
are hard on everyone.
We visited Artur again
as usual this week. We took a little
doggie treat for his dog, Bola. We showed Artur a nice video called “Temples, a
Conversation with a church leader”.
Elder had it translated into Portuguese for him. It’s a very informative, plain talking
video. We also read a chapter in the BOM
in III Nephi, chapter 18, about the sacrament.
Artur told us the Elders had challenged him to read it. He started reading it outloud to us. We ended up with all of us taking a turn
reading. It was great! The Elders also visit him weekly. They had asked us to challenge Artur to an
actual date for baptism. They were in
hopes he would agree to baptism on December 13.
They think they won’t be transferred until the December 16 transfer
day. And they would like to be here for
Artur’s baptism. Artur wouldn’t commit
to that actual date, saying that he didn’t know if he would be ready by
then. We wrote that date on a sticky
note and he put it in his scriptures and agreed to think about it. But he kept reassuring us that he is a “man
of his word” and will be baptized before we go home. We tell him baptism is for him and not to do
it for us. We try to emphasize that he
needs those blessings now. We know he
has health concerns. And we realize that
he is feeling a lot of pressure now from us as well as the Elders. A branch member, who knows Artur well, also
paid him a visit with the Elders this week.
That’s three visits for Artur this week, plus a phone call. We think Artur has a testimony. We think he may just be afraid of the
commitment. Guess the pressure will
either “make it or break it” for Artur. Hopefully, he will ponder that
date. And if not that date, we hope to
get him to pick the date that will feel right to him. We always comment on how much we enjoy visits
with him. He is a funny guy. He also has a soft heart. We see discussions about family bring him to
tears often. One time, he specifically
asked us to include a granddaughter, Betina, in our prayers.
The visit with Jose
was good again too. We love that he
always has been reading in the BOM and has questions he wants to discuss. We also discussed and read about the
sacrament with him. As we read and
underline scriptures with him, he will occasionally come across scriptures that
“Elder Zundel” had discussed with him a few years ago. He remembers Elder Zundel well and the
lessons he taught. Jose also likes to
throw in questions about English words. Every week we have to talk a little
English with him. This week he asked us about the word “shoulder”. We
quite often sing to him. So we just had
to sing the Primary song, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. He grinned all the way through it and then
just put his head in his hands and laughed.
Guess that tells you how we sang!
It was fun anyway!
Elder Buhler (Texas)
and Elder Soares (Brazil) started the English classes this week. They asked us to help. We spent some time this week notifying people
that we thought might be interested.
They are holding classes on Saturday morning. Many of the people who were in our previous
English class are working Saturday mornings. So this class is catching a
different group of people. Elder Buhler
took charge and we assisted. Elder
Soares was also a student in the class! It
went well!
On Halloween day, we went
out and about. We needed to re-fill the
ink cartridges in our printer. To do
that, we always go to a nice store in the center of town called “Dipel”. They already have a nice display of Christmas
trees. They also had a witch out
front. We invited her to English
classes. She said she had a passion
about learning English. But she has to
work Saturday mornings! We also ran into
some spooky characters in Pedal de Ouro.
They don’t really celebrate Halloween here in Brazil. No trick or
treat. But in the schools and in some
businesses, they dress up for fun. They
do celebrate a day called “All Souls Day”.
It is a Catholic holiday where they sometimes take flowers to the
cemeteries. It is a national holiday on
November 2 and fell on Sunday this year.
They also don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving. Last year, it was just a regular missionary
day. But, just like in the States, they
get a jump on Christmas. The stores are
full of Christmas already.
Elder Hoopes and Elder
H. Silva had another baptism on Saturday and invited us to come. Again, this one was the result, in part, of
the efforts of a member. It seems that Cassio, a member of the branch
presidency, is a convert of some years back.
He credits his baptism to a man who is the Uncle of Tiago, the young man
who got baptized on Saturday. Cassio
felt like this opportunity presented itself to him as a way to repay Tiago’s
Uncle for bringing the gospel into his life.
So when Cassio encountered Tiago again, he introduced him to the
missionaries. And now Tiago was
baptized. It was pretty special! Members can do a lot!
Health problems
continue to abound. Although Elder
Hoopes was at the baptism, he wasn’t feeling too well. He had been to the doctor the day before and
has a bit of pneumonia, not too serious yet.
He has antibiotics and should improve soon with some much needed rest as
well. Elder Soares’ knees bother him
when it rains. Sister Foutz has some
kind of red bumps. Don’t know if they
are heat related or from some bug. She
had a little more difficulty getting into the doctor. (Elder Hoopes got right in,
fortunately.) She has an appointment for
this next week. If the weather will
moderate, hopefully, health problems will go away! It seems to be either scorching heat or wind
and rain. We are always hesitant to
mention health problems on the blog. We
try to warn the missionaries that they had better tell their parents about
their problems, or their family may read it on our blog. I always say that if I was their parent, I
would want to know. Often times they
don’t want to worry family. So,
hopefully, we aren’t the ones informing family first. We continue to be impressed with all the
missionaries here. Elder Hoopes and
Elder H. Silva have been seeing a lot of success. Elder Buhler and Elder Soares are two of the
hardest working missionaries we know!
Sister Foutz, Sister Costa, and Sister Oliveira are doing their best as
a trio now to cover both areas of the Uniao branch, dealing with the loss of
Sister Souza. We are sure it hasn’t been
easy for them. Elder D. Alves and Elder
Lopes who work in a nearby city, Caçapava, called us last night just to check
up on us. Great missionaries, every
one!!
We have been thinking
of you all as we saw on the calendar that you got to “fall back” on your
clocks. For some reason, it makes us a
little sad that we are now 5 hours ahead of you time-wise. We seem too far away! But we hope you enjoyed your extra hour of
sleep!
We love you and miss
you! But we are trying to be the best
missionaries that we can! Take good care
of yourselves! Love to all!
Eu te amo!
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