It seems like the less
time there is left, the faster time goes.
Maybe it is because we are trying to fit in all that we can in the
remaining time. We have faith that
“everything will work out”.
The Sisters came to
our place on P-day for lunch and to send pics home. It was a fun
afternoon! It was a little bittersweet as it is transfer
time once again. Sister Harrick (CA),
Elder Freeman (MO), and Elder Gorham (CA) were transferred this week to other
areas. Including Elder Campbell, who
went home, we lost four English speakers.
We now have a new group consisting of six from Brazil, one from
Argentina, one from Chile, and one from Peru and three of from the USA. Missionaries here in Cachoeira now are Elder
Costa (BR) and Elder Purificação (BR) in the Marina Branch. Missionaries in the Uniâo branch are Sister
Saavedra (Peru) and Sister Cabajero (Argentina), and Sister Oliveira (BR) and
Sister Carvalho (BR). Elders in the
Cachoeira branch are Elder da Silva (BR) and Elder Mackay (Boise, ID!!) Caçapava Elders are Elder Latorre (Chile)
and Elder Soares (BR). Elder Soares
served in Cachoeira a few months ago with Elder Buhler. We are excited to have him back! We like this Elder a lot! We are always glad
that we ourselves can remain here in Cachoeira.
We will have been here for the entire 18 months of our mission. We love Cachoeira and the people here! It has been a wonderful experience to serve
here. Unlike the young missionaries, we have had the opportunity to serve in
all three branches of Uniâo, Marina, and Cachoeira.
We had some requests
from the missionaries to see them off at the bus depot, so we did. It is never easy to say goodbye. But besides some tears, we see excitement and
new energy. As always, the new group
looks like a great group! It is also a
bit sobering for us as this is the last transfer that we will be here to
witness.
We met with Gabriele
and Thais again this week to help prepare Thais for her baptismal interview with
President Glauber on Sunday and to make sure that they had a plan to wake up on
Sunday and get themselves to church. We wanted to be sure they felt good about
everything. We were worried after last week when Gabriele and Thais slept in
and missed church and the interview. The
baptism had to be postponed a week. We wanted to be sure that they understood
how important it was to be to church on Sunday for the interview. Family
is good to support one another. They all
assured us that they would help each other get to church on Sunday. We also had
a good visit with Claudia and Natália at the home of Claudia. Claudia walked us out and quietly explained
to us some of her concerns about her family and her wish for them to turn their
life around. She asked us to join her in
prayer this week for them as well as for her as she is still trying to quit
smoking. She has a lot of faith in
prayer. She expressed her testimony to us and told us that she knew that things
would work out!
Anyway, Thais’ baptism
is set for Saturday, March 21, at 2 pm. Elder has been asked to do the
baptizing. We were delighted when
Gabriele and Thais came to church on Sunday!!
This was the first time for Gabriele.
She had been really hesitant. But
she came! Thais went in for her
interview. Gabriele joined her later to
help fill out paperwork. Exciting! Juliana came too. Claudia had a bad headache and didn’t
come. That was the first Sunday in
several weeks that she has missed.
Natália stayed home with her.
Debra has yet to come. Carla and
Iná (the great grandma) were all there too.
They are all planning on coming to the baptism on Saturday and singing
the special musical number, “Secreta Oraçao” (Secret Prayer). We are looking forward to this! Since Thais is eight years old, this will
count as a branch baptism, not a new convert baptism. Can’t wait to see it actually happen! It will be a big weekend coming up.
It’s been a long time
since we visited with Nilson from our English class. He works in a store just down the street from
us. We stopped by to say hi and he told
us that he had been watching all of the Mormon Moment videos that we had given
him and would like more. We plan on
getting him some more and also hope to get the missionaries in the visit
them. The challenge will be finding a
time when Nilson and his girlfriend are home.
Between work and school at nights, they are gone a lot. He also requested that the missionaries visit
in his home and not Carla’s as her parents are strong in their Lutheran
faith. We are hopeful things will work
out with him too.
We had good visits
with others. We are still working on our
list of people who need visits and lessons before we leave. We seem to be adding to that list as people
keep giving us more names of people they would like to see us visit. We wonder if we will be able to get through
the list. But it is fun trying.
Artur seemed anxious
for us to visit this week. He surprised
us with some guitar playing when we arrived.
He was fixing a guitar for a neighbor.
He actually plays well. As far as
baptism goes, we don’t know if things will work out before we leave. He is still coming to church each Sunday and
seems to really enjoy the visits from the missionaries, us as well as the young
Elders. President Glauber calls him the
eternal investigator. We have hopes that
things will eventually work out! He also
had another cute little puppy that he named “Lobo”.
We were happy to hear
on Sunday that Elder Costa and Elder Purificação were able to give the first
lesson to Rosangela and Julio and family.
Julio actually helped with the lesson.
We hope to see Roseangela, Julian, and Emanuele baptized. Emanuele turns eight in May. We hope everything will work out! We visited there too. Julian turned 11 on Monday. We gave him the illustrated children’s
version of the “Stories of the Book of Mormon”.
Nelson, the pan-maker
was at church on Sunday. He told us he
had another one of his dreams. His dream
indicated to him that he had better go to church. We need to pay him a visit this week to get
the details.
Turning 15 years old
is a big deal for girls in Brazil.
Families hold big celebrations for the occasion. Some of them are pretty big
celebrations. We were invited to attend
the “festa dos 15 anos” for Leticia, a young lady in the Marina branch. It was fun and very interesting. She looked beautiful. They held it in a large hall. It was decorated beautifully. They had lots of food and music. Everything was in purple! Family each took turns talking about
Leticia. It was fun to hear her
story. She was adopted by Alves and
Lucimar. When Lucimar was expecting,
Alves dreamed that they would have a girl.
He saw her in his dreams. But
they were surprised when they had another boy.
It was only a short time later that they were surprised with an
unexpected opportunity to adopt Leticia when she was only one day old. They knew that she was meant to be in their
family! It was a touching story and so
fun to see the celebration. It was
particularly interesting to see her father help her change from simple flat
shoes to her grown up high heels! It was
a touching tradition. But it was a late
night for a couple of old missionaries like us. As it was a long ways from our
apartment, we had to catch a bus. On
Saturdays, buses are few and far between.
We found ourselves wandering some dark neighborhoods looking for bus
stops, etc. But things worked out!
We had two invitations
to Sunday dinner this week. Although we
visited Luciano and his family last week, he sought us out early in the week
and told us that we just had to come to Sunday dinner and try out his mom’s
cooking. We accepted the
invitation. He was right! His mom is an excellent cook. We had chicken, rice and feijoada, and all of
the trimmings. They are all so nice to
us. They had a table that seated
four. They had us fill our plates
first. Then one by one, his mom called
in the rest of the family. She filled
their plates and they went to eat in other parts of the house. I hope we left enough food for everyone that
followed us. It was a really nice lunch!
We received another
invitation to Sunday dinner mid-week. We
have been trying to set up an appointment with Daniel and Samirtza and their
family. She is a fairly new member. Daniel comes from an active family. He was Elder’s Quorum President earlier. But recently, they have fallen into inactivity. Work seems to have gotten in the way. Samirtza works at the chocolate store, “Cacâo
Show” (Chocolate Show). We like to visit
her at work, of course! The smell is
heavenly. They have a chocolate
waterfall! She is super busy with Easter
coming up. She took our phone number and
said that she would call when they had time to see us which would probably be
after Easter. (Yeah, right!) But to our surprise, she called a couple of
days after our visit and wanted us to come to Sunday dinner. We couldn’t do dinner, but we scheduled a
visit Sunday evening.
Bus systems were shut down for 1 ½ hours late
afternoon on Sunday. They were having a
“manifestação” or protest in downtown Cachoeira, right in front of our
apartment. There were people on foot,
bikes, in cars, trucks and tractors and on horseback. They honked horns and carried signs and flags
calling for the impeachment of Dilma, the woman who is President of Brazil,
because of what they view as corruption in the government. Buses were at a standstill.
Fortunately the
demonstration was over in time for us to catch a bus to visit Daniel and
Samirtza and family. They were very
welcoming. Samirtza, along with Lorena
(the grandma who is very active in the branch as well as very musical), made
“pastels” for us. We had a really nice
visit with this good family. They have a
lot going on in their lives. They both
have daytime jobs, working 6-7 days a week.
They both go to school at nights also.
Fortunately, both grandmas live very close and help with the two young
children. They will finish school in a
year or two and hope to be able to have more time then. We think that they both have pretty firm
testimonies but they really need to find a way to get back to church. We hope they can find a way to make
everything work. They gave us a ride
home which saved us from walking in the dark again. We really enjoyed our visit with them.
There have been some
hot, humid days this week. A couple of
days have probably been as hot and humid and miserable as any we have
experienced so far. Or maybe it is because we have been out walking a lot. But it seems that summer is not letting go
yet! Although the temptation is great to
stay in by the air conditioner, we have felt motivated to get out and
visit. How else will everything “work
out”?
Hope everything is
working out for all of you! We continue
to miss all of you. You are in our
thoughts and prayers! We love you!
Eu te amo!
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