A great visit with a special family - the Reinbrecht's

The seasons are changing - here comes the rain

Lots of branch support at a baptism

At the Reinbrecht's

Claudinei & Marcia - members from Cachoeira branch - we love these guys!

Eating pipoca at a district meeting

With Elder Ritz and Sister Morales

Elder Shirley with Jean

Irma Mariza Quijentais - good member

Jonatas & Gizleine Quijentais

Love notes from Melissa

April 14, 2014

And the rains came and the weather cooled off!  The week started out warm, but turned cloudy, rainy and much, much cooler.  By the end of the week, we needed jackets!  We enjoy seeing the seasons change.  Rain and cooler weather didn’t stop the missionary work though.  It’s been a full week of great activities.

 

Since we made a video of Nelson, the pan maker, it gave us a good reason to pay him another visit so we could give him a copy of the video.  When he met us at the door, he said, “You aren’t going to believe this!  But I was reading the scriptures and just got down on my knees to pray, when I heard you clapping at my gate.”  (We clap at the gate.  We don’t knock on the door.)  He was quite amazed. He even went to get his Book of Mormon to show us what he was reading.  We were happy to be part of what he viewed as inspiration.  One member commented once, “God is trying to move that man!”  We hope he sees that too. 

Don’t know when we will learn our lesson. But one day as we were walking, a man stopped and was so friendly and offered us a ride home.  We didn’t know him, but he knew of the church.  He said that he was on his way to the Farmacia to get medicine for his sick dog.  We both climbed in the back seat of his car and evidently sat in the spot where the dog had been sick.  Gross!  We were wet and stinky through and through.  We were grateful for the ride, but had to take a shower and change wet and stinky clothes and do laundry when we got home!  Life is never dull!

Fernanda, a non-member from Pedal de Ouro, finally agreed to let us come and do a family home evening with her and her boyfriend at the home of her neighbors, Adao and Jussara Garcia.  The Garcias are a wonderful, very active family.  (We had Christmas and New Year’s dinner with them).  We have scheduled and re-scheduled this FHE with Fernanda numerous times.  She is always friendly, always has a good excuse and always willing to re-schedule.  She doesn’t get home from work until 9 pm, which is very late for us to start a FHE.  But the Garcias agreed.  So we agreed.  She told us that she “adores” brownies, so we made a pan of brownies to take.  The day was cloudy, and rainy. By 8:30, there was a strong thunderstorm with lots of lightning and thunder and a downpour of rain.  We were skeptical, but committed!  As they live far away, we called a taxi to take us to Garcias.  They were all prepared and their grandson, Jean, was there to join in.  He is a great kid and usually sits by us in sacrament meeting.  9:30 came and no Fernanda!  So we and Jussara took our umbrellas and walked down a very muddy road to Fernanda’s.  She was home, but her boyfriend was very sick.  It turns out he may have gall stones, so they couldn’t come.  Sinking in the mud with every step, we returned to Garcias and had a very short lesson, ate brownies and rice pudding that Jussara had made and made a plate to drop off at Fernanda’s.  Jussara also had some medicine that she thought would help.  We tried to call a taxi.  No phone service!  The Garcias told us the phones often go out when there is a storm.  They don’t have a car and there is no bus service out that far at that time of night.  We started to worry.  We stepped outside trying to get better phone service, looked up and there was our taxi!  Miracle!  The driver remembered we had told him we would call him again later.  He had been sitting out front waiting!  Someone is watching out for us!  But it was an expensive evening and late night.  We didn’t get home until 11pm.  Fernanda wants to re-schedule.  But I think we will try and find a better time. 

District meeting was fun.  We always have such a fun time with these young Elders and Sisters!  Since this would be the last district meeting before transfers, we took some pipoca.  Kettle corn has really become our speciality!  Elder Julca from Argentina brought a treat too. 

English class was fun.  We enjoy that!  We had a good turn out again.  Lucas was there and told us that he had just lost his job a Delta Sul as business was too slow and they had to let him go.  But he is optimistic and is taking classes at a technical school and now has more time to study English!  He and his girlfriend have family that live close.  And he gets one month severance pay.  So they should be OK.  He stayed after class and we had a good visit.  He is very likeable and we hope he can find work.  He thinks this may actually work out for the best anyway! 

We anxiously anticipated all week our meeting with the Reinbrecht family….Roberto, Marcia, Cristofer, Melissa, and Roberto’s mother.  We kept meeting them by accident at the grocery store.  They are always so friendly.  We took brownies, chocolate as well as lemon.  (The Lemon Brownie recipe was Amber’s.  It turns out well down here.)  Elder Shirley describes our visit as muito agradavel!  (very good).  They had prepared a very nice meal for us and liked our dessert. Since they speak English pretty well, they asked for a blessing on the food from each of us…one in Portuguese and one in English.  We were happy to oblige!  They like that we talk to God in a personal way.  Earlier in the day, Melissa had insisted that her dad take her to the store and wouldn't tell him why until they got there.  She wanted to buy us Easter treats!  She had also been busy coloring “love notes” for us.  When we arrived, she wanted to know our favorite colors.  It turns out we chose the very colors that she had used for our notes.  She was happy about that!

After dinner, we had planned to show a couple of short videos and talk about family and the gospel.  (The Plan of Salvation).  But after dinner, we never left the table.  They were full of questions which led right into Joseph Smith and the restoration.  They had been searching on line for information about the “Mormons”.  We took our family picture.  They were very interested and asked about names and ages of each one in the picture.  One of their first questions was “Why would you do this?  Why would you serve a mission and leave your family…your kids and your grandkids and serve without financial compensation?”  It led into an interesting discussion and gave us opportunity to bear testimony.  They all had questions, especially Roberto’s mother.  We really liked her too.  We spent two hours at the table.  We kept telling them that we were only supposed to stay 45 min – 1 hour.  They told us that we would have to come back as they have lots more questions.  We are excited about that. We left them copies of the Book of Mormon with our written testimonies.  We really like this whole family and are anxious to talk more with them.  We invited them to witness Saturday’s baptisms.  They showed us the invitation they had for a baby shower at the same time.  We invited them to church on Sunday with us.  They had a previous dinner appointment.  But they indicate they want to go in the future.  Easter also complicates things as they are supposed to leave town for the holiday.  But we are hopeful that we will be able to continue our gospel discussion and friendship with them.  They are full of questions and so welcoming.  Melissa (10 years old) hugs us all the time just like our grandkids.  We love it, although Elder Shirley has warned her that as a missionary he can’t hug the girls. She respectfully gives him a handshake! They live in the boundaries of the Cachoeira branch.  We think this is probably a good time to start working in that branch.  We will continue to visit some in both Marina and Uniao however.  We think we will keep busy! But we love it!

Rosi and Gelson had good news this week.  Rosi decided to try to find work as a seamstress.  She said after praying, she had 3 job offers.  She felt like her prayers had been answered!  She accepted a really good offer and they hope to buy a car and start paying tithing so they can get to the temple.  We still have high hopes for them!  She was excited!

 

Saturday was baptism day in Uniao branch!  They ended up with 5 baptisms!  It was a great day!  For the special musical number, all of us missionaries, 8 total, sang “I Need Thee Every Hour”, some verses in English, some in Spanish and a couple of verses in Portuguese.  There was a lot of support from branch members and it was a beautiful day! Sister Rodrigues and Sister Morales have had 8 baptisms this month! Every one of the missionaries here are great.  They all work so hard!  We love them!

On Sunday, after meetings, the Uniao branch prepared kind of a thank-you meal for all of the 8 missionaries in our area.  It was a fun time!  The food was good (rice and potato salad) and there were lots of people.  It was also kind of a celebration of Elder Julca’s birthday and a send-off for Elder Ritz.  Elder Ritz leaves for home tomorrow (Farmington, UT).  We will really miss him!  He has been a great missionary!  Tuesday is also transfer day for the young missionaries again.  They will receive their notices tomorrow!  We hate to think who might be leaving.  We’re glad we can stay.  There is still a lot to do!

 

Have a good week….wherever you may be! 

Eu te amo!  

Strangers asking for money aren't always who they appear to be

Banana tree

A bat in the house

Car advertising outside their window

All creatures are interested in the gospel message

Huge cactus

Stray horse who's always on the loose

Assessing a new restaurant - food could be better but check out the view!

Another day walking the streets

The shoe shine brothers

Brazilian version of Target?

April 7, 2014

What a good day for a blog!  It’s our son, Brian’s birthday!  This is a day we celebrate too!  April is a good month, filled with lots of family birthdays!  Happy Birthday to all!  We feel so blessed with our great family!

It has been a really good week.  We have been out on the street a lot this week.  And it has been another hot week.  But things are supposed to cool down starting tomorrow with some thunderstorms.  We will be glad to see things cool off a little. 

On a day with no specific appointments, we went out on the street and met all kinds of people. We get lots of comments out walking. We often hear “God bless” or “Go with God”.   Once a lady said as we approached, “God comes”!  It makes us feel pretty humble.  We almost want to look over our shoulder to see what they are seeing!  We are certainly aware that we are being watched.  It is amazing!  This was one of those days when, at every turn, we met someone we knew, or someone in a store would wave, or someone would just stop us to visit.

It was pretty fun until this guy stopped us.  He was super friendly and informed us that he was a member of the church and even named a few members that we knew.  He told us that his car was out of gas and he didn’t have any money.  We gave him 20 reais ($8-9).  He promised to pay us back on Sunday as he planned to attend church.  We wondered about him and so we stopped at Pedal de Ouro to ask some of our church friends about him.  They said “Stay away from him!  He is dangerous.  He will just use the money for drugs!” Needless to say, he never showed up at church.  Guess we are too naïve and trusting! However, some good came from this encounter.  Since we had given him our smaller bills, we went to Tishlers (our neighborhood grocery store) to get some money from the machines in the lobby.  The machine was out of service.  A man approached us….typical for this day.  He was really nice and curious to know about us.  He had his family with him.  Although they are native Brazilians, they speak English pretty well as the lived in Canada for about 8 years. They are Roberto, Marcia, Cristofer and Melissa Reinbrecht. 

The Reinbrechts are a really great family.  We have struck up a nice friendship with them.  They are anxious to immigrate back to Canada.  Roberto is finishing up a degree in Public Administration and Marcia is working on her nursing degree.  Since Canada is in need of nurses, this will help with the immigration process.  He has worked for Xerox, and has been a partner in a type of graphic design company.  They gave us a ride and invited us to visit.  We visited the next day!  They love the teachings about families.  They attended our English class on Thursday. (We had 6 non-members there!) Melissa came bringing “love notes” and stickers for us.  And we are invited to dinner on Friday night.  They want to hear more about the church!  Yay!!  Roberto is Evangelica and Marcia says that she was baptized Catholic.  The kids are cute and smart!  Melissa’s 10^th birthday was Sunday.  They were celebrating out of town or they said that they would have attended the conference broadcast with us.  Early on Sunday we dropped off a gift for Melissa.  After the last session of conference, we had a nice surprise.  Through the crowd there came Melissa looking for us.  Her mom was waiting just outside of the chapel with cupcakes, salgados, doces, etc.  We were thrilled!  We introduced them to the other missionaries and some members.  They offered us a ride home as it was dark.  They are a really nice family and we are anxious to share the gospel message with them.  (Usually we just work with less-actives and the missionaries teach the non-members.  But we like this family so much that we think we may visit with them ourselves.)  We hope the Spirit touches their hearts with the gospel message.  But we know that we are glad to have met them, no matter what happens!   

We loved conference!  It was broadcast live in the Cachoeira chapel which has air-conditioning!  Loved that!  Saturday was full of meetings.  The women’s broadcast was at 11 am, first session at 1 pm; second session at 5 and the priesthood session at 9 pm.   They provided food between the women’s broadcast and the first session.  On Sunday, meetings were at 1 pm and 5 pm.  We got a last-minute call from the Sister missionaries as they were walking a family of investigators to the chapel.  It seems the family had not eaten.  So we hurried and made some sandwiches, etc. to take for them.  We sat by one of their investigators, Lucianno.  He has been attending the last few baptisms and always has lots of questions for Elder Shirley.  Now he has decided that he wants to be baptized this Saturday.  In fact, Sister Rodrigues and Sister Morales will have 7 baptisms this Saturday!   For the baptism, all eight of us missionaries in this area will join in singing “I Need Thee Every Hour” in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

Transfers are coming up for the younger missionaries in a week.  Elder Ritz from Farmington, UT, will be going home.  We are sad!  He wants to get together on next P-day, his last P-day, and have pancakes with maple syrup!  You can’t get maple syrup or flavoring in Brazil.  But we brought a little bottle of it with us.  So we will make up some maple syrup!  Should be fun!  We love all of these missionaries! 

We have high hopes for the week ahead!  Hope your week is good too!

Eu te amo!

The hardest work you will ever love!

Baile

Dog or bear??

Presidente Glauber & Luci as Carmen Miranda

Presidente Samuel and the chicken & egg hat

Elder Shirley with Alair & Alex

FHE with Alair

Elder Shirley looking for suspicious characters

Kitchen prep before the baile

Elder Shirley & Nelson at the forge

Sister Shirley taking in the view

March 31, 2014

Bom dia!  It’s Monday and P-day again!  This is our day to catch up on things like laundry.  This is when we really miss our clothes dryer at home.  We have a clothes drying rack and a line strung in the laundry room where we can hang the sheets and other clothes. Some days when it’s cloudy and the humidity is up, it is hard for the clothes to dry.  So we have to turn the fan on them.  But actually, we get along just fine. 

We hear that winter doesn’t want to release its hold in Idaho.  Down here, summer is trying to hold on!  It is now outono (autumn), but this past week sure felt like summer.  We’ve had some pretty hot weather.  Thunderstorms came in yesterday and cooled things off a bit.  We had a real downpour in the afternoon. 

Alair and Lisi and family invited us to their home for Noite Familiar (FHE) on Monday.  They also invited friends, a non-member couple, Alex and Shayla, and their little girl.  Alair lives a ways out.  But he works just down the street from us.  So he gave us a ride to his home and back again.  Alair gave the lesson and we supplemented it with our testimonies and a couple of short videos on the importance of family.  Lisi prepared a really nice meal and we took dessert.  Alair and Alex are longtime friends who have played in a band together.  As you can imagine, it was a real treat for us, especially for Elder Shirley, to do some guitar playing and singing!  It was a fun evening, but a late one!  

We had another Family Home Evening scheduled for Tuesday with Fernanda, a non-member from Pedal de Ouro and her boyfriend.  But she got sick and we had to postpone. But we managed to have a very full week.  District meeting was on Tuesday with the Elders and Sisters which is always a good time.  We get a kick out of Elder Julca from Argentina.  He always gives Elder Shirley a hug and tells him in English, “You are beautiful!  I love you!”   He makes us laugh!  It was interesting at Zone Conference last week when they told all of the missionaries that they were encouraged to practice speaking English when they could.  There is an online test they can take to qualify for an English-speaking certificate.  It is supposed to help them get into Universities easier.  This is a little departure from just strictly speaking the language of the country in which you are serving. Interesting news. 

This week we really put forth an effort to do a lot of visiting.  We walked a lot!  We even got a few new blisters.  We met lots of interesting people and lots more dogs.  We sure feel like detectives as we try to track down people.  We continue to discover that most people here are friendly and very helpful.  Dogs…..not always so friendly!  English class was good too.  We had 5 people in attendance this week.  It is good to see them make progress.  Lucas was there, but not Nilson.  We will make a visit to him to deliver his “homework”. 

We visited Nelson again as we haven’t seen him at church recently.  He is a pan maker.  He has a forge and makes the pans right in his home.   He asked us to come again the next day and watch an actual pour. So we returned Saturday morning.  It was really interesting!  It looks like hard work.  But he says that it keeps him young!  Says he doesn’t have any wrinkles because of all the sweating he does as he keeps the fire stoked.  (We don’t see that sweating is helping us much though.  If anything, we think we have aged!)

Saturday was the night of the “Baile” (Ball) and the “Concurso de Chapeus” (Contest of hats) hosted by the Uniao branch.  It was a much advertised and anticipated event.  Lots of inactives and non-members had been invited. They had a good turnout.   Presidente Samuel, president of the Uniao branch has a party planning business.  So we knew the decorations would be good.  They were.  It was a fun evening.    The youth did their dance that they had learned for their EFY trip earlier in the month. They actually call it FSY (For the Strength of Youth).  They were so enthusiastic and did a great job.   As we have always enjoyed dancing, we had a good time.  We had comments about our dancing American style to Brazilian music. They gave us a hard time.   So they had to teach us the “gaucho” way.  Before the night was done, they told us we were almost dancing like gauchos.  We didn’t have hats.  But lots of people did.   There were lots of interesting ones.  They had a parade of sorts and then awarded prizes.   It was a really good time and so fun to see young and old alike participating.    But it was another late night.  The Sister missionaries came to watch.  They called President Castro for permission to stay later.  It was announced over the microphone that he gave permission for them to stay!  We all cheered!  Fun times!  We were grateful for a ride home with President Torres and his wife. 

We tried to work extra hard this week.  We continue to think of the phrase “It is the hardest work you will ever love”!   We met lots of people, issued lots of invitations.  Results aren’t always as good as we hope for.  But we keep remembering thoughts from Zone Conference.  Why should we expect missionary work not to be hard?  They showed a film based on an article in the March 2001 Ensign about missionary work and the atonement by Jeffrey Holland…”Salvation never was easy!”  So we will keep spreading the good word and encouraging!  We really look forward to General Conference this weekend.  We will be watching the live feed at the same time you are seeing it! 

Thanks for your support!  We love you!

Eu te amo!

Zone Conference in Porto Alegre

Zone Conference luncheon

One of the most attentive investigators they've had in a while!

Elder Shirley on the faixa (the strip)

Elder Ritz baptizing Erli Beatriz

"Hmm, where in the heck are we?!?"

Checking out the neighborhood

Sister Shirley investigates a neighborhood

Getting two birds with one stone - a shoe shine AND a new investigator

Walking down the faixa

Zone Conference - "Baking the Bread of Life"

March 24, 2014

Zone Conference in Porto Alegre was the highlight of the week for us.  The Elders and Sisters went the night before the conference.  But we boarded the bus to PA early (6 am) the morning of the conference and caught a taxi to the mission office.  The theme of the conference was “Padaria Pao da Vida”  (The Bakery of the Bread of Life).  They had good messages for us and “dressed the part”.  We were spiritually (and physically) fed.  It was a very enjoyable day.  

It was fun to see again some of the missionaries who had been transferred from Cachoeira.  We always enjoy President Castro.  Sister Castro had hurt her ankle the day before the conference and was unable to attend.  We also have fun with the married couple, Burnetts and others serving there in Porto Alegre.  We are the only couple from the U.S.  Then they always treat us to a good meal too.  We, along with the Elders and Sisters, started the 3 hour trip back to Cachoeira at 7 pm.  The young missionaries always make the journey fun.  They are a really likeable bunch of missionaries and always “look out” for us!  Rogerio, from the Uniao branch came to pick up the Sisters when we arrived at the bus station.  We ended up getting a ride with him too.  Elder Ritz insisted that we not walk home that late at night.  We told him that we had done it before.  He said that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.  Sounded like something we might say to our own kids.  Nice of them to look out for us. 

We spent most of our days this week visiting and finding addresses for branch records.  The weather was so nice this week.  So it was nice to be about and about.  It was a cooler week and is really feeling like fall.  Besides meeting new people, we made visits to old friends like Paulo from the car dealership.  He and Caesar have just lost their mother.  Paulo agreed to a visit in his home with him and his wife.  We are excited about that.  The fruit stand lady, Rosane, was not so excited to see us again, I think.  She said, “To be honest, I haven’t read anything.” (in the Book of Mormon).   Elder Shirley said, “To be honest, you really need too.”  She seems to avoid us when she can when we have gone back for additional visits.  Sad!  We have bought a lot of fruit this week at her fruit stand though.  So we have had our ups and downs.  Ariele who used to be in our English class until her night school classes started, always greets us warmly and also agreed to an in-home visit.  We have set up a number of Family Home Evenings for this coming week, some with members and some with investigators.  We are excited about that.  Some visits will be quite a distance away and kind of late in the evening.  Guess we will be taking a lot of buses and taxis.

The Sisters in the Uniao branch had a baptism on Saturday.  Elder Ritz, from Farmington, UT, did the baptizing. Elder Ritz will be finishing his mission in April and is thinking of going to BYU-I.   It was a sweet baptism of Erli Beatriz.  She bore her testimony and was so happy.  She had a family full of non-members in attendance.  They seem like a great family.  There was another investigator there to observe the baptism.  He had lots of questions for Elder Shirley.  It was a really nice evening.

We felt fortunate to skype with all of the family on Neal’s birthday…a great birthday present!   We were able to visit with most of the grandkids too.   We got e-mails from lots of family and friends too.    It does our hearts good!   We are grateful to all!  We are well and happy and feeling very blessed! 

Love to all….

Eu te amo!

Happy Birthday Elder Shirley!

Birthday dinner steakhouse

The standard mode of transportation

Busy bus stop

Busy street they cross often

"Go ahead, make our day!"

Typical flower in bloom everywhere right now

Branch activity Noite dos Casais (Night of Marrieds)

FHE with Rosi & Gelson

View across town

"Is the bus ever going to get here?"

March 17, 2014

The heat returned this week to Cachoeira.   It felt like we were back in the middle of summer instead of fall.  Walking became uncomfortable again.  But we did a lot of it.  We are still working hard on verifying addresses for the Uniao branch and meeting with menos ativos (MA or less active), and investigators.  However, it must be the angle of the light because it just looks like early fall.  We have had a few thunderstorms but, luckily, most have come in the night or when we have been home, or when we have at least had an umbrella with us.  We continue to meet great and interesting people.  We love hearing their stories.  Nearly every member has a great conversion story!  In fact, that seemed to be the theme at church on Sunday.  We got to hear the conversion stories of many members in both branches, many who have remained firm in the gospel for many, many years.  We loved it.  Verifying addresses for the branch has really been a blessing.  We have got to meet many good people who have needed a visit from someone in the church and an invitation to return.

Sister Rodrigues and Sister Morales asked us to make a couple of visits this week, one to a lady who works in a fruteira (fruit stand) and a lady who works in a gaucho store on our street (a store that we have not been to yet).  These ladies have seen us walking up the street and wanted us to visit.  We presented a Book of Mormon to the dona who works at the fruit stand.  She wanted the visit during the lunch time.  She is one of the few stores that don’t close during the lunch time.  But business is slow during that time.  She wanted the lesson then.  It was a little difficult though as a few customers came in.  But she seemed to find our message interesting and is planning on reading the Book of Mormon.  The gaucho store dona was really nice as well.  She kept calling us “simpatico”!  We have been called that by quite a few people now as we visit around town.  From what we understand, that means pleasant, nice, favorable.  So I guess that is a good thing!

We became a bit “pushy” this week.  We kept Nilson and Lucas for a bit after English class.  They had requested a copy of a Bible in English to help with their reading skills.  So far, we have not been able to get one.  But we did have the Book of Mormon in English.  So after class, we presented each of them with a Book of Mormon, one in English and one in Portuguese, along with an explanation of what it is and where it came from.  They seemed to be interested and accepting.  Guess time will tell if we pushed too hard.  We will be anxious to see if they come back to class.  And unfortunately, we won’t be holding class this week as we have a Zone Conference in Porto Alegre on that day.  They both work at Delta Sul, a furniture and appliance store just down the street from us.  We will have to pay them a visit and see how we are received. 

We were also “pushy” with Gelson, Rosi, (and Francine).  They are the less active members who “talk” of wanting to go the the temple.  We joined Sister Almeida and Sister Techmeier (both from Brazil) in a Noite Familiar (Family Home Evening) at Gelson & Rosi’s home.  Rosi made Cachorros Quentes (hot dogs cut up in a sauce on a bun).  We provided the fudge jumbles.  The Sisters brought the lesson on the temple and forever families.  Elder Shirley and I each added our thoughts along with 3 very short, inspiring Mormon Message videos on the family. (We took our lap top with us).   Mormon Messages are so great!  Elder Shirley talked to them about how easy it would be for them to go to the temple as they have no real problems except not attending church regularly.  We were all pretty blunt about the need and importance of getting to the temple.   They are such a nice, beautiful family.  We want this so badly for them.  They seem to want it too.  Hopefully, they can follow through.  They were out of town this Sunday visiting family.  But will hopefully start attending church regularly soon.  Everybody seemed to have a good time.  We ended up playing our traditional game from Elder Shirley’ first mission, Escravos de Jo.   The Sisters were acquainted with it.  Gelson and Rosi were not.  It was a fun time.   Sister Techmeier knew the game and had a slight variation to it.  We will have to remember it and try it out on family when we get home! 

The Marina branch had a “Noite dos Casais” (night of married couples).  The branches hold these nights regularly for the married couples in the branch.  They are always well attended.  We usually eat and play games.  This time we had a message, ate, and danced.  They had a “macaroni” night with all kinds of pasta dishes.  There were quite a few good dancers.  We showed off a little “sugarfooting” we learned from Bob Oliphant years ago.  We had a laughing, good time.   Rosi and Gelson attended this night as well.  The message was on marriage and family.  Rosi and Gelson are really getting it this week! It was a great social event!  Now Uniao Branch wants to hold their own dance on Saturday. 

This seems to be a week of parties as each of the branches are also holding Relief Society Birthday socials.  Many are only for the sisters.  We will probably stick together and only attend the couple parties.

It is also birthday week for our St. Patrick’s Day boy, Elder Shirley!!!***  How lucky is he to be able to celebrate his birthday in one of his favorite places….Brazil?!  And his birthday is on P-day!!  We plan to go to one of his favorite restaurants down the street for filet mignon.  It is one of the few places that serve ala carte.  And one of the few (that we have found) that serves really tender beef.  We will probably go there for lunch.  Lunch here is really the significant meal of the day.  All the stores close up for about 2 hours from noon to 2:00 pm.  Evening meals just seem to be a light snack generally or whatever.  Or a really late meal like 9:30 or 10:00 pm. 

Looks like we will keep busy this week too.  Lots on our calendar already!  We think of all of you at home often.  You are always in our prayers! 

Eu te amo!