June 30, 2014
And the rains continue
to come. A large part of Brazil is
receiving lots of rain and that includes rain in Cachoeira. A member told us today that Cachoeira has had
5 inches of rain in the last 3 days.
Rain runs down the roads like a river.
There is mud everywhere. Even
riding the bus is more of an adventure.
On some of the little red dirt/clay roads, the bus driver revs the motor
and charges up the hills and through the puddles (or ponds in the road) with
tires spinning. Rides are really bouncy.
We usually try to sit in the front as we fly off the seats in the back
of the bus. We walked to church on
Sunday in the rain as buses were slow in coming. We had our umbrellas (guarda chuvas), but
were still pretty wet when we arrived.
Many members are complaining of leaky roofs. Clothes are harder than ever to get dry. Hair
is impossible! Even the paper in our
tablets is limp and damp. We like to
say that “Everything is damp but our spirits!”
Early Saturday
morning, we walked in the rain to the chapel to catch the bus that the 3
branches had jointly rented to take members, old and young alike, to the temple
in Porto Alegre. There were a lot of
youth. It’s about a three-hour trip to Porto Alegre. The youth did baptisms for
the dead while the adults did sealings and sessions.
We had to be at the chapel at 5:30 a.m. We didn’t see any city buses running that
early. We thought about calling a
taxi. But not many of them were out and
about that early either. So we just
ended up walking. There were a total of
about 55 members from the Uniao, Marina, and Cachoeira branches. We were very happy to see Elivelton (who was
just baptized a week ago) and Bruna join the caravana. It was a big double-decker bus and was lots
of fun. The last time we went to the
temple was almost 4 months ago. Back then, it was hot. This time we got to see the temple in the
rain. It was still beautiful and still a
great experience for both of us to do the session in Portuguese. Scary, but a great experience! On the temple grounds, they also have a
little store where you can buy scriptures, church magazines, church videos,
manuals, garments, etc. It’s a mini,
mini, Deseret Book. We like to visit
there too. It was also good to
re-connect with President and Sister Warthen (who presides over the Porto
Alegre temple), George and Annette Leavitt and the Denneys, who are all
stateside friends, also serving at the temple.
The Leavitts and the Denneys were part of the “Brazil Nuts”, who were
all waiting and waiting for visas to come through. Elder Shirley also met some families that
knew people he knew in his first mission about 46 years ago. Cool!
We always especially
enjoy the youth and their exuberance! In
the late afternoon, just before the bus was to leave, we were walking down the
sidewalk in the rain with our umbrellas when some of the young women came on
the run, grabbing our umbrella as they passed.
They were on their way to a nearby little store. It was pouring rain and they left their
“mini” umbrella in exchange for our big one.
They only got a few steps away when the wind caught our umbrella that
they stole from us and turned it inside out.
So much for them getting a bigger, better umbrella. They continued down the sidewalk, laughing
and screaming. They were soaking wet
when they got back! We all had a good
laugh!
Across the street from
the temple, a little “lancheria” was set up, with tarps to shield them and
customers from the rain. We went to
check out the food after we were finished with the session. They even had a little TV set up inside with
the Brazil/Mexico game playing and an enthusiastic crowd standing around. They
pulled out two little stools and put us right in front of the tv, in middle of
the crowd, to eat our toasted sandwiches.
They were all happy to see that we were rooting for Brazil. We also picked up some of their salgados and
some of their doces (sweets) and took them back for the youth, many of whom
hadn’t brought any food and didn’t have the money to buy any. It was a long, but
really good day. We left home at 5:10 am
and arrived back home at 9:30 pm. And it
rained all day!
Earlier in the week,
we had the last District meeting before transfers take place. It is a sad, but exciting time. They are a great bunch of dedicated, fun
missionaries. Sister Johnson, from New
Mexico will be going home and a few of the others will be transferred.
We hopped a city bus
and did some visiting in some of the outlying neighborhoods of Cachoeira in the
Marina branch. We were trying to find
some of the less active members again.
This particular neighborhood is called “Habitar Brazil”. We visited the Tischler family. We met the dad and some of the kids last week
and had set up an appointment to meet the whole family this week. Since we had a conflict arise, we took a bus
out a day early. The dad greeted us with
“you came today”! But they were all at
home and invited us in. They live in a
pretty humble home, but were very welcoming.
We loved the kids. No one in the
family reads except for the mom and the 10 year old boy, Bruno. By the way, his sister’s name is Bruna. The mom remembers the missionary who baptized
her and she requested a Book of Mormon from us.
We ended up surprising them the very next day when we returned with a
Book of Mormon. This time we met a
married daughter and her 18 month old baby.
They were so talkative and kept asking questions about our kids and
grandkids. People are always amazed that
we have 10 grandkids! We know many our
age who have so many more than that, but 10 seems to amaze people down
here! And we are always being asked if
all of our kids are “firme” in the gospel.
We feel so blessed to be able to say “They are firme!”
On the bus to Habitar,
we also met our shoe shine, less-active member, Alexandre. He was on his way to visit his mother who
happens to live just a few houses from the Tischlers. He invited us to go with him to meet his
mother. Once again, we were warmly
welcomed. In fact, his mom and sister
gave Sister Shirley 3-kisses on the cheeks.
We are used to the one kiss on the cheek. That is a normal way to greet a sister. But they kept saying, “mais um” (one more). They seemed happy to see us and sad to see us
go. We didn’t stay long as we had other
visits and needed to catch the bus back soon as it was getting dark. Buses don’t run too late at night out that
way. And it wasn’t the best of
neighborhoods. But it continues to
amaze us how the timing works out for us.
So many times things work out so that we can meet people like we did
Alexandre on the bus. He seemed pleased.
One evening we decided
to watch the Ping Pong match at the Uniao/Marina branch. Our non-member friend, Nilson, who works at
Delta Sul told us about it (surprise!)
He said he might go. Although
Nilson wasn’t there after all, several active as well as less active young men
were. So we stayed to watch a bit. Elder Shirley got talked into giving it a
try. Although he was rusty, he enjoyed it and the youth got a real kick out of
it! We were able to visit with Mosiah, the
in-active son of President Martins (who owns our favorite store, Pedal de Ouro). He had come to church last Sunday to support
Elivelton in his confirmation and sat behind us. We noticed that he was a good singer. We visited with him about the possibility of
joining with 2 or 3 others (all inactives) for a quartet at church. He actually seemed interested and even made
some suggestions as to who might sing with them. So something good may come of the Ping Pong
match!
We finally connected again
with the Reinbrecht family on Friday. We
had set up an appointment with Roberto when we saw him in the grocery
store. But he hadn’t mentioned it to the
family as they had his brother visiting and he forgot. But they were home and seemed happy to see
us. As usual, they insisted on feeding
us. Marcia had made a great vegetable
soup, probably the best soup we have had here.
We took some of our pipoca. We
gave them a lesson and showed a short video of what temples are about. Once again, they had lots of questions. We actually talked to them about getting
baptized. Roberto wasn’t as shocked
about it as we thought he might be. But
we don’t know what it will take to get them out to church. He always says that he wouldn’t be
comfortable there and that he prefers to just talk religion with us. We are
thinking that we will invite the Elders to come with us on a visit sometime
soon. They are anxious to take over on
this family anyway. We are beginning to
think this good family just likes our friendship and lively discussions. The 10 year old daughter, Melissa, has
developed a degenerative cartilage disease that is evidently genetic. They have had her to specialists in Porto
Alegre. We are going to teach them about
priesthood blessings next Friday. We
will see how that goes.
There doesn't seem to
be enough time to go around. The Sisters
had a baptism Friday. It was Manuel, a
young man who danced with our little group of youth at the Baile. Because of our appointment with the
Reinbrechts, we were unable to attend the baptism. We felt like we couldn’t cancel on the Reinbrechts. But we at least were able to attend his
confirmation on Sunday. Also, Elder
Shirley got a call while on the return bus trip from Porto Alegre on Saturday
night to speak in Sacrament meeting on Sunday.
He had to talk on how to recognize personal revelation. He gave a very good, touching talk. In fact, it may be one of the best he has
given! Here everyone always closes their
talk by saying, and this is my “pequeno discurso” (little talk). Absolutely everyone says this. Today, so did Elder Shirley!
We have done lots of
visiting and had lots of fun. Can’t
believe it will soon be the 4th of July, one of the favorite
holidays for our family! We will be
thinking of you! Here, soccer spirit is
alive and well! (We hear it is pretty
strong in the USA as well.) Rain hasn’t
dampened that nor does the rain dampen our enthusiasm for spreading the Gospel. We are feeling so blessed by the Gospel! We are feeling grateful for good family and
friends!
Eu te amo!
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