It’s been another week
of variety. Things are never dull in
Cachoeira. The weather has been hot one
day, cold the next, with lots of rain mixed in. Elder has been calling it “Cough-oeira”
as there are so many people with coughs.
They all blame it on the weather. There has been such a great variety in
our work too. It’s great. We never get bored. We love it!
Monday evening we set
out for Noite Familiar (Family Home Evening) with the Rodrigues and Garcia
families. We were invited by Cristiane
Rodrigues. They live far out of the
city. Since we had our computer, a Texas
Sheet Cake, scriptures, etc., we took a taxi.
Cristiane and her husband, Daniel, have 5 boys. They live next door to her parents. Her sister and her sister’s husband and kids
live nearby too. Cristiane’s mom and
dad, Jussara and Adao were there too. They
are all stalwarts in the Gospel…..except for Cristiane’s husband, Daniel. Cristiane really wants her husband to become
a member. Needless to say, missionaries
have worked on him for a long time. She
loves her family a lot and really wants them to be sealed in the temple one
day. Daniel is a hard-working guy. He works as a farm hand. He puts in long days at work. It is obvious that he loves his family. He cannot read so it makes scripture reading
difficult. But they do have tapes to
listen to. But we aren’t sure if he
actually takes time to do that. Recently, he has been pushed pretty hard by a
branch member. He let everyone know that
he wasn’t ready yet.
Even though Cristiane
invited us to come, we were a little nervous and unsure as to how to approach
things. She requested a lesson on the
priesthood. We each prepared a portion
of the lesson each from the perspective of a man and also from a woman. We also took a couple of short Mormon Message
videos to share that were available on lds.org.
One was called “The Blessings of the Priesthood”. The other was called “Sanctify Yourselves”. The latter one was especially good. We could really relate to it as it took place
in Inkom, Idaho (near Pocatello). So it
happened near our home. And since it was
about a boy playing football (Americana), we knew the Rodrigues boys could
relate. A boy on the team was struck by
lightning and another young man who was 18 and had just been made an Elder used
his priesthood power to give the unconscious boy a blessing. It is a powerful and interesting video.
It turned out to be an
especially good evening. To begin with,
Cristiane announced that she was pregnant. Her youngest is 8 and was just baptized. They are all so excited. Elder teased Daniel that he might have twin
boys, making a total of 7 boys in the family.
Daniel responded, “That would be great!”
(He loves his family!) She is due in April or early May. Since we are due to go home sometime in
April, she requested that we stay here or maybe even move here. We showed them pics of the family that we
miss so much. She thinks that the whole
family should all move here! We were
among the first to hear the good news.
It was fun to be a part of their excitement.
The kids were anxious
to read the scriptures and help with the lesson. One of the teenagers had a story to add
too. The two younger boys sat close to
us. The little 8 year old kept taking
Sister Shirley’s hand and putting it on his knee. Jean, the 10 year old, sat on the other side
of Sister Shirley and helped her with any words she had trouble with. (Jean also had a super-hero puzzle he wanted
Sister Shirley to put together with him.
We finished it just as it was time to begin FHE). They simply melted our hearts! This is one of those families that we will
really miss when we go home! We felt
like it was one of the most enjoyable FHEs we have had. We always worry about
being able to call a taxi when we are out there. The cell phones don’t work well in the
electrical storms. And we have been
having a lot of them. But we had no
problems and got home without any trouble.
In fact the taxi driver was especially friendly as well. He showed us some interesting sites on the
way home (including his home) and told us he would like to invite us to his
home for talk and “coffee” one day.
Guess he doesn’t know yet that Mormons don’t drink coffee! It was just a great evening! We think Daniel enjoyed it too.
We have been doing
lots of visiting this week. We have done
lots of walking again and also have been on lots of buses. We are getting to know bus drivers and the
money-takers pretty well. As we boarded
one bus this week, the driver said to us, “This bus goes to the United
States!” Elder asked if it came back. “Sure” the driver said!
We tried to fit in an
afternoon of visiting with Dione again.
But on the day he wanted to go, the Sisters called with shower problems
again. They had no hot water again. It was a different problem this time. (They are old showers). Elder bought the parts and we got it
fixed. But we never did find another
time to visit with Dione this week.
We had a treat this
week. Sister Morales called us via skype
Tuesday evening. Guess we can call her
“Abby” now as she is home in California.
It was so good to see her, especially to see her so happy. Although she told us that she would come back
to Cachoiera in a minute if she could.
We were happy to see that her life is going well and things are falling
into place for her. She was a great
missionary! We have missed her!
We had a good lesson
with Artur again this week. Elder did a
little “theater” with him as he acted out the part of Artur to let Artur see
himself. It was pretty funny. Artur seemed to enjoy it. Artur came to church again this week
too!
President and Sister Castro came to town this week to do interviews with the younger missionaries
during our Zone meeting. We actually
didn't see much of him as he was in interviews the whole time. But we visited with Sister Castro. President Castro will interview us when he
comes back in October, we think. Guess
it is good that he doesn’t worry much about us.
Guess that we had better behave and work hard and warrant that
trust.
We did get the
assignment from the Castros to install fire alarms in everyone’s
apartments. So we spent the day visiting
the apartments of the young missionaries, installing fire alarms and new hoses
and regulators for their gas tanks.
Sister Castro asked us to not delay in getting them installed. So we felt the need to do them in that same
day. What variety in our work!
The branch bus went
out again on Sunday to the far reaches of the Marina branch. So we spent the week visiting again, inviting
people to ride the bus to church. And we
had pretty good results. We had several
less actives members show up on Sunday.
In fact, it was hard to know just who needed us to sit by them the most. Julio and his 10 year old son came! We were really excited about that. But his pregnant wife didn’t feel up to
coming. And a couple of the other kids
stayed home with her. But Julio just
seems to feel right at home at church.
Formerly, he was very active. When
we visited him in his home, we found the Sisters there too. He should feel wanted! Rosi and Gelson and Fran came to church
too. They walked instead of riding the
bus. It was wonderful to see them
there. Nelson, the pan-maker was there
for the second week in a row. But there
were also several who had told us that they would be there and then weren’t. Guess we still have work to do.
The Uniao Sister
missionaries (Sister Picula and Sister Souza) had a baptism on Saturday. Franciele, a cute teenage girl, was
baptized. Her parents have been
inactive. But since the missionaries
have been working with Franciele, her dad decided that he wanted to be the one
to baptize her. So he has been working
towards that goal. It was wonderful to
see him be able to baptize her. He also
bore a strong testimony at the baptism.
He says that he is praying every day that one day he and his wife can go
on a mission like the “Casal Shirleys”.
He says that he may try to work on his English so that he might be able
to serve in the U.S., maybe even in Idaho he says! But he says that he would love to serve
anywhere! The Sisters sang a hymn and it
sounded great! Great baptism!
Anyway, it’s been a
week with lots of good visits. We have
met more new people. Some have some
pretty sad stories and challenges in their lives. We have really enjoyed meeting them and visiting
with ones we are already acquainted with. We know the Gospel can help us all
have better lives. It’s been an especially busy, but an
especially good week. We have felt
pretty happy with our lives as missionaries. Challenges come to everyone. Life is never without challenges. We have seen some of the younger missionaries
struggling with health problems. But
they remain determined to continue. We
have been fortunate and have had great health, a real blessing for us. What an amazing experience this continues to
be!
Hope you are all well
and happy! You are in our thoughts and
in our hearts! We love you all!
Eu te amo!
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