It’s been a busy
week. Sometimes we have literally had to
run to catch a bus to get to an appointment on time. Sometimes we have had to miss a meeting (like
the branch council) because we have been double- booked. We went to bed every night feeling like we
didn’t get to everyone that we wanted to get to. That is the way it seems to be every day,
every week, and we suppose that it will be that same way at the end of our
mission. But we have had some very good
experiences too. We are reminded of a
scripture that we read in one of our recent missionary meetings in D & C
43:34: “Treasure these things up in your
hearts, and let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds.” That is kind of the way we have felt this
week. We are having great experiences,
but it is a serious business that we are about.
We have had some
really hot days this week. January is
typically one of the hottest months of the year. It also rains a lot in January. We have had both rain and sun this past
week. We had days in the 90’s. The weather report said that with the
humidity, it felt like 107 F. We believed
it! It was so hot that we left sweat
prints on the benches at the bus stops (and we don’t mean fingerprints). We also have had some really heavy downpours
of rain along with thunder and lightning.
We rarely left the apartment without our umbrellas. But leave the apartment, we did! A sister from one of the branches, was
complaining about the heat and said “You don’t leave the apartment when it is
that hot do you?” Yes we do! A motto we hear from a lot of the
missionaries is “There is no excuse!”
One advantage of it being so hot is that we now have hot water in our
kitchen sink. Normally we don’t. We have a holding tank for water on top of
our apartment building. When the weather
is hot, the water in that holding tank is pre-heated. It comes out of the kitchen faucet pretty
warm now. Nice for doing dishes! And our shower water hardly needs to be
heated at all.
Elder Buhler and Elder
Gorham stopped by on P-day to use computers to send pictures home. They brought ice cream with them. So we made milk shakes. We thought that was very thoughtful of
them!
Iná is an older member
of the Marina branch. She and her
married daughter, Karla, are very active members. Karla is married to Elpídio who is a
counselor in the branch presidency. But
Iná has a daughter, Claudia, who is inactive and has gone through a tough
divorce. This week we had a wonderful
family home evening with Claudia. She
also invited her daughters. By the end
of the evening, all four daughters (Juliana, Gabriela, Natalía, and Debra)
showed up, along with a couple of grandkids.
It was a full-blown family home evening with songs, lesson, games, and
treats. It was really fun. For an opening song, we sang “I am a Child of
God”. Most of them knew the words and
sang along with tears in their eyes.
They had requested a lesson on the family. We had a short lesson and also showed a few
short videos from the Mormon channel about the importance of the family and the
Plan of Salvation. We finished by
playing our favorite Brazilian game, Escravos de Jó, with the new twist we
learned. Some of them knew the
game. Some didn’t. But everyone participated, even Iná, who
showed up just after the lesson. It was a small house, with the bed in the
center of the room. We all gathered
around the bed, or on it, to play the game.
It really was fun! We had told them that we would bring treats. (We brought fudge jumbles.) As a surprise for us, they had prepared
sandwiches and drinks. It was such a
fun. They welcomed us so nicely. We left with good feelings and promises to
come to church. They really did seem to
be touched by the Spirit. But Sunday
rolled around and they didn’t come to church.
We were disappointed. We know
they had good intentions. Guess we just
keep trying.
Elivelton and Bruna
are now in their own home since their marriage.
They invited us to come visit them in their new home and resume the
follow-up lessons for baptism. They told
us they had missed us. So we prepared a
big bag of “kettle corn” to take and a lesson on the priesthood. It had been a rainy day. But the rain quit just as it was time for us
to leave for their place. When we got
there, they were gone! They had forgotten
and decided to run to the grocery store as there was a break in the rain. We were disappointed, but we will try
again.
We have also had
trouble catching up with Eliza, the 15 year old girl who was recently
baptized. Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham
had asked us to do the follow-up lessons.
We stopped by on a whim one day and caught her home. We only stayed a minute. (Her step-mom was there and obviously not
thrilled to see us.) But we made an appointment for the next day. The next day, we came well with scripture
book marks for her, visual aids, etc. We
even had framed the photo of her baptism by Elder Buhler. We wrote her baptism date and a brief message
on the back of the picture. That is a
special day we don’t want her to forget.
(She doesn’t have any support at home.)
The lesson went well. And the
step mom didn’t seem to mind too much.
Eliza also promised to come to church on Sunday. But the difficulty for her is that she
doesn’t have a way. We don’t think they
have much money for the bus. Before
baptism, President Glauber would pick her up for church. But since baptism, she is kind of on her own
to find a way. Most people in that
neighborhood ride the bus. So it is a
problem. Also, Eliza is out of school
for summer vacation. Lots of people take
vacation time during January and go to the beach or somewhere. Eliza told us that she had plans to visit a
sister who lived out of town sometime during the month. We
hope we can catch up with her again soon.
We will keep trying. We feel the
importance of doing that!
It was a good visit
with Artur. He now has a puppy, thanks
to Elders Buhler and Gorham. They found
a stray puppy and gave it to Artur. It
is a really cute, nice puppy. Artur
seems really taken with it too. We had a
good lesson with Artur on the priesthood.
He is a real family guy. He often
breaks down and cries when talking about family. At church on Sunday, he wore a tie for the
first time. We had given him the tie and the shirt. He also told President Glauber that he was
“coming along”. We were happy to hear
that.
We had a really nice
evening at the home of Alair and Lisi and their two kids and the mother of
Alair. They are an active family. We just want to give them some support. We like this family a lot. Alair is one of the first branch members we
met when we arrived in Cachoeira. He
sought us out on the street. We had
prepared a lesson about setting goals and about the priesthood. Even though we had told them that we wanted to
come after their evening meal and just do a lesson, they insisted on feeding us
too. They were just starting
preparations when we arrived at 7:30 pm.
Alair cornered Elder Shirley to talk “music”. Alair performs in a band. Sister Shirley helped Lisi in the
kitchen. Afterwards, we had a nice
lesson, but it was a late night. (It
usually is when we visit them. Don’t
know how to get around that.) They live
far out in Promorar. We had to wait a
long time for a bus.
It was busy all
week. We had other nice visits with
people like José, Julio and Roseangela and family. We had district meetings, helped with English
class again (which included two non-members), and attended a baptism in the
Cachoeira branch. We also were happy to
see that Renato, the hot-dog vendor, had returned to the park after a several
month absence. He had his leg broken
after his motorbike fell on him. We have
missed this nice guy. He acted happy to
see us too. We think the whole city has
missed him as well as his hot dogs. He
seems to be very well respected by everyone in the city. (He only sets up his hot dog stand in the
evenings.) His wife also has a
restaurant. We have talked to him a
couple of times this week as we have been walking through the park on our way
to appointments. He told us that while he has been laid up with
his foot, he had read all of the Liahonas that we had given him and that he
would like more. He also lost his mother
during this time. He said he couldn’t
find our phone number, but had wished we could have been there to speak at the
funeral. He told us that we looked like
angels. When Elder told him that he
possibly needed to clean his glasses, Renato said that he was not seeing us with
his eyes, but with his heart. (He is a
member, but has been inactive for about 30 years). We had a good visit with him and plan to get
back soon with more Liahonas and church videos. And a hot dog might be nice too. They are probably the best in the city. People here like hot dogs!
So it has been a good
week. We have worked hard, but we feel
good. It feels good to do good! It feels good to be good! We continue to have great experiences. We try to “treasure these things up in our
hearts”, but we also feel the responsibility that rests upon us as
missionaries. We hope it has been a good
week for each of you! We miss you
bunches! We love you lots!
Eu te amo!
No comments:
Post a Comment