This week the words to
a song kind of express how we are feeling:
“We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there!” It kind of
expresses the feelings that we have. We
have a lot that we have hoped to accomplish before we go home and not much time
left to do it. Two weeks from today, we
will be released as missionaries!
We spent time this
week visiting and delivering the little cards “Because He Lives”
(#PorqueEleVive) and talking about the message of Easter. We had some nice visits. Easter is celebrated in a big way here. Friday was a holiday. Everything was closed. We hadn’t anticipated that. But we didn't starve either. Stores opened again on Saturday, which
surprised us. We thought they might be
closed all weekend. And, of course, we
loved General Conference. We met in the
Cachoeira chapel to view the broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening, halfway through the afternoon
session of conference (which began at 5 pm for us), there was a deluge of rain
and also wind. We lost power. They ended up just saying a closing prayer
and sending us all home. We have to
catch the end of conference later. It
was a dramatic ending for the last time that we will have the opportunity to
view conference in Brazil!
It was a nice visit with
Thais and her mom, Gabriele, this week.
They seemed happy to see us.
Gabriele never did explain why she missed Thais’ confirmation. And we didn't push it. Her main concern was that we would be going
home soon. She really wants to be sure
that they will continue to have missionaries come! She says that they need to be
strengthened! She said that all
missionaries seem to have a special spirit about them. We felt glad that she recognizes and wants
that. Our concern, also, is that
missionaries will continue to visit. We
also had a nice visit with Claudia and Natália.
Claudia is making progress in her struggle to quit smoking! This entire family has a lot of potential and
is making such good progress. We know
that we will continue to worry about them!
We had an interesting
visit with Artur. In our efforts try to
strengthen him in all areas, we decided to give the lesson on chastity. When Elder told Artur he wanted to discuss
this “delicate” topic, Artur told us to go ahead because it didn't bother
him! We had a good and frank discussion
with him. In closing, we prayed for him
to have courage to do what was right. We
pray for that pretty much every week. He seems to take note of that and
sometimes prays for courage himself when it’s his turn to pray. It evidently
reminded him of a poem that he had learned in his youth called “A Coragem” by
Olavo Bilac (Olavo Bilac is also the name of a street here in Cachoeira). During the week he had taken the time to
write the poem out as well as he could remember it. He wasn't completely sure about it and asked
us to look it up on the internet if we could.
It was a nice poem, but not one that we were familiar with. However, we found it on the internet. It will be fun to compare it with him on our
next visit. He also wanted to discuss
guns with Elder Shirley. We covered
quite a variety of topics with him this week.
He wasn't feeling too well when we arrived. But had perked up by the time we left.
We finally caught
Julio home with Rosangela and family this week.
The kids were out of school for Easter break. We were glad. We love these kids! Paperwork is still not
completed for them to get married before we go home. But Julio agreed to the next best thing. We have an actual appointment with Julie and
Rosangela next Saturday to take a picture of Julio down on one knee, proposing
to Rosangela. He told us that we can
take a picture, but we can’t leave a picture with Rosangela because she might
use it against him in the future. Actually,
we think he might be afraid that she will say no! She says, “We will see!” It should be fun.
Mission conference was
held this week. They divided the mission
up into four areas and it was our turn this week. We, along with the young
Elders and Sisters who serve here in Cachoeira took an early morning van ride
to Porto Alegre. They picked us up at
5:15 am. It was a good conference, as
usual. They always give missionaries who
are going home the opportunity to bear their testimony to the group. It was hard to believe that our turn to do
that had arrived! It is something that kind of looms over you the entire
mission. They gave each of us 3
minutes. It was also hard to believe that
both Elder and Sister Shirley got flagged that time was up! Every one of the senior missionaries serving
here in POA do sul mission will be going home before the next conference. There were also quite a number of young
missionaries going home. It was a pretty
emotional meeting. We are glad to have
that over though. It was another thing checked off of our list of “to dos”
before we leave. Although they didn't give their farewell testimonies yet,
President and Sister Castro will be released the end of June. So there will be lots of changes. It was a nice, but long day. We didn't get home until 11 pm.
We reached one of our
goals this week. It was a challenge from
President Castro to read the Book of Mormon before the end of June. It was our personal goal to complete our
reading of it before we go home. We were thrilled to reach that goal this
week! We have already read it once
since we have been here in Brazil. In
fact, we started to read it before we left home for Brazil. A good nephew suggested that doing that might
help with the language! He was right! The
reading went much faster this time through. It has become a very enjoyable habit each
evening to take turns reading out loud in Portuguese. We have looked forward to
that each day. We hated to come to the
end. It is a habit we want to
continue!
Although we are
nearing the end of this “época”, we realize it also signifies the beginning of
another for us. Life is full of
beginnings and endings. We are thrilled
with a couple of grandkids who will be experiencing “beginnings” in their lives. Marissa will be getting married in the Ogden,
Utah, temple two days after we get home.
She will be our first grandchild to be married. And we were fortunate enough to be able to
witness (thanks to modern technology) Josh opening his mission call. He will soon begin serving in the
Czech/Slovak mission, speaking Czech.
Josh will be our first grandchild to serve a mission. We look forward to being a part of these
wonderful experiences. Wonderful
beginnings for a couple of good grandkids!
We are grateful for all of our wonderful family and look forward to
reuniting with them! However, we still
have a couple of weeks left in our mission.
We hope to be able to put it to good use. We really do have a “long ways to go and a
short time to get there”!
Love you all! Be safe and happy wherever you may be this
week!
Eu te amo!
No comments:
Post a Comment