Wild horses, Pipoca and Scrambling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling)

Filling the baptismal font via bucket brigade

Shopping for a pipoqueira (popcorn popper)

Gilmar and family

Kalebe

Restaurant "Love at First Bite"

Nelson and Elder Shirley

Vera at her baptism

Monday, February 17, 2014

After a very emotional week, we are just trying to “go to work”.  But we have to say how grateful and how proud we are of  family for the way they handled funeral arrangements and all the details that go with it.  We really appreciated the way we were included in all of the happenings and updated all along the way.  The funeral sounded just beautiful.  From everyones reports, music, talks, flowers,  etc. were beautiful!  It was hard to be so far away, but it sure helped knowing everything was being taken care of in such a beautiful way.  We are sure Grandma was pleased!  It makes us more anxious than ever to spread the message of the gospel.

We have made lots of visits the past few days.  We have been following President Castro’s suggestion that we focus a little more on the Uniao branch.  We have been focusing on the Marina branch the last couple of months.  Now we begin to make more visits in Uniao.  However, we still plan to maintain some contact with the good people in Marina as well.  Here are a few highlights.

We enjoyed noite familiar (FHE) with Gilmar, Luanna and Kalebe.  We prepared a lesson about being a child of God and were planning to focus on Kalebe as he is almost 4. We had prepared games, music, had coloring pages, etc.   It was a hot, hot day.  When we arrived, we found Kalebe and friends in the swimming pool.  A friend of Luanna and Gilmar’s was in the kitchen frying up salgados.  We could see that no one would want to come in and sit in a hot house and listen to our lesson.   So we changed our plan.  Gilmar and Luanna were actually quite emotional as a friend of theirs….a mother with kids….had just passed away.  We could relate to their tender feelings.  So we focused on the Plan of Salvation.  We kept the lesson short and showed a video about “Moments that Matter Most”.  Gilmar said that he would like to do the closing prayer.  He gave a very emotional prayer.  We ate with them.  We also  showed them the crazy videos our family made for us at Thanksgiving!  They loved it!  Now they are wanting to come visit us in Idaho someday.  They insisted on taking us home.  It was a good visit after all.  

There was a baptism in the Uniao branch.  Elder dos Santos and Elder Ritz were the missionaries.  When we arrived, they were still trying to fill the font.  The youth and their leaders were there making pizzas for a fund raiser.  The water pressure was not high enough in the building to allow them to use it in the kitchen as well as in the font.  The Elders found a faucet that they could fill buckets from without affecting water pressure in the kitchen.  So we had a kind of bucket brigade.  It was a sweet baptism of a mother of three young kids.  She was very emotional and clung to us like we were old friends.  A ferocious rain storm came up and Sister Biddulph and Sister Rodrigues arrived drenched.  No umbrella.  But they stepped right up and helped this sister get dressed for her baptism and did her hair.  Things turned out great!

We made a new friend in Nelson this week.  He lives in the Uniao branch and has been inactive for about 10 years.  He has quite a nice home surrounded by lots of trees and tropical plants.  He showed up by himself to church last Sunday.  His first wife passed away a little more than 10 years ago.  He found someone else, but they have never married.  They have been together for almost 10 years.  She gets a pension from a previous divorce as long as she doesn’t re-marry.  Nelson works with metal and makes all kinds of interesting things from pans to plaques.  Not long ago he had a dream which made him feel a need to reconnect with the church.  However,  his “wife” is Catholic.  He has kids living close who are not members.  He says his “wife” is like a “wild horse” and he doesn’t think she will accept the gospel message from anyone but him.  He wants to work on softening her heart himself.  He is a very nice, on-the-ball guy.  He insisted on giving us a gift of one of his plaques.  It is a key holder with a metal impression of a horse and rider.  He would not let us pay for it.  We hope to see a lot more of him!

English class was fun, as usual.  We really enjoy it.  Arielle arrived on her motorcycle.  There are lots and lots of motos down here.  She arrived dripping wet as we had another rainstorm.  Lucas was not there.  He was not feeling well.  We had a total of about 9 in attendance.

We visit regularly with a couple of ladies who own a tiny, little store down the street called “Casa Hoffman”.  One is a German and one is an Italian.  We have developed a nice friendship with them.  They call us their amigos!  We bought a pipoqueira from them.  It’s like a “whirly” popcorn popper for on top of the stove.  It works great and we have made a lot of kettle corn to take to District Meetings, FHE, and on other visits.  Pipoca has become our specialty!  It’s been fun!

Sister Biddulph and Sister Rodrigues organized and headed up a branch “multirao” (don’t know an English equivalent), at the request of President Samuel.  Branch members and us met at the church and were assigned less-active members to go out and visit that evening.  The Sisters had addresses, maps, and a message for us to take.  They were so organized!  They are impressive!  Meni and Paulo (really good ward members) dropped us off in the area we were to go and then we walked.  We visited Glassi, who used to be in the Relief Society presidency.  She became inactive after she got a lot of hassle about church attendance from her husband.  Our visit “foi bom”, was really good.  She was very welcoming.  We caught Lepido pouring cement at his home.  So it was a short visit.  Then we set out to find Ana Maria, Ana Paula, and Bruna.  We found the area but had to stop and ask directions.  We were sent down the back side of a hill with hardly a trail and lots of shale rock, trees, and brush.    We weren’t sure that we could do it without rolling down the hill.   It was the scariest path we have been on yet.  But we found a lovely family with lots of curious kids and a very humble abode.  Ana Paula and Bruna have been baptized, but don’t attend church.  We had a nice visit with them.  Afterwards, they directed us on an “easier” path….a sort of rock stairway that went straight up the hill.  We were left just a little weak-kneed afterwards.  They will need some follow up visits.  We hope there is an easier path around on the other side. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling

As you may have noticed, the weather has changed.  We have had quite a few rainstorms and temperatures are down.  It has been so pleasant!  It seems strange to think that we are starting into fall!  Daylight Savings time just changed here over the weekend.  We probably have a little more heat ahead, but we sure see a cooling trend.    

On Sunday, we attended sacrament meeting at both Uniao and Marina.  In each branch, they had speakers fall through.  So Elder Shirley got to speak in each of the two sacrament meetings, with no advance warning.  But he did great!    

We have a FHE scheduled tonight with the Rodrigus family,  Daniel, Cristiane, and kids.  Daniel is not a member of the church.  Cristiane is the daughter of Jussara and Adao Garcia….the family we had Christmas and New Years dinner with.   They are a good family.  They live in a bairro far out.  Only an occasional bus goes out there.   Their kids are very friendly.  Jean,  a boy of about 10, like to hassle Elder Shirley.  He occasionally sits with us at church.  Cristiane is always so sad when the subject of eternal families comes up.  Daniel has a few issues to clear up before he can be baptized.  He wants to wait for baptism until he can fully live all commandments.   We plan to take a lesson,  a treat and maybe play our Brazilian cup game…Escravos de Jo.  The kids really liked that at Christmas.  We will try to take a bus out and call a taxi to get back.

It looks like a busy week ahead as well!  We wish you all a good week as well!

Eu te amo!

"Sure is a purty day" - thoughts on Margie Shirley

February 10, 2014

As we think of “Grandma”, we know it is a better day for her today.  The phrase “Sure is a purty day!” keeps going around in our minds….a phrase Grandma picked up from her 4 year old grandson, Brian, as she walked with him down a dirt road next to her home, making dust.  Sure is a purty day!  We have heard that a lot from Grandma through the years.  We know what a joyous reunion she is having with loved ones on the other side.  We are sure that it is a “purty day” for her.

Yesterday, around 6 pm Brazil time (1 pm Idaho time), a storm blew in.  It was the worst thunderstorm we have yet experienced here in Brazil, with strong winds that actually drove the rain in through the cracks around the windows in our apartment, making puddles on the floor.  Shortly after, we lost power. It was off for about 10 hours.  As we have been glued to our “devices”, anxiously awaiting word about Grandma, we acutely felt the loss of power.  It was dark and we had no way to get word about what was happening at home.  We couldn’t get our thoughts off of Grandma.  A hymn kept going around in our minds, “Lead Kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom…….the night is dark and I am far from home”.

 Fortunately, Brian was able to get through to us by phone to tell us of Grandma’s passing.  We feel like this world lost a little light when we lost Grandma. The storm we experienced was kind of symbolic for us.   She will be greatly missed.  But the light of the gospel is brighter and stronger than any darkness.  We are grateful for the certainty that we have that families can be together forever. 

We are grateful to have such good family and friends.  Sorry that we are not there to help and support.  But our love and prayers are with you all.  We are grateful for everything that you are doing.  We will miss Grandma.  It has been our privilege and blessing to be next-door neighbors to Grandma and Grandpa for about 35 years. Over two years ago, when we first got our mission call, Grandma asked if she could come with us.  She has been with us in spirit.   We have learned a lot from her….lessons taught by example.  We love her!  We won’t say good bye, we’ll just use one our favorite portuguese words…..”Ate”  (until)

Love you all lots!  Eu te amo!

Lay aside the things of this world and seek for the things of a better

Artur and Lidia

Caught in a rainstorm

Dancing at district meeting

Now that's a birthday party!

Doing the Hokey Pokey in the rain and mud

Matt. 5:45 God "sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust"

The good folks down at Pedal de Ouro

A participant in the govt subsidized recycling effort

Ya can't beat good old rice and beans with a Kuat soda!

On the way to visit a family

February 3, 2014

The heat continued this week.  But we got caught in a few good rainstorms, which actually felt good.  But things don’t cool down too much, even with the rain.  The forecast says that Sunday would begin a heat wave for this week.  We thought that is what we have had all along.  But we are doing well and just try to soak it in as we think of the weather at home.  We actually ended up buying another umbrella….that makes 4 now……as we got caught in a rain storm when we were visiting our favorite store, “Pedal de Ouro”.  So they sold us another umbrella.  This store is owned by a member and his wife and several members work there.  They are a great bunch! 

We had a fun District Meeting this past week as Elder da Silva made everyone do crazy dances, along with pulling crazy faces.  We continue to love and be impressed with all the Elders and Sisters.  And they always make things fun!  We also had a couple of Elders from Porto Alegre visiting from the mission office.  We are including a pic, but it doesn’t do the dance justice!  They begin all meetings by reciting the mission purpose and reciting the same scripture each week from memory:  Alma 26:22.  Wow!  They really spit it out.  Guess we will need to get up to speed on that.  It sounds really cool in Portuguese!

Also President Castro, gave us a scripture and asked us to think about it and how it relates to our missionary work.  It’s D & C 25:10.  It talks about laying aside the things of the world and seeking for the things of a better.  Thinking about this scripture makes us grateful for all of you at home that make it possible to lay aside the things of the world by taking care of so many things for us.  It is a remarkable experience to be able to devote all of our time and energy to teaching and studying the gospel!  We realize that it is a unique opportunity, a time in our lives like no other.  We feel very blessed!  And we hope we can bless the life of others!

Besides our regular visits, we went with Sister Gurreri and Sister Almeida one afternoon.  They had been stopped by someone who asked if we could cast out evil spirits.  So Elder Shirley and I went with the Sisters to visit this family.  They lived behind a little store, a “mini mercado”.  There was a man and his wife who had been raised in the Catholic church and an aunt who belonged to the Assembly of God.  They welcomed us warmly.  The sisters did a fabulous job of teaching them about the Restoration and about the priesthood along with some visual aids.   We backed them up.  Besides casting out evil spirits, Elder Shirley gave the man a blessing for good health as he was not feeling well.  They had several dogs who really set up a fuss, barking like crazy when we first arrived and again when Elder Shirley started to pray.  It was a little unnerving .  We all wondered what was going on with the dogs.  The family invited us to return and want to hear more about the church.  It was an interesting visit.

The Sisters also wanted us to meet Monica,  19 years old with a 3 year old son.  The Sisters have taught her a lot and have developed a good friendship with her.  She really clings to them. Monica lives with her boyfriend who is a drug dealer and abusive.  He is very suspicious of the missionaries.  Monica just got a good job and is determined to pay tithing if she can keep her money from her boyfriend.   It is a sad situation, with no easy solutions.  She came to church yesterday with her son.  She had written out her story and her testimony and wanted to read it during testimony meeting.  It really breaks our hearts.  But we also worry a lot for the safety of the Sister missionaries.   Monica  just went out and bought lottery tickets.  She wants enough money to be able to get out of her bad situation.  She says if it is right and the Lord wants her to leave, she will win the lottery.  She has a lot to learn yet.  She is so new to the Gospel and so dependent on the Sisters.  It was good to see the members rally around her at church.  She needs that.  The Sisters feel very responsible for her.  Hopefully, President Castro can advise them.  It is a scary situation.

It was on this day that we got caught in another rain storm way out in one of the bairros.  We had walked some and found a bus stop.  But we had a long wait for the bus.   Fortunately, we had one umbrella with us.  But the Sisters didn’t.  We all got pretty muddy before the bus came.  Monica waited with all of us.  

We got back home just in time to go out with Presidente Glauber and Dione to invite some prospective Elders to a branch party.  We had some enjoyable visits with them.  We stopped at the home of Artur and Lidia and their parents.  The mom is almost to ready to be re-baptized.  Their dad is not active.  The kids were baptized in November and are so fun.  Even before we got out of the car, Lidia came running (literally) out of the house to greet us with hugs.  Artur joined in.  Ever since Lidia got baptized, she says she just feels “so light”.  A cute girl!  Artur’s mom kept scolding him because he didn’t have a shirt on.  Neither did his dad though.  That is the usual state of things when it is so hot.  In the evenings, everyone comes out and sits in chairs in any shady place they can find.  Kids are playing in the streets.  Everyone is trying to cool off.  So walking down the street, we encounter lots of people, in the bairros especially. 

English class was fun again.  Lucas stayed after to visit a little.  He is so eager to learn English and does so well.  But Arielle was missing.  We need to go check on her.

Francine turned 1 year old this week.  Gelson and Roselaine had a “festa” for her Sunday afternoon.  Of course, we went.  They had a lot of family there.  We took a little musical book as a present and it was a hit with her and everyone.  They had lots of food….cake, salgados, little sandwiches, soda, etc.  The table was full of food. 

We have Family Home Evening scheduled with Gilmar, Luanna, and Kaleb tonight.  Hope it doesn’t fall through.  We worry about that as Gilmar has been out of town for work, but supposed to be back today.  We have made some fun preparations to, hopefully, interest Kaleb. 

Anyway it was a busy week filled with visits, meetings, and lots of fun stuff.  We ate out a couple of times.  We had good filet mignon at a restaurant we hadn’t tried before.  One of the few that serves ala carte instead of a buffet.  It was good.  We also ate out on the street at one of our regular stops.  Fun times!

Love and prayers and fun times to all of you!  

Eu te amo!

The dog days of summer

Branch President Medeiros

Dione's house with Sister Gurrieri, Sister Almeida

English class with Arielle & Lucas

FHE with Joao

Luisa's baptism

Another picture from Luisa's baptism

Who knew there were polar bears in Brazil?

Looks a bit wet out there today!

January 27, 2014

Monday went well for our a noite familiar (Family Home Evening).  We met with Valdomiro and Ivone Moraes.  They are a strong family in the church.  Their daughter is married to President Samuel, president of the Uniao branch.  They had invited an investigator that Sister Biddulph and Sister Rodrigues have been teaching, Joao.  The sisters went with us, but could only stay a few minutes.  We presented the lesson and bore testimony.  It went well.  His main problem is that he is trying to quit smoking.  We took our laptop and played  a mormon message by President Uchtdorf called “Our True Identity”.  Ivone prepared popcorn and juice (suco) for refreshments.  It was a nice evening. 

But is has been a hot week!  No breeze and very hot.  It is the topic of conversation with everyone.  Some of the sisters complained that they thought they would suffocate at night.  We have an air conditioner in our bedroom, but we still suffered from the heat, especially when we were out walking.  We take a small towel with us  to mop up and notice that lots of Brazilians do that too.  We see that on the bus a lot.  And we thought it was just our own idea!   But Friday afternoon things changed.  Clouds, rain, wind, and cooler temperatures moved in.  It was wonderful!  We have had a whole weekend of cooler temperatures.  It was great to pull out a cardigan! 

Dione wanted to hold another meeting with us and Sister Gurreri and Sister Almeida at his home which is quite a distance away.  However, it is closer to us than it is the sisters.  We walked.  The sisters took a bus, but ended up getting lost.  It was a good meeting, but it ended up being another late night.  We waited at the bus stop with the sisters as it was late.  45 minutes later, the bus still hadn’t come.  So we all caught a taxi.  Everyone was tired and it was one of those really hot days that didn’t cool off at night.

It was Sister Biddulph’s birthday this week.  Her Dad served a mission in Brasil with our branch president’s father,  who is a strong, strong member of the Uniao branch.  So it is a great experience for her to serve here and get to know him and his family.  Sister Biddulph’s brother also served a mission to Brazil as did her boyfriend.  In fact, her boyfriend got home just before Christmas.  Before her mission, she has left a “message in a bottle” for him in Idaho Falls close to where they do fireworks, on the river bank.  He actually found it.  It’s been fun to hear her stories.

We had an early morning meeting with the District on Wednesday.  It is always fun to mingle with the Elders and Sisters.  Elder Staples from South Jordan, Utah, was transferred.  Elder Ritz, also from Utah, has just been transferred here.  Everyone else stayed, at least for another six weeks.  We always hate to see them go.  We really liked Elder Staples.  We get attached.  But we always love the new ones too.  So there are still 4 of us “americanos” serving here in Cachoeira.

 

Arielle was back to our English class this week, as was Lucas.  We had 4.  Usually we have a few of the non-English speaking missionaries.  But there were all involved in the watermelon party the branches were holding.  Class went well.  We always have lots of handouts, crossword puzzles, stories, etc.  This week we also worked on a song…..”I Can See Clearly Now”  It was fun.  Arielle and Lucas already know a lot and are anxious to learn.  So it makes it fun!  Since we begin and end class with prayer, Elder Shirley decided to go over the steps of prayer with everyone.  It seemed to go over just fine. 

Another highlight of the week was the baptism on Saturday of Luisa, a young girl that Sister Biddulph and 

Sister Rodrigues have been teaching.  It was pretty sweet. We fit in lots of visits too.  We were anxious to visit Gelson, Rosi and Francine.  We had heard that Francine had been suffering again from the heat and had been a little dehydrated again.  But this time, she didn’t have to go to the hospital.  When we arrived at their home, Rosi’s friend was there helping her make some salgados.  They were rolling out the dough, called rissole.  It is a little croquette filled with shredded meat or sweets of some sort and deep fried.  They were filling theirs with shredded chicken for Francine’s birthday party.  We wrote down the recipe.  It was fun to watch.  They warned us they would not be to church if it rained.  Sure enough, it rained and they weren’t there.  But they are a great family.  We enjoy them.  One night, when we were walking home after dark, a bike rider stopped out in the street and called to us.  It was Gelson.  He is always so friendly.  Guess we will do a family home evening with them in a couple of weeks. 

It was exciting to catch Gilmar, Luanna, and Kaleb home one evening.  They greeted us warmly.  They insisted we sit up to the table with them for cake and cold chocolate milk.  Their son, Kaleb, is nearly 4 years old….about the same age as Tanner.  We showed them pics of our family.  They seemed interested and asked lots of questions about the family.  Kaleb was anxious to show us all of his pre-school papers and toys.  We had a fun time laughing with him.  They all piled in the car and insisted they take us home.  Saved us from a walk home in the dark.  Gilmar said no church this Sunday, but would try to get his act together for the next Sunday.  He is with the military police in Porto Alegre and works on a lot of Sundays and they only have one car.  We scheduled a FHE with them on Feb. 3.  Another great family!

We spent a lot of time trying to find homes of inactive members.  Dione, the Marina branch mission leader, doesn’t even know where some of these people live.  We feel a little like detectives.  We are also just trying to visit members and find out where they live and what their needs are.  It takes time and lots of walking.  But we keep at it. 

It continually happens that I get called on to pray everywhere  we go.  Yesterday just as sacrament meeting was starting, someone came up and asked if I would give the closing prayer.  Elder Shirley was still snickering about that, when someone else came up and asked if he would be a fill-in speaker.   Hahaha!  Usually he has a talk prepared just in case on his tablet.  But he had left it home.  He thought he would have a few minutes to think about it, but he was the first speaker.  Anyway, he did great and I survived!  But we were both a bit stressed.  Portuguese is coming a bit more all of the time, but I still have a long ways to go.  We like to speak English at home too well.  The young missionaries only speak Portuguese.  I know that slows the learning down for me.  But I study every day and am improving little by little.  Elder Shirley continues to speak like a native.

Hope all is well at home!  Eu te amo!

A change of heart about owning a Brazilian car

Who needs a car when you have a horse and a cart?

The Garcia's heading out of town

Elder Shirley hanging out with "the professor"and the hot dog man

Arielle at work at the bed store "Ortobom"

Elder & Sister Shirley with President & Sister Castro

January 20, 2014

Here in Cachoeira, the heat has returned.  The thunderstorms of the previous week are gone.  The forecast is for heat and sun all week.  So we are back to trying to do our visits on foot in the morning or evenings.  But that is ok.  We like to walk!

Still no car!  Frustrating!  We paid a visit to the bank ourselves.  Banco do Brasil received our money on December 30, the same day it was sent.  But they did not notify anyone and the car dealer didn't know he had to actually go in and accept the money to get it in his account.  But it seems there are more hoops to jump through.  We had to take our passports and ID to be certified again.  Then they car dealer had to provide info on the car.  Now documents for the car had to be sent off by the bank for clearance.  We don't understand and neither does the car dealer.  So we are still waiting.  They keep saying "tomorrow".  Today was supposed to be the day.  But this morning they said "TOMORROW"!  We are ready to be done with this so we can focus on missionary work.  President Castro, Pres. Torres and others agree with us that it looks like the bank wants to hang on to our money as long as possible to make a profit on the currency exchange.  Hopefully we made the right decision in doing this.  We will see "tomorrow"!  (As I’m posting this, “tomorrow” is now today – see below for a car update)

We were out walking to a visit one day and came upon a ward member in her horse-drawn wagon.  We ate at their home on Christmas and New Years day.  Christina was in the wagon worried about parking in a no parking spot.  Her mom, Jussara, was in the farmacia (pharmacy).  They live far out and a bus goes out there only a couple of times a day.  They bring their wagon in for feed for animals, etc about once a week.  We couldn't resist taking pics.

We made a lot of visits this week.  We met with Dione (Johnny) and Sister Gurreri and Sister Almeida.  Dione is the new branch mission leader for Marina.  It is always good to get more names of people to visit.  We also went out with Dione one evening to make some visits.  We walked and walked and arrived back home about 11-11:30pm.  But enjoyed it.

English class went well.  We had 9 people this past week.  There is a wide range of ability.  Our challenge is to make class beneficial for all.  Ariele missed class.  But she had told us that she wouldn't be able to attend this week.  We stopped by her place of employment.  She is always so cheerful and happy to see us.  We hope she will be back this week.  We stop by on a regular basis to see the hot dog man as we go by.  We are including pics.

The highlight of the week was a visit from our mission president, President and Sister Castro.  They took us to lunch at the "nicest place in town", Tutti Grill.  It is a buffet.  Most restaurants are buffets.  You pay according to weight of your plate.  Our problem is that we can't always identify what we are eating.  But it was good.  We enjoyed our visit with the Castros very much.  That evening we met in the Cachoeira branch and were paired up with branch members to go out and visit less-actives.  Elder Shirley and I protested at being separated.....we aren't accustomed to that!  But they just laughed and sent us off in different directions.  It was an interesting evening.

Sunday morning, President and Sister Castro spoke in sacrament meeting in both Marina and Uniao.  Afterwards, we went with them to visit some of the people we have been visiting.  Unfortunately, Gelson, Rosi, and Francine were not to church.  We took the president to their home.  But there were gone.  Baaa!!!!  We usually check up on them on Saturdays and encourage them to come to church.  We weren't able to do that with our meetings this week.  We were disappointed.  But we had another good visit.  We took President and Sister Castro to the home of Moises and Ivete.  President Castro had performed the marriage about a year ago for their daughter to the branch president of Cachoeira.  So they were acquainted.  It was a great visit.  Ivete comes to church.  But Moises is a trucker and not always home on Sundays.  President Castro encouraged Moises to come to church and told him how much he would strengthen the branch.  He needs the church and the church needs him!  Moises always insists on giving us a ride home when we visit him.  Sometimes we aren't ready to go home yet, but we always take him up on his offer!

It was great having the President & Sister Castro here.  They are very personable!  They will be released about the same time as us and are planning on a trip to the United States the January after their release.  They want to visit Salt Lake City and then come to Idaho.  We tried to tell them that January is not the best time to visit Idaho.  But he says that is the only time they can come.  (Summer vacation for their kids is in January!)   With the help of family, we may have to introduce them to sleigh rides and snowmobiling, etc.

Today is "P-day".  We have been busy doing laundry, cleaning, preparing a lesson for a FHE tonight with a member (Noite Familiar).  The sisters ended up being double scheduled and asked us to do the family home evening tonight.  Looks like we a have a busy week ahead of us.  President and Sister Castro brought our mail from Porto Alegre.  It was fun to see more Christmas cards.  We loved it!  We so appreciate your letters, love and support. Thanks a bunch!  It has also been fun to do some Skyping this past week.  We love you all!

Eu te amo!

**Car Update:

Just an update on the car.  It has been "muito complicado ate demais!"  Too complicated.  Vamos desiistir!  We give up!  Every day the bank keeps saying they are still trying to get a clear title on the car.  It seems Ceasar (the car dealer) was trying to sell it for someone else which further complicates things.  They have been warning us that it will be just as complicated to sell it when we leave.

 So we have decided to send the money back.

 The car dealer and the bank all agree.  We are tired of it taking so much time away from missionary work. We are also now hearing that there is quite an expense in insuring, taxes, licensing, etc.  (Now they tell us!) The Ortizs (car dealers: Ceaser and Paulo) are doing the paperwork now to take back to Banco do Brasil this afternoon.  Hopefully, the money will be back in our account tomorrow sometime.  

We are not too disappointed.  We like walking.  It is good for us and we meet lots of people.  There are places we can't get to easily on foot or by bus.  But we will do the best we can.  We will let President Castro know.  That may affect where he might send us if we get a transfer.  Did we tell you that they have submitted paperwork to SLC to change and divide and/or combine branches to make wards and stakes down here?  If it is approved, President Castro says Cachoeira will not be in the Porto Alegre South mission any more.  That means we will be moved somewhere else.  We will see what happens.  At any rate, our lives will be a little less complicated without a car.  We will look on the bright side!

The "hot dog man" and "the professor"

A plaza in Cachoeira

Elder Shirley on the street in Cachoeira

Sister Shirley considering a "new ride"

Horse-drawn cart in the streets of Cachoeira

January 13, 2014

It's been another good week.  We have kept busy again.  Here are a few highlights.

We still are trying to visit members who are less active.  We surely meet some good people.  We went with the Sisters (Sister Biddulph and Sister Rodrigues) one day to visit an older couple.  It was pouring rain.  We each had an umbrella.  The sisters told us it wasn't too far away.  Guess that is a matter of opinion.  Haha!  But we did ok.  It was fun to walk with them.  The couple was glad to see us.   Neither one is a member.  The sisters have been teaching them and asked us to accompany them on this visit.  Sueli has been attending church every Sunday and wants to be baptized.  Valdir is not a member either.  He hasn't been to church yet, but was very welcoming.  Also, they have never been married.  So the sisters have been working on helping that to happen so baptisms can take place.  Sueli was sooo welcoming and glad to see us.  She really made us feel wanted.  She fixed us homemade bread and an herbal tea (Carqueja).  We have never been much into herbal tea, but the sisters reassured us that President Castro said it was ok to drink this kind.  So we gave it a try.  We still are not much into herbal tea.  But we drank it and were grateful for their hospitality. Her bread was beautiful!  The sisters gave a little lesson.  We sang a song and each of us bore our testimony about the importance of eternal families.  It was sweet!   Also, I guess we will go fishing with Valdir this Saturday.  It is an activity for the young men.  That puts a smile on Elder Shirley's face.  The sisters can't go.  But Sueli says that she will be there.  We hope it doesn't rain!

English class went well.  We had a few more there this time.  The Elders and the Sisters came too.  That always makes for a fun class.  We have visited with a few others who committed to come.  One has been on vacation and says he will be coming next week with his girlfriend.  He works at a guitar store.   A few others keep promising to come.  We hope.  We enjoy Ariele and Lucas a lot.  And Ariele, especially, seems interested in the gospel.  The sisters are thinking they will set up some visits with her in her home.

Late Saturday afternoon, we hopped the bus and made some visits.  One of the visits was to Gelson, and Rosi and Francine (the 11 month old who had the blessing in the hospital).  They had a house full of company, but were still welcoming.  We put a bit of pressure on them to come to church the next day.  They are pretty protective of their baby, and said they would come only if it wasn't raining or too windy.  It would be a long walk for them.  We checked out weather forecasts and crossed our fingers and said our prayers.  Sunday morning was a little overcast, but things looked promising.  Starting time for church found us still out in the parking lot looking the Gelson and his family.  Then clear up the hill we saw them coming.  We were so excited!  They arrived with smiles.  They sat by us in church.  But the best part was that after church, branch members crowded around to visit with them, making a fuss over Francine.    It was so wonderful to see.  They had to have felt welcome.  Branch members are so important in this work!  We are grateful for these good, faithful members.  Hopefully, this little family felt the spirit too.  They left with smiles.

We continue to visit others....the hot dog man included.  We videoed him making his hot dogs and gave him a copy.  We attached a little Mormon Message video on the end of it.   There we also met a man who they call "the professor".  He likes to spit out English words he knows.  Now when we pass him on the street, he says in broken English, loud enough for all to hear, "These people are my friends!"  Usually he has had a little to drink.  But we enjoy him.

We continue to meet lots of good people and have lots of good visits.   We continue to say that these people are "a gente boa" (a people good)!  Hope all is well with each of you.  May you continue to "endure the cold" as we "endure the heat"!

Eu te amo!

Happy New Year from Brazil!

"Mulheres on the balcony"

Kids acting like moneys in the tree

Elder & Sister Shirley on New Year's Day

New Years Eve fireworks as viewed from the apartment

Outside view of the apartment - named "Pitt" (pronounced "peach")

January 4, 2013

Happy 2014!  For us, this will be a year like no other.  It still seems surreal to be here in Brazil!

There were fireworks galore bringing in the new year.  The streets here in Cachoeira were eerily quiet on New Years Eve in the afternoon and early evening.  Then the fireworks started and continued way past midnight into the wee hours of the morning.  There was no way we could avoid being awake to see in 2014!

On New Years Day, we were invited to dinner with the Garcia family, the same family we joined for Christmas dinner.  However, the sisters did not join us this time as they had another commitment.  That meant another long bus ride and lots of walking again.  We had another good churrasco with all the trimmings.  We took another bolo for dessert.  They are a great family, with kids and grandkids living nearby.  We had a fun time.  They had a son-in-law who was not feeling well.  He had been to the doctor the day before.  He was dehydrated and the doctor had given him an IV.  So Elder Shirley helped in administering a blessing.

It seems things come in bunches.  That is the way it has been this week with blessings.  There seems to be a lot of people sick with something like the stomach flu.  And with this heat, they get dehydrated and end up in the hospital.  This was the case with Francine, the 11 month old baby girl of Gelson and Roselaine.  They are the good family we have been visiting, the ones who want to get back to church and start preparing to go to the temple.  Francine ended up in the hospital because of dehydration.  So we made our first hospital visit.  They would only allow one person at a time into the room, so Elder Shirley went in to help Gelson give Francine a blessing.  Later Gelson would tell us that they had been having a struggle getting an IV in.  But as soon as the blessing was given and Elder Shirley had left, they had success on the first try.  Francine responded well and was released the next day.  We visited them at home and they were all smiles, including Francine.  It was good to see and a testimony builder for us all.

Another interesting visit was with the hot dog vender in the park down the street from our apartment.  We had been told how good his hot dogs were.  He only sets up in the evenings.  So we made it a point to go down one evening.  It was an interesting conversation.   He had been baptized a member of the church at the age of 15.  But he said that he "got lazy" and quit going.  His wife was Catholic and his kids live in Porto Alegre and know nothing about the church.  He said that he had been thinking a lot about the church lately though.  In fact, just the day before he was getting out a magazine when the pamphlet "The Plan of Salvation" fell out.  And he said, "Now you appear".  Elder Shirley asked him if he was ready to let the missionaries talk to his wife and kids about the church.  He told us that he thought he was really close to being ready.  He gave Elder Shirley a big pat on the back as we left.  We stopped by again a couple of nights later with the Sister missionaries and the Elders were planning on doing a follow-up visit as well.   And we had a good hot dog too!

English classes started this week.  We had made some fun preparations with games too.  We had invited a few people.  We had been quite selective in whom we invited.  We wanted a smaller class of people who were serious about learning English and who might possibly be ready to receive the gospel.  We were disappointed because we only had two of those people turn out plus Sister Biddulph and Sister Rodrigues.  But we had a really fun time.  The sisters were great help too.  And both Lucas and Ariele were great.  Ariele wanted a tour of the building while we were waiting for Lucas to arrive.  She told the sisters that she was Catholic, but did not feel good when she went to church.  That got the sister missionaries excited.  Class went well.  They both already know some basics.  Elder Shirley told them that our purpose for being in Brazil was to teach the gospel and be missionaries.  He also told them that we would not be preaching to them in our English classes, but we would be starting with prayer as we think we can all use the Lord's help to learn.  We hope we didn't scare them off and that they will come back next week.  We also hope others will decide to join us.  We are teaching our classes in the chapel here in Cachoeira, not in the chapel for Marina and Uniao, where we attend church.  It is a nice building with air conditioning.  A very nice place for our classes.

We still don't have our car.  We are waiting for the wire transfer of the money to go through.  We were told it might take 5-7 days.  Brian has been such good help to us.   Holidays have slowed the process down. Hopefully, things will go through ok.  It makes us a little nervous!  Good news though, the building we live in is just finishing up a little parking lot in back where the car can be locked up at night.

Don't tell old James T, but the name of the building we live in is "Pitt", but pronounced "peach".  So, no, we don't live in a spud pit!  We wonder if James T owns the place though.  We are including a pic of it, plus a picture of some "mulheres" (women) on the veranda of a near-by building.  They are cute statues.  We have enjoyed walking by them every day.

The weather cooled down yesterday.  It was probably the coolest day we have seen since our arrival in Brazil.  Along with it came some rain.  It rained on and off most of the day yesterday.  But we see things heating up again today.  We sure enjoyed the cooler temps while we had them though.

Hope the new year is off to a great start for all of you!

Eu te amo!