Keeping Our Hook in the Water

We found Mrs. Claus!

Elder Lopes, tired from a long bus ride

Baptism of Felipe and Eliza

CD that we made for Eric's birthday

Some of the Christmas lights in the park

Elder Buhler and Eliza (15 yrs old)

Felipe and his Dad, Joao

Jose and his aunt

Kevin performing in the park

Last meeting before transfers for these missionaries

Lighted bus that drives around town with Santa Claus

Us with Felipe and Eliza before their baptism

Musical number by the missionaries

Park across the street from our place

P-day with Elders Buhler & Gorham

Wonderful sisters: Sisters Foutz, Oliveira, Costa, Harrick

Sunset from our apartment

Another view of the beautiful sunset

December 15, 2014

Well we were thinking that this week would be a little more “low key”.  Elder Shirley caught a cold and has been coughing.  We thought this might slow us down a little this week.  And it did, for a day or so.  But it seems like we made up for it as the week progressed. 

Monday was looking like a quiet P-day for us.  It was a holiday and most businesses were either closed all day or closed at noon.  So the whole city was more quiet than usual.  The Elders had not anticipated the LAN house (the place they go to send their weekly emails) closing at noon.  We were happy to have them come to our place for a bite of lunch and computer time.  We had not had Elder Gorham and Elder Buhler over on a P-day before.  So it was their turn.  These two Elders are assigned to the Marina branch, as are we.  So we have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with these two on a regular basis.  We enjoy them a lot!  

This week we had the last zone meeting before transfers.  Transfer day is this next Tuesday.  Notices will come on Monday.  We all brought treats for our meeting and took pictures.  We knew what we had to bring for a treat.  Ever since the birthday of Sister Shirley, Elder Lopes (Cape Verde Islands), has been asking for “bolo” (cake).  He asks for cake every time we see him.  He asked again as soon as arrived at the meeting.  Happily, this time we could answer in the affirmative.  He replied, “Finalmente!” (Finally!)   He and Elder Freeman work in Caçapava which is a couple of hours away.  We usually only see them at our weekly district/zone meetings.  They have to get up early to catch the bus to Cachoiera in time for our morning meeting.  We just have some good missionaries.  We really enjoy all of them.   Once again, we hate to see transfers come. 

On Wednesday, the coughing seemed to hit Elder Shirley pretty hard.  But he refused to go to the Doctor yet.  We had some visits scheduled and a birthday party to attend for Eric, who was turning 13.  His mother told us that Eric likes us.  He seems to have a good connection with Brother Shirley, especially.  We really hated to miss the party, but felt like it was best.  So, we cancelled most of our plans for the day and made a bunch of phone calls.  We also cancelled our visit to Artur.  We know he is kind of paranoid about his health and being around sick people.  So we thought it best not to visit him this week.  We just stayed home mostly, made chicken soup and rested.  It seemed to pay off.  Elder Shirley seemed to improve a lot that day and throughout the week.  We gave Eric his birthday present on Sunday.  We made another CD like we made a few months back for Christopher Reinbrecht with the music on it that was recommended by some of our grandkids.  It seems to be a popular gift.  Eric seemed genuinely pleased.   

We also thought it best not to visit Julio, Roseangela and kids and the new baby this week.  We would hate to take a cold into them. We did call to check up on them though.   Fortunately, Elder Buhler and Gorham visit there too.  They encouraged Julio to come to church on Sunday.  Sure enough, Julio and Emanuele and Julian showed up at church.  We were tickled to death!  Julio likes these Elders also.  We are really hoping they don’t get transferred yet.  They are good for Julio and family. 

A temple trip to the Porto Alegre temple was planned for Saturday.  They were leaving at 4 am and wouldn’t return until that evening.  We also didn’t dare schedule to do that.  It is not good to be in the temple and have a coughing fit!  We were sad about that.  But hope that we can go on the next trip. 

Although we cancelled a few of our appointments, we felt like we made up for it through phone calls and lots of visiting later in the week.  We felt like we kept “our hook in the water” which was President Castro’s message for the week.  The message this week really got Elder’s attention as it was about hunting and fishing!  (Jeremiah 16:16).  However, President Castro cautioned us not to spend all of our time preparing to “fish and hunt”, but to keep our hook in the water as much as possible, spending most of our time on the actual fishing and hunting rather than on the preparation.  So this week we tried to “keep our hook wet” even though we were slowed down a bit. 

We were able to keep our appointment with Elivelton and Bruna.  We had another great discussion with them.  They are two weeks away from their marriage and are busy making preparations.  They got their future home painted this past week.  Knowing how busy they are, we suggested that we not visit for the next couple of weeks until after their wedding and until after they get moved in and settled in their new home.  But as we were leaving, they told us that they would like us to come again next week.  They told us that they liked our visits and since we didn’t stay too long, they still had time to do what they needed to do.  That was nice to hear.  So we will visit again next week.  They also invited us to their wedding on the 26^th of December.  We look forward to that.  We are excited for them. 

José and his Aunt were waiting outside for our weekly visit.  His Aunt is Catholic.  So our discussion this week was interesting.  José was sounding like a missionary as he joined in the discussion about the Book of Mormon. We gave José a Book of Mormon in English since he likes to practice his English.  He was really pleased.  His Aunt seemed pretty proud of him too. 

Our Christmas is looking whiter all of the time as there were three baptisms this week.  Sister Costa and Sister Harrick had one, Filipe.  Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham baptized Eliza.  Elder Hoopes and Elder H. Silva had a baptism in the Cachoeira branch.  And they all took place on the same night.  We were able to attend the baptism of Filipe and Eliza, but missed the baptism in the Cachoeira branch as it was at the same time.  Elder Shirley was asked to speak at the baptism of Filipe and Eliza.  He loaded up on cough drops and really did a nice job.  They had some problems filling the font in the Marina/Uniaõ chapel.  There must have been some kind of blockage as the water was slow to come in.  The Sister missionaries joined the Elders in a bucket brigade to fill the font.  It was a lot of work and a bit stressful.  But they made it in time.  It turned out to be a really nice baptism.  Filipe was baptized by his father, Joaõ, who was baptized almost one year ago.  Pretty neat to see!   

The streets here on Saturday were filled with people and all the sights and sounds of Christmas.  It hasn’t been quite as warm, but it has been really humid.  It was fun just to walk down the streets here in front of our apartment.  The city is decorated.  Trucks with huge speakers drive up and down the streets, blasting Christmas music.  There are concerts in the park.  People are out shopping.  Despite the temperatures, it felt like Christmas!  Our calendar is filling up with branch parties, a bus trip this week to Porto Alegre for a mission conference for Christmas, dinner invitations, special programs, etc. We wonder how we will fit it all in. 

Best of all, the benches were filled at church on Sunday with members, less active members, and investigators.  It was great.  We really enjoyed visiting with so many after church.  Rogerio, a member of the Uniaõ branch, always asks us for “pipoca” (popcorn).  We haven’t made it for a long time.  But he remembers it.  He is the “taxi of choice” for the Sister missionaries.  He is always ready and willing to help. His wife is not a member.   Last week, he told us how much he missed our pipoca and how good it would taste after lunch on a Sunday.  So we made up a batch and took it to him this week.   We double bagged it so it wouldn’t be so obvious that we were taking popcorn to church.  But he got into it during sacrament meeting and proudly announced to us after meeting that he had already tried it!  We reminded him that he had to share with his wife,  Ilsa. 

Sunday evening the three branches joined for the re-broadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Fireside, which we loved!  We saw it previously in English on line in our apartment.  When we walked home afterwards, we stopped by Honorato Park where the city was holding a talent show celebrating the 155^th year anniversary of Cachoeira along with Christmas. Edson and Luciane’s son, Kevin, was a participant.  They are a less active/part member family and had told us about his upcoming performance a week ago.  He played the guitar and sang.  He did a great job.  He is 16 years old and his family is really proud of him.  They all seemed really pleased that we came.  We walked home afterwards and enjoyed more sights and sounds of Christmas. Once again, the streets were full of people, lighted buses with Santa Claus, etc.   It made for a fun walk. 

 

The people here are good!  We love them! They make us feel loved too.   We really enjoyed visiting with them all.  We see so many that need visits and support.  We wish we had more time.  We also wish that when we leave, there would be another couple to replace us.  It would make leaving easier!  But for now, we will just do the best we can! 

Hope life is good for each of you!  We love you!

Eu te amo!

A Week of Bugs, Buses, Babies and Baptisms

With Eric from the Marina branch

Daniel and Cristiane at the party

Elder Buhler's shoes - there's a good example of a hard working missionary!

Elder H. Silva and Felipe in the cold water of the font

Elders H. Silva and Hoopes with Felipe just before his baptism

Felipe and his family just before his baptism

Us and Felipe just prior to his baptism

Luci and President Glauber

Merry Christmas from the John Deere dealership

The mulheres dressed up for Christmas

With Lisi at the "Night of the Marrieds" party

New baby Fernando with Rosangela and Renato

Short cut from the bus stop to Julio and Rosangela's

December 8, 2014

Well, the weather is heating up here in Cachoeira!  The online report says the temperature reached a high of 95 on Sunday and the next couple of days are supposed to be in the 90’s as well.  Then we are supposed to, hopefully, drop back to the high 80’s.  And strange as it still seems, Christmas music is playing in the streets and Christmas decorations and lights are everywhere here on the main street where we live.  The Christmas season is upon us once again!  And as missionaries, we are all hoping for a “white Christmas”, one with lots of baptisms!  We got a good start on it with the baptism of Felipe this week by Elder Hoopes and Elder H. Silva in the Cachoeira branch.  That night we also met a young mother that they are teaching who wants to be baptized too.  Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham also have some upcoming baptisms as do the Sisters.  Chances for a white Christmas look good!  To summarize our week, Elder Shirley says it was a week of bugs, buses, babies, and baptisms! 

About the bugs, we don’t have them, yet anyway.  But Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham do.  They have had both hobo spiders and an army of termites marching down the walls and over their beds.  We hear that this is the season for them to be on the move.  President Castro asked us to help the Elders find someone to take care of the problem.  We found a company close to where they live.  We got them on the schedule, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Hopefully, it will this week. 

It has been a busy week.  It seems like things just piled on top on one another.  Some days, we had trouble finishing in one place before we were due at the next.  So we ended up taking a lot of buses.  With the heat, it seems like lots of people are riding the buses, rather than walk.  The buses have been super crowded.  We often times stand body to “stinkin” body.  One bus ride made us laugh.  It was standing room only, body to body.  We were towards the front of the bus when it made another stop.  We didn’t know how any more people could fit on.  Elder Shirley observed a woman coming through the turnstile on the bus.  He said, “Oh! She’s comin through, and I can’t move!”  It gave us the giggles!  Sometimes even in the heat, walking is preferable to riding a hot, smelly bus. It makes for good missionary memories though.

This was the week for Julio and Rosangela’s baby to be born.  The baby was overdue.  On Tuesday, Rosangela went to the hospital to be induced.  Fernando arrived the next day, weighing a little over 9 pounds.  On Friday, we took a gift for the baby, a flower, homemade bread and some meat and cheese for sandwiches.  Their 3 year old, Renato, was pretty wound up about the baby.  He was anxious to show us the baby’s belly button.  He was pretty concerned about it!  Now they are a family of six.  And Rosangela is ready to be baptized, just as soon as they get married.  Oh how we hope that will happen for them!  The Elders visit regularly too.  Branch members plan to take in some meals too.  Hopefully, some good friendships can be formed.  This is a good opportunity for that to happen. 

We had another good visit with Elivelton and Bruna.  Visits with them “recharge our batteries” as missionaries.  We showed them the video, “Mormon Temples, a Conversation with a Church Leader”.  It is in English, but we made a Portuguese translation.  They requested a copy of it.  Their only concern was that they had to wait for a year before they could go to the temple.  Elivelton was baptized in June and they are being married this month on December 26.  They bought the paint and are trying to get their new home painted.  Bruna found her wedding dress.  With work besides, they are busy as can be.  Elivelton’s work hours change a little this week, but he still wants to fit in more lessons. They also come to church every Sunday. It is like they are thirsty to learn more!  It makes us happy to see!

Our visits with Artur and José this week were good.  José never makes it to church now that the branch bus isn’t going around.  His health won’t permit him to walk that far and he lives with his mother and we don’t think he can afford to ride the city bus.  But he reads and studies the Book of Mormon faithfully and is always prepared with questions.  He told us this week how much he loves the Book of Mormon.  He still enjoys speaking some English to us.  He told us in English, “My mind and heart are religious”!  He had been practicing his English.  We read the scriptures with him about Nephi and how obedient he was.  So we just had to sing (in English) the chorus of a Primary song, “I will go; I will do the things the Lord commands”.  He always smiles at our attempts to sing.  We feel our weekly visits with him are important and we enjoy them. 

Visits with Artur are always enjoyable too.  His potential baptism date of December 13 is coming up.  That is the date the Elders asked us to challenge him to be baptized on.  But he says that is too close.  He insists that he wants his teeth fixed before he gets baptized. He continues to say that he will be baptized before we go home in “March”.  We actually are supposed to go home in April.  But we didn’t correct him.  He has trouble finding time to read much in the Book of Mormon.  He says that he is just too tired most nights.  He is a hard working guy.  We tried to encourage him to read, even if it is just a little.  When we arrived this week, he had just finished preparing his lunch.  So we read the Book of Mormon to him while he ate.  He comes to church most Sundays and seems to feel more comfortable there each week as he gets acquainted with more members.  After meetings, he complements speakers on their talks, etc.  He is fitting in better all of the time.  So we still have hope for him.  He also likes to participate in the Gospel Essentials class that Elder Buhler teaches. 

Another challenge for us has been and still is Rosi and Gelson and Francine.  We continue to visit there too.  They are another good family.  Rosi told us this week that they are still working on getting a car so they can come to church.  But it hasn’t happened yet.  She says that they have the money, but haven’t found a car yet.  Gelson wants to build a place to park the car first. So we don’t know what will happen with them.  They have a picture of the Porto Alegre temple on their living room wall.   It is their goal, but they aren’t working towards it very fast, unfortunately.  We keep encouraging!  We have come to love this family too.  It worries us, especially as we see the end of our mission approaching rapidly.  We could get discouraged.  We try not to. 

We ended up having two District/Zone meetings this week in order to get all of the info the Zone and District Leaders needed to get out.  The one on Friday was especially fun as they asked us to help them with a little skit.  Elder Hoopes narrated the fairy tale-like story.  Elder H. Silva and Elder Shirley used broom handles for a sword fight as Elder H. Silva stole away the princess (Sister Shirley).  At first Elder Shirley fought hard.  But Elder H. Silva kept telling him that he would never be successful and that he would never win.  Finally, Elder Shirley believed him and became discouraged and just quit fighting and left Sister Shirley behind.  Sad!  It was a good lesson on never becoming discouraged.  Keep up the fight!

The Marina branch had a party for married couples this week, “Noite dos Casais”.  That was the night of the baptism in the Cachoeira branch downtown.  But we hurried and arrived just as they were finishing the program and started eating.  We had cachorros quente (hot dogs with all kinds of trimmings).  We enjoyed the party!  Daniel and Christiane were there.  Daniel is another one that the missionaries have worked on for a long time, including us.  All of the family are members, except the father, Daniel.  Daniel attended church last Sunday too.  So this week Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham got brave and decided to ask Daniel, one more time, to be baptized.  They tell us that he thought about it and then said no.  We could get discouraged!  But we won’t!   

With other visits to less actives and non-members and English class, we kept busy.    Occasionally this week we have been stopped on the street by people who know of the church or know members and request a visit or want to know the schedule of meetings.  A walk down the street or out in the bairros is always interesting.  Missionary work continues to be amazing!  We always feel the hand of the Lord in what we do. 

We love you! We pray for you!  Be safe, healthy and happy!

Eu te amo!

A Second Thanksgiving in Brazil

Playing with some kids in the street

With Elder Burnett at mission conference

English class locked out of the church with no keys

Our dance teacher Jamir and his chimarrom

Jean Rodrigues - a future stake president?

A birthday rose for Sister Shirley from Jessica (checker at the grocery store)

Learning to dance the gaucho way

Lunch with Elder & Sister Torgan (7th quorum of the Seventy)

Our neighbor's apartment door

New look for Dione at church

An old friend from Elder Shirley's 1st mission to Brazil (Alceu Arndt)

Our apartment door, decorated for Christmas

P-day lunch at our apartment with the sister missionaries

A birthday dinner at Per Tutti

Elder Torgan with President Castro

Renato's birthday party

Singing happy birthday to Sister Shirley at mission conference

Sister Shirley with Sisters Castro, Burnett and Torgan

The sisters of Cachoeira:  Harrick (CA), Oliveira (Brazil), Foutz (Colorado), Costa (Brazil)

Riding the van home from the mission conference

December 1, 2014

A scripture President Castro brought to our attention has been in our thoughts this week:  1 Cor.15:58:  “…….know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord”.  We try hard, sometimes without success.  It is nice to be reminded that what we do in the name of the Lord is not in vain. 

We have had a good week, a busy one.  We tried to fit a lot into a shorter than usual week because of our trip to Porto Alegre on Friday for a missionary conference. 

Julio and Rosangela have been on our minds a lot this week because their baby is past due now.  We visited there several times this week as did Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham.  Julio is a member, formerly very active and a leader in the Marina branch.  Rosangela tells us that she is ready to be baptized.  The only thing holding her back is that she and Julio are not married.  Julio gives us excuses for not getting married like insurance, etc.  We aren’t quite sure of his real reasons. We do not fully understand.  He tells us that he has a testimony.  Rosangela is wonderful and the kids are so great.  They seem like such a happy family.  We would really like to see this family become an eternal family.  It is frustrating when we want so bad to see it happen for them.  Their youngest boy (youngest until the baby is born) had a birthday on Tuesday.  We stopped by their home.  They weren’t having his birthday party, cake, etc. until Thursday.  So we ran to the corner store and bought a carton of ice cream so he could have a treat on his birthday.  Then on Thursday, we returned for the official birthday party.  They had cake, salgados, etc.  We brought watermelon and a package of three little balls for a present.  He and the other kids loved the balls.  We checked with them either by phone or in person about every day.  This baby will surely come soon!  Some of the branch sisters plan to visit with food, etc.  We think that is what this family needs, some support from branch members.  Julio did mention to us, “What happens to us when you are gone?”  Hopefully, they can form some good friendships with branch members.  It just might make all the difference.  Anyway, we are excited for this baby (Fernando) to be born! 

We had another great lesson with Elivelton and Bruna.  We talked about the Book of Mormon this week.  We also talked about how nice it is to read the scriptures together and pray together as a married couple.  They are moving along with their wedding plans.  We will probably be able to get in another lesson or two before the wedding.  We have been amazed that they still want to make time to hear more lessons when they are so busy fixing up a house to live in, with work, etc.  We also gave them some of the “Share the present” cards.  Bruna went straightaway and got her computer and looked up the video. We watched it together.   By the time we got home that evening, Bruna had already shared it on Facebook.  Love it!  We have had a lot of fun passing out these cards.  “He is the present” is such a great message!  We were given a ton of cards to pass out and have already given out a lot.

There was a lot to fit in on Thursday.  But we managed to visit José and Artur.  Both were good visits.  Artur had a lot to talk about it seemed and his brother was there visiting.  We had trouble fitting in our gospel message this week.  But we enjoyed the visits. 

Our friend, Jessica, who works as a checker at the IMEC grocery store, found out that the birthday of Sister Shirley was coming up.  She had made us promise to come back.  She presented Sister Shirley with a birthday rose and a nice note.  A nice surprise and very thoughtful!

Elder Torgan of the Seventy and Sister Torgan were in Porto Alegre for a “Tour of the Mission” conference on Friday.  We all loaded into a van at 4:30 am Friday morning for the 3 hour trip to Porto Alegre.  It was an all-day conference, lasting until 5 pm.  They served us lunch there at the chapel.  We got to see lots of familiar faces of missionaries who had previously served in Cachoeira.  It was an informative, spiritual conference. It was really special.   We enjoyed it a lot.  And during lunch, Sister Shirley was surprised with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” by about 150 plus missionaries.  We also slipped away for a few minutes to visit Elder Shirley’s old friend from his first mission, Alceu.  Alceu has an office next door to the mission office.  It was a short, but nice visit with him.  We try to do that every time we are in Porto Alegre. It was a great day.

Those are some of the highlights of the week.  In between, we filled our time with Branch meetings, English classes, lots of other visits, playing ball in the street with kids, etc.  We were also invited to some gaucho dance instruction at the Cachoeira branch.  They want to do that once a week for the next several weeks.  It was fun.  They hope to have a “baile” or two in the Cachoeira branch before we go home.  We also had a really nice birthday dinner, just the two of us, at Per Tutti Grill which was all decorated for Christmas!  Speaking of Christmas, we hung a cute Christmas decoration on the door of our apartment.  A couple of days later, our next-door neighbors, hung up a very similar one.   So we are enjoying that. 

We missed being home for Thanksgiving.  It was hard not to think of what you all were doing.  Although, Thursday was such a busy missionary day that we didn’t have time for our thoughts to linger on homesickness very much.  It was just a normal missionary day for us.  We did have some turkey deli meat and made a turkey sandwich.  Some of the Elders had pizza.  Good thing for lots of work.  There is nothing like working hard to cure homesickness.  In fact, work cures the majority of problems in the mission field.  President Castro has reminded us that our time in the mission field is short, but of eternal importance!  We are happy to be serving! 

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  You are in our thoughts and prayers!  Now it’s Christmas to look forward to!  Remember “He is the Present”!  Love to all!

Eu te amo!