It’s
been a great three weeks since our last update.
The weather has started to change a little bit – cooler by about 3 or 4
degrees, more rain and more humidity – we are not sure it’s better but it is
changing. It usually only gets down to
about 73° at night. During one of our
weeks we traveled again and visited Vitória da Conquista – which is more in the
south of the state. It was actually a
little chilly at night – which was wonderful.
It is the only place in our mission where the missionaries actually have
a blanket on their beds.
During
the week we drove from Salvador and visited Jequié, Itapetinga, Brumado,
Pocões, Livramento da Nossa Senhora and Conquista. It was a lot of driving and we were able to
get a lot done as we are staying out later at night.. We don’t like doing that at our place in
Salvador – too many gun shots and fireworks.
Kaye refuses to believe they are gunshots and just says it’s thunder
even when the sky is clear. We visited
with a lot of different missionaries – helped them with their needs as best we
could. Kaye brought larger bags of
M&M’s for all of them. It was a
challenge for me – the M&M’s had a suitcase of their own and I could hear
them calling to me every night. They
were so lonely.
We
had some great conferences since our
last update– Elder Costa – who has been a Seventy since 1974 and is the
President of the Brazil Area visited.
He has a very interesting history of helping Brazilians and his time in
ministering in the Church. A few
pictures below. First is with our
Mission Office Group and the second was during a larger leadership/training
meeting. Just to identify us, we are the
really old and tired looking couple – well Kaye isn’t, but I am.
We
put in a few other pictures to show a little of the differences in Brazil – the
first is large white rock on the side walk.
We walk past this rock every time we go the Mission Office from our
apartment. Somehow it fell down the hill
and landed on the side walk. The road
crew evidently came through and took a look at it, found it to be too heavy,
but in true Brazilan fashion painted it white so no one would trip over
it. It looks like they repaint it every
five or six months rather than move it somewhere else.
The
second was on a trip to a nice supermarket here – they have great ice
cream. Kaye was looking for some meat to
put with the beans she has down pat now.
We found this table of hams – if you look the hams still have the hoof
on them. Easier to carry I guess, but
difficult to put into a pot without some kind of a saw
The
next one is the smallest avocado Kaye could find at the market and the last two
show some handy carpentry work done by some of our Elders. Someone tried to break into their apartment
and broke part of the door. Rather than
replace the door – they fixed it up well with some nails and fence stakes.
It’s
a really interesting country. Right now
we are taking some Portuguese classes – three hours every day for a couple of
weeks. The teacher is a person who has
traveled the world and speaks three or four languages – she is teaching us a lot
about the language, history and culture.
We
miss everyone and are so appreciative of the pictures people send – it helps us
stay connected. Love you all. Paul and Kaye
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