Party Poppers, Pizza Ovens and Precious People

In my last post I said I like the rain.  I lied.  I take it back.  I recant!  It's has been raining non-stop for several weeks now.  How do you say in Portuguese, "Rain rain go away, come again another day!"
People are saying it is the worst rainy season they remember here.  Last week some houses in one of the favelas slid off the mountainside. 18 people were killed causing some of the people to riot in the streets because they blamed the government for not insuring that this would not happen. So sad!

A few days ago we left our building early to head out to visit some branches. We discovered that the parking garage of our condominium was full of mud and the driveway to our building was blocked due to a mudslide that brought part of the neighboring wall and fence of the building next door into our path.  It was a good thing our car has 4wheel drive so we were able to make our way out and over the mess.

Last week the office elders got caught in a torrential downpour and the buses were on strike so by the time they got to the office they looked as though they had just performed a baptism while wearing their street clothes. They were so grateful I had brought my hair-dryer and some towels to the office.

But now, on a brighter note -

This last weekend, we drove way out into the boonies of Brazil to re-organize a branch presidency in Irece. It is a town which is out in the middle of nowhere.  Everything in the town seems to be perpetually covered in several layers of red dirt.  It's not my favorite place, but the church members are amazing.

First, we visited a family out in the country about 80 kilometers from the Church. President Lisonbee planned on calling the man of this family, named Sergio, to be the new branch president. We pulled up to their place and I spotted this sign for their restaurant they have in the front part of their house.

"Why was it named King Restaurant?", I wondered.  The word for "king" in Portuguese is "rei."  But this was in English.  And nobody speaks English here. I came to learn that they named it after the elder from Provo who baptized Sergio's brother. Elder King had also helped them build this restaurant with their bare hands.  How many American missionaries get to have a restaurant named after them in Brazil? It was quickly evident that Elder King was a king in the eyes and hearts of this family.

We ate lunch there in the restaurant that felt more like a garage or warehouse, but the food was very good.  You can see the cast iron pots filled with feijoada (beans and rice) that Sergio's wife had made.

At night they fire up the wood fired pizza oven that Sergio built himself from instructions on the internet.  He says he thinks his Italian heritage came into play in helping him build it. ( I made David take note of how he did it because I want to build one too when we get back to Utah.)

After lunch President Lisonbee and Sergio and his wife went in the back room to visit about the call. I was left with the kids.  Since the kids only spoke two words of English, which I had just taught them, I knew it was going to be an interesting visit with probably a lot of smiling, nodding, and pointing on my part.  And then I remembered that I had something in my purse that might help.  My purse, or as it is sometimes referred to as the "magic bag o' wonders" or by David as "the waste basket" because it has a flat bottom and can stand upright and tends to be the receptacle of many assorted and sundry items that would probably qualify as garbage by some far less imaginative people, has often proved helpful in many situations. It didn't let me down this time.  I remembered that I had, for some unknown reason, call it inspiration if you'd like, put a package of party-poppers, not to be confused with "party poopers", in my bag a few weeks ago. I mean you never know when you might need those, right?

After demonstrating to the kids how if you turned one inside out and then waited, it was only a matter of seconds before it would pop up into the air, I gave one to each of them.  They LOVED them.  We spent the next hour with me taking pictures on my phone of the kids having contests to see whose popper could go the highest.

Finally President Lisonbee appeared with Sergio and his wife.  I assumed the call had been issued because when they first went in for the interview President Lisonbee looked serious and Sergio and his wife were smiling.  But as they emerged from the interview it was the opposite.

Here we are pictured together with Sergio and his family (on the right) and his brother and his wife (the couple on the left) who are expecting a baby any time now. I'm not sure who the man next to President Lisonbee is.  (maybe a restaurant patron??)

The next morning we went early to the church building ( once again a garage type of structure) so President Lisonbee could prepare everything for the meeting.  I was on my own again to visit with the soon-to-be-released Branch President's wife, Sister Souza. She is an amazing woman.  Below she is pictured getting off their motorcycle that they ride to Church.

She sat next to me and wanted to visit.  Of course she does not speak a lick of English. One of the hardest things for me to do here is to have to make small talk in a second language.  I HATE it. Let's face it, small talk can be difficult in any language.  I hate having to watch the people I am trying to have a conversation with look at me with interest and anticipation as I try to speak to them. I feel so badly for them having to wait so long for me to say something coherent. I sometimes feel like they are midwives cheering me on as my brain contracts, laboring and pushing hard to give birth to a complete sentence.  Then they smile and cheer with gleeful recognition if I am able to produce words that they can actually understand.

And while we are speaking about foreign languages, one thing I'd really like to know is who had the bright idea to decide that in the Romance languages every object in the universe would be assigned a gender.  And not only would you have to get the gender right when referring to these items but any adjective or article describing this object would have to also agree with the specified gender of said object.  Come on people!  I doubt that Adam and Eve found it necessary to do that!  And to top it off, sometimes there are nouns that have one gender but are modified by an article of the opposite gender.  Talk about trans-gender issues!  Who was the self-appointed word-gender boss that decided that the word, "door" would be feminine, or the word, "car" would be masculine?  I can't help but wonder by what criteria were these designations made??? If I ever meet the person or people that did this I'd seriously like to give him or her a piece of my mind, that is if there are any pieces left to give after losing so much of it trying to learn these things!

But, having said that, I do find it very interesting that in our scriptures in English, the words, "justice" and "mercy" have been assigned a masculine and feminine possessive pronoun. As seen in the scripture that says,

"For behold, justice exerciseth all HIS demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is HER own."  (Somewhere in the book of Alma)

But I digress. Getting back to my conversation with the wonderful Branch President's wife, I have to say that it went so much better this time than the first time we visited there about 8 months ago.  This time I was able to not only make some small talk with her, but even a little medium-large talk. I must never forget that this was truly a tender mercy bordering on a miracle.

The Spirit was strong in our sacrament meeting there.  Tears were shed.  And do you remember the police officer that I posted about that was baptized here about 8 months ago named Michael?  Well, he is doing great and is the new Secretary in the new Branch Presidency.

Below is the picture I posted of Michael 8 months ago after he was just baptized. ( I just realized I'm wearing the same clothes then that I wore there this past weekend. I really ought to keep better track of what I wear to different places)

Below is Michael (on the left end) pictured with the new Branch Presidency that was put in this past weekend. Sergio is the second one from the right and President Lisonbee is the second from the left next to Michael.  (in case you have forgotten what he looks like.)

And I got to see Karine.  She's the young lady who said that the letter I wrote her about my conversion helped her to have the courage to be baptized.  She is doing great and has hopes to one day serve a mission.

It is such a wonderful thing, not only to see the Church grow, but to see the individuals who grow along with it.

I bore my testimony that it may be easy to sometimes think that what happens in a big Ward or Stake is more important than what happens in a small branch, but I testified that I knew that what happened in our meeting there was as important as what happens in General Conference, because it took place by the power of the same Priesthood and under the direction of the same gift of the Holy Ghost. And  we must never forget that our World-Wide Church was first organized with only six members.

As we drove away from these precious members of the Church I found myself praying that they would be blessed and that their numbers would grow.  I prayed also that Sergio's family would be blessed with what they need to be able to shoulder the burden of leading this little group of saints. I  found myself praying that many many people would be prompted to stop and eat feijoada and pizza at King  Restaurant.  The restaurant that looks like a garage and is named after a returned missionary from Provo and is located on a dusty highway way out in the interior of Brazil.