On our 12 min. Walk to the office, a young man from the ward who had passed us the sacrament recognized us and stopped to talk. He was on his way to work and his big smile started our day out great. We went to our boss Fernando Souza, who we really love already and had a really good visit. When the girls come down, I am sure Fernando will want us to go traveling with them.
Fernando gave us a bunch of material to study including one on a pilot program he wants us to do in the entire state of Sao Paulo about jardinhagem (gardening). I told him we had planted 39 gardens in 40 years of marriage. He looked at me and said, "I had no idea. I just felt you were the ones to do this." He told us we would probably travel a lot like up to Fortaleza and down to Curitiba in Parana. He said to plan on driving. I looked a little shocked and told him my driving experiences in SP. He smiled and said, "I'll go with you the first time." We also started today to input all the almost 300 stakes in Brasil into their correct regions using Excel. We did ok. Carlos Gaspar, aged 57, is training us to take his place as he is moving to Salt Lake so his wife, aged 39, can get her nursing degree at the U. Carlos was baptized by Fenton Broadhead. Carlos later baptized a fellow who works in our building, and that young man baptized Carlos' daughter in law. What a story. To top that off, all of a sudden there was Fenton and Brother Lindford and Brother Peck standing right next to our cubicle. A great surprise for us. We were all in the same ward or stake at one time.
Paula needed some thumbtacks today and nobody including the Brazilians could think of the Portuguese name. I finally said, "you know, that sharp thing that you put on the seat for someone to sit on." Then they got it. We got brand new computers too. We then went shopping at Fifos, a little shop owned by some Japanese people. It has every thingymajigger you can think of, shelves to the ceiling, stuffed with stuff and aisles about two feet wide. We got some better wastebaskets, liners, napkins and some big grocery bags to haul our food. We about died of heat stroke at Fifo's it was so hot and stuffed with stuff and people. We took that home and then went to Pao de Ascucar for groceries. Bought a sweet huge yellow melon, really sweet bananas, etc, etc. I handed this little girl cashier a one dollar bill and said, "Will you accept that?" She replied, "I don't even know what it is," and I said, "It is a United States dollar. Estou brincando com voce." (I'm joking with you). Then she smiled and said in English. "Thank you", and I replied, "You are welcome." I am having fun teasing people and talking about the Church. My Portuguese was good when we arrived, but it has been flying the last two days getting better and better. We always stop to talk to the missionaries we see and they wonder why my Port. is so good. I'm not bragging, but I know the Lord is helping me, I can feel it.
Tomorrow I start calling bishops and Stake Presidents all over Brasil to talk about their welfare needs. Fernando told your mother and I that he prayed us here, that we were badly needed. I told him that we had come in part because of my mother in law who encouraged us.
I was so proud of my dear wife the last two days as she is trying to speak and people love her for trying. While Carlos was training us today, she was understanding a lot of it. Really proud of her. We love you all. We feel your prayers. Keep them up as we need them. We are being careful, but we feel safe. The Lord is watching out for us in this incredibly large city which only has 7,000,0000 cars and thousands of motorcycles. The motor boys are the ones we watch out for the most.
Com muito carinho e um forte abraco,
Mom and Dad
P.S. Someone please save this email as a part of my diary. Also, we learned that the healthiest bananas are the very ripe ones as they actually kill viruses. So don't eat green bananas.
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