Dear Family,
We have had a good week and a busy week. Last Saturday we had a car, so we drove about 3 miles up to Makro, a huge retail supermarket. They have good prices and a lot of things you can buy in bulk. The shelves are loaded and in some places go to the ceiling 20' high. You wouldn't think there is a serious recession here, but sadly, there is. We don't see the people most affected by this downslide in the economy because they can't afford to shop for groceries where we do. We got a cartao at Makro, a membership for free. We just had to show our documentos. So we started shopping and a few minutes later I heard some English which is very rare here even in Sao Paulo. I turned and saw a couple and at first I spoke to them in Portuguese but they gave me a blank look, so I asked them if they spoke English and they did. They are from Singapore and the fellow works for Singapore Airlines in an office building down by Avenida Paulista which is a financial hub of the city and all of Brasil. We talked and they were really friendly. The fellow said they had given him a little piece of paper and he showed it to me. It was just a single day pass to shop. I told him and he said they would like to get a membership but didn't know how to or if they could afford it. We said that they were free. I asked him if he would like to get one today and he said yes. I said, "Well, lets go over to that desk and get one for you." He said, "How's your Portuguese." and I replied that it was fluent. There were two people there behind the desk and nobody in line but they just ignored us so I said, "Da licencinha." Which is kind of a slang way of nicely saying, "Could you maybe help me here." When I block an aisle at some of the small stores with 3' wide aisles, I have women say "Da licencinha" all the time and they are just being nice. So the two workers turned and asked what we needed and I told them. The male employee said rather rudely, "I already gave him a one day pass." So I replied, "He doesn't need a one day pass, he needs a membership." "Well, he doesn't live here." "Oh yes he does", I said, "And he works for Singapore Airlines." "Oh". We had a membership card for him in 3 minutes. It was nice to be albe to help them. They are really nice people. I got his card and am going to get in touch with them again. We enjoyed shopping at Makros although we got tired legs. We made our biggest purchase in a store yet, about $81.00 dollars. We took home a big trunk full of groceries that will last a while. We didn't even get lost going home and my Brazilian, or I should say, my Sao Paulo driving habits are getting very good, so good that I will probably get a ticket in Rexburg when I come home.
Sunday was a great day as usual. Sacrament meeting reminded me of our Evergreen Ward in Rexburg, such a good spirit, geat talks. When we first got here, some people were really hard to understand in church, but now I get almost every word and it is nice. We had been invited by the Guimaraes to speak at a stake fireside in Embu das Artes on Sunday night. It is south of Sao Paulo about 30 minutes. We picked up the Guimaraes (the couple went to Aracatuba with us) and then they gave us directions to the chapel. It is a big building that even has an elevator. The Church utilizes even small pieces of land by going up with the construction, sometimes 2 or 3 stories for a chapel. Mom and I got introduced to everyone and then the meeting started. Believe it or not, we didn't really have butterflies and were anxious to speak. We were asked to speak about our pioneer heritage. Paula spoke for ten minutes and gave a wonderful talk. She began by asking how many had been born in the covenant; then parents who were born into the Church; then grandparents and then great grandparents. No hands came up on 'grandparents'. Paula and I kept raising our hands and you could hear people gasping in awe. She then talked about Benjamin Benson and his dream about the Book of Mormon and about William Scoresby and coming to America from Australia. I could see that the members were please that Paula was speaking in their tongue and many times when she would say a particular thing, I could see members nodding their heads, which means they were understanding what she was speaking about. She finished by bearing her testimony in Portuguese without using any notes. I was really pleased with her. She did a wonderful job. I could tell that brother and sister Guimaraies were impressed as well as the member of the stake presidency. I spoke about John Watkins and the Martin Handcart Company and the story of the miracle of my grandma Sonderegger being born after her parents had not been able to have children for over ten years. We both made a point of telling them that they could be pioneers in their own families. I told specifically about one of my track athletes who had been abused as a young boy as well as his sisters. We talked one day and he wondered why the Lord didn't love him as much as he loved me. I assured him that his parents had their free agency to choose their behaviors just like my parents and that he needed to focus on being the pioneer in his own family when that time came. By the way, he is doing just that.
After the meeting several stayed and they kept saying over and over, "I always wanted to meet a descendant of the real pioneers who came across the plains and here you are, standing right in front of us." We both felt a little uncomfortable being treated like celebrities because of our faithful ancestors. Then they all wanted their picture taken with us. The members have so much respect for the senior missionaries. The always address us as Elder and Sister even if they don't know us. The counselor in the stake presidency gave us both a huge bear hug as he was a big man. We felt like we did some good and that they Lord helped us to say the right things. We took the Guimaraies home and made it back to our apartments in spite of my terrible driving at night. Thank goodness Paula is such a good copilot. She made a difference in us getting home safely.. It was nice to see the angel Moroni come in to our view.
We continue to work on getting every detail set up for our gardening projects in several places. We have finally got everything submitted to CHaS, the Church Humanitarian Department. Hopefully we will get it all approved and then we can start buying seeds and tools, etc. I can't wait to take these things to the families. It will be like Christmas for us and for them. This is not just a charity. They have to do all the work of building their raised garden beds (their soil is poor) and then to maintain it all. Church Welfare if handled correctly can empower people to get a fresh start and then work to become self-sufficient. It doesn't always work out, but it does most of the time.
Paula was in so much pain one night that I got real worried. We went to the Leforte Hospital less than two blocks away and talked to an orthopedic surgeon. He was really nice and listened and did some testing. Paula ended up sitting in a room with and IV of three medications. She was in a room of nice soft chairs and so were 7-8 other people - interesting. She has been doing some exercise and taking some meds at night and things have improved. Friday morning I took her a half block away to the 17th floor for some physical therapy. The therapist, Tais, was really helpful. She asked a lot of questions before doing anything. I had her read my MRI results to see what her opinion was, I have several tears in my shoulder but to what extent I don't know yet. She asked how this all happened and I told her about the sports I played and my lifting. When we went in for therapy she loudly announced that there was a real live American football player in the room. Instant celebrity. It was pretty funny. We will be going back every day in the early morning next week. Tais is going to get a Book of Mormon real soon.
As for my shoulder, it is weak and stiff and I have lost quite a bit of range of motion. The hospital for some odd reason couldn't send my MRI to Dr. Liljenquist in Idaho Falls, so one of our tech guys at the Church Offices helped me send it and it worked. Dr. Liljenquist will look at everything on Monday. I have already talked to him once by phone. When I had my MRI, I was treated really well. The equipment is exactly like ours, probably made in the USA, and the test was in dollars, 106.00. In other words about 900 less or more than in the US. When I told a fellow how much we pay, he said, "I would have thought that ours are the most expensive." Believe it or not, there are people around the world who come to Brasil for surgeries which they can't afford in their own countries. One of the top shoulder surgeons here was trained at the Mayo Clinic and Princeton University, but even those trained here like at the University of Sao Paulo are well qualified. Medicine is really good here. Please keep us or at least our shoulders in your prayers.
One last thing. I started getting emails from a high counselor in Manaus, Amazonas. He was wondering about the food projects that we do. So I have started a dialogue with him. I told him that Paula and I have had a big garden for almost our entire married life of over 40 years. I told him how much it helped out with the budget and how many hundreds of quarts and pints that Paula would do all summer and into the fall. I mentioned too about the Teton Dam Flood and about dad and president Kimball. He wrote back immediately and the first thing he wrote was, "Reading your email made me cry and cry." In other words, it must have touched his heart and he can see some hope. He told me there are many priesthood holders in Manaus who are unemployed. I hope I can convince Fernando to give this a go. In my opinion, we can't just help people in the South. The people in the north need it just as much or more. It is really tough in the North and Northeast. I guess time will tell. We love and miss you all. We love the Lord Jesus Christ and hope that our service will help other people as well as ourselves to draw closer to Hiim.
Love and Miss You All,
Dad
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