Dear Family,
I hope that you all had a very happy 4th of July. It was just a normal day for us although we did have a very nice FHE and a "barbecue" dinner afterwards. Elder Hale worked for the US Postal service for his career so he put a presentation together about the American Revolution and showed the commemorative stamps that were made for the Bicentennial. It was very interesting. I think I've told most of you that my friend, Ellen Mathias Thomas, who performed at the Playmill with me in 1975 is here now as she and her husband are presiding over the São Paulo West mission. We invited them to join us for our FHEs and they came. It was fun to be together with her again. She is so nice. They brought their youngest daughter, who will be a senior, with them. She is really bored right now and it has reminded me of when we were here and Lynn was a senior and he was really bored. Lynn started going out on splits with the Elders and that seemed to make a difference for him. I suggested that to Ellen and they are going to set that up for their daughter, with the sisters of course. :)
Yesterday we went and visited a member lady who lives just around the corner from us and is interested in a garden. She lives in a little tiny house nestled in between two huge apartment buildings. She doesn't have any ground, only cement and there is hardly any sunlight. We are going to try a few things for her. She is a widow and doesn't have the greatest health. Hopefully we can help her out. She is Cynthia's age but you would think that she was much older.
In the afternoon we went down to Praia Grande to check out our gardens. There are four families participating right now. Things are looking good for most of them. Ivan has things ready but hasn't planted much yet. He has trouble being very motivated. I'm sending a few pictures and you will notice right off the bat that they must like lettuce! That seems to be mostly what they plant. I think what happens is that the seeds are so small that once they come up they separate them and transplant them so they don't waste any plants. I am thinking that that's what we should be doing back home.
One of the first things I noticed when we got to Ivan's home were the papaya trees along the back wall. We took a picture of the trees when they were about 12 inches tall and as big around as a pencil in January, well now 6 months later they are big trees-bearing fruit!! I couldn't believe it! There are lots of eucalyptus tree plantations down here and they grow to maturity in about 6-10 years. It is incredible! The photo with Dad pointing down and a man kneeling is at Ivan's home. That is Ivan. So far he has only planted that one bed. He has 4 or 5 more to plant.
Things have slowed down quite a bit for me right now. I was really busy for the first 6 weeks after we returned but now that has kind of passed. Hopefully I will be able to find more to do soon. I am actually going to talk to the Thomas' to see if they need some office help a day or two during the week. I don't think that they have a senior missionary office couple in their mission. Shirley (Sister Cox) has also talked to me about helping her with the "Pastoral" counseling of missionaries. She said that it wouldn't be anything deep, but that sometimes the missionaries just need someone to listen to them. I really want to help her as she is so swamped. I'll really think about it and pray about it this weekend and then decide. I am going to start doing the translating that Dad does. We both thought that you had to be a man to do it but two of the new senior sisters have started and I have been cleared to do it. It should be fun. I will be starting up my English class the first week of Aug. and that will help keep me busy.
We were able to get tickets for an Olympic doubleheader soccer game on Aug. 6th! We were able to get enough tickets for all of the senior missionaries and for Ellen's family. We are all really excited to be able to go to an Olympic event!! It is here in São Paulo at the Corinthian's Stadium. It is a really nice stadium that was built for the world cup. Our seats are going to be about on the 20 yd. line right down in front, I think.
Dad and I have both had colds but are now pretty much better. Lots of people have been sick lately. We hope that everyone is doing well. We are excited for the possibilities coming up for Lynn and Brandi and hope that the best job will be offered. We love you all very much. Have a great week.
Love,
Mom/Paula
No comments:
Post a Comment