Dear Family,
I realized that I am writing a book for an email that maybe you don't have time to read so I will be shorter, at least for me. Just had a sweet experience in the temple cafeteria. When Paula and I sat down to eat, we could hear singing and we noticed a cute little 3 year old girl sitting with her father and just singing away. You can buy candy bars by the cash register, so I got up and bought one and took to her. I asked her father if that was ok and he said yes. I told her the candy bar was for her singing and that I hoped she would keep on doing it. She had a big smile as did the other temple workers sitting nearby. Speaking of the temple, since we need more to do, we will probably begin serving on the Friday morning shift. President Silva who is Brazilian but lives and has a business in Salt Lake was happy to have us. So we are excited for the opportunity. We have missed the Rexburg temple very much. Friday morning is when the missionaries at the MTC in SP come to the temple, so that will be exciting. There were 28 American missionaries in the session we attended last Friday. I got to talk to quite a few of them in the dressing room. When they found out I had served here 45 years ago, they were all amazed. I told them that when they get homesick, just go to work and things get better. They have it a lot easier now than we did.
Mom talked about going to Ibirapuera Park here in SP and the Legos Art. It really was interesting to see all that could be done and the creativity. Before we went in, we saw a feira which I thought probably wasn't a fruit and vegetable feira. So we went over and the first place we saw was a lot of wood carvings. Mom has been looking for a Nativity Set made in Brazil (not made in China) and there it was. I talked to the fellow who does the carvings, Vando, and he will do ours in a different kind of wood and stain. They are really neat. There were four couples who ordered one and Vando was so happy to get some work as he has been looking for more work. It will take him a little over a month and all done with hand tools which he showed us. I wondered how long he had been doing carvings and he said since age 11. Then he said something you don't hear every day. He said, "I decided to support my family by doing an honest days work. There is so much dishonesty here and I didn't want to follow that route." We are excited. I gave him a small booklet about raising a family in our day and age.
We went to the 1932 Revolution War monument after seeing the Legos. It was just across the street. It looks a lot like the Washington Monument, not quite as tall but still 236 feet of Italian marble. Italy sent 4 ships of Italian marble to Brazil as a gift to build the monument. Sao Paulo is an Italian city in many repects as so many immigrants came here. 1932 Revolution happened when Sao Paulo got upset over the President, Getuliio Vargas who began taxing the state heavily and doing away with jobs. So the state of SP and Minas Gerais put a volunteer army together and began fighting the armies of the federal government. There is a large area under the monument, all in beautiful marble where many of the volunteer army who died are buried, including the first four students who were killed and became symbols of the revolution. Minas Gerais eventully turned against SP and soon the war was over. Even though Sao Paulo lost, it began a process of writing a new constitution which was made with mostly Paulistano influence. So Sao Paulo lost the battle but won the war as they got all the liberties they had hoped for. The military policeman was really a neat fellow. I made friends with him and bought a book about the war from him which I had asked about. We talked about a lot of things. He was armed and had his bullet proof vest on, but he was really a good fellow. As we were leaving he grabbed me and said, "We need to take a picture." So we did. He asked me a lot about the missionary program of the Church and how it worked. I got him to autograph my book.
One cute story (but true) he told us was about "elephant fruit", a real fruit. Brazil's emperor put some coins in the leaves of the fruit which grew around the coins and then he would send them to Portugal with a letter saying, "We even grow our own money in Brazil." During the 1932 war, they fought a trench war like in WWI. At one point, someone played the Brazilian national anthem and all the soldiers came out of their trenches unarmed, stopped fighting and saluted.
We went to the Campinas Temple about 45 miles away from SP. It sits on a hill and it is gorgeous. We went into the office to see sister Gisele Vaz who we knew from our ward in Campinas in 1996. Paula was her counselor in the Primary. We got to know the family (five cute boys, all grown up now) and her husband Ayrton. He passed away from cancer at a young age. When Gisele saw us, she about screamed in the temple and she came running, grabbed us both and just cried and hugged us. She is several inches shorter than Paula, red hair and a ball of fire. She just kept looking at us, hugging us and crying. We felt really loved and we love her. All the Brazilians in the office area couldn't help but see all this and they thought it was great. We plan on doing something with her before we go home. We will take Shelley there to see her. I am sure all our children remember Gisele and her boys, especially Vinicius who used to come play at our apartment. We then spent a fortune (it was worth it one time) to eat at the Coco Bamboo restaurant, all seafood. It was some of the very best food we have ever had. Everything we ate was a shrimp dish and it was so good.
I am finally over the pneumonia cough and have more energy. My right foot still hurts a lot and I can't seem to figure out how to get better. I went to an orthopedic surgeon and basically he told me, "Your foot is hurting, You should see a doctor." Uh, ok, I will try to do that since you aren't much of one. Anyway, keep me in your prayers at it has been hard to walk on for three months. Paula is feeling good although she has had some stomach issues since Manaus. She has been better this week. Please keep her in your prayers. We miss you all and you are in our prayers. We have less than 6 months left.
Love You All e um forte Abraco,
Elder Sonderegger
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