Is the water here clean?

Most of you know that I am a scrapbooker.  The pages below are the Creative Memories records I made of a Zone Conference Food Demo that John and I did.  We have had a lot of meetings in the first month that we were here.  One of our major expenses has been for bus fare to different towns to attend meetings for training -- the Elders have their bus fare paid through reimbursement from the mission but the senior missionaries do not.  

For most of these meetings they will call a day ahead and ask for me to play the piano for opening and closing song and John will give a talk or a prayer.  They also don't mind if I bring cookies.  For this particular meeting I took zucchini bread that was a real hit.  

However, the point of this blog is to share our more unusual assignment.  President Cordon called Sunday evening to ask us to talk about cleaning fruits and vegetables for the Tuesday morning Zone Conference.  We had received a communication from the medical missionaries about a problem that many of the missionaries were having with stomach aches etc.  The article attached to the e-mail was "Diarrhea & Vomiting: How to Prevent & Treat".  It was in both Portuguese and English.  So I began by copying the article for all the missionary houses to take home.  Then, after planning our strategy, we went to buy groceries and try to show, by picture, what to do.  I made a series of photo pages that we turned into a Power Point Presentation.  Below are some of the pages with only the English translation that I will put in my scrapbook.  I know that some of the words are too small to read here but if you really want to see them you can really pan in on them.  

Note: Bottled water is another major expense for us.  The missionaries are reimbursed if they will use the bottled water -- I suspect in an effort to get them to use it.  Again, it is an expense that Senior missionaries pay. Elder Een is one of the missionaries in our district and is currently serving in Irati.  He told me of an experiment he had done where he sat a bottle of tap water with a lid on it outside for a few days then went back to see some pretty disgusting things that had grown in the bottle.  I would think he is one of the few who turn in their reimbursement vouchers for bottled water.

We found a cemetery! Are my kids surprised?

Everyone who knows me well knows that I love the information found in cemeteries.  This Ukrainian Cemetery is at the end of the street that we were told one of the sisters lived on.  We did finally find her on November 1st -- one street over.  Since we had walked over a mile and it was the end of the road and again lunchtime, we stopped to look at this beautiful, well kept cemetery.  There are many European connections here and a gold mine of info.  I wonder if I can get the information extracted for use?  Maybe this could be a service project for the youth. 

I have tried to help some of the members with their family history.  Since my language skills are lacking I have mostly tried to supply them with information and access to my computer.  The nearest family history center is several hours away by bus ride and not very well equipped and open only by appointment.  In my searching on line I found a very good series on Brazilian research --- all in English.  It does not help them much.  I have also found that they hesitate to index because they don't understand the English descriptions.  Soooooo  I spent some time translating a four page handout for their use.  I learned a lot.  I hope they will too.

Walking & More Walking

John and I are part of a walking mission.  No one has a car but the mission president and his wife, who I am sure put many miles on their car daily as they travel from zone to zone doing training almost daily. 

We have found that the branch records are a little spotty.  A young elder worked hard to get as much information as he could before he left on his mission several months ago.  Some of the house addresses here are out of numerical order so 532 might be followed by 564 and then 536 etc.  We find that some of the members are listed with addresses of their neighbors etc.  There are no children on the records. In an effort to find out how we can best help we are trying to meet everyone at their home and find out from them about their families.  The members are wonderful.  They are all very open and welcoming.  We are sad to find some in pretty poor conditions physically and others who have nicer homes that are alone because of the death of their spouse and working hard to make ends meet.  Several have grandchildren living with them because their parents work in the interior or because one or the other of the parents has walked out on the family.  Some young people are the only members in their family.

I have written the primary program for the branch as they have been waiting for the district primary to write it.  Since there hasn't been a district primary presidency for over a year---it hasn't happened yet.  I have also downloaded some of the scripture characters to use in lessons since they don't seem to have many supplies here and do not have a lot of training on teaching children.  They do however have strong testimonies.

A week of Hosting and being Hosted

We started off our P-Day with some wash and intent to shop for storage/filing type furniture to use for books and paper in the office.  We got an early morning phone call saying that the Elders would be needing someone to meet them at the bus stop and help be with them as one would leave and another be left alone for a period of time.  What ended up happening is.... We visited with Elders Smith and Reeves until Elder Reeves left just as Elder Een got off the late bus and he and his companion, Elder Smith were stuck at 11:30 a.m. waiting for a 4:00 p.m. bus to Irati.  Soooooo .... We had the Elders over for lunch.  Did I tell you that Elder Een came off the bus with a guitar, 3 pieces of luggage and a backpack?  They gladly walked the mile to our apartment.  We spent a few hours getting to know them, cooking lunch, listening to some great primary songs with background guitar accompaniment and learning about Elders Een and Smith.  They both have musical backgrounds. Elder Smith was a drum major for an Idaho Band at the same competition in Idaho where AF performed and then had a tragic bus accident.  Elder Een is from Ivins in southern Utah.  When they found out we had internet, they stayed a little longer to e-mail their reports to President Cordon and then e-mail their families before they were off to Irati.  

We had seen several churches in our walks and decided to get photos on Friday, October 12th when everything was closed for the holiday here. 

We took our own bus ride on Tuesday the 16th.  Upon arriving we then took a long taxi ride to the apartment of Brother and Sister Beihn (pronounced Bean).  They were so gracious and fed us many meals during our stay. Sister Beihn is dealing with a broken foot and is apartment bound until they leave for home next month.  They gave us many helpful hints, showed us apps for the i-pad, gave us three keyboards to take for me to teach piano lessons to the members, and took us to the mission office for supplies. Tuesday afternoon was pretty open so we attended our second temple session  in Curitiba after another long taxi ride. We were again the witness couple.  They do not get many couples during their sessions.  Elder Heppworth was very kind to me in the Celestial Room and urged me to be patient about learning the language.

Wednesday we went to the mission office in the morning but the afternoon was taken by a rather long bus ride to the Policia Federal to get permission to stay in the country.  Elder Valdez very patiently shepherded us through our bus ride, paperwork, fingerprinting, and return to the mission office.  On the way back we had a copy of the paperwork notarized to be sent to Sao Paulo for safe keeping. That stop took over an hour and we ran errands while waiting for a number to come up.  Then we arrived at the mission office to have our papers laminated and had some laughs with the office Elders as they wrapped our hard won paper work around the laminating machine.  After much time and taking the machine apart, they pried the papers off the machine, peeled the laminate off, re-laminated the somewhat shredded papers and then reheated them and they don't look too bad!

We finally got back to Beihns for a late supper and preparation for an early morning (5:30 a.m.) taxi ride to the bus station for a bus ride to Ponta Grossa for the Regional Missionary training conference.  I was supposed to play the piano but when we arrived at the station the bus had gone at 6 a.m. instead of 6:30. We called ahead to let the Zone leaders know we might be late.  We were able to make the bus ride in record time, get a tax, and walk into the chapel at Ponta Grossa just as the meeting was to begin.  We prayed, sang an opening song, and heard our names announced as bearing testimony as the program began. I took a deep breath and bore the limited testimony that I can in Portuguese. Elder Godoy was very kind in giving me encouragement as John spoke.  I later sat by Elder Godoy at lunch and he told me that he travels all we to teach at mission training and weekends for stake conferences.  He commented that it is a very lonely calling as his wife does not travel with him.

After a really terrific luncheon we loaded our suitcase, three keyboards, our temple distribution center purchases (mine included a scripture carrying case -- all they had was a primary one -- so mine is red, yellow and blue!), and ourselves in the van with our Zone to travel back to Prudentopolis. We had a really fun group of Elders with us---The sister missionaries were transferred out on Monday--- so no more sisters in our Zone for awhile.

We ended the week with heavy rain storms here.  Friday after we had laundered all our dirty clothes, we headed off to try and find an open Papaleria, paper store, where we could laminated things I had prepared for Primary. We had also made a contact earlier in the week that we wanted to stop and visit.  It stored raining a little and was quite overcast.  Our walk was out in the direction of the bus station about a mile away. We took our papers and umbrellas and headed out.  The laminating took awhile and it was raining a bit harder when we came out but since we thought we were close to the home we were looking for, we headed out.  After about four blocks it really began to pour and there was no home in sight for either of the people we were to contact in the area.  We ducked into a loja to get out of pouring rain.  As we began to talk to the owner, we realized that we were finally in a large enough store that they had the type of bookshelf/office equipment we needed. While we waited for the torrential rain to abate we purchased two pieces of office furniture.  We finally took of in the down pour to find a bank since the owner didn't take credit cards and needed cash.

That was another experience since none of the ATMs would take our card on a late Friday evening. Our phone wasn't working. I was able to get internet for just long enough to e-mail Philip Gunther at Bank of American Fork who tweaked something that allowed us to get just enough to purchase the furniture.
It was a miracle! The furniture was delivered Saturday morning and the internet was down from the minute we got Philip's answer until late Sunday night. Did I mention all of that wash out on the line when we left to run errands was soaked and we got to start over Saturday morning. What a week"

When we woke up Sunday morning, we found that they had "sprung forward" in their daylight savings program.  Thus we are temporarily four hours different from the western US until they "fall back" when we will be 5 hours different.  There were several families late for church.  The Elders called to see if we would cook dinner for them if they provided ingredients.  They brought meat, cheese, & tomato sauce and wanted Lasagna. We through in carrots, onions, garlic, and some spices and had a dinner that I would not have thought to try. They have no cottage cheese here so the Elders brought a cream cheese that is salted to take it's place. I am constantly learning 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Araucaria Tree

Above the rest

Araucaria

Cut through the trunk of the Araucaria
turned to make a nice bowl.

The araucaria tree has two types of wood in the main trunk. The lighter wood is soft much like pine and the inner columns are very hard. As you can see, the tree grows to great heights and normally sheds the lower branches as it grows. When you see an araucaria tree you will notice that it is always taller than its neighboring trees and the lower branches will be shed from the tree to the height of the surrounding trees. This is, presumably, because those branches are no longer useful to the tree since, they are no longer exposed to sunlight. The remaining branches will be long and grow horizontally to increase exposure to the sun’s rays. This long flat branch will be extremely heavy and it is supported by the hardwood in the middle of the trunk of the tree. Since I don’t have a lot of time to study down here, I will speculate that the trunk is made up of the two types of wood so that the branches have the support they need form the hard wood, and the soft wood decrease the amount of hard wood and allows the tree to grow faster and outdistance other trees in its quest for sunlight.

Lunch with Eva Oliveira

Eva Aparecida Pereira de Oliveira, children & missionaries 

We were again invited to a member’s home to meet them.  Eva Aparecida Pereira de Oliveira invited us to her lunch for the Elders. The members here take turns making lunch (which is the big meal of the day) for the elders.  From the schedule on the RS wall it looks like this rotation happens about every 2 weeks.  Eva has 6 children.  As we ate and talked we learned that she was the 1^st member baptized here in Prudentopolis.  She was curious when she saw the missionaries walking by and eventually stopped them and talked with them.  Separately her husband, Julio Jordão de Oliveira, had a dream about two young men coming to visit them.  He is now working away on a farm because there is no work here for him but we met him on the 1^st Sunday we were here.  Ezequiel Pereira Oliveira is their 15 year old son and is active at church, wearing a suit and worthy to pass the sacrament. He is also more than willing to go on visits with the missionaries.  Most of these families are willing to pass out Books of Mormon to friends and acquaintances. 

We attended a funeral for a member’s father Tuesday, October 9th. Nevair Erdmann’s father had died around midnight.  The service was held the same day.  The Lutheran church where the service was held was bright blue outside and a peaceful paler blue inside.  It was packed full to the back were John and I stood. Our walk took a little longer than anticipated and we were 5 minutes late.  The pastor gave a talk mostly from the scriptures and it was technically doctrinally correct, he then played the piano, prayed, and read the obituary. Only one other person participated, a grandchild. The group then loaded up in cars and followed the casket to the cemetery.

We were able to give Neva and her granddaughter, who was un-consolable, a hug. Neva is the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in her family. Her mother had died and her father remarried so there is a second wife and step-siblings.  One gentleman stopped and purposely shook John’s hand.  We think it might have been her step-brother who has at times asked about the church and been friendly with the Elders. We saw only one other member of the church in attendance at the funeral to support Sister Neva. Things really happen fast here. We only heard about it because a member had stopped by earlier in the day and told us about the death and funeral. 

Wednesday, we stopped by the house to meet with her and take a salad and dessert. A grandson took it in and put it in the refrigerator but we did not catch her at home.  The missionaries had an appointment during the funeral time yesterday.  They met us at Neiva’s and as their appointments had also fallen through, they came to our apartment for dinner and to finish off the sorbet they had left in our fridge.  They were on their way to Curitiba, a 4½ hour bus ride, so that Elder Hartley could attend the temple there before he returns home next week. 

There are a few other observations to add to this week’s list.  John and I stopped at the local version of the IFA to see what we could buy to cover our window openings.  It does get very hot here.  The windows have no screens. Everything is wide open.  We bought some green mesh and John has rigged some pretty colorful screens for our windows.

The garbage collection is also different here.  There is a small basket on the fence or wall in front of the houses in town.  You take your garbage sacks out and set them in these baskets.  As far as we can tell, about three days a week someone comes by and picks up this garbage.  Most of the sacks are about grocery sack size which makes sense because with no air conditioning, wet things could get stinky pretty fast.