Temple-Tour-Tournament

We were able to travel to the temple with 18 members from our branch and others from the district. We leave at 3 a.m. and return about 10 p.m. making for a long day.  The Curitiba Temple is a beautiful building and being able to attend quarterly while we are here has been one of the highlights of our mission. Think about the ceremony in another language. It has been a literal language learning experience for me. We attended the first session and for the third time served as witnesses. We then traveled to attend the Mission Tour at the Portão Chapel.  We were able to sit by Moises, President’s son, and meet the President’s father as we snuck into the back of the chapel. It was good to hear from and feel the spirit of Elder Ribeiro and his wife.  He taught several lessons by using the chalk board– drawing the home in his story and other things that illustrated what he was saying. We were able to visit with the Ribeiros at our table during lunch.  They have a young family and she is not always able to travel with him so we were really blessed for her to come and speak to us.  They currently have a son on a mission.

If you look closely -- the green team is a bit younger and thinner than
the red team.

The crowd is important - especially when you are a girl friend.
She was one of the few brave enough to talk to me. 

The team gathered for awards and photos.

Prudentopolis "A" team - third overall

Prudentopolis "B" team  

Prudentopolis "B" receiving medals.

Team Captain receives award for the team

Best Goalie in Tournament

Our branch was invited to participate in the first annual Futsal tournament for the Guarapuava District. We had so many youth that we formed two teams, acquired buses, water bottles, apples and some salgados for our dinner time and went to participate. The team members were then dispensed to the homes of local members to shower and returned to the branch for the dance afterward. We showed Prince Caspian to those waiting for the soccer players to return to the church.  It was a good activity. I am surprised at how many of the members in the district we recognize. It turned out that we had only two men play on our two teams and our “A” team (with no men) took third place.  The two teams that had more tournament points consisted of men from the Bonsucesso Branch with a couple of youth.   There were a few injuries but less than I would expect from playing on concrete. We were able to take some investigators with us as part of our 33 on the bus. It was again just after midnight when we returned everyone to their homes and got a few hours’ sleep before our 7:30 a.m. leadership meeting the next day.

We were able to work on genealogy in our home via the internet with several other members. We promised one of the Sisters if she would submit names to the temple that then they, the persons on the other side of the veil, would be able to help her with temple work for her family. She sent the name of her deceased father with one of the brothers in the branch.  When she bore her testimony this week, she told how she was able to then find the names of both sets of Grandparents on his marriage license. She had never seen or noticed them there before. She has already started having impressions or help with the work.

One of our biggest problems in helping members with family history research is the lack of experience on the computer.  One sister has faithfully come for help but spent most of her time having problems remembering her user name and password and then after finally entering FamilySearch.org - losing the internet connection to do the work. When they have to travel in by bus from another city – you can see why things might be a little frustrating as it involves time and money for them. However, this past week we were successful in getting into the system and entering data, leaving the system, and being able to reenter without my hands helping her.  I am excited that at least two members here are now able to access their accounts and enter data for themselves and their families on their own.

One of the youth has also actually logged on and entered data. His biggest problem is in not knowing anything about his ancestors – to the point of not even knowing his grandmother’s name. We learned today that a great grandmother passed away in the interior and we will need to help enter data while it is on the minds of the family.

The primary activity yesterday was in our apartment. The kids came to learn how to make cookies. Chocolate chip had been especially requested. Since they don’t have chocolate chips here you have to be creative in cutting up chocolate bars or using confetti like chocolate pieces.  Our presidency was involved and the sisters kept saying “I have never used that before” about the different ingredients. The youth made their own copies of the recipe using a variety of my gel pens to copy it. They then took turns helping by washing their hands, measuring and adding ingredients, rolling the balls, then removing the hot cookies from the pans. They also enjoyed the cookies with milk. We sang “I Am a Child of God” and I was pleased that they remembered most of the words to all 4 verses.

 As we prepare sharing times and I help with the older class in Primary, I am thinking about our grandchildren learning the same lessons in various parts of the United States and I am glad to know that they have all been taught to read scriptures and attend their meetings. It will be fun to share Old Testament Stories when we return.

As the weather gets colder we get different types of
visitors in our apartment. 

Elder McKinney was called on to install a de-humidifier in the Sister’s apartment yesterday. [Current Sisters are: Lemos; Santos; Flor; & Hermes.] It was not what we thought it would be when they called to ask his help. Instead of a machine that takes water from the air, it was a drying machine (mounted on the wall with hangers to put clothes on inside of it) to help the clothing to dry in our very humid air.  I am sure my blogs last winter here bemoan the fact that it can take three days for clothes to dry. It is starting to be a bit cooler here –at least in the morning and evenings – and the humidity becomes more of a factor daily. In the mornings especially it reads 100%, looks like heavy fog, and feels like tiny raindrops that you walk through.  For us, April showers do bring May flowers but it just means that the heat is no longer frying them.   

We are assessing priorities to use our time to maximum effect for three more months. Elder will celebrate his birthday tomorrow with a hamburger barbecue for the members of the presidency, their family members, and a couple of investigators.