March Madness 2014

Guarapuava Zone Sisters - Feb 2014

We finished off our February with a surprise Zone Conference with President Fernandes who treated our district to lunch since we travel so far and have the greater cost in time as well as money when we attend. Our Zone at 24 is the largest it has been since we arrived. 

Feb 2014 - We have a large zone -- 2 zone meetings

President Fernandes treated us to lunch before the
afternoon zone conference at the end of February.

We were excited to receive our Christmas package
four months after it was mailed but intact!

Zone leaders are extreme left and right -- Elders Gonzales
& Elder F. Silva. They both also serve as trainers. 

It has been kind of crazy here for the last month.....but no basketball brackets involved. Since our last post we have had preparations for, attendance at, and return and report stages of the 2014 District Youth Conference. Then the next weekend the youth gathered for another district youth dance.

They can't take pictures without hand signs. Four of 
these kids were members for less than two months.

Our part of the preparations involved getting out information about and the lists of things needed for attendance at the "Acampamento dos Jovens do Distrito Guarapuava 2014"; collecting signed permission slips; shopping for appropriate clothing for new members; checking that they all had scriptures; chartering a van to travel to and from the conference and then the actual pickup and delivery of the youth to Guarapuava. We traveled with them on Saturday, March 1st to the Bonsucesso Branch Chapel.

There is only one youth not pictured of the 13 we took.
We have more youth than any other
branch in the district!

Unloading and retreating to the shade.
Because it is sunny
or because they are shy?

They started with a much needed ice-breaking activity. For many of our youth not only was this a first youth conference.... it was the first time they had socialized with other youth as members of the church since several were baptized within the last month. They then divided into two groups or companies, met their leaders and set goals. The companies chose names. Presidente Guilherme spoke to them. His talk was titled "Come to Christ, be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness". They then had a brief snack, the counselors gave a brief thought and they were off to bed. The young women stayed in the basement of a member's home for the three nights of the conference. The young men all stayed in a home that was vacant and for sale and was rented by the district for them to stay in. None of them got much sleep.

Utimately the young man in front of President Guilherme, a member
of several weeks, won the name a scripture character game.

A thimble of water in the face (for a wrong or duplicate answer)
stressed out several competitors

The answers were hard to hear and it was a quiet group trying to hear.

Sister in the background taught about scrap booking ancestors pictures.

Sunday started at 6:30 a.m. after what many of the youth described to us as a sleepless night. We had to ask since they all looked pretty tired when we returned in the evening to check on them. Our morning in Prudentópolis had included our regular block meetings, interviews, etc. Then we traveled with Mehls in their car to check on the kids. The youth had greatly increased the numbers in attendance at the Bonsucesso Branch that morning then had a Preach My Gospel  presentation by Presidente Lustoza and Presidente Claudiomiro.  We arrived in time to to see the presentation about História da Familia by Irmã Lina and Irmã Viviane showed her scrapbook of family ancestor photos. Then they had several group games. One of our newly baptized members won the game naming people from the scriptures. We never figured out the purpose of the tug of war in Sunday clothes.

Tug o War - Pulling together?

Monday Elder McKinney and I had planned to travel by bus to hear Presidente Fernandes speak at a fireside for the youth. Instead we ended up being the fireside as he had cancelled. We had our Proclamation on the Family Power Point which Elder McKinney adapted to present to the youth. We had cut up 23 different portions of the proclamation and I visited with different youth during their break and asked them to help us by reading them. As they sat in the cultural hall and looked at the pictures of our family and ancestors projected on the wall the youth essentially presented the proclamation while Elder McKinney added points about responsibilities of parents and youth in forming eternal families. As we returned home on the bus they were to have family home evening games.

This game started as a large circle of people - each making
their own animal motion which had to be duplicated for
them to reproduce and add another person to stay
in the circle.

Zeko, who normally seems shy, was one of the last three
contenders in the circle. 

Tuesday, March 3rd we returned in our chartered van to attend the baile (dance) and return home with our youth. I was totally surprised by the cultural hall turned disco when we arrived. The kids all seemed to have a good time and all participated. We returned home just after midnight with a group that had a hard time saying goodbye to a group of new friends.

These 2 little girls
had fun.

We were surprised at the disco atmosphere.

Accordions were popular along with other instruments.

Sisters?

The good bye didn't last long as we learned that March 15th the Guarapuava Branch was hosting a costume dance. We again chartered the bus and returned with the kids and other interested family members including children. I wish we could show the video Elder McKinney took of the Michael Jackson type footwork of some of our youth. 

This family included Batman, Wonder Woman and Robin

They held a costume award ceremony at the end of the dance.

We did have other standard activities. We just finished Week 5 of Seminary and have had good attendance at the three different groups. I am finally getting to see the films my children saw that match the music that was so often playing in our home. Elder McKinney and Brother Oishi have tried to make home teaching visits in many of the homes by the end of February and are hoping that others will participate in March. Home and Visiting Teaching are still a major weakness in this branch and the topic of our Ward Council discussions. 

Our friends - the Faccios

It is always good to visit with Oishis

We were lucky to have supper one evening with the Oishis at the Faccio home. We need the talents of these two as members. Hopefully it will be soon.  

We have encouraged the members to be ready to take family names to the temple on our next scheduled trip on April 19th. 

I have one very faithful piano student who comes multiple times a week. We have been disappointed by the ingenious excuses for not coming regularly but several of the others. 

What would you do to get a baptism sketch during March Zone Meeting.

Elder D. Silva is willing to take the hot sauce---an works hard all week here.

We continued to feed our district on Tuesdays but lost one pair Monday the 17th as they were sent to open a closed district. We had pancake breakfast with these two American Elders before sending them on their way.  So our Tuesday lunch was simpler as we only prepared for the 2 Elders in town this week.


We took some time on P-day to get acquainted with the new http://curitibasul.com website. We have been without regular communication with the mission office since the e-mails were not coming out on time and the phones were changed in an effort to save expense. We are no longer able to use our phone to text members -- which saves them a lot of money and us a lot of time in notifying them about ward council, temple trips, etc. We also cannot call them if they don't have the same prefix as we do which eliminates about 1/2 of the members. We don't feel like we have been nearly as effective.  It is much more costly for us to pay a taxi to get to the far flung members and hope they will be home when we need to communicate with them.  We have had to rely on using members to text messages and the Elders to pass along other information. However, the new website has a calendar which will help us keep abreast the mission news and meetings which will really be of help to us as the younger Elders missed passing on a few messages to us about zone meetings etc. in the past. 

On the home front Jay, Bowen, Shaliese, Evelyn, and Rachel celebrated birthdays and Jeremy & Karissa were married 15 years ago tomorrow. Shaliese and Mike blessed Brooklyn Emmy on March 16th. We hope everyone is happy and healthy,

Elder and Sister McKinney

It Has Been Hot!!!!

We held six temple preparation lessons, in our home, in the evening, to prepare Sister Mehl for her endowment on Feb 1st. Then we were lucky enough to participate in her endowment session. She came through the door to the Celestial Room smiling. We really enjoyed our time at the Curitiba Temple. We shared a bus with Guarapuava this trip.  We also were able to purchase Preach My Gospel manuals for all the youth that participate in the class on Sundays after our regular meetings. We also purchased more scriptures for new members and Temple magazines to help us motivate them to keep progressing. The distribution center is a very busy place during our temple trips.

Caloroso - Calor - Quente   These words were repeated by everyone we saw for weeks as we all sweltered together. We were feeling exceptionally hot and did not remember it being so last year. We were invited to Mehls for dinner on a Wednesday evening and in talking to them they agreed that this has been an exceptionally hot year. The first thing the missionaries ask for when they walk in our door is water.

We took a trip to see the chácara of a friend of a friend to try and find a place to hold our district Youth Conference since our district presidency did not have time to do so and was way too late in planning to get any of the known good ones in Guarapuava. This farm had some small homes for rent but the presidency decided to have our youth from ‘out of town’ come to Guarapuava and stay in the homes of the members there. Then during the day they will meet in the branch building for activities. They had even considered renting hotel rooms but decided against it. Youth Conference will be during Carnival here in Brasil.

I had a real misconception of what a Chácara was. I had been told it could mean it was a small shack.  I just didn’t equate that concept with it being a farm of one size or another since everyone was always going away for the weekend to their chácara in the interior. The pictures remind me of the old Mutual Dell. We enjoyed our visit having never been previously invited to visit one. We enjoyed some very good conversation with our hosts who are really intelligent people and gave us a ride on the way to and from the farm since we are always without transportation. These owners are really special people who run a business in town and have a couple keep up the farm for them.  Then, they take clients for classes or “get aways” on the farm where it is quiet and peaceful.

We have had three more baptisms since we last wrote. Elder McKinney presides, then we supply music and the printed programs, fluffy white towels, and the washing up of baptismal clothing for each of the baptismal services. We have also had some really musically talented Elders in the area and have had several special musical numbers during this transfer. 

We had an Elder’s Quintet singing parts to “Lead Kindly Light” in sacrament meeting last Sunday because we knew that a couple of the good voices would be transferred the next day. It is a rare opportunity for the members to hear the song using harmony. I still don’t feel like I have one member that can lead on the beat for a whole song. They have learned the hand motion from the back of the hymn book but don’t understand that the beats begin again for each new measure.  I really despaired when one of the most musically talented missionaries told me he had just taught people to stand in front and write their name in cursive because it did not really matter anyway.

Elder Hogge held 2 district meetings here in Prudentópolis on Tuesdays: 28 January & Feb 4^th. That means 6 elders for lunch since Tuesdays are our day to serve the Elders lunch. Problems: (1) we don’t have enough chairs for 8 to sit (2) we only have silverware for 6 (3) it is hard for me to prepare the meal while I am in district meeting – This is an interesting problem because even preparing or pre-preparing takes me a lot longer here because of the lack of equipment and the juggling of stovetop or oven to serve things hot.  We got away with serving watermelon for dessert several times since it can be pre-cubed and cooled in the fridge.

Zone Meeting - There are even more Elders on my left but I couldn't get a clear shot. 

We have also had 2 zone meetings since our last post. Feb 11^th was the last zone meeting with Elder Long as our zone leader since he is headed home. We knew that several others would be transferred and not be seen again. Elder and Sister Davis really did a great service for the 6 Elders that now live in the apartment they found.  There are 5 sisters in Bonsucesso . The two zone leaders also serve as trainers and so there are 4 Elders in Guarapuava branch. With the 2 Elders from Irati and the 6 of us in Prudentópolis, we have a pretty big zone right now.  President Fernandes held a special priesthood meeting for all the priesthood holders in the district telling them he wants Guarapuava to be a stake before he leaves and he is sending the missionaries to make it happen.  We were excited to have an attendance of 72 people in our branch last Sunday.

School has started up again so Seminary is also beginning again. This time our schedule is not as easy.  Most of the kids want to meet either on Saturday or Sunday to report their home study for the week but we have two interested in Tuesday – Friday evenings after work from 7-8 p.m. So, there will be lots of seminary days to serve the 16 students here.  We’ll have to see how that works out.

Brother Oishi has become interested in being trained as a family history consultant, knowing that we will not be here for long. We have set aside time on Friday mornings to meet at the church and use the computer to help him learn what is available for the members here.  He and Elder McKinney are determined to get Home Teaching going and have set out as companions to visit everyone until the priesthood holders here can be motivated to split up the work.

Best News ever:  Brooklyn Emmy Sermon was born on February 4^th. We are so grateful that mom and our newest grandbaby are healthy. Now we just pray for them to get sleep. Not long after, we also heard we would be having a Brady granddaughter in July.  We hope both mothers are feeling better.

Prudentópolis Distrito - Jan & Fev 2014
Our bus leaves at 6:15 a.m. so we are always waiting at the gate for someone to let us into Zone Meeting in Guarapuava!

February 2014 – Prudentopolis District

Ëlder John L McKinney & Irmã Jan McKinney

Ëlder Dayslan Rodrigues da Silva & Ëlder Ian James Forsyth stayed

Elder Cesar & Ëlder Jason Hogge  were transferred

New this week:  Ëlder Jonah Lavar Skousen & Ëlder Mauicio dos Santos Rocha

In Irati: Ëlder Paulo Victor Reboucas Cavalcante & Elder Chase (who was transferred)  New this week: Ëlder Skyler Young

This cat always looked like it owned the farm.

New Year New Chuveiro

Before I get into the story of the new shower I should report on our latest baptisms. The photo on the right here shows a member group with Adenilson, who was baptized on Saturday the 11th and confirmed on Sunday the 12th. Adenilson is the one with the Book of Mormon and Elder da Silva on his right is the Elder who taught and baptized him. (His first in the Mission, he has been out a few weeks now).

Adenilson is the brother of our Relief Society President and has moved to Prudentopolis recently. He met the Elders on the street one day and told them he was ready to be baptized. upon talking with him they found that he had attended church with his sister several times before even Sister McKinney and I arrived and had been taught by the Elders at the time. The Elders re-taught him the lessons and he was baptized the same week.

On the left is Adenilson and the young man (Cesar) who was baptized the same day with the four Elders serving here. Cesar was baptized by Elder Cesar (not his real name) and is the brother of one of the young women who was baptized at the end of the year. An explanation of Elder Cesar's name is probably in order. Cesar is in fact one of his names but not his surname. In our zone, we have Elder Silva (zone leader and Elder da Silva who is in our district. There are other Elder Silvas in the mission and each has a different variation of the name. There is Elder Silva, da Silva, F. Silva etc. Well Elder Cesar is also Elder Silva but decided to use one of his given names rather than be thrown in with all the other Silvas. Silva in Brazil is something like Smith multiplied by one or 2 thousand.

Shower:

Now to my shower (chuveiro) story. A shower in Brazil is in reality water dripping out of the wall through a heating coil. The shower shown here is the same as the one we had in both bathrooms. The one in the master bath burned out so I proceeded to replace it. In doing so I had to see the wiring 

scheme so I pulled the wires of the one in the guest bath. You can see the wires I have pulled form the wall. You may think it is not a good idea to have electrical connection in the shower like this and I won't argue with you there. So now I was ready to install our new shower head in the master bath.

You can see that the new one is much sleeker in design than the old one but the picture on the right is not yet complete. You can see the coils that heat the water and it is ready now to receive the tank and shower head. The coils you see will be encased in a tank where the water will collect to be heated. There is a closer view of the coils below.

I should tell you that I put this thing on 5 times to get it right. The first time I got the mount wrong, the second time I noticed it wasn't heating the water and I had to remove a gasket from the wall mount. I swear the instructions said nothing of a pressure reducing gasket, the third time the heating coil came unplugged as I was putting on the last piece, the fourth because the shower was not level and the fifth was not the charm because it still doesn't heat as well as our old one but I am leaving it as is because I think it is just not as good a unit. But finally you get to see the finished product. If you think it looks a little like the starship enterprise, sister McKinney and I agree with you.

Side view of the Enterprise

The underbelly of the Enterprise

2013 Feliz Natal!

To wrap up 2013 I wanted to document some of our end of the year activities and add some odds and ends that have not fit in previous blogs. 

Presidente and Sister Mazzagardi surrounded by half of the Brazil Curitiba South Mission.
We are the ones that live farthest away! 

Our white Christmas began when we had a baptism for Elisiane e Franciele on the 21^st of December. They are two beautiful young women. Daniel was grateful to be able to perform the baptism.

Prudentópolis members and friends - 21 December 2013 baptism! That's a lot of white shirts.

Our Christmas choir and scripture reading was very well received. President Elias and Sister Mehl were our readers for the scriptures in Luke and Matthew about the birth of our Savior, his early trip to the temple, and the visit of the shepherds and later the wise men. The concluding remarks by Elder McKinney about the signs spoken of in the scriptures leading the wise men to know where and when to look for Christ and how that ties in with our ability and obligation to know the signs of our times in preparing for the second coming, were spoken in a room where you could hear a pin drop.

Of course that was not the end of the day for President McKinney as there were still interviews, tithing settlement etc. When we finally did arrive at home, we took a deep breath, and as we rested for a minute, we realized that we had a brand new year coming and that there was one last opportune 5^th Sunday to use for teaching everyone together.  So, we started preparing again.

I was looking for stores that celebrated the true meaning of Christmas. There were a few nativity scenes.

Meanwhile, since we had a mid-transfer, transfer of Elders, we had 4 Elders here just in time for Christmas. We had them all to dinner for Christmas Eve, and then the two new Elders came back on Christmas day to making phone calls to their families. That was an experience. The Brazilian Elder really knew how to get around on the internet as he talked to different branches of his family. 

We chose to make hamburgers, baked fries, cubed watermelon
and chocolate ribbon pie to celebrate Christmas Eve with all
four Elders serving in our branch. Two are in their first transfer.

We were very fortunate to speak with all of our children and grandchildren either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We even got to watch James’ children get up and open gifts.  We were able to get the inside story on how James and Chelsea made the kitchen set for the younger girls.

We hired a taxi one day to visit all the members in the farthest areas of our branch. We chose to take a plate of cookies or zucchini bread and wish them Happy Holidays. Most seemed quite surprised, others were teary eyed, and all grateful. Since many of our members live in part member homes, it gives us a chance to visit with other family members and learn about them.

Toys in downtown park.

We have a neighbor down the street that is an older woman with an extended family of 8 children and many grands and greats.  She has always been interested in me and why I do not communicate as well as she would like.  She invited us over to see her beautiful Christmas tree and showed us her garden.  She made me feel right at home. She was growing corn, squash, beans, etc. and had grape vines growing across the eves of the house. Her Christmas tree was a young araucária from her back yard and decorated with beads, balls, and tinsel with a beautiful nativity scene below.  One son and one daughter dropped by while we were there.  The son had co-written a book about Prudentópolis and another about Irati (Elder McKinney purchased one!)

Local soccer quadra - there are a lot of McKinney's that would like to play here

This is looking from our quadra into the patio at the branch.

The 5^th Sunday presentation, translated from the December 2013 Ensign (not in the Liahona in either language) Making a Living, Making a Life By Elder Lynn G. Robbins Of the Seventy, was given to all the adults and youth present. Our Elder’s Quorum President was very excited about President McKinney sharing the concepts of making the world a better place with our service while making a livelihood here on earth. He used examples from different motivations in the work place and their results. Hopefully the youth will listen and understand while they still have time to prepare to care for a family of their own. 

I use the folder on the left to teach music in primary. This is their plastic
sleeves.  All of the paper here is 8.5 x 12 (not 11).  The yellow folder is called
a "pasta de plástica" Note the two punch set up. Behind is the plastic box I
use to keep things dry when we are walking in the rain.

The following week we prepared lesson manuals, yearly schedules, and packets for the teachers in all the organizations. Then, just after New Year’s Day, we received two Christmas Cards.

Our friend, BenHur, at the local post office!

We spent a pleasant lunch with the Mehls on Sunday. They are still waiting for the mission call. It seems to have been delayed by the holidays and we hope it will arrive this week. Meanwhile this is the listing in the church directory:

Missionários  Designados - Prudentópolis Branch de Guarapuava

Ëlder Cesar Martines da Silva

Ëlder Cristobal Ignacio Matamala Henriquez

Ëlder Dayslan Rodrigues da Silva

Irmã Jan McKinney

Ëlder Jason Hogge

Ëlder John McKinney

This clock shop is where I replaced my batteries for my watch and Elder McKinney bought a new watch. 

Typical door knob.
This is on our front doorl

Note: the toilet has no water tank. The toilet paper holder is
unique.

Bathroom door knob.

armário de roupas or clothes closet -
there is nothing attached to the
wall or built into the wall

This is an old and new water tank. This is how we get water pressure
on our homes here. That is why the toilet doesn't have a tank.