Passed our One-Monthaversary

These young men were following us to the mission office one morning......The tall one is Elder Price who now has about ten million details about visa getting in his head, the others are Elder Nunez and Elder Couto.

Sunday we attended a stake devotional for the English Connect program, which we will be teaching. We helped give a short 5-question assessment to find out if people would be in the first or second level. There was a really big turnout, we will just do our ward. I think we have about 7 level one and 6 level two. It is a six-month (90-minute class weekly) course and they are to practice with a partner ten hours a week! It can help them get better employment and other benefits. I was working with people from another ward whose teacher wasn't there, a few were really good - one women is wanting to become a doctor and probably already knows more English than course 1 or 2 and was glad to hear that she might know enough to get into the Pathways program. They plan to offer level 3 the next round. A few were young men who knew no English at all and I hope they come and stick with it.

Our first trip to the Recife Temple, it is beautiful and there's definitely something Brazilian about the decoration inside.

 We had to buy more water and they said there were different prices but that the water was the same. ???

I'll have to see if there's a way to get a photo of the other side with the stained glass, it is all along the curved wall of the Celestial Room and is absolutely gorgeous, leaves and fruits, etc.

Wednesday the Housemans took us with them to take the departing missionaries to the temple. It was really helpful because I never would have figured things out, up the stairs and around the corner....lots of doors. Definitely a cultural difference - many people getting up to go out for a drink of water or something. I did use headphones (Hegefonees) for English. We ate at the temple cafeteria and enjoyed it. They had salad (no dressing of course), rice, beans, mashed potatoes (cheesy, no gravy) and other things - and a delicious Pudin. We hear there is less in the evenings since culturally the main meal is midday. It's a pay-by-weight system.

We're no good at selfies, so this is a Friendsie.

 Sister Houseman took us along to Sam's where they buy shelves and study tables for the missionary apartments. It was quite a ride! Probably at least half an hour and all sorts of twists and turns and little streets through odd sad areas between big wide busy roads,thank goodness for GPS. Despite what Sam's in the US said, our membership is not good here. The selection is quite different and not as diverse, but we did find craisins, a peanut butter with only peanuts in it (we haven't tried it yet), anti-bacterial cleaning wipes and air freshener (yeah! the "lovely rivers" through town are basically open sewers). There were mushrooms in heavy plastic bags full of water. I assume water. I suppose I should have bought some, they would be like canned ones I guess. There was some Cheescake Factory cheesecake in the freezer section if you wanted to spend huge money for a small dessert.

Sister Houseman "herding cats" trying to get photos of the departing missionaries on the temple grounds.

We bought an electric pressure cooker at Sam's, not as fancy as my Instant Pot but as expensive. Here's the google translate version of the instruction book paragraph on cooking vegetables: "When you are cooking vegetables, it is best that they before the point of what passed, because then just drown them to get in ideal spot."  (Most of the time google translate is really helpful, the technical directions seemed quite good, but this one reminds me of some signs we saw in Okinawa.)

 

The view from the mission home, they are on the seventh floor, the river is tidal
and reverses direction of flow depending on the tide.

Louis the tech guy got my laptop set up to use when Sister Bell leaves with hers. There are only three church computers so many of us are using our own and we forgot to ask him about Outlook and still haven't figured out how to get me in to do the office emails and such -- but I can talk to both printers (they are named SisterEpson and BrotherEpson) (no comment about how SisterEpson is the moody one).

Sister Houseman and the executive secretary spent many hours working on transportation for a sister going back to an island off Africa (I think), it will take her about three days to get home. Sometimes they have to work out getting missionaries home to the Amazon where they fly, take a boat, take a bus to another boat, walk the rest of the way because there are no motor vehicles. The Manaus mission office has been helpful because they move people around there all the time and know the ins and outs - like get them a cabin because everyone on deck has a party all night. The mission has to make sure they have money to eat during the trip, etc.

Another misc. note, you can't just pay bills online or by sending a check, you go to a Loteria or Caixa (bank) and pay -- but they might say that particular bill has to be paid at some other one.
And no one wants to give change! they will give up a sale sometimes rather than make change. Even banks don't want to give small bills but you can't use big ones to buy small things. The other day it took four of us combining and trading to change a R20 note, which is all of about $7. An exciting brand-new development is some cash machines that will ask what bills you want and actually give you small ones.