Hunker Down

One of the bridges near Marco Zero is prepared for Carneval. Apparently these get absolutely filled with people. Parties have been erupting in various places for a while and we are told it will continue for a couple of weeks. These bridges also have colorful signage at vantage points along the rails, I think they are selfie spots.

Officially Carneval is March 1-5 but we keep hearing that overall it runs about three weeks around Recife. Various areas of the mission have different instructions, those in the big Carneval centers stay home, our area works 8:30-1:30 and then stay home, some will quit by 5:30, and out in the interior they can work as normal. The mission arranged for those interested to buy the book "Saints" to read during their time indoors. Guess who got to figure out who had ordered them, put names on them, organize them with mail and materials for each area and package up to get to the missionaries? I'm really not sure how I'll do some of these things without Sister Bell!

On Sunday we were invited to dinner with the Rufino's, parents of our ward's bishop. He is an engineer and she is an attorney, mostly retired, who had some interesting stories to tell about helping acquire properties for the church. The Recife Temple property was owned by three entities with totally different legalities -- public or government, private, military (or something like that, the translating was tough)..... Then there was moving a road, adding fill and draining water and putting in pilings for a good foundation......

Their apartment building was built at least forty years ago but not finished. Currently there is work going on to finish parts of it. It was built and sold as an ocean view place but at least four more tall buildings have since been built towards the water so now there is just a small space between them where you can still see the ocean a little. As is common, it was a short walk there but a long drive back due to the one-way roads and all the angles and curves. We had a beautiful and delicious meal though what I thought was a potato casserole was noodles (big and mostly flat but called macaroni). Sister Rufino explained that pudin is NOT flan, she doesn't like flan at all, but when she described all the steps to making pudin, it sure did sound like flan. It does have a less dense texture. And things are served not only in dishes sized to the food but utensils - a sweet rich dessert is served in a little dish with a tiny spoon. I kind of like it. That explains why we have some various small and very small forks.

Thursday was our turn to attend a mission conference meeting.

One zone of the three or four attending

The Housemans gave wonderful counsel and then Elder Aidukitis spoke. He had some especially good suggestions that he had them role play about introducing investigators to members of the ward and telling them good things about each other. He stayed a bit long and they really had to push on the gas to get him to the airport. Meanwhile we had come in very early to make sure all went well as the missionaries arrived in busloads and that all their mail and materials got to them. 

After lunch we went back yet again to the internet provider and finally got it worked out! We can connect in our own apartment now. I don't know how people work in that place, so much noise. Open to the mall and by the outside opening, all tile and echoes, people all over being loud and TV going on in case any kids are waiting or to advertise their TV service. The entire mall closes for Carneval for about five days. Other malls too, except the food courts and movie theaters.

Thursday evening was an adventure. The bishop announced Sunday that this week we would start the English Connect class. We don't actually have copies of the printed manuals or anything but did what we could to prepare. The word hadn't gotten out well so we had a few come and had fun doing some introduction of the course and singing the alphabet song. One sister said it had been very difficult to get there through the blocked roads (They have block parties all over, some moving and some settled).  President Linares, who is in the stake presidency and works as the self-reliance person, decided we would be better off starting everything in two weeks, after Carneval, so we asked those who came to help spread the word. I think we are back to having both levels on the same night with me teaching level two, which they say is done all in English though I doubt anyone coming can understand all the introductory stuff in English and I can't say it all in Portuguese. This will probably be a google translate job.

There was a colorful banner sign at the corner of the little road in front of our building and the street the church/office bldg is on. It said the street would be partially closed for several days. They blocked it off to all but local traffic and today there was another gated section, three porta-potties, and very loud microphone testing and such going on. By the time we get home the party will probably be going strong and keep going all night. Maybe we will test the streaming movie capabilities of our new internet. Sister Chambers said she would just leave her hearing aids out tonight.

The office missionaries have a different schedule, maybe we won't have the extra free time after all - it depends on what is going on nearby and what we need to get done. We don't really have to worry about traffic to get home. I will be glad when I have my phone to take photos with, you will start to see a lot more about where we are in about three or four weeks.