Unexpectedly Brasil-like

Driving is scarily similar to Recife, very tight and lots of one-way streets and some that look and feel like one-way until you see cars coming the other direction. I guess both cities started as lots of tiny villages and towns that didn't need parking for a million cars or room for garbage trucks. I read somewhere that in the last few years 300.000 cars were added to the area total.

Things are slow for missionary work because we are still working to get information, although we do have a few addresses and phone numbers. Sunday wasn't as helpful as it might have been since it was Easter and only one meeting with everyone wanting to get home. 

We had more exciting times dealing with traffic and roads - and parking!! We actually spent well over 40 minutes looking for a place to park for a Sunday evening gathering (the elders somehow got one right in front) but we learned that some of the places that look like it's not allowed are OK, at least on Sunday. 

We thought we were just invited for dinner but it was a sort of Family Home Evening for newer members and others, including two sets of missionaries and us. After a lot of joking around and a good lesson we had little cochinas and sandwiches and guarana. 

Monday we considered going to watch the Boston Marathon but it was going to be over an hour to get there with the metro (the "T") and either bus or car to metro. We gave it up and found out later that one senior couple who went where we had looked at going had spent over three hours on "the T" so we were glad we opted to walk the neighborhood instead. We checked out the Merengue Market and bought some buns and a great avocado, saw some other similar stores and little restaurants - we went in one to say hello and ask about pupusas, the lady was quite friendly and gave us a menu to take - they deliver. 

Area behind our apartment complex, notice the lines in grass and read the explanation below -

Almost accidentally we found that Zone conference Wednesday was not in the usual place but farther away to be central to two zones meeting together. We left extra early but despite adding about 20 minutes to the google maps rush hour estimate, we were on the late side. We made it just in time for the requisite group photo though. We met some of the other seniors and learned that the food is a lot like in Brasil - order a pile of pizzas - although this time there was a salad and some fruit and "juice" drinks. I rustled through the kitchen until I found a cup for water. There was no break-out session for seniors this time but we did learn that the young missionaries have a pretty great app for what used to be a paper "area book" and they can do all sorts of filters and searches, like who stopped lessons because they were too busy and might now be open to learning. I wish there was an app for seniors that could track people we work with and access the ward/branch roster!

We joined the elders for a lesson with Otacilio and the next day with Daiane, both very friendly. The stairs up to Oticilio's are a bit scary for us old folks, and he fed us vitamina and marias. Daiane had a very inspiring experience getting her patriarchal blessing - probably not mine to tell. It was getting quite foggy for our first night drive and as we are learning, the perennial parking problem reared its head but we went to the spot we'd found on Sunday as its the same neighborhood. During both visits (even though  I didn't understand it all and couldn't put much of a sentence together), I felt like I did have some questions or suggestions during the visit that were good, and I could take my turn reading scriptures fairly comfortably. It doesn't hurt that one of the elders has a very American accent so even though his Portuguese flows, mine has some better pronunciation :) 

Same window view shown in earlier post but in the evening before our first nighttime in-the-dark drive to a visit. At least it was to the same area we went before which is becoming slightly familiar - Everett

Had one of those "what am I doing here??" moments and knew I needed to study the scriptures more, opened them up and they fell open to Alma 7:23 (22) - " be humble, and be submissive...diligent... always returning thanks unto God" and "I have said these things (about Christ) that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God...

After a few postponements we met with Saymon (pronounced Simon) and the elders at the chapel. He brought pao de queijo and pasteles (these particular ones were large deep-fried flat turnovers). I couldn't understand as much of this one, partly because one of this pair of elders is a native Spanish speaker and his Portuguese is soft and slurred. Usually Americans are much easier for me to understand. We had planned to maybe go take a look at Boston Commons and get some tourist info but not only was it drizzly but the other elders asked if we could join them in a couple of lessons. So we went home to be ready and then both both lessons were no-shows. We did some more walking and discovered that the path near the creek area goes farther than we thought and has other historical information signs. Its especially well cared for and pretty where it goes behind a nice hotel before it ends at the intersection that is the entrance to Chelsea on one side and Revere on the other. Afternoon weather was gorgeous though windy.

Saturday April 26 was a ward baptism temple trip for new members. It was, as usual, quite a drive and in the rain. We decided to go a bit earlier and do a session, then we met up with the total of three people who came Marcio and wife plus a newer member Soraia. The temple is, of course, really beautiful, lots of Frank Lloyd Wright sort of stained glass and art deco touches. There's a really cool optical illusion from straight lines and color changes that makes one of the ceilings looked curved into a bit of a dome even though it is flat. Just like Durk keeps thinking the cars are full of Brazilians, I keep expecting people in places like the temple to be speaking Portuguese - or Spanish. There are just so many similarities to being in Recife. I had some names ready in case anyone needed them for baptisms and ended up being the one confirmed for four sisters and it was something I haven't done for a long time (usually the youth do that) and I had a spiritual reminder about the gift of the Holy Ghost and its inestimable value in my life. In the evening was a training meeting for Elders Quorum and I went along as navigator. It sounded like a good mtg. They came out after about on hour for pizza but then went back in! I thought it was intermission but apparently they wanted to regroup or conclude for just a few minutes. I was able to take a slice of cake home for us to have Sunday.

Sunday we went a bit early trying to meet people. Bro. Lazenby (high council visitor) who was a mission leader in Brazil the same time as Housemans were there and a family from Colombia who for some reason choose the Portuguese Branch instead of Spanish are among the new acquaintances. The wife spoke in mostly Portuguese but hubby's talk and son's prayer were Spanish. Another sister gave the last talk and I understood a lot, Durk said she was a native Spanish speaker so her Portuguese was very Spanish accented which apparently helps me understand. All those talks and still done on time. Including Durk and I having to stand and introduce ourselves and share a brief testimony - I "cheated" and wrote something out so I would make sense.

Here's what I hope I said: "Bom dia! Eu sou a Sister Merrell e estamos muito felizes por estar aqui. Moramos em Jefferson City, Missouri, e temos cinco filhos e cinco netos. (y Elder Merrell vai falar mais)

Sou grata pela oportunidade de servir aqui em Boston e conhecê-los.

Quero testificar que Deus vive e é nosso amoroso Pai Celestial. Sei que Ele e Jesus Cristo nos amam mais do que podemos compreender e que tudo o que fazem é para nos ajudar a retornar a Eles e encontrar alegria.

Amo o Livro de Mórmon e testifico que quanto mais o lermos, mais ele nos ajudará em nossa vida. – O Presidente Nelson disse:

“prometo que, ao estudarem o Livro de Mórmon em espírito de oração todos os dias, vocês tomarão melhores decisões — todos os dias. Prometo que, ao ponderarem sobre o que estudarem, as janelas do céu se abrirão e vocês receberão respostas para suas próprias perguntas e orientação para sua própria vida.”

Sei que estudar o Livro de Mórmon me ajudou a receber revelação e inspiração em minha vida e a aprender mais sobre meu Salvador.

Sei que o Presidente Nelson é um profeta vivo que guia a igreja sob a direção de Jesus Cristo. Sou grato pelas bênçãos de seu evangelho, incluindo as bênçãos do templo. Eu testifico que este é o evangelho restaurado de Jesus Cristo

Digo estas coisas em nome de Jesus Cristo. Amém."

Then I went in and played piano for Primary - an English-speaking member of the stake Primary presidency comes in to help because Primary needs it - about 14 children and they said this was a "calm" day!! pretty energetic bunch. A sister from the English ward who served in Brazil leads the music but she's 6 months pregnant so it might not be for all that much longer. Then I slipped into Relief Society (well, I had to go right across the front to find a seat) and at the end they sang Happy Birthday - Durk grins as he says he has no idea who told them....

We met for a bit with Marcio, the ward mission leader who is really good, then I played piano for the Spanish branch with their interesting music leader who I need to get a photo of! He was impressed that I followed him but it wasn't easy since I couldn't really see his arm conducting. I understood about the same amount of the Spanish as the earlier mtg.

Nearby roads are starting to get more familiar, like the exit where the hwy 93 sign has faded away and all you see is the outline but now we know - and where you turn left and have to go across many lanes to go off to the right pretty much immediately. 

Most of the houses in our area are like the one with the bay windows and siding. I've not had luck yet searching for types of houses and their time period. One day I will get some better pictures. I imagine the vinyl siding business really took off here when it was invented.

Monday we got up and headed out early for the trip to the mission office that had been postponed due to the Marathon. It was another crazy and long drive. We were able to get more information for senior missionaries including linking up to chat groups through FB messenger for the mission and a senior missionary group, and now for our zone. It was good to officially meet the Risenmays and have some time with them. They are full of energy and optimism. Sister Risenmay usually goes on interview days and joins trainings for the district so they told us that would be Tuesday instead of district meeting. By the time we did the drive home we felt like we had put in a full day's work! Apparently we come under the mission's rule of going to the temple only once a quarter unless you are taking new members to do baptisms (possibly also OK if taking for own endowments). 

It was supposed to be P-day so I had worked for quite some time through the weekend on a pick-up order for Monday to help fill in the gaps I'd been finding in ingredients and such, but suddenly WalMart decided to cancel the order. I tried to figure it out and save my list at least but we gave up and went and spent quite a long time doing the scavenger hunt through the store. My credit card went through fine (it had said that was the reason for canceling) so who knows. One good thing! the drive to WalMart didn't seem nearly as difficult or long as the first time so maybe we are getting used the traffic and roads a little bit. 

Google took us a new way to the church Tuesday and it was supposed to be more efficient in the heavy traffic but we aren't convinced since we had so many slowdowns and stops along the way and it just seemed more complicated. Coming home was so much faster. The training was interesting, we have Mandarin speaking sisters in the district - Sister Risenmay has been learning bits of all the languages in the mission so she can say a few things to all of the missionaries in their work language. (The MBM - Boston Mass Mission - has English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Haitian Creole) The best part of the morning was finally getting an actual ward list "members by household" and even getting some basic info on what families the missionaries know and see at church or no one knows. It seems Elders Esplin and Ballard have access to get info and print at the building. 

Just invite people to church! this has proven very effective, the missionaries go about inviting everyone, simply, hi there! want to come to church with us? sort of thing. 

Sister R told of a women who had moved here and felt very lacking in something and who had prayed much and one night she dreamed of a song from her childhood over and over. She got up and started scrolling on her phone and suddenly there is was, playing along with a message about the Boston temple. There was a phone number so she called and got referred to the mission and now has joined the church. They are finding this sort of thing happening all over now. At first they thought it was the Boston Mission having a great resurgence of interest and people having all sorts of impulses to come find us but at the mission leaders training they learned it was more widespread, like all over the country. Also we've learned that here they discourage wards having calendar to feed missionaries - the missionaries don't want or need it, they want to spend that prime visiting time out with people. 

We met a new Friend of elders Esplin/Ballard in the afternoon - it was very interesting. In their practices/role-plays, the missionaries pretending to be the learner are always very agreeable and positive and I thought that was unrealistic but this lovely young woman was just as interested and agreeable and positive. We met up with Marcio in the evening (we actually arrived early so while we waited I tried learning more about the electronic chapel piano - I think I'll try using the organ setting as the piano sounds so brassy) and he basically assigned us to visit some people he's worried about and to speak in church in two or three weeks about missionary work. Then we went to Otacilio's where we set up a date and time to take him to do baptisms at the temple - there was just one (Saturday) spot left in the next three weeks! We talked about prophets and encouraged him to read/listen to general conference talks. By the time we got home we felt like the mtg at the mission office was a least a week ago. I think this will feel like an 18-month mission even though it is six. By the way, for the Portuguese the area many of them live in is pronounced Evretche.

Wednesday has been mostly study and prep, trying to get responses from people we'd like to visit. We took a break out in the beautiful sunny breezy day to explore our apartment complex - finally we know how to get to the courtyard with BBQs and pool, and we think we figured out where our windows are from outside and below - boy, we are major explorers! With leaves bursting out all over, we won't see much through the trees anymore.

Since its the last day of the month I suppose I will go ahead and post, sorry if anyone is annoyed by the long, far-from-profound posts.