August Ended,

 

Put these two views together to see just a bit of the scope of the Boston skyline

We ended up with the most perfect weather, and despite short notice had Elder and Sister Manderino and Elser and Sister Johnson join us. After the two-hour tour we ate there at Cambridgeside which boasts about its variety of high-class eateries. Well, mostly it's a food court but with unusual choices so it took everyone a while to choose food. We shared a "Chipwich" which was sort of a turkey BLT with avocado on very oily focaccia. There was a pasta-to-go place, a "Neapolitan-ish" pizza spot (That's on the sign), sushi, and Australian ice cream - Sister Manderino is always on the lookout for ice cream so we had to try it - they have a machine where you pick your fruit  and they put it in the machine and it comes out flavored ice cream to your custom preference. We had raspberry mango with dark chocolate drizzle, and ate it outside where it wasn't so over-air-conditioned. Elder Manderino says this has been such an unusually cool August he is worried they will have to deal with a bad winter. They don't even have covered parking.

Auto-sufficiencia class almost got cut to 15-20 minutes due to baptism, then the baptism canceled, yet for many various reasons we ended up with only one student! We did learn a lot about Marcos and the challenges many of these Brazilians face. He hopes to move to Utah in a few months, though we aren't entirely sure why. We talked about his desire to buy a house and the options for paying it off faster, etc. So I am sending bits of the lesson out on our WhatsApp group every day to help (hopefully) the group not be too far behind - only two lessons left and I'm sure at least one of these weeks will be a baptism at the same time. It's too bad it is so difficult for immigrants to work the jobs they had before. 

Our "aula bem grande"!
This is the room next to stake offices, used by the Chinese missionaries for English lessons before their Sunday mtgs, (the Portuguese group has theirs in our RS room on Saturday night).

The last several times we went to Tales' and Mary's for their Sunday afternoon/evening gathering, there were no young missionaries, yet when we got there with them yesterday, they asked if it was our first time! seems like they've been there all the weeks we haven't. I took a series of photos of one moment to remember it by. (I should take a photo of the food! kibis and pao de queijo and some fish sticks and a fancy dessert with lots of coconut.  - We've been having videos for the lesson but it did bring about a really spiritual discussion (from what I could understand....) and some teasing and some strong opinions on which futbol team we should be rooting for....  

Tales says I should use all parmesan for the pao de queijo for it to be best. I actually am tempted to see if the Queijo Meia Cura listed on the label recipe would be available at the Italian store up the street with 50 varieties, but probably they would have the other type of "half-cured' - manchego- which is made of sheep's milk instead of cow. It doesn't really sound much like parm...

It was also a good chance to talk to Soraia about how their RS presidency is going - I have been thinking to send Cris some more information from stake trainings we did in the past in hopes of helping her not burn out.

I was able to pass along a box of clothes that hopefully will include something Otacilia will like and will fit. (They find that the thrift stores here have mostly very large sizes, at least for skirts/dresses.) 

We've had several canceled appointments, as usual. It' a bit frustrating.

Re-reading Elder Holland's talk on being "As a Little Child", he mentions "they laugh so delightfully" - which definitely brings Otacilio to mind, he really laughs and can lift everyone's spirits and get them smiling in a second. Despite the difficulties he is dealing with right now he is usually smiling and often laughing. He can quote many scriptures from the bible and loves the Lord.

We've been sending out quotes and scriptures to those we can't get in to visit and bits of the self-reliance lesson to those who didn't come. Who knows if any of it does any good.

Since we don't plan to climb the Bunker Hill monument, I'm including a view from it that one of the elders posted. We do drive past it a lot. 

Still waiting to hear back on setting up visits for several people. Wrote more things up for Cris and RS leadership with link to handbook and resources online, things that were often asked in our RS visits in the stake, etc.  about RS councils. She seemed positive about my info on delegating and options for small callings, etc.

We headed off to Maverick in hopes that an elevator would be fixed and working at the Sumner bldg, especially since the young missionaries had their interviews today so no help there. It turned out everything was locked and there was a sign saying closed all this week! So we went to lunch instead. (They probably let everyone know last week but we were in zone conference)  First we checked out the "Tea on the Waterfront" that has a sign at the Sumner bldg corner, but it was really just tea and a few pastries - and some unusual teas, not just bubble tea but fruit with "cheese foam" on it). And it was in conjunction with an "international student center" that seems to be in the midst of apartments, not a school. But there was a wonderful view of the water and it was fun to recognize buildings from our boat tour, and gorgeous weather. 

 

We also passed a sign with a map of the Boston Harborwalk - which I learned is 43 miles of publicly accessible waterfront, though not always contiguous

We looked online and found loads of places in walking distance We ended up at one we pass every time but the name hadn't sounded appealing - Dirty Water Dough Co., named because the Charles River used to be very polluted and they would get what clean water they could and stretch it by adding beer. 

We're not huge fans of thin crust but it was quite good. 

Sandra needed to find a new room to rent and is going to Peabody - we passed through on the long drive way up to Richardson's ice cream, so not closer to church, that's for sure. It's tough when the branch is geographically huge and many don't even have cars.

We're not sure how much we can do in the month left, but at least we are improving a bit on having companion council, even if its now mostly about what to do when we get back to Missouri. Guess we're going to jump in and join the big beach clambake/lobster beach party the Arlington ward invites our branch to join. Its quite a drive plus hefty parking fee so that slowed some down I think. They've been pushing very hard to make sure the Brazilians know they actually have to plan to eat at the stated time. And Soraia and Teodoro now have a date for the temple! I tried to set up another baptism trip to see if we could get some people back before we left but the semi-annual closing is coming up and then general conference weekend, so no go.

Chocolate croissants for breakfast sounded good so I found myself looking up Mike's pastry and cost of DoorDash, etc. (while eating my oatmeal). In the process I discovered that Assembly Row, which I had run across references to, is actually where we go inspect the sisters' apartment at the Miscela Bldg where we only recently found free parking nearby, and is also the place we got our internet set up but coming from the other direction it didn't look at all the same - and we could have parked free in one of six garages instead of cruising about for a long time waiting for someone to leave a spot. It is an interesting site, very pretty and lots of "environmentally correct" features, built on remediated industrial site once housing a Ford assembly plant. And the "outpost" Mike's Pastry is only a block away from the apartment we inspect so maybe next time a minor field trip is in order, it is the most famous bakery for tourists to get cannoli. If we were here for 18 or 23 months I might have at least part of the Boston area figured out! Then again, I could definitely not get to Assembly Row without GPS....

We can now get to church, Otacilio's, Market Basket, Tales', Maverick Landing, and a couple of places in Revere on our own.

The narrator, who did a great job, and the rail bridge lifted up

Still struggling to get visits scheduled, Sandra is moving to a room in Peabody which is clear up by Salem! but she hasn't told us when yet (we offered to help). We are trying to find out if she ever got the missionary follow-up lessons or any of the covenant Path, looks like that's a no. I'm going to go over the Family Name Assist Training the Sister Wilcox sent and see if I can find a way to use it to help here. If you aren't familiar with it, it's an easy way that the bishop can help a new member get a family name card printed to take to the temple right at the recommend interview so they are all set to do proxy baptism for a relative. (Then they are no longer the only member in their family)

There's the big concrete weight on the left

Some notes from the MBM drive about "Flow", (we hear it mentioned a lot) which is what they call the way they work with people as they meet on the street - "Whatever your approach, refer quickly and simply to the Restoration of the gospel, because this is our unique message to the world" ("the vision is more finding and more dropping" - in other words, find lots and drop those who don't keep commitments or progress and work with those that do) Set expectations - frequent further contacts, lessons, etc. "Goal is: they simply understand the restoration and its relevance to them." Don't overwhelm with too many invitations/commitments, If possible show them through the church bldg within two days- Who else can they bring to church to help them feel more comfortable - Tie their need to the Atonement, the restoration, and baptism. *What I want to know are the best questions to use to find the need*

In the lock on return, with a boat fore and another aft, just fit, they had to grab ropes and keep tight, but fortunately no long wait this time.

No Friday morning zoom, we still have trouble with the schedule! Apparently, at least right now, the first Friday is MLC (mission leadership council, I'm pretty sure) instead. But we are looking forward to an extended 1st Sunday devotional with a top church historian (was Pres. R's MTC comp and in his mission)