I have been helping a returned missionary from the Cuiabá mission, who is trying to get a visa to study in the US for a year or two. But we went to the Consulate this week and he was turned down again. I had President Reber, who the young man will stay with in the US, write and notarize a letter stating his intention of making sure that the missionary has funds, etc. to remain in the US. But I wasn't allowed into the Consulate with him and when they said he would be turned down because of a lack of funds, he told them about the letter. The interviewer said, "I don't need to see it, you need a source here in Brazil." So, that was a sad thing, but the young man might try again or try and get into Canada and then try for the US after that.
On a happier note, we went to the temple three times this week. The first time was our normal temple day, Wednesday right after work. It was very nice and the session was very small. The second time was our normal "couples" temple night, the first Friday of every month. Then on Saturday we were invited to go with the Sondereggers to the Campinas temple - about an hour and a half from São Paulo. It was a pleasant trip there and back, and the temple experience and afterward were just wonderful. We were meeting friends of the Sondereggers there, since they will be leaving to go home in just a couple weeks - we will miss them a lot! Anyway, the first couple was the Mazagardis - he is the son of the former area president, who we met in Cuiabá when we served there. Elder Mazagardi also spoke in Conference a couple years ago, I think (I mean, I know he spoke but I'm not sure exactly when!), he's super guy. Anyway, his son, who we just met in Campinas, has been called to preside over the Vitória mission here in Brazil. His wife has an amazing story, but I'll let Mom tell it - both because she knows it better, and because it would make me cry! (New Blog Entry)
The other couple we met in Campinas is an older couple - he was baptized in 1960! He's been a mission president and temple president here in Brazil. They invited us to come stay with them sometime, they live about midway between São Paulo and Campinas, so we might take them up on it. I'm trying to convince Mom into planning out our remaining 11 months here (I know, I know...), so that we don't miss out on doing things or seeing things that we would like.
OK, third event this week - Cristina, one of the employees in the travel department where we are assigned, quit this week! It was a huge blow, and I don't know if anyone expected it. She had talked about it a little when her mom was ill, but then her Mom passed away (we went to the funeral) and we thought that she was OK with things now. But, her husband travels for work and they have a 13-year-old and 16-year-old daughter, and I think she's felt the pressure of being there for them. So, we are now short an employee in our area and they are going to hire another person soon - this is from our boss's boss (our boss is on vacation!). So, life goes on and things keep changing.
I went and passed my physical and psychological exams this week to get my Brazilian Driver's License! It was pretty fun - part of the psychological exam was drawing consecutive little short lines one after the other across the page, then another row below, etc. Another was matching up symbols - you had three symbols at the top of the page and then probably over two hundred symbols on the page. The object was to cross out all the symbols that matched the ones above. They said to just do as many as you could in the time allotted. So, you know me and test taking - I realized that I could do a lot more by looking for one symbol at a time on the page and not comparing all three (that takes too long to process). So, I zoomed through one, then the next, and the final one and finished the whole page! Go me...
We still don't have our old-person bus passes that were supposed to come a month ago, so I don't know how long the driver's license is going to take. 😁😀
Here are a few pictures from our adventures:
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| Mazzagardis in the middle, Barbors on the right, Sondereggers in between them. The four on the left are other friends of theirs. |
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| Some of the Campinas Temple pictures I took. |
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| I almost forgot our "food" experience, we went to a Churrascaria after the temple... Good! |
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| This is a tree right outside our office, there were at least 10 parrots in it one day so I tried to get them, sorry the color isn't that great. They are called "Maritaka", so remember it because they are always "Talking" - especially when it's stormy. |
Love you all,
The Church is true,
Dad and Mom
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