Day after Christmas

December 26  Friday

What a beautiful morning!  The sun is shining and nowhere particular to rush off to.  We had fruit
salad and rolls for breakfast - good left overs from yesterday's dinner.  We all did some reading together - Book of Mormon in Portuguese.  David says the first part of learning the language is to hear it and say it, even if you don't understand any of the words.  Even if some of the words look like their English counterpart, they are not pronounced the same.  Take the word 'diary.'  In Portuguese it is spelled diario - means the same but is pronounced 'gee-ahr-ee-o' (accent on the ahr).


The Mission President's wife asked D&A to check the missionaries apartment for cleanliness, so they walked there to do that.  We studied, caught up on the blog a bit, and recuperated from the last week's activities.  D&A stopped at a few shops and found some good after-Christmas sales on some nativity sets Ann had recently been looking at. 

We all decided to walk to town to see what we could find.  We found that the nativity sets of interest were sold, so we went window shopping to see if anything would catch our eye.  Merl and I came home with gaucho coats - and a gaucho hat for Merl.  I would never have guessed that!

 There was a little parade that went down the street - not sure what or why. While we were walking, a pounding rain started. 




We heard that Papai Noel was back in his house in the park, so we ran through the rain to go see him.  He just radiates Christmas and love with his sparkling eyes and welcoming smile.  David found out that he is from a long line of ancestors here in the area. 

When we arrived home, our new washing machine was delivered.  Excitement!  We each washed a load of whites, and walked back up the hill (in the rain) to buy more laundry detergent and cleaning supplies for the Elders.  Transfers are this week, and they need/want to have things ready to welcome three new Elders (and say good-bye to three). 

After a simple dinner, we made a batch of popcorn and watched the short church videos on the life of Christ until we were asleep on the couch.  Must be time for bed!