Up early to go to the District Missionary meeting. The District consists of the four elders here in Canela (Piccini, Vargus, Lagos, Schiavonni) and two from SFP (Busquete, Spardari) - wonderful, fun, hard-working elders who are all baptizing every week. Before the lesson, Elder Vargas (District Leader) wrote the word CONFIRMA vertically on the chalkboard. Then he asked another elder to write a word in English next to each letter as fast as he could. The challenge progressed to two elders having the same long word and being given two different languages. They would race to see who could complete their list first. It was a fun exercise in testing their new language skills. The lesson taught by Elder Spardari was on the importance of taking every opportunity to find and teach the people here (quantity -quantidade). The next thing is to make sure that the lessons and teachings are of quality (qualidade). What constitutes both of these were practiced through role playing. Fun to participate in.
After the meeting, we went on splits. . . David and
Merl going home, Ann and I going to town.
Ann and I went to the central park with all the little Natal (Christmas)
shops looking for local treasures. We
both purchased a small Pinháo wreath made by the shop keeper, Possidio
Bresolin. The Pinháo tree is “sacred”
here; you can’t cut them down for any reason.
The placement and design of the Curitba temple had to be modified to be
built next to the tree. The fruit of
this tree is like a big round pine cone with lots of petals (seed pods). Pods that don't fully develop are softened, and strung on a string to look like a wreath. 
I also purchased a Christmas dish towel from a local
artisan which I know will not be used as a dish towel. Again, the people here are so warm and
welcoming, that visiting their little shops is a delightful experience. The highlight of the morning was meeting Papai
Nöel (Santa Clause). I am convinced he
is the real Santa Clause – never seen one better. The last stop was to the artisan shop in the
tourist information center. We each
purchased a miniature wooden nativity for our Christmas tree. Back home for lunch, computer time, and naps
(for the men) in preparation of going to Gramado for the Branch Feliz Natal
party. This time we raced to the bus
that was pulling out – just barely made it!
The buses run about every 20 minutes.
After arriving at the church, I practiced the Twelve
Days of Relief Society song with the sisters of the Branch, and then we went
upstairs to the party. A couple of
sisters wanted to sing a Christmas song while dinner was being set up and asked
me to play for them. By the time we finished
the song, several members had surrounded the piano to join in. There seems to be a love of music here, and
being able to play for them is a blessing to me and them. Dinner was a pot-luck buffet of traditional
Brazilian foods that was very tasty and filling. During the program and throughout the
evening, people were called up to pick a piece of paper out of a pot. The paper had a gift named on it. Some were jokes and some were actual
gifts. Ann got “One container of sorvete
– empty” and I got “One honey cake.”
David received a 2015 calendar, and Merl got a Panettone. It was
a fun activity with much laughter and oohs and aahs – depending on the
gift. 
The sisters sang their song which
solicited unexpected audience participation and laughter. It was great!
A missionary played 'Joy to the World' on his saxophone, and a
Primaria (Primary) 2014 video was shown. Pictures of the children’s activities for the
year and video of individual children expressing “what Christmas means to me”
were on the video. Then the beautiful
Brazilian children – of all colors and races – sang ‘Picture a Christmas.’ Sorvete was served for dessert, and then
everyone cleaned up. 
We decided to take the 11:00 pm bus back to Canela so we could walk the city streets and see the Christmas décor all lit up. The city draws many tourists to share in the beauty. We arrived back home just before midnight. These long days and nights are keeping us busy!
No comments:
Post a Comment