December 24 - Christmas Eve\Morning came very early after such a wonderful night before. The Zone and District Missionary Conference in Gramado started at 9:00 a.m., so we were out the door by 8:15 to catch the bus to get to the church on time. It was another good meeting conducted by Elder Vargas continuing on the premise of quantity and quality. To enforce one of the ideas, he had previously hidden several pieces of chocolate candy in the classroom in very difficult locations (in ceiling light fixtures, outside windows and taped to the bricks, above door jams, etc.) The point was that we need to have the desire to search out those who might be difficult to find – just as we will search everywhere to find a piece of chocolate.
After the meetings, the Districts joined in the cultural hall for refreshments – more like a dessert buffet. The twelve missionaries had a great time meeting with each other writing in each other’s journals. Of course, pictures were taken. Our Canela missionaries rode the bus back with us and asked me to take photos of them making contact with people in the bus station. They are great fun! 
We caught the bus back to Canela so Ann and I could walk to Andrea’s home for a lesson on making chocolate pie, Brazilian style. Much different than we expected. The missionaries requested a variety of pies for Christmas dinner, and we tried to fulfill their wishes. Instead of a light, fluffy chocolate cream pie, we went home with a dense, dark chocolate torte with a bread-like crust. Andrea has a geladeira grande (large refrigerator - the biggest one I have seen here). Most kitchens have only cold water - if you want warm water, you heat it on the propane stove. Ann and Andrea took turns stirring and cooking while Sabrina and I made sure nothing went to waste.
I'm sure we looked a bit funny carrying a very large pie down the streets along with a big bag of their version of ‘Otter Pops’ for David and Merl for Christmas. . . at least we are hoping for some hot days to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment