What a restless night! The dogs in the neighborhood were riled up and the truck traffic seemed heavier than usual. Combine this with heat and humidity, it was a long night. I got up about 3:30 am and did a chapter on our Portuguese Rosetta Stone software. I went back to bed at 5:15 am and went to sleep for a couple of hours. When I woke up, Merl and David were dressing to go to a District Missionary meeting in Gramado. Ann and I elected to stay home to prepare the meals for the missionaries. We were surprised to hear the buzzer at the front gate and to find Merl and David back. Before they got on the bus, the missionaries had called them to cancel the meeting.
At noon, Elder Piccini and his new companion, Elder Munoz, came for lunch - which was supposed to be their big New Year dinner. The lasagna wasn't done yet, and they only had half an hour before catching the bus for Sao Francisco de Paulo for interviews and a baptism. We hurried and made them some grilled sandwiches and salad - and sent them on their way with another sandwich to eat on the bus. We cleaned up and shortly thereafter greeted Elder Lagos and his new companion, Elder Oliveira. We had a nice dinner with yummy lasagna, breads, and salad - and of course sobermesa (desserts), homemade sorbet, lemon/lime torte, and brownies. I made French bread in the morning, putting in 2 tbs. of salt instead of 2 tsp. When I recognized what I had done, I hurried and mixed up another batch and left the salt out. I was able to stir the two together and let it rise. We had plenty of bread - and every bit of it was gone by the third meal with the missionaries. It seemed like I was baking bread most of the day - our little oven can only hold one pan at a time. |
| Visitor Center Artisan Staff Very helpful! |
Ann and I walked to town to get some spices for a cheese ball and to pick up the embroidered Canela napkins we had ordered at the Visitor's center artisan shop. The weather was a bit overcast on our trip, and then proceeded to pour most of the afternoon. I made another trip to pick up a plastic silverware tray and a dish drying rack. If we are going to be here for another four months, I decided we could make things a bit easier for us now and donate the items to a family in the branch when we leave.
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| Elders Munoz, Spardari, Piccini, Rebeiro and David |
The Elders played Spot It and Uno. I just happened to find a Portuguese version at the grocery store today. Elder Rebeiro is a brand new missionary, fresh from the MTC in Curitiba. He introduced us to the Brazilian rules of Uno. They added a new dimension and much more excitement to the game. Rule 1: Whenever a 9 is played, everyone is supposed to slap their hand down on the pile...the last hand down has to draw two cards. Rule 2: Whenever a 7 is played, everyone has to be completely silent until another 7 is played. If you speak, you draw two cards. Rule 3: If you have a card in your hand that is identical (color and number) to a card on the pile, you can play your card before the person whose turn it is. Everyone between you and the one whose turn it was gets skipped. Great fun! 
The missionaries left at 10:30 pm, and fireworks were starting to explode. We watched the church video about John Tanner in Portuguese with English subtitles. We called Kendal and Grandpa Egbert and had a nice visit. Then the big fireworks started all around the city - and in all directions. Tried to record part of it. . . . Goodnight, it is definitely past my bedtime
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