District Missionary Meeting, Walking, Flower Shopping. . .

February 6  Friday

David:  We left for Gramado at 820am.  At the bus station, the Jehovah Witnesses were there with their pamphlet stand with three or so young ladies.  One appeared to be Luciane,  the one who visited us,  but it was not here, maybe her sister or something. We’ll see again someday.

In the district missionary meeting Elder Spadari gave most of the training.  He is very skilled in teaching and bringing investigators to accept commitments to read, pray and recognize the answers from the spirit and accept baptism dates.  In this mission they refer to some of these techniques as Check Mate  [checkee  May tee].  At some point you ask if they think they should be baptized as Christ was.  If they will pray sincerely to receive an answer to know if the message of the restoration of the gospel is true.  Will they accept baptism, as Christ did, in his restored church.  They then set a date and ask if they can begin preparing for baptism—after they receive their answer.  Then they help them in understand the experience, feeling they may have to indicate the influence of the spirit in response to their prayers.

 Elder Helaman Spadari is a very effective missionary—even critized for baptizing too many, too young in both Canela and SF de Paula.  But who are we to say who is to be influenced by the spirit and who responds to the invitation to be baptized—although the Elders need to focus on families and men and women who are so needed to nurture their families.  Part of the situation we find ourselves in here is the large number of converts within the last two years - and most within the last year.  The members and leadership are not prepared to receive them at that rate.  What a great problem to deal with!  Sunday [8 Feb] he leaves for Porto Alegre and on home to Praia Grande in the state of São Paulo, in the Santos Mission.  Sunday, he and Elder Ribeiro baptized 11 in SF de Paula; this included a mother and her children and another woman and other children.

 

We had snacks after the missionary meeting. Sister Copa brought her delicious deviled eggs and cookies. We came home with Elder Piccini, as his companion had to go with Elder Copa and the Sisters for a baptismal interview in Vale Royal—about 1 1/2 hours from Gramado.  A new convert from Canela, Vanderleia Bruenelli [17]- baptized in Nov- moved there shortly after her baptism and now more of her family were to be baptized [8 Feb].  We ate lunch, and Ann helped Elder Piccini with his conversation in English.  If he passes a verbal English proficiency test while on his mission with Sister Wright, he can be certified as fluent in English.  He then will be able to get better jobs or get into college easier. Sister Wright asked us- both the Egberts and the Copas- to help those Elders that already know some English.

Ann, Elder Piccini, and I walked to the home of Edson Cabral’s mother, Terezinha.  The house number was 1750 on Rua Patricio Zini.  We were progressing well until the  house numbers became chaotic, jumping around and out of sequence; finally near the end of the street they were in sequence again.  We found a market at 1746, Elder Piccini asked someone if they knew Terezinha Cabral (discovered they live in the next house—without a number).  It took us about an hour to find it.  We had a good visit.  Elder Piccinni gave the first discussion and committed all to pray to know if the message was true.  We encouraged them to come to the wedding of her son, Edson, and Carina the next day.  Terezinha [nine children] said her husband had said they were Catholic and were going to visit other churches.  I suggested that they should be there to support their son and that he would appreciate it very much.   Others at the home then were: Robson [20 or so]- has two children, Wagner [15], Ana- with two kids [she asked for a visit in Leodoro Azevedo], and two other daughters [Lais -19 and ??].   The father is a stone mason and a carpenter.  He has built all three of their houses—one behind the other. He popped his head in the door, saw us and left again,. After the visit we walked home going to the end of the street and soon came out on the highway at the Canelinha Posto de Saúde [Medical offices] - a shorter way than the way we came. Merl and Kathlyn were home already and soon Copas and Elder Muñoz came. Copos invited us to come to the Baile [dance] in Gramado later in the evening.  Ann fixed dinner for us and the Elders- sandwiches and left overs. Ann decided she was too tired to go dancing—very unusual.  So we stayed home. She went to bed early and Kathlyn worked on the wedding flowers.

 

 

Cement wall being built to hold
back the mountain

Roof of McDonalds

After the Missionary meeting, Merl and I got a ride to the center of town with Bro. Copa.  It was critical that we find some flowers suitable to make a bridal bouquet along with small corsages for the two daughters and boutonnieres for the father and son.  We walked around several blocks looking inside every loja that appeared to have flowers - and there were a lot of them, but we found nothing suitable.  We reached one store that was recommended to us only to find it closed (from January 26 through February 22) for Carnival.  I was beginning to feel a little panicky.  Merl was being a real trouper - never complaining.  We back-tracked towards the church and stepped into the Ceramica Artisans loja and finally found a few things that were promising.  The clerk went to the attic for some 'stock' flowers for me, and we left with a bag of flowers. I needed to find accessory items (florist tape, ribbon, string beads, wire, etc.), so we back-tracked the other way to the Emporium (bead loja) - and found it closed for the long lunch hour.  We grabbed a chicken sandwich at the local McDonalds and relaxed until the store opened.  We found everything on the list, walked back to the bus station, and rode back to Canela.  We stopped at the Fruiteria mercado and purchased a head of cauliflower and a few lychees.  As soon as we arrived home, I started working on the flowers and went to bed about 1:00 a.m. feeling better about the project.  I just hoped that Carina would like them.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee