Last Missionary Dinner, Shopping, Dinner

April 24  Friday

Today is the last time we are having the missionaries over for dinner - and an American chicken dinner is on the menu (using Grandma Egbert's Kentucky Fried Chicken coating recipe) along with mashed potatoes with yummy gravy, cabbage/fruit salad, stuffing, rolls, and mixed fruit juices.  It seemed like the perfect meal to say goodbye.  Dessert was waffles with ice cream, maple syrup, and/or strawberry jam.  David needed to walk uptown for something, so he picked up the ice cream for dinner. 

The missionaries had their District meeting this morning (the first one that we missed).  Elders Oliveira and Sheridan thought they would be late arriving, while Elder  Janickyj and ??? would be arriving at noon.  I planned dinner to be ready at 12:30 p.m. - and had a moment of panic when Elder Janickyj said they had an appointment at 1:00 p.m.  Fortunately, after a phone call, they found that the appointment was cancelled. 

I have never seen missionaries eat so much - they cleaned up everything that was put on the table.  I don't think they ever eat much for breakfast, and they are usually on their own for dinner. . . so lunch is their major food source for the day.


It was good that they had a little extra time for lunch today, so the meal could settle a bit before dessert was ready.  Waffles are a real hit in Brazil, and maple flavoring is unheard of.  I brought several bottles of it to share with the members - and missionaries.  It was almost comical to watch everyone taking just one more waffle, and then another . . . just one more bite, and then another . . . until they couldn't eat any more.


Elder Sheridan couldn't eat another bite



Elder Oliveira - no more. . .









Then it was time to say goodbye and watch these four great young men walk up our hill for the last time.  It was sad. . .







After cleaning up, I walked uptown to do some last minute shopping for some items to take home to the kids (powdered Tang drink in lots of Brazilian fruit flavors and bags of butter toffee candy with different flavors).  I also bought two bottles of maracuja concentrate to make our favorite dessert at home.  Next stop was a dried flower shop where I purchased some hortencia flowers for home.

Later in the evening we caught the bus to go to dinner at the home of Valdazar and Roseangela da Silva.  We had a nice dinner of paceco and cabbage salad with tomatoes.  David and Ann were able to Skype with Mitchell who opened his mission call to Independence, Missouri.  Everyone was excited for him. 

After a nice evening,  Roseangela drove us home at 10:00 p.m.  It had been a long day - and tomorrow promises to be another one.