Amazing

After another fantastic breakfast, we went and visited with Valeria for a few minutes at her place and then went to her friend's house and visited with Ne and Jadilson and their little girl Sofia. As lunchtime approached, we picked up Valeria's husband Eduardo and her 4 year old son Vitor and headed for a nice churrascaria where they had celebrated their last anniversary.

The churrasco was great. Much like Tucanos or Rodizio Grill, except that the waiters brought the meat out so fast that we couldn't keep up. My plate began to pile high with all kinds of meat, and Ne kept joking that I was going to have to pay a fine if I had any left over.

After stuffing ourselves, we took Ne and Eduardo back to work. Eduardo thanked us for inviting them, and thanked me for having helped teach Valeria and bring her into the church. As Elder Henry and Lane put it, she was about as golden as they come.

We drove with Valeria over to Manoel Penna and
São José and went to the house of the former branch president. His daughter, Lucia, was home with her husband and little boy. We talked with her about how the branch had been absorbed by another ward (Iguatemi) and that most members from Sao Jose are no longer active. We found out that a family that Elder Lane and I baptized (Claudio, Marilda and kids) had moved to Uberaba, but I was able to get their address.

We also dropped by the home of Fernando, who I baptized with Elder Lane. He had moved and was no longer active, but we had a nice chat with his mom and sister, also inactive members. At first his mom didn't want to come out and talk to us because she was embarrassed that she was inactive, but she eventually came out. We talked about our trip with her, and about her kids and the church. It ended up a nice visit, and we left with Valeria after encouraging them to begin attending their church meetings again.

We stopped briefly at the Palmares chapel, which has since been rebuilt much larger and nicer. Once finished, we dropped Valeria back at her house and said our goodbyes. I also recorded a video message of her to Elders Lane and Henry, so I'll have to get that posted as soon as I get back.

We dropped back by Walmart for the free wifi and updated emails and called our wives. We were headed into the mall to get Jared some cash from the ATM when I recognized Marco, a member from Sao Joaquim da Barra, which is where we were headed as soon as we had hit the ATM. Crazy! Jared and I turned to each other and mentioned that it wouldn't seem like Heavenly Father would care too much about our little jaunt here in Brazil, but it sure seemed like we were receiving divine guidance throughout this trip.

We talked with Marco for a few minutes, and it turns out he had moved away from Sao Joaquim. He updated us on several of the members, and we gave him a ride to the bus terminal in downtown on our way out of town.

We drove up to Sao Joaquim, arriving there about 8pm and went straight to the chapel. When I was there, we met in a house. They now have a chapel. The missionaries were there with the ward mission leader and a few other members. We walked in and introduced ourselves. I told them I had served there 12 years ago. They asked who I had baptized while there, and I told them I didn't remember everyone, but I had come to see if Paulo, his cousin Alessandra and her friend were still around. They were all floored to hear that I had been the one to baptize Paulo, who is the current bishop, and his wife, Eliane. They were both baptized the same day, Paulo had served a mission, come back and married her, and he was now bishop! Wow! I can't tell you how good that feels to know that I made such a difference in a person's life, let alone in the leadership of this little town near Sao Paulo.

We talked for a while with the elders and the members that were there about my mission, and how it was back in the 90's. Then we called Eliane to arrange a time that we could stop by. Paulo was already asleep, so we decided to stop by the next morning.

We left the chapel and went to eat and find a place to sleep. We ordered a X-tudo, which is a cheeseburger with everything on it, including eggs, and a hot dog. We stopped at the Hotel Plaza in downtown to check it out, and then went over to the Hotel Barra to see which one we liked better. Turned out there was no room at the Hotel Barra.

On our way back to the Hotel Plaza, we were drivig up a road and ended up at a police road block where they were stopping cars. They stopped us and asked for my license and documentation. I gave it to them, and then he asked for the translation of my driver's license. I played dumb and asked what he meant. He said that we needed to get a special permit from some authority in Sao Paulo in order to drive there. I explained that when we rented the car we were not told this, but that we were headed back to Sao Paulo the next day. He asked what types of vehicles my license allowed me to drive, and once I explained it, he seemed satisfied and left us on our way. Whew!

On our way back across town to the Hotel Plaza, it started pouring rain. It was such a downpour that the streets started to fill up with water, and I was nervous that we would hydrolock the engine going through some of the puddles. We parked in front of the hotel and decided to wait a few minutes to sees if the rain would let up. While waiting, a car parked in front of us, and proceeded to back into our car. We realized what was happening a little too late, but honked our horn like mad. Still he came and hit us. Instead of stopping, he drove his car across the street, parked, and walked into the hotel. When he walked in front of the car, he gave us a thumbs up. What?!?

We got out after the rain had let up a little, checked the front of the car (which looked fine) and went in to get some rest.


- Posted from my iTouch