There and back again - Already!

March 10-March 19th

We had a Happy Birthday celebration for President Acosta on March 10th.  You can see President and Sister Acosta in the middle of the photo and their daughters Hannah and Renata in front.  The couple we served with the Mencls (Sister Mencl in the red blouse.) The Elders serving in the office starting on the left:  E. Clark, E. Carson, E. Bridgestock, E. Torres, Elder Burgon, Swensons, E. M. Bezerra, Sister and President Baron, Sister Walton, E. Lundgren, in front former Sister Isabela returned missionary.

 The day after that everything was turned topsy turvy for everyone around the world because of the corona virus.  When I look back to February 3rd, the day we entered the Provo MTC, I remember hearing some news that China was being hit by a flu-type virus that was causing some death.  Then within a matter of 5 weeks the virus was quickly moving throughout the world and creating havoc wherever it went.  Next we heard that Japan was facing challenges with the virus and that missionaries would have to be sent home.  

On Wednesday we had a Ward Missionary Committee meeting with David Godoy (our Ward Mission Leader - who also served with us in Porto Alegre) and Sister Resende and Sister Az.  The Sisters  announced that Bruno was going to be baptized on Saturday.  We were all so excited.  Bruno found out about the church at the São Paulo Temple Visitors Center.  he had already been given a Book of Mormon and had been reading a lot on the church's web-sight.  So when he finally came to church he had a good understanding of the gospel already.

We also discussed in our meeting that on Sunday March 8th our Stake President called all of the missionaries in to his Stake High Counsel Meeting.  He asked us to spend the week contacting all of the church members who had joined the Church within the last 2 years, and give them a special invitation to Stake Conference the  March 14-15.  Since Curt and I had been visiting 2 less active families, we decided to take them some homemade bread and an invitation to the Conference.  I scurried around to bake the bread, and we hurried out before it got dark to deliver the invitations.

We dropped off some bread to Julio and Tereza, and had a short but nice visit with Ricardo and his daughters Rafaela and Pietra.  Then when we got back to our apartment we found out that President Nelson asked us to stay home on the Sabbath and cancel all Sacrament Meetings and Stake Conferences and Leadership Training Meetings. So I had to send Julio and Tereza, and Ricardo and Lucy a message telling them that Church Meetings were cancelled until further notice.

On Fridays we had always held our FHE in UBA, but they had changed it to be a Saturday lunch to welcome back a beloved missionary, Elder Rogers and his family who would be visiting.  President Acosta asked us to stay indoors as much as possible to try not to get sick.  But the missionaries in UBA said they had a possibility of baptizing 4 people on Sunday.  So we knew that we would go out on Sunday.

Saturday morning came and The Sisters called to say that Bruno wouldn't be baptized because he had been out of town working and wasn't home yet.  So they rescheduled the baptism for Sunday.  What a Special Sunday it was.  We began our day by partaking of the Sacrament with the Assistants and the
Mission Secretaries.  Then we studied "Come Follow Me" together.

After that we went to the Baptism of Bruno which was a very special experience.  Bruno was baptized by Bishop Sa and confirmed by Curt. 

After Bruno's baptism we invited the Assistants to drive out with us to UBA for some more baptisms.

But when we arrived no one was around.  The Elders were busy running around to all of the member's homes, and helping our newly ordained Priests and deacon bless and pass the Sacrament for their families.  They were also visiting other members and blessing the Sacrament for them.

By the time the Elders arrived we realized that there wouldn't be a baptism that day.  But we hope that there can still be a baptism in the next week or two.

Here we are with the members missionaries and the family of Elder Rogers.  As we said goodbye to the members there we realized that it could be the last time we would see them for quite some time, and our hearts were breaking.

Monday was the beginning of Transfer week for President and Sister Acosta, but we were under instructions to remain indoors until 6:30 when were invited to the Farewell dinner for the departing Missionaries.  I kept having the feeling that we were invited because President and Sister Acosta thought we might be going home soon as well.  It was very nice to visit with the departing missionaries and see how excited they were for having completed their missions.

Here is a photo of the Elders who were departing.  When I get a photo of the Sisters I will include it as well.

We had a special treat on Tuesday.  President Acosta asked us to take Sister Araya from Costa Rica to the São Paulo MTC because he had arranged for her to spend and hour with her sister who was there beginning her mission.  So we were able to meet President and Sister Terry (the MTC President) and have a tour of the facility.  It was especially interesting because our son Nick had his MTC experience there. 

                       

Sister Araya was under strict orders not to touch or hug her Sister because of the virus.  

What a difficult thing!

                    

As the week went on we realized that the writing was on the wall.  It was time for us to prepare to fly home and wait out the corona virus.  So we tried to tie up all of our loose ends and prepared to go.  Curt finished some repairs on our apartment, and I finished up some work at the Bazar of the Mission (where missionaries can get use clothing donations)  We had been stockpiling food in case we were ordered to stay in our apartment.  So on Wednesday we decided to invite the office Elders over for a big lunch.

After that we spent the day Friday packing up our suitcases and turning in our keys.  Then it was off to the Airport to catch the red-eye to Atlanta at 9:50pm.  

We spent our wait at the airport notifying all of our new-found friends that we were leaving.  It is amazing how quickly life can change!  We are home now, but our thoughts continue to go back to Brazil and to the sweet friendships we made there.  We hope that this world health crisis will abate soon, and that we might be able to return and continue serving in São Paulo

After two weeks of rain, and thinking we should build an ark, the rain has finally subsided.  When the sun came out and the blue skies appeared, Curt remembered a phrase that people used to use on his first mission - “Tudo azul”, if someone asked how you were, you’d respond “Tudo azul,” everything is blue.

Last week in response to all of the Corona Virus scare on the Internet, we had an All Mission Conference with the Area Medical Advisor Elder and Sister Swensen and a church member Irmão Paulo who is a Psychologist.  We spent the day talking about how to keep from sharing germs.  This photo is Elder Clark our Housing Secretary.  He is the one who helped us with all of our buying furniture and moving in process.

The great thing about the Doctors coming was the stories they shared, in particular stories about why the Chapel we were meeting in was special to them.  Elder Swensen told us that when he had served his mission as a young man in the São Paulo Mission, on his P-day he helped to build the Chapel we were meeting in. Irmão Paulo was married in our Chapel. 

While we were at the meeting, Elder Swensen looked at the finger of one of our Elders.  He cut his finger while slicing watermelon 🍉.  Unfortunately Elder Lopez was told that he would need surgery on his finger because he had cut the nerve.  So after the meeting Curt and I took him to a sort of Insta-care, and were able to set things up to take him to a hand surgeon the next day.  Then on Friday we took Elder Lopez in for his surgery.  The lesson we hope the Elders learned is that you should never slice  a watermelon while your’e holding it in your hand.  You can see the bandage on Elder Lopez fingers.

We had two lovely visits this week.  We met Ricardo and Lucy and their daughters, and we met Eduardo and Simone.  It is a tradition here that anytime someone comes to visit, you feed them.  Even at 8:00 pm we can a nice conversation with Lucy and Ricardo, and then they fed us some pizza and some lemon meringue pie.  We are hoping that they will come with us to Stake Conference next weekend.

Eduardo and Simone and their two oldest children were just baptized in December.  They are excited about the church, and Eduardo just had his interview with the Stake President to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.

We were doing a lot of driving around in our little rented Renault Logan.  With some of the steep hills around here, there were times when we wondered if our little car 🚗 would make it up the hill, or if we would tumble down end over end.  With the rain falling it was a pretty exciting experience. 

So on Thursday when we had to turn our rental car in after one month of renting it.  We weren’t super sorry.  Now we are driving a little Chevrolet Prisma, and it has been much better.

When we were at our group “UBA” last week, we realized with all the work President Acosta has to do, that the young men had not been advanced yet in their priesthood offices.  I think I have already mentioned that we have a terrific group of young men there.  Felipe is turning 12 this year and was ready to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  Mateus and Robert, were ready to advance to the office of Priest.  So Curt talked to President Acosta about it, and was told that Curt is the Group Leader and that he was authorized to go forward with the ordinations.

On Friday when we had our FHE with the group, Curt asked these young men to come prepared on Sunday for some training on the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards they would be interviewed.

I posted a message on the Group’s WhatsApp account reminding everyone to invite their family members to come to Church for the ordination.  I was hoping for a large group, but we still only had about 20 people, (our regular attendance.)

(Curt) As I sat with each young man underneath tropical trees and vines and talked about the priesthood and that it was God's power shared with men to bless the lives of all of His children, I couldn't help but be struck on how much He loves all of His children. Here we were, in the middle of a small "jungle," and the Savior's gospel was reaching all of these wonderful young men and giving them an opportunity to grow in knowledge, understanding, and potential. These are truly special times and special young men!

Even though we were a small group, it was really special. The Lord even revealed how the ordinations should proceed to give them a chance to use the priesthood they were receiving. Robert’s older brother Rogerio first ordained him to be a Priest. Then Robert conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon his nephew, Felipe, and ordained him to the office of a Deacon.  Alyson then ordained Matheus to the office of a Priest. It was the first time any of them had had the privilege of ordaining another person to an office in the priesthood. I stood next to each of them as they performed the ordinance and whispered into their ears the words that they should use to perform it correctly. It was a very sweet experience and they were so excited to have that opportunity to help one another.

 Rogerio and Robert

 Robert and Felipe

Suellen (Felipe's mom), Felipe, Rogerio and Robert

Alyson and Mateus

Curt had all of the men in the group stand in the circle, because he wanted them to use the power of the Priesthood.  We have 3 men that could be ready to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood sometime this year.

I often think about a training we had from then Elder Nelson when Curt was called to be a counselor in a Stake Presidency.  Elder Nelson taught us that as the Priesthood holders in the Stake become more diligent in their calling the Church as a whole will grow stronger.  I hope that will be true with the group in UBA.  After the ordinations they had a dinner to celebrate.

UBA meets in a kind of Forest Preserve Area that we travel on a Ferry (Balsa in Portuguese) to get to.  I think that I have already mentioned to you how lovely it is for us to get out of the big city and go out to the Reserve.  I have included some photos of the Ferry