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