(I put some more photos up again. They are all up on Facebook Here is the lind--> http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2140476&id=17821729 )

Wow, were to begin. So much amazing stuff has happened since the last time that I wrote. It has been nearly two weeks, I didn’t even realize that that time had gone by so quickly. I have written in my journal everyday here in Brazil and I have learned that value of it. You can really have a chance to articulate important ideas and orient yourself to your goal. After hearing Elder Eyring’s talk in general conference, I have made it a point to write how I have seen the Lord’s hand in my life each day and it has been very insightful and faith building. I have noticed many things I would have dismissed or not noticed without further reflection. I will try to right just some of the highlights since my journal entries since my last post are 8 pages single spaced!

(Us about to leave for the bus trip back! Not exciting...explained in later post) -->

Teaching

(<- A couple we helped get work. They came to ring the victory bell :) :) :) )

The teaching has continued to go wonderful. Today, was especially a crazy day. I don’t know if I mentioned it before. The response for our work shot has been so strong that we have a 700 person waiting list. I am not sure how they are advertising, at the first of the lesson I always ask for their name and why they are here. So many say a friend recommended it to them and the friend had said it was really helpful. It makes me so happy to be making a difference. The center has always done well with participant but I don’t think they have ever had so many lining up at the door. I am sure Hector and I will teach separately the rest of the time here. I am more than ok with this. I have gotten a really good hang of the language and the principles so I feel comfortable. I have kind of developed my own style and direction, and with all the wonderful things we are doing down here it is just not hard to feel confident, especially when you know you are getting a little extra help.

Anyway, so today, they needed one of our classrooms for a business to do a presentation, so I ended up teaching a class of 30+ right in the middle of the center! They actually locked the front doors to the center, we moved all the chairs and table around, the volunteers stayed off to the side and I got to/had to steal the show a little bit. I could have been so easy to be overwhelmed. I was on display, right in the middle of everything, it was noisy, I had to talk really loud, and I had to use a make-shift whiteboard. However, it all went really well and everyone is anxious to return tomorrow.

Something I have focused on down here is to act and not react and it helped me with that situation. I have had the chance to read a lot of good literature while I have been down here. One I would suggest to everyone is “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Steven R. Covey. I am only part way through. He explains that many people like to say are lives are deterministic, that we have a stimulus and that provokes a response. All are a product of condition and conditioning, our childhood, or our environment (Genetic, Psychic, and Environmental determinism). This is not true, and is what separates us from animals and other creatures. Between stimulus and response we have the freedom to choose, we have the ability to act. Thoreau said, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavors.” I know this is true.

Young Single Adult FHE on the Beach

About 8 days ago we had an FHE activity on the beach with just the youth (young single adults) in the ward. It was all planned by the youth, and we even had some youth from other wards show up. Hector and I brought two people for the LDS Employment Center so it was about 30 or more people. I recorded it as follows in my journal:

“Bruno, who will go a mission soon, gave the lesson and then it was opened up for a testimony meeting. It was so serene. There was a gentle ocean breeze, not to hot, not to cold. The lights from the city gave us just enough light to see each other and you could hear the waves crashing against the sore. Because Bruno was leaving on a mission there were many mission stories shared, and many talked of bearing testimony about Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and the restored gospel and it really struck me. My testimony really started with Joseph Smith, my family went on a church history tour and when we were at Carthage jail I felt the Lord’s presence and the Spirit so strong as they had played “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”, Joseph Smith's favorite hymn. To look around and think, how did I get here? It seemed like the end of the earth, and there were 20 plus young single adults huddled in a circle, all of their own volition, their own planning, bearing their testimonies of the restored gospel, Christ, and Joseph Smith. The prophecy that Joseph Smith’s name would be known for good or evil through out the whole world is coming true. To know that these young were gathered today, to know I was there today, because a young boy went to a grove to pray and then had the courage to tell the world what he saw was truly a tender mercy of God.”

Temple Trip to Recife

(Recife Temple!)

Probably the biggest adventure recently was the Recife temple trip. We were to leave Wednesday night, drive the 13 hours to get there in a bus where we could sleep, be at the temple Thursday and Friday, and drive home Friday night. Giving us one night of sleep there in Recife. It has been the best experience here so far. The trip out was crazy, in my journal I wrote:

“Well it turns our there was a mix up with the buses and we ended up getting a microbus from one of the members who is on the city council I believe. It was funny cause it has a big picture of his face on the side. Everything else about it wasn’t funny. It was tiny, it didn’t have any storage space for bags, none under the bus, none above your head, and just a little under your seat. But alas, we got the seats with the wheel well below them. My knees barely fit in the space, and the seats didn’t recline”…”I am not saying all of this to complain, it just adds to the flavor of this memory and trip, as it has been one to remember. :) :) All of this, with a 13 hour bus ride ahead of us each way made it quite the proposition. In fact they knew it would be so bad that the devotional we had was all about having the best attitude, being grateful you could go, and not criticizing the situation.

(As you can see we were dead tired on the bus -->)

Well, about 10 minutes in, despite all my packing and preparations I noticed I totally forgot to go to the bathroom! Panic was only made the situation worse. Just before we were leaving town, the bus pulled over at a little “shopping” because one of the members had a battery operated TV that might let them see the football game. When we pulled over, instead of just him hopping out I noticed like the half the bus had evacuated, and I thought, “this is my chance”, so I asked Bruno next to me if he thought there would bathrooms there and he said yes so I took off. It is an open front store with just 3 or 4 straight isles to the back. I found in the back, two of the grossest bathrooms in my life. The girl’s was a little cleaner but had no toilet paper and the boys had 2 square of the waxy Brazilian toilet paper. So after being an entrepreneur in toilet paper usage efficiency, I walked out of the bathroom a little grossed out just to see the bus passing in front of the store down the isle. I took off running, and rounded the front of the store. I decided I would only chase it to the end of the block and if didn’t stop I would go back to the store where I would be more safe and they would know to return, but just as they went to go again at the end of the block, the doors swung open and I jumped in. It was pretty run down part of town so I wasn’t too excited about staying there. I am sure that someone, at least Hector, would have noticed pretty quick and had them turn around.”

I gave a good feel for the whole experience when I wrote my friend Jenna Kimble a letter:

“The temple trip was so great. There were a LOT of trying times along the way, but when I first stepped into the celestial room after my first session… I was home… my true home… and I was loved and I could feel the Spirit so strong. It was a beautiful moment. Two days straight we did sessions, ceiling, baptisms, you name it. It is a 13 hour bus ride each way, so they can only go so often. This was a special trip with just the brethren. I had never tried to squeeze three sessions in on one day and ceilings. They really go to work! It was wonderful, the spirit was strong, the food was good, and the beds (the one night that we weren’t sleeping in a minibus overnight) were great.”

TEACHING-WEEKS 2-3

(Here is a link to the next set Facebook album I put up. Once again I put most of my photos up on Facebook--> http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2140476&id=17821729 )

Teaching
Teaching the class has been amazing and to say it is a blessing would be a euphemism but as that is the best word I can think of I will stick with that. This week is the second week of me teaching on my own. Our center has had SO many people coming in to attend the workshop that we have had to divide into to rooms so we each teach 20-30 students. We were told today by a volunteer the waiting list is now at 700 people! Truly, the response has been a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father.

The first week, I struggled. We didn’t have the participant manuals and I was in the smaller room. True the room isn’t as nice but that wasn’t the problem, the smaller room has been the overflow room, and as we have learned since we have changed rooms this week (hallelujah!) those who come later tend to be those who aren’t as serious about the course—go figure. :) So without the books for the participants I really had to wing it and have the secretaries furiously making copies from the one book we had I some of the activities for my students to do. Turns out the books had been confiscated as contraband, thought they were drugs or something, much to their surprise when they actually opened them up they were full of Christ-centered self-reliance manuals so they sent them right along. Ha ha. In all this chaos order in my little classroom started to fall apart and it was a trial of my faith. I was getting up before 6:00am to prepare for my class in hopes to do better and after a thorough reprimand on the 3^rd day everything came together better and I felt that the last day was significantly more effective. (Who knew I would deliberately go to bed at 9:30pm and get up at 5:30am? Those who know me feel free to scoop your jaws up off the floor).
This week, meaning so far just the first two days, the whole spirit of the class is different and I can tell everything is going to be so much better. I know I am being blessed and I know the Lord’s hand has been in my life; of course having the workshop books now helps. :) I love the chance I have at the end of lessons to, in an appropriate fashion, share my testimony. That little extra spirit goes along way, even if it helps me the most.

“Snakes”
Some warned me, some told me took make the best of it, but for better or worse, despite my best efforts the “snakes” have come out of the woodwork. For those few of you who are not familiar with this term, it is what the missionaries and members here in South America call the girls who go after the Americans. It has been bad, I have been given several numbers, near confessions of love in emails (and I don’t even remember who they are when I get the email), and volunteers interrupting me while I am trying to use the computers at the centers to tell me a girl has decided she is interest in me and wants to know if she can talk to me! For those of you who have thought my already astronomically sized head was already so big that an inflation of this sort would have surely caused an implosion of cosmic proportions. Probably leading to the formation of a new black hole and the destruction of the earth, I am happy to report I have realized it all for what it is and am not letting it affect me. It is weird though, it is like some mixed up weird form of reverse racism. I am being treated different for the color of my skin but in a nonviolent kinda creepy sort of way… or at least they are treating me different the nationality on my passport. :) Now before I go and burst all my bubbles, let me say I do feel I have had a chance to stand out here for more than just the color of my skin, and if this is not the case than I have not been doing what I set out to do while I am here.

The End
So much more to write, and so little time… ok, desire. I actually have more time but this will suffice. Tchau!

(Yes, my friends that is a chocolate pizza! My first reaction to the pizza was, "why did we buy this". Of course later is was, "where have you been all my life!")

THE APARTMENT/THE BEACH/THE FIASCO

(Once again full photographs can be seen at this address http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135444&l=9fa7c&id=17821729)

The Apartment
What a fiasco this has been, but ultimately we are here and we are happy. As I explained earlier we were living in a hotel/hostel for the first couple of weeks, it was nice you could get meals there, but think of it like the dorms, nice is some ways but really expensive. Eight reais for each meal, when we had budgeted three for breakfast, five for lunch, and seven for dinner. Now, we have a little kitchen, our own rooms, our own bathrooms (more than we needed, though his shower leaks so not to cooshy yet), a small living space next to the kitchen, and a balcony. We are now farther from the LDS employment center and the church but now the beach is only two blocks away, groceries one block away, restaurants everywhere, and the “shoppings” or malls are much closer. We can take a cheap bus that will drop us off right by the center and the church.






The Beach
Speaking of the beach being near by, having it close still doesn’t spare me from being an obvious gringo American. Today, in the afternoon I thought I’d take the short stroll from our apartment down to the beach with my camera, take some pictures, enjoy a stroll and come back. Well, Sunday is a big day for relaxing it appears and as I was getting closer to the beach three tourist buses pulled up packed full of young adults who where just chomping at the bit to verbally dig into a clearly foreign gringo. Since I was wearing athletic shorts that gave away I was carrying something, and I knew all of them would want to “look” at my camera if I pulled it out, I rounded the block and went home with my own personal peanut gallery “cheering” me on as I went home. That day I wished I was of Latin decent like Hector so I would go mostly unnoticed; at least he’s not given away until he opens his mouth. I had plenty to do at the apartment so I wasn’t too bother about it.


The fiasco
The fiasco was with our manager. He, despite his initial gracious commentaries that he’d be more that willing to help with anything, clearly didn’t like the fact we were not happy with the “housing” arrangements. Considering he was trained on this and given a Power Point explaining exactly what we were supposed to have, and he basically ignored half of the specifications, I thought he had no room to complain; clearly I was wrong. He eventually gave us a couple of hours of his time one evening to exchange our money and look for deferent accommodations, explaining all along the way that is was basically impossible to find anything, everything needed a year contract or was too expensive and I got the idea that he was hoping to go on this little adventure just to make a point; for sure at least to guilt trip us along the way.
Well, in less that an hour we found a really nice place, within the budget, and near the beach. Of course then he explains the next day that he doesn’t know how much he can get back from the hotel, that he doesn’t know if he can get the money because the man renting the apartment wants it up front, blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH. Once again if he had paid attention to his training information he would know that all he had to do was open an account for the area (as in the area we have an Area Presidency for) and then BYU through the church would reimburse the money back to that account in the end. Well, with all that we lost that apartment, but of course in one afternoon Hector and I found several other suitable options. Longer story short, he got us into one of the ones we found, or course it had to be the most ghetto of them and the one farthest from the center but at least it meets most of the requirements outlined for us. We still don’t have desks. If we are sounding a little bratty it’s because we paid good money in America for something specific and he didn’t deliver, and even more importantly, our directors in Salt Lake found out where we were living and said it was against the regulations that had set out. Regardless, all it good now and we are happy and the center is happy.