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.”