Letter #32

From the Everlasting Hills of Agudos,
   
May I begin rather than end with how much I love you? From the words immortalized in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets of the Portuguese, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." And I do count them everyday, every lesson and every night before I pass to sleep.

But let me tell what has come to pass in our pasture:

I had a celestial division with Elder Jones, which extended for almost two days. I am inspired by his example and love the sincerity that flows from his words and actions. I have no doubt that you will hear more about him in another future edition of my letter. But, we had a wonderful time teaching, tracting and both felt strongly the sweet, mild approbation of the spirit smiling on us the entire day.

We also proceeded to bake a wonderful Valentine´s double layer, frosting in the middle cake. I will make one of those for you, Mom, when I get home! I ate half of it at night and the other half for breakfast. As missionaries we´re entitled to such gastro-illogical choices: )

 I also tried out the famous, no really famous, Palador Pastel though I didn't catch a picture. It's huge. Think a foot and a half of fried dough encompassing steak, chicken, cheese, sausage. . .Unreal.  And definitely worth the somewhat hefty price of 10 reais.

Funny moment of the week: Two kids heard in the street arguing the following: "I was born on my birthday!" "No I was!" Yup. Sounds ridiculous until you find out it's actually a common problem. Many people do not associate the day they were born with the day of their birthday, in Portuguese, anniversario. Go figure. That leads us to the next killer moment: Elder: "What day were you born?" Kid: I don´t know." Elder: "What do you mean you don´t know?!"  Kid: "I don't know." Elder: "Well, what day is your birthday?" Kid: "21st of December!" "People!!", in the words of Aunt Tina, things are not always as simple to everyone as they appear to be. . .Phew.

Another winner form this weeks district meeting: Elder Dias Batista in an effort to animate and make history in his final moments as district leader held our meeting Tuesday in a large park in the middle of Bauru. Cool.

We sang, loudly, and bore testimony, loudly, and publicly, and enjoyed the general open airiness of the early morning park breeze. But then came the time, as it always does, for practices.

We drew random partners, I got Elder Simmons, and we´re assigned. . .signs! One read, "Did you know that families can be together forever?" and the other "Honk if you've prayed today" Oh YES!!

We got plenty of honks, some yelling atheists telling us that death was the end of all things, some glowering looks, but best of all lots of brightened smiles that said, yes, we believe in these things too.

 It was a wonderful experience and energizing in every sense. He made history in my book: )

In other news, transfers are coming up next week. Boy, it passes fast huh? I anticipate lots of changes here in our district. Also, I was going to share my latest, perhaps greatest contribution to modern literary history, but I´ll save it. Just to leave you in suspense though it is called, "The Parable of the Pig." There. That´s all the news in print from the Bard of Brasil. A plethora of letters leave today and I´m so excited: )

"I Love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach,"

Tanner