Interview Month

Interview month is always a demanding, but at the same time, a joyful experience to get out and communicate one on one with our missionaries.  Sometimes we feel distanced from them, I guess I do more than Dad, because of the way the rotation is stretched out over three months.  With 10 zones it takes about 3 weeks, usually Tues., Wed, and Thurs, of each week, to get about 20 interviews a day done. As soon as all of the interviews are done Dad gets started on the transfers which will happen next Tuesday.

This month we have been able to pretty much attend the regular Sunday Meetings, although in a different ward each week depending on where we are needed, generally to put out fires or help missionaries.  Last week we were invited by one of our Belem Sister missionaries to attend the meetings in the morning in her ward and then have lunch with their extended family, of which another one of our missionaries is a part.  Our Sister, in the pink on the left, served at the same time as the one on the right, our Elder Itoi. They returned home about the same time and she ended up meeting and marrying his brother.  So one big happy family as you can see!

 We spent a wonderful day  reminiscing about the Belem mission etc. We topped the day off giving a fireside in one of the adjoining wards where our Elder Itoi is the counselor in the Bishopric. It was really such a special day!

The last two Sunday evenings we have given firesides focused on uniting the missionaries and members in the work of Salvation.  The Stakes and Wards  are beginning to put together their mission plans and Dad has been working closely with the Stake Presidencies in this regard.  We probably won`t be here long enough to see the results of this emphasis, but it is a great privilege to be a apart of "Hastening the Work".

Our weather has been crazy the last couple of weeks: torrential rains, hail, thunder and lightening storms, the hottest day on record in the past year in Sao Paulo, and power outages.   In spite of all that, Dad did manage to get a few minutes in the pool on his P-day.

That pretty much covers our adventures for the past 2 weeks.  Pretty hard to describe our experience today trying to find a chapel on a road that doesn`t exist in the GPS.  Such is life in Brazil.