Friday, 27, 23:01 hours

Mixed emotions today – it was our last day in Porto Alegre. I finally took some pictures of the SRE office and the awesome people that work there.


This is where the teaching-magic happens.


Here's a view from the classroom window. We're on the 6th floor.

This morning we had a brief meeting to discuss how we can improve the course. The last two weeks we’ve had the participants fill out an evaluation form and so today we went through them all and tried to make adjustments accordingly. Everyone added a little something to the meeting:

Here's Humberto


And then here is Dave on the left, Jo in the background and Alexandre in the green shirt,


And Pierre on the right, Elder Burrup on the left, and Sávio in the middle


Eleandro and Savio


Here's Sister Burrup and everyone else I've previously identified


Pierre on the right, Alexandre in the green on the left.


In the meeting we mostly decided that we need to be more active and follow the recommendation of having the instructors talk only 20% of the time while having the participants talk and practice 80% of the time. Over the past two weeks I’ve learned a lot from Alexandre and Elder Burrup as instructors and I think this little meeting will make their class even more powerful. Hopefully Dave and I will apply these ideas as well in our courses. After the meeting we said our goodbyes to everyone at the office.

By 10:30 we checked out of the hotel and crammed our 2 suitcases and 3 backpack/shoulder bags into Pierre’s car and drove to the airport. We actually didn’t get on the road until 11 due to some miscommunications, so we thought we were late, but it turned out the airport had some sort of backup. We waited in line to check in our bags for at least 30 minutes w/o the line moving. The kinks were finally straightened and we boarded the full flight to São Paulo (with 1 stop in Florianopolis). It was a quick 40-minute flight. By car it would have taken about 6 hours they say, but to tell you the truth, I fully expected to drive. But I’m not complaining.

Pierre rented another VW Gol (I think it has to be the most common car in Brazil. That and the Fiat) and we were even tighter in that car. Our first adventure in Florianopolis was trying to find the local church in São Jose (where we were going to stay) and meet up with Elder Natchingall. Pierre, I know you didn’t want me to add this part, but the drive was … an adventure to say the least. J Let’s just say Pierre showed us a little extra of the area than we needed to see, and it took a little longer than expected. But upon arriving at the church we met Elder and he showed us around the little SRE office inside the chapel. It’s what I expected: 2 rooms, 4 computers, a few phones, lots of materials for the course, and things like that. It will be perfect.

For lunch Elder Natchingall directed us to a local churrascaria (brazilian barbeque joint). We got there well past lunch time (about 2 pm) and we were one of two parties in the whole restaurant, but they still brought out plenty of good food. I think the bbq pineapple was my favorite.

After another short visit to the SRE office at the chapel we returned to our hotel and said goodbye to Elder Natchingall and Pierre. Pierre returned to Porto Alegre and Elder Natchingall went to his beach apartment to be w/ his family.

Dave is taking Sociology 445 and has to turn in at least 1 paper every week. So while he was busy working on that, I walked around the block for a bit, went to the supermarket to buy some bottled water and some laundry soap (though after I let some clothes soak in the bathroom sink I read on the door that we aren’t supposed to wash and dry clothes in our on the balcony of the apartment… oh well.

Speaking of our apartment, I think we are definitely getting spoiled. We are staying at the Diaudi Hotel (http://www.diaudihotel.com.br) on the 6th floor. Here the hotel seems even nicer than our last one – a.c. in the elevator, our room has a sleeper couch, microwave, mini-fridge, and almost 2 separate rooms which is nice so while one is one the computer or studying, the other can be in the bedroom studying or watching TV.

I plan to work hard so we can be worth these great things.

I finished my reading for my Sociology 335 class and began thinking about the paper I have to write.

The part of São Jose where we’re staying seems to be in a prime location - easy access to pizzerias, markets, Laundromats, bus stops that go to downtown and things like that. It’s a cleaner Brazilian city and the buildings seem to actually be in order and look nice. They say Florianopolis has been voted the nicest city in Brazil, #2 is Rio de Janeiro.

A few hours ago I took a quick visit to the front desk where two young guys work as receptionists. They helped me find some places we could visit tomorrow, being that it’s Friday and we are planning on contacting bishops for the CASP course on Sunday. Right now is the tourist season, so many people are at the beach or vacationing elsewhere. I guess teaching ehre will be a little different than in Porto Alegre – we will be renting a car and traveling around to the different chapels teaching there, so we have to call all the leaders and mark days to come and give the course. From first day impressions it seems things will start off a little slow, but I hope we can get the ball rolling soon. My main purpose for being here is to teach CASP.

I got to talk w/ mom and dad on skype tonight. They sound good. I showed them a website of a surf school on the Floripa island. Maybe one day I’ll take some lessons. That would be awesome: http://www.surftripdailha.com.br/

Tomorrow I believe we plan on waking up early to get a good head start.