Sunday, 29, 21:16 hours

Good news: Since January 10th the Google Earth program can run on Macs! The picture on the left is of the island of Florianópolis which is about 5-10 minutes by bus from our hotel. The arrow is pointing to the general area of where we are currently living.

I figured out Google Earth could work with Macs while skyping with Bryan this afternoon. He was trying to find where I was on the globe, and he was then showing it to Max, my little nephew who stayed home from church today with a cold it seems. Theo was also sick, so I guess Bryan stayed home with 3 of the kids while Joanna went to church with the youngest, I believe.

Church here in the Kobrasol ward was fun – we arrived about 10 minutes early to be greeted by the Bishop (Angelo I believe is his name) and the two Sister missionaries. We didn’t have to do any introducing of ourselves, as the bishop was well aware of our coming. But when we introduced ourselves to the missionaries one of them, Sister Kinyon, mentioned that it was her first Sunday in the mission field – she seemed a little nervous as she walked around with her English/Portuguese dictionary.

Again, this is the Kobrasol ward, and they’re in the São Jose Stake. The attendance was small today, but many people are on vacation and at the beach. I guess that’s what happens when you live so close to the ocean. Those who were in attendance were more than welcoming as many came and introduced themselves. Church started off with a combined Relief Society and Priesthood class on “preparation” given by the Bishop, and then Tiago Lúcia (I think that’s his name) was our Sunday school teacher, and we learned more about the creation and the fall of Adam and Eve.

Jenna, I asked someone after church about Maria Lúcia (I think that’s the name you told me to look for) and I mentioned how she was Asian, and the kid with whom I was speaking said there was a sister Lúcia that is Asian but she is in Japan. It was her son that taught our Sunday school class. I don’t know if this sister is the same as you remembered, but give me some more details and I’ll find out. Tiago is 24, so when you were here he would have been 14. Kinda fun.

Also during Sunday school, Sister Kinyon asked me how long ago I’d come back from serving in the Rio North mission. She then asked if I knew an Elder Moore. It ended up being the same Colin Moore who I lived with my freshman year in D.T., and the same who went to Rio in the same MTC group, and the same who I tried to get to come on this program with me. So Sister Kinyon is his neighbor from Bountiful and told me so pass a quick hello to him and his family. What a small world.

Literally 10 minutes before Sacrament meeting started, the 1st Counselor from the bishopric approached Dave and I and advised us that 2 of the speakers they had planned for today were at the beach and they needed our help. He asked us to take 5 minutes each and introduce ourselves and share a brief message. Of course we agreed. Then as we were sitting in the front on the stand he whispered, “well, 10 minutes would be great.” He also told me to focus my thought on Prayer. So, I was called to be the first speaker and it went well. As I was speaking, one of the speakers who were supposed to talk showed up. Then Dave spoke, and then the High Councilor who showed up during my talk.

The church building was more similar to those on my mission – older, not air conditioned, but it served us well.

After church Dave and I got to talking w/ some of the young adults and trying to make some friends. Everyone was really open and friendly. There are about 4 or 5 our age and they told us about some plans they had for this week – getting pizza together, playing soccer. So hopefully we’ll get to participate.

The rest of the afternoon deemed pretty quiet. While watching/ listening to General Conference in Portuguese I took a nap on our hotel’s couch that I pulled halfway out to the sleeper couch position. (I couldn’t unfold the bed entirely because the room the couch is in isn’t that bad, and in order to watch the DVD and lay down I had to put the couch the short way.)

I then wrote some letters on my computer while Dave used the internet. When we switched, I got on skype and talked to Bryan, and on AOL and talked w/ others. After using that for an hour or so I watched some more conference and then made some lunch – Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. emmmm!

This evening I took a quick walk to the church to grab a book to read (História da Igreja na Plenitude dos Tempos) and walked the blocks surrounding our hotel, looking for a park or somewhere to relax. None was found, so back to the hotel I went.

Dave and I watched some BYUTV from the net and now it seems we’re winding down.

I talked w/ Humberto on the phone this evening and confirmed some questions I had about the program. We made sure someone had contacted the Stake President and that it was okay for us to call the bishops in the surrounding areas to mark days for us to come visit and teach CASP. He said he had and that we could, so tomorrow we plan on calling the bishops and the director of Institute in Florianopolis.

Remember Marcio, the photographer that was nice to me and kinda took me under his wing at the Internacional and Gaúcho game? So I wrote him a thank you email and told him I was interested in shooting more sports events around the Florianopolis area and he wrote me back saying he’d get in contact with his boss. Nice guy. Not sure if anything will come of it, but having a contact is cool.