Sunday, February 26, 2006

TRUCO! Who knows how to play? To close out a nice Sunday, Marcelo (Carioca) and I were on a team against Flávia and Élida; with great patience they taught me how to play Truco and amazingly Marcelo and I ended up winning! But I’m getting ahead of myself… let me start from Sunday morning.

Everyone arrived to joint Sunday school dragging; most were running on just a few hours sleep. After Sunday school all the women and a few men loaded in the charter bus, the rest of the men (me included) walked the 5 blocks to the Mafra chapel where we participated in the Mafra Branch sacrament meeting. It was quite a sight to see the attendance of 120+ members when it would have normally been 30+.

After a quick change of clothes we packed into the bus again and rode a good twenty minutes to the Rio Negro park in Paraná (a neighboring state). From the leakage on the ground, you can see the bus had some troubles getting there.

But we were served a great lunch in a large meeting hall; everyone enjoyed each other’s company. Afterwards we had time to meander around the nearby forest (forests like this are rare in Brazil) and rest.


Here’s some pictures of my friend Flávia and I on some swings in the woods. We were unaware that probably as we took this picture everyone else was starting the guided trail walk through the park:

What was supposed to be a “spiritual walk” through the park ended up being a grudging hour for many of the girls who were unprepared – their platform sandals and shoes were a nuisance.

But we caught up to the last group; but during the walk Flávia and I got a little carried away taking pictures and got left behind again. We found them in the historic Catholic Church, taking a tour. I actually learned some pretty neat things on this tour – inside the church and also through a museum of ancient artifacts.
Sweet! An old fireplace!

The day finished with dinner and a fireside from an Area Authority. Everyone who was there knows what I’m talking about when I say this man had a BOOMING singing voice. Ha… They also know what I’m talking about when I say he talked about the “usual subjects.”

Many of us finished the night chatting in the lobby until midnight struck – then the games started. Truco was a fun game to learn. I actually became quite addicted. Ha…