Moving In

Dear Family,
It has taken a lot of work, and a lot of walking to get the things we need for our apartment. Our apartment is 1 1/2 blocks from the mission office.

The office elders live in a house accross the street from the office. It has a garage that contains extra furniture and supplies. We were provided with a very hard sofa and loveseat, a kitchen table, a queen-size bed, 3 desks, a stove, a fridge, 2 stools, two lamps, two chairs and two "guarda-ropas"--a freestanding closet thing. (They don't have closets in Brazil). The elders carried everything over to our apartment on the hottest day we have had so far. Every missionary apartment has these basics (except they have single beds, two of which together are as wide as a queen bed) and they (and we) are also given a blender, a sandwich maker, a dish rack, plates, silverware, bowls, some pans, blankets, pillows. So we didn't have to buy as much as we thought we would have to.

We've bought, first--as Michael said we should!--some tools. Dad installed the light fixtures we bought (which took a lot of walking to find) and hooked up the gas on the stove. You would guess that Dad would find a hardware store right away--we have been to four. We also had to buy towels, storage containers, wastebaskets, etc elswhere.

Buying food is an adventure. The grocery store is about a mile walk. After we get our food, we have to take a taxi home, which only costs us about $R6--about $3 US. Whatever something costs, we think of half that amount in dollars. The biggest container for buying milk is one liter. I believe we are luckier than Joseph was when he was here--we can buy fresh milk, not boxed, and stored at room temperature. There are lots of fruits and vegetables for sale--by the kilogram--which we have to wash and soak for 1 minute in a bleach water solution. Mangos, papaya, pineapple, bananas are all very fresh and very flavorful. There is a small corner grocery by the mission office where we can buy bananas and bread, etc. A few blocks away is a store that sells only freshly grilled beef, chicken, pork chops, and shish kabobs for take-out. It's as cheap as buying the meat at the grocery store and it tastes so good, and saves me cooking the meat.

It is interesting to see the prices on some American foods. A can of Campbell's Tomato Soup costs $R8,95. (They use commas, instead of decimal points.) A can of Pringles costs about the same. We don't buy those things. There is no peanut butter at all, and even though they have Ruffles and Doritos, no Fritos! All the soup is dried. The only canned fruits are peaches and figs. The only canned vegetables are peas and corn. But you can buy guava, mango, grape, orange, tangerine, passion fruit, cashew, or pineapple juice!

There is so much work for us to do here. We are going to be working at the institute at least one day a week. I will help students applying for the Perpetual Education Fund. (For anyone who doesn't know what this is, the pioneers had a Perpetual Emmigration Fund that would forward money to members who didn't have money to gather to Utah, and then they would work and pay it back, and it would fund someone else.) The Perpetual Education fund has been in existence just a few years, but it is helping young people go to school and improve their lives. We will spend most of Saturday (Sabado) in the temple, their busiest day.

I found out that there is no "master" map in the mission office that shows all of the different districts. Each district has a map of their own area boundaries. When the office gets a referral that only has a street name (and oh, my, almost every street is named after somebody I never heard of and whose name is hard to pronounce or differentiate from another) it takes time to to find which district or area companionship should respond to the referral. So we bought big plasticised maps of Porto Alegre, and of Rio Grande do Sul, and I am outlining the districts. I think this will be a big help. We have also been making up some forms for checking the cleaning and evaluating the apartments. And there is more to do.

We went with two elders and helped teach a family that is so wonderful. I hope we can teach more people about the blessings of the gospel. It is lovely to see the happiness in those who come into the church. The members here are strong and active. I wish I could speak more Portuguese with them, but they are so friendly to me. I study the language every day.

We are still having problems getting the internet into our apartment. We finally got it put into the office we are assigned. Hopefully I can write a little more often, but Dad always wants the computer, too. We'll try!

We love and miss you. One of the things I do to communicate with other people is show them the pictures of my beautiful family. I have to be careful, or I can start to cry if I don't watch out! Take care, be good, and please keep us in your prayers. We are well and strong, and getting stronger--especially our feet!

Love,

Vonnie