Christmas in August

So on Tuesday (August 11th) we flew out of São Paulo to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco (a state in Northeast Brazil). We spent the night there in a hostel before leaving early the next morning for Natal. Since it was my first experience with a hostel I didn't really know what to expect, and at first Jeff and I both hated it. Then we started to get to know the people running it and the other guests and we started to really like it. It didn't help that they had plumbing problems and had no running water at the hostel that night. They filled up some big buckets of water, so we took showers by dumping water on ourselves with an empty half-gallon ice cream container. Surprisingly effective.

Wednesday we took an early bus to Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte. As you might have guessed from the title of this blog post, Natal means "Christmas" in Portuguese. We stayed with the Orikaza family, a half-Japanese family that Jeff knew from his mission. Their daughter, Mayumi, had a car and served as our unofficial tour guide. That afternoon we went souvenir shopping in the center. We bought some really cool soccer jerseys, and I bought a hammock. The guy started off asking for 60 reais and I wound up buying it for 30. Now I just need to figure out how to hang it in the backyard....

Thursday we met up with Elder Nascimento, one of my missionary companions. By way of explanation, on the mission he was known as Elder E. Nascimento. The "E" stood for Elder, which literally is his first name. His parents weren't even members of the church, they just saw some missionaries one time and thought Elder would make a good name. He got baptized when he was a teenager and went on to personally baptize the rest of his family.

Anyways, that morning we went to Ponta Negra beach, which is one of the most famous in Natal (since I'm tired of explaining that all the beaches we went to are really famous in Brazil, from here on out you can just assume they are - that includes Miami Beach too). When we first got there it was raining, but since winter in Natal is at least as hot as summer in Utah, that was not a problem. After a while the weather cleared up enough for us to realize that we'd gotten sunburned through the clouds. That was the last time I took my shirt off without first putting on a layer of SPF 50 sunblock. (The odd result of this trip is that I'm really not that tan. Apart from a little color I got at the beach this past week I'm disturbingly white for having spent two months in a tropical country.)

That afternoon we went to see an old fort and walked pretty much all over the coast of Natal. To Get to the fort we walked along a really cool beach with some reefs that broke the waves and created some tide pools and stuff along the shoreline. While in the fort we discovered that 16th century Portuguese and Dutch soldiers wore really gay-looking uniforms,
that the English translation of "banheiro masculino" is "won's bathroom," and that the "secret passage" now leads to what smelled like a septic tank.




Friday was one of the highlights of the trip: the sand dunes at Genipabu beach. They had a lot of things to do there: you could ride dune buggys, a sandboard, or even camels. (We got into an argument with Elder and Mayumi since they both said that they weren't camels since they only had one hump and that the proper word was "dromedaries." Yeah. Sure. Whatever.) I went with the sandboard because it was cheaper and sounded really fun. It's a lot harder than snow or wakeboarding because the sand gives pretty much no traction so you can hardly cut at all. Maybe if I got some more practice.

After the dunes we hung out at the beach for a while. Once the vendors figured out that we were tourists they started bringing us lots of cheap seafood. It was great. We bought some shrimp kabobs and a whole lobster. The lobster was only 5 reais (about 3 $US). It makes me sad to think that I can't get them for nearly that cheap here, especially since the shrimp and lobster were really good.

That afternoon we spent lying around in hammocks drinking from coconuts, eating the coconut meat until we were stuffed, and then using the rest of the coconut meat to make candy. Yes, coconuts are amazing, and yes, I would like one right now, thank you.

The next day we left Natal early in the morning for João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba and the home of Diego Santana, one of my other mission companions. We'll leave that for the next blog post.

More soon,

-Kev

Déjà Vu

Thursday (August 6th) I got up at around 5 and headed to the Tieté bus station, the largest bus station in Latin America and the second largest in the world (the biggest is in New York). Despite the hype, it was pretty much like every other bus station I've been to in Brazil, except it had a subway connected to it. (I'm really starting to like the subway. It's a lot nicer than the bus and a lot faster.)

Anyway, I took the 7:30 bus to Ribeirão Preto, where I served my mission. I got there around 12:00. I'm staying with the Bittencourts, a member family from my last area, which was in Ribeirão Preto itself. In the afternoon I visited some members and converts, then in the evening it was the Bishop's wife's birthday and they had a party for her, so I got to see most of the members.

Friday morning I made pancakes with maple syrup for the Bittencourts. They have a 17 year old son and an 11 year old grandson who are addicted already. I spent the afternoon visiting converts and members I knew well. It's pretty crazy. Friday evening was pretty cool since a bunch of the youth and young adults in the ward went to the center to play pool and hang out. We ate dinner at a fast food place that had some arcade games for free and I was destroying everyone. It was cool to see what it is normal Brazillian kids do for fun.

One cool story is a guy named Guilherme. Elder E. Nascimento and I met him about two weeks before the end of my mission. He said he was less active but wanted to start going to church, so we went to his house a few times and he went to church once or twice. After that I never heard anything else about him. When I got here I found out he's super active and getting ready for his mission. Today (Sunday) he baptized one of his friends. He's a really cool guy.

Saturday I got on the 4:40am bus to São José do Rio Preto to visit my first area. I visited two families I baptized, then headed back to Ribeirão on the 5:00 bus and got back to Ribeirão Preto around 9:00. It was a long day, but really cool. At some points I could really feel the Spirit pretty strong as I was thinking about my mission and seeing how the gospel changes people's lives. It made me really grateful for the gospel and helped me remember how important missionary work is, how much it really helps people find true happiness.

Today (Sunday) was also pretty cool. One of the Elders who's in this area now, Elder Gall, was in my zone last year and we did splits a few times, so it was cool to see him again. It was also a really great experience to see a convert baptism and see some of the new people in the ward who got baptized since I left. In the afternoon I went to see the family of Raul, a boy we baptized about 3 weeks before I left Brazil. His stepdad, Fernando, is inactive and his mom, Marcia, isn't a member, but they're way cool. We visited for a while, then I found out Fernando is addicted to video games, so we played Tekken and Mortal Kombat for a while. That's one fun thing that I always wanted to do as a missionary.

Tomorrow I head back to São Paulo and Tuesday I fly out to Recife, so there's still another week and a half of adventure left before I head home.

More soon,

-Kev

Ubatuba: Free Bikes, a Boat, and More Giant Rats!

So last weekend we went to Ubatuba, a city on the coast in the state of São Paulo. Of all the hotels we've stayed at this one was the most fun. It had a really big pool, and lots of amenities, like pool tables, ping pong, and even a 9 hole mini golf course. They also had bikes you could check out from the front desk to take for rides along the beach. I was pleasantly surprised that none of this stuff cost extra. The bikes were probably the coolest, since there was a trail that goes right along the beach just for bikes.

On Saturday (August 2nd) we took a boat out to an island just off the coast that used to be a prison. There were a bunch of old buildings, and for some reason the island's caretakers had a bunch of capivaras, the worlds largest (and awesomest) rodent. There were also a bunch of beaches on the island that were basically empty except for us. The boat also took us to some beaches that are only accessible by boat.

Saturday night a few of us went to the Ubatuba aquarium, which was pretty cool. It had some tropical fish, as well as a sort of "petting zoo" where you could reach into a tank and touch sea urchins, sea cucumbers, starfish, and a ray.

Sunday we went to church in Ubatuba, then headed back to São Paulo. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went one last time to a few of our favorite places in São Paulo that we'd been to, like Avenida Paulista, Liberdade, and Avenida 15 de Março (a street with tons of cheap street vendors). I bought a really sweet São Paulo soccer Jersey and some ties. Wednesday our classes finished up, and Thursday I headed to Ribeirão Preto to visit my mission, which will be my next blog entry.

As you may have noticed I went back and added pictures to my old blog posts. Feel free to check them out.