Well, another week has gone by and we are still here. It has been an up and down week for us. We finished moving in to our new office at the newly remodeled stake center. Our new office is wonderful. It is nice and clean and the air conditioning works wonderfully. The chapel, cultural hall, stake presindent's office, high council room and our office are the areas that have air conditioning. Because we are there most of the time during the day when the other areas are not available, our office is very popular.
We discovered as we moved all of the supplies from the old office, that we had a lot of extra student manuals, some were 7-8 years old. They took up a lot of space in our storage room, so we let the members have any of the excess manuals that they wanted. We felt it was better to let them have them instead of being stored in a closet some place. There is only one problem with the new office; we do not have internet, yet. The telephone company did not reserve a slot for the building while it was being remodeled, and they now say they are at capacity and may not have one for a while. It will really hamper us if we can't get it soon.
There was an open house for the renovated stake center that went from Tuesday to Saturday. The dedication was Saturday evening. We could not be there, because we were in Vitoria da Conquista, a city about 150 miles away. Before the stake here in Itabuna received the date for the dedication, we had made plans for the training and a super saturday event in Vitoria. We went to Vitoria on Friday afternoon. That night, we treated the couple who had rescued us the previous month to dinner. The next morning we went to the super saturday event for seminary. The young people had a good time. That aternoon we gave a training lesson for teachers, then that night we were at an institute event. In all it was a busy day.
On Sunday we spoke in 2 sacrament meetings and then that evening, we presented a fireside about the Perpetual Education Fund to about 45 -50 people. This is probably one of the more difficuly parts of our job, because we have to learn how the whole system works, be able to explain it to members, interview those who are interested, make sure all the paper work is filled out correctly, make sure the Bishops and Stake Presidents understand their roles, make sure a repayment process is in place and then follow up to make sure those who received help are doing well in school. On top of this, it has to be in Portuguese. I am learning a great deal of new vocabulary.
When we came back today, we had a zone conference with the missionaries and the mission president, President Vecchi. He is a very kind and understanding man. The missionaries seem to really love him. We also found out that we still do not have internet. There are still problems to be solved, but we know the Lord will bless us as we strive to do our part. It is good to know the Gospel is true.

Well, this week has been very busy. Wednesday, besides our usual office work, the Sister missionaries had us go with them to visit an inactive family. We are glad to help them. Thursday, we started to pack things for the move to our new offices. In the afternoon, the Elders in the Lomanto ward asked us to go with them for some visits. We were happy to oblige. We visited a young woman who will be baptized in 2 weeks. The Elders said we did not have to go because it might be a little dangerous, but we went anyway, and it proved not to be, although the nieghborhood was a little scary. We had to walk to the house because there was no road. The houses were made of wood collected from various places, there were dirt floors and broken pieces of furniture to sit on. There were no windows except were they hadn't put wood; yet each house had electricity and they probably all had tvs and dvd players. They also all had electric meters. It was interesting. That evening, we went with the same elders to a city close by that used to have missionaries. They are now part of the Lomanto ward and the ward is trying to start a dependent sunday school. We had a list of members who lived there, but it wasn't very current. We were not able to contact anyone. When we came back, the Elders took us to a sidewalk stand that sells acarajes. This is almost a cornmeal muffin deepfried, cut in half then holded with shrimp, chopped celery and a thick paste like sauce. All for about $.50. They are really quite good.
On Friday we started to move the office. A member of the stake presidency, Brother David, was in charge. Everybody here in the church goes by their first name. He was very helpful and very funny also. We filled up our car about 4 times to haul stuff over. Besides our office, we also have a storage room for all our supplies. We filled that up very quickly. Our furniture had to be disassembled, taken over and then reassembled. Brother David and his helpers did all of that, for which we are very grateful. We spent most of the day with the move. That night, we went with the Sisters again as they taught some teenage girls about Christ. It was a good experience.
Saturday was moving day again. Another 2 carloads of manuals and supplies. We got a lot of things done. The office is almost ready. That afternoon, we traveled to Ilheus, about 20-25 miles away to do some teacher training. It is part of the Itabuna stake. Ilheus is a very picturesque city. It looks like some city on the Mediterrean coast. The chapel is about 200 meters from the beach. We had a good experience there. There are some very dedicated members here, as you would expect.
Sunday, we were invited to go with the stake presidency to 2 ward conferences. It is interesting and a little humorous to hear the sustaining of the General Authorities. They really struggle with some of the names. I was invited to speak at both of the meetings, which is good practice for me. It is interesting to see the church in action here. Except for the language, it is like being in our own home ward. What a blessing for us to be here.

September 15

We realized that most of you do not know what we do here, so we thought we better explain. We are coordinator and secretary for the seminaries and institutes for the Salvador South mission except in the city of Salvador. The area that we cover is about 400 miles north to south and about 200 miles east to west. We have responsibily for 10 cities and 22 seminary classes and 22 institute classes. This means we keep track of attendance in all of the seminary and institute classes in this area. We also do teacher training and graduation services in all these cities. We also have responsibility for the Perpetual Education Fund processes in these cities. We currently have an office in a rented home that serves one of the wards here. The newly remodeled stake center is soon to be opened and we will have an office and classroom there where we can do most of our work. We do have to travel at least 2 times per month, usually on weekends. The church has given us a car so we can do all of the traveling.
This past week we had some enjoyable experiences. In Janet's English class, we taught the students the hokey-pokey, so they could learn body parts. On Wednesday, we helped the missionaries get to the bus station and back to their apartment. There was a transfer with new ones coming in and old ones leaving. On Friday, we traveled to a city called Jequie, about 120 miles away. We had some training to do there. While there, we met with the district president, did teacher training and visited an institute class. That was Saturday afternoon. That morning, we wandered around the city, both in the car and on foot. We went to the city's open air market. It seemed pretty big. You could get anything you wanted there quite cheaply. I got a belt and we found some DVDs; they may be pirated copies, but we don't know. Most of the DVDs here are such the you can pick the language you want. It was interesting to see this market place. On Sunday, we spoke in sacrament meeting in both branches. Afterwards, we ate with the district president and left for home.
On Monday, we invited the missionaries in the city over for cookies and drinks. We made cookies for the occasion and they turned out very good. We forgot how much they could eat. They wiped out almost all of the cookies and all of our drinks, but as I said it was enjoyable.

Week of August 30

Well, it has been a little over a week. not to much special this week, but some interesting experiences. On Tuesday, we went with one of the seminary teachers to visit some students who had not been attending his class. The teacher is a young man preparing for his mission. He plans to go next spring. As we visited some of the homes, we felt very grateful for all the material blessings we have. We traveled down some dirt roads in the city to some houses that looked as if there was no running water or indoor plumbing and very little of the things we take for granted. We are blessed.
Janet's English class is growing. There are new students each week. Most people here want to learn English and have taken some classes. but they want to learn how to speak, so her class is becoming popular. We also visited a seminary class in another ward. There are some very dedicated teachers who love the Lord and want to help in His work. We are fortunate to be working with them.
On Friday we went to the city of Ilheus. We wanted to find one of the chapels, since we will be visiting there on occasion. It is part of the Itabuna stake. It is the port city and about 20-25 minutes away. It is a touristy city and very picturesque. There is a lovely small bay with buildings very close to the water. It is an old city, probably 350 - 400 years old. Many of the streets are very narrow, so they have made them pedistrian only streets. We tried some food from a street vendor. Janet really like it (it had shrimp, need I say more). I thought it was tasty. We had a good time. On Saturday, we had a training meeting with the seminary and institute teachers from Itabuna. This is always a good measure for me. I have to teach the class and it stretches my language skills. I seem to be getting better and the people are very kind.
Sundays are always good. The members of our ward are very kind to Janet. They want to help her learn to speak Portuguese. In the late afternoon, we have a young returned missionary come over and Janet helps him with his English and he helps her with her Portuguese. Janet likes it because it is somebody besides me she can talk to. He is a very sharp young man.
We will have more next week. We go to another city to give some training. The church is true