Today being Sunday, Felippe invited us to attend his ward, in the town of Itaboraí, about 50 km to the east of Rio. We were going to just take the bus, but he and his father, Wilson, insisted on meeting us downtown and driving us over, about a 45 minute drive. Today also being Brazil's Independence day, we saw many tanks and military police standing about, preparing for the Independence Day Demonstration (I didn't get to see it, so I don't know if it could qualify as a "parade").
Their ward had Relief Society/Priesthood first, so I went with Felippe's mother to RS. As she didn't speak English and I didn't understand her Portuguese, all I could do was shake my head in apology and say "Eu não entendo." After the lesson started, it was all moot. The lesson, via my keen understanding of RS visual aides, was about food storage. In Sunday School (in the "Escola por membros antigos" or "school for ancient members" - a.k.a. Gospel Doctrine) James translated much of what was being said. We discussed the Saints in the Americas circa the birth of Christ.
The third hour was, of course, Sacrament Meeting, which took place in the beautiful and air conditioned (!!) chapel. It being fast Sunday, James was kind and patient enough with me to give me the gist of most of the testimonies, with a line-by-line translation of Felippe's testimony.
We met many members, one of whom happened to be wearing one of James's old ties, handed from James to Felippe to Sérgio. Good ol' missionary ties! We also met the ward mission leader, Jorge, who was planning a baptism and asked us if we'd be willing to sing a hymn in English during the "waiting for the new member to get dried off" intermission. As we didn't have an English hymnal, I quickly jotted down the words to "Lead Kindly Light" and we made out pretty well. I only had to make up a couple of lines that I couldn't remember, and I don't think anyone noticed.
After the baptism, we piled into the back of Wilson's station wagon with Jorge and his wife, while Felippe rode shotgun to another member's house for a barbecue. Also joining the party (but not in the car - it was already stuffed beyond seatbelt capacity) were Russell, an American, his wife Gabriella, a Brazilian, and our host, Fernando, and his wife and little girl, Cíntia and Maria Fernanda, and later Cíntia's sister, Lauren. Quite a party for a little apartment!
Most of the party at Fernando's house
We sat around the table feasting on all sorts of barbecued meat (pork, beef, chicken, linguiça sausage, and chicken hearts), rice, Brazilian pico de gallo, soda, and a unique (but good!) potato salad consisting of potatoes, carrots, mayo, green olives, and raisins. I had more than two helpings (albeit small helpings).
Brazilian meat tastes so good!
The spread. The meat tricked in throughout the meal.
Silly boys.
But the coup de grace would have to be dessert. Fernando threw some bananas on the grill, still in their peels, and Lauren then extracted the cooked fruit and sprinkled it with cinnamon-sugar before adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate flakes. Ambrosia! I took a risk on appearing rude and accepted seconds. Yum!
Sweet heaven.
We sat around Fernando and Cíntia's apartment, visiting and sharing stories from one until around 6:30 in the evening, when Jorge had to go to work, so Fernando took James, myself and Felippe to Felippe's house so that Wilson (who hadn't attended the barbecue) could drive us back into town.
We ended up not going immediately back into town, but were entertained by Felippe and his father for several hours. We were given a tour of their very nice house, including a great fruit orchard (and a sick guard dog) and a coconut tree, which Wilson instructed Felippe to pick some coconuts from so they could treat us to the tasty liquid inside. We visited (well, I mostly sat quietly and got the occasional interpretation, but that was fine) late into the night, until Felippe's mother Fatima came home with banana bread for all.
Felippe handing off a coconut for drinking.
Felippe, Wilson, Fatima, me, James
As it was after ten by this point, Wilson offered to let us stay over, but since we hadn't brought our toothbrushes (or more importantly, James's contact case), we politely declined and then felt guilty as they all piled into the car with us for the hour drive back to our apartment, but Wilson insisted on driving us. They dropped us off at around midnight, and then made their way back home, probably to wake up early the next day for work. I'm honestly amazed and awed by the generosity and hospitality of these people, both Felippe's family, as well as Fernando's. What a blessing to have met such good friends, even if we don't (as of yet) speak the same language!
A beautiful painting of the São Paulo temple hanging
in the dining room of the Forte residence.
The closest temple to them is a six hour drive, which makes
me feel guilty for not attending the Portland Temple as often.
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