Marching, marching and a zone conference!

Hi y'all!

This week started with Kretlys, Dilles, and us making a shrimp dinner 

for P-day. We cooked a big batch of shrimp and then each did a side-dish.

  It was yummy!!

The next day, Chanelle called and told us that she got accepted into the RAD-TECH program!! Two days after they interviewed her! Yippee-Ai-Ay!!! SO, so excited for her! And she got her first picks for clinical sites - Primary Children's and the U hospital. All those hours in the cadaver lab (and a killer interview!) paid off!! We had Kara surprise her at work with flowers. ;)

On Wednesday, after running around doing stuff all day for Zone Conference, etc, I made banana bread and we took it to Elder Olsen (from P.C.). One day, when Dad and I were at his apt, I asked all the elders if they knew how to find pop bottle caps for us girls to make jewelry. He piped up and said that he'd been collecting them and that he could get some for me. I told him that I'd make him some banana bread as payment. ;) It was a "win/win"...

Thursday was the day before Zone Conference so we were going back and forth to the airport to pick up elders that were flying in from the out-lying areas. It's too far and not safe to travel from some areas by bus, so they have to fly. 

Friday was Zone Conference, which is always fun to see all of the elders that have moved from our area. I wish I could say that I love the meeting/training portion, but it's all in Portuguese so it's pretty hard to follow. My vocabulary - and attention span - only go so far and seven hours is a LONG time! Sigh.... But I LOVE seeing the elders and being able to visit with them.

After the long day on Friday, I got up bright and early to join all the Young Women in the district on a 'march.' We all started in town at the main grocery store and walked down the streets to the church, about 3 miles. The president, Amalia, had given each branch a piece of fabric to make a banner and the girls carried these as we walked. She had them stop every so often and recite the YW theme and we sang hymns as we walked. She had gotten police escorts to ride/walk to the side of us so we wouldn't get clobbered by cars. It was pretty cool!! 

Some of the girls had hymn books to sing. Here's the neighborhood off of the street that we walked along. This guy jogged along the side us for awhile.

The second girl on the left is Isabel's daughter and the woman to my right, Telma, is the new YW president in Dondo that we pick up every Sunday for church because she moved about 30 minutes away from it. She's 35 and a high school science teacher. She's married and they have been members of the church for 3 years. I really like her. She's great!!

When we got to the church, they took a group picture and then pictures of each branch.

Here's our little Dondo branch.

After pictures, we went inside and a member the District presidency, who happened to be Amalias brother, Freeman, spoke to the girls. Then Amalia spoke and had a Q & A. Mariana translated for me. One of the questions was similar to the US. 'Can I go to the school graduation dance when I know there will be drinking and other things going on?' I guess they have this one big dance, similar to our Prom, and the parents come and watch for the first hour and then they leave and the kids are on their own and it gets crazy. So people went back and forth, but they finally decided that you should go for the first hour but then leave when the parents do.
Another question wasn't so easy to answer. One girl said that her father made her go buy his beer every Sunday. She didn't want to do it, but she knew she needed to be obedient and respectful of him. What should she do? When I heard that, I said to Mariana that maybe she should just talk to him and explain that she wanted to keep the commandment to obey your parents but she also wanted to obey the commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Would he please not ask her to do this thing? Mariana said, 'That's good. I'm going to tell them.' I'm feeling a little smug (never a good thing and it always blows up in my face when I am...) while Mariana is explaining this to the group, when Mariana turns to me and tells me that it is more complicated. If the girl doesn't buy her father's beer, he can kick her out of the house. That's the law here. If your child displeases you, you can kick them out.
 That put a whole new spin on my pat answer.
After the discussion, Amalia had me teach a class on decorating their flip-flops with strips of fabric, like we did at our girls camp.

 I could only teach 7 or 8 at a time, so while we worked at the back of the cultural hall, they had each branch perform something. They danced, did skits, and sang.
One of the branch YW presidents, Veronica, was doing her flip flops while some girls danced and I joked with her that we ought to show them how to dance. She's about my age, and a riot, and when I said that, she said 'Sim!!' (Yes!) and told the announcer that we wanted to dance. I told her I was just kidding and asked if we really were and she said Yes again so we were the next ones up. The girls were so hilarious - they went nuts!! They clapped and hooted! It was pretty funny. One of the leaders (she's only 19 yr.) taped it on her phone but I haven't gotten it from her yet.
When I got home six hours later (and I left early - before they served lunch!), I showered and cleaned up. Pres. Kretly had gone that morning to drive some elders to a distant city so Sis. Kretly was alone. Dilles were busy that night so Dad and I went with Sis. K. to get some dinner and then we stopped at the padaria for bread on the way home.

On Sunday, Sis. Kretly came with us to Dondo.
Here's the young men preparing the sacrament:

I taught the first hour of Primary and taught them the 'Here's the church, here's the steeple" rhyme because the lesson was on respecting the chapel. It's a nursery rhyme but even the older kids really got into it. Creativity is lacking here, so anything the least bit creative is amazing to them, but sometimes difficult for them to grasp.
After the second hour, we zipped to another city because the branch president was an elder and he was being released because he goes home in a couple of weeks. They only meet for 2 hours so I went to Primary the first hour and sat behind this little girl. I loved her hair!!

After church, we came home. Long day - but not over yet... we had Dilles and Sis. Kretly for a pancake dinner. Then we packed it in.
We love you guys so much!!! Hope you feel the love-vibes from 10,000 miles away! ;)