Of Ketchup, Ranch Dressing, and Holidays

Week #26

No Thanksgiving. Such a sad thing. I didn't even realize until the day after. The heat during November and December is ruining my internal calendar. It's December. It's hot. I wear a short-sleeve shirt because a long sleeve one is virtual suicide. Christmas is much smaller here so far. It's December and there are a few advertisements here and there saying "Grande Promocao de Natal" but nothing else. Nobody is talking about it except the missionaries. It's kind of nice though. Christmas in the U.S. starts way too early, especially if you're a musician, even more especially if you're a musician in multiple groups. I like this.

Another baptism this week and I forgot my camera, but I have pictures from the last one and a few from our temple trip yesterday. We also moved to another house. The new one is much better structurally, but the water is yellow and we don't have a sink. Also, the walls are a lovely shade of pinkish purple. Uma casa boa. I don't think I've ever seen any Americans so good at stacking stuff higher than it should be. Throw three Brazilians and one African on the job and they will make it fit. One-trip like a boss!

Life without ketchup is different. I bought a hamburger yesterday and it had no ketchup. They didn't even have it available and the sizes of drinks and fries are sad. Far too small. (Not that I would want to eat many fries without ketchup anyway). There have been a couple families who knew I was an American and provided what they call ketchup, but it's not the same. I don't think they've ever heard of a green salad before either. Salad seems to mean tomatoes with corn, onion and vinegar. 

I don't think I've told the biggest difference yet. I had heard about this from other missionaries that went to South America, but I didn't expect to see it so much. Here, if the baby is hungry, mom feeds it, no matter where she is, what she is or isn't wearing or who is around. This includes trains, Stake Conference, missionary lessons and malls. You get used to it pretty quickly, the the first time was on my first day here on the train to my area. Very surprising. It makes me laugh about mom getting in trouble for nursing her child discretely in a kindergarten class. 

Funny story. When I was in the Atlanta Airport with the 30 other missionaries going to Brazil, one of them asked me if I was going to Porto Alegre North. He then handed me a box of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix and told me it was for Sister Wright (my Mission President's wife). When I handed it to her, she didn't believe it was actually for her and said she might cry. Apparently, she has been missing ranch dressing for a very long time and went around to all the sisters in the mission office telling them if they were good, she might share a little. Most of the sisters are Brazilian and had no idea what it was. One of them even asked, because of how excited Sister Wright was, if it was chocolate. I guess chocolate is important everywhere.

The temple was amazing. The new film is much better and the building much smaller. When I showed one of the Brazilian Elders a picture of the St. George temple, he said it was half Mormon, half Catholic. I'm guessing he was referring to the size. This temple has a baptistry, laundry room, one room for the endowment, one for the veil, a very small Celestial Room, changing rooms, a waiting room and I think I saw three sealing rooms. Don't forget the laundry room. Very small. I kind of miss the big ones.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say right now. Maybe I'll think of something special in the next 30 minutes. For now, I'll send more pictures.

Love you all,

Elder Dickson

Sofia. She's six, she gets in a lot of trouble, her mother feeds us a lot and she really likes anything I happen to have in my bag. Camera, pens, sticky notes, American coins. She also loves to tell me things very slowly because I don't understand.

This is a sister in my mission who knows my MTC teacher. Small world. Also, Brazilians are horrible photographers. Also, temple. 

Temple, suspenders, Brazilian photographer. 

My first fast food receipt. It looks more expensive than it is.

Probably the strongest flavor I've ever had. I like it though. Lime and mint soda.

Bacon flavored Ramen. Another thing that is a brilliant idea, but it was very poorly executed. It tasted nothing like bacon. More like powdered TVP.