Guten Tag!

Week #89

I'm in Ivoti! It's a small city of about 25,000 people, most of them German descent. Many even learned German before they learned Portuguese and still speak with an accent. There are even people that have the German flag in front of their house.

I'm here with Elder Andrade. He's from Paraíba which is very far to the northeast of Brazil. Almost the other end of the continent. He's been on his mission for almost five months. This is his second area.

We arrived in Ivoti together. I believe that the missionary term for this in English is "shotgunned" or "whitewashed." Figuring out a new area alone is a great experience, but I'm not sure that it's something I want to do again. Ivoti is a relatively rich city with very few businesses, so we spent a lot of time walking this week trying to find where the people are. Everybody works in Novo Hamburgo, which is another area, so, during the week, nobody is home and at night everybody is jogging or walking, so they still aren't at home to be taught. Our only chance of meeting people is on the weekend.

I think Ivoti is the highest concentration of wealth that I've had to work with. It's a rich, German-descent community with very few people. It's hard finding people that want to listen.

Actually, finding people that want to listen has always been difficult, but usually it's because people already have a commitment to their own church. Here, people have a religion just to say they have one. Most of the people we meet don't even believe what their church teaches and couldn't care less about learning divine truth. It's a sad situation.

Now for the good things. The house we have is great. There is lots of wind here, so the heat is bearable. I learned how to fix an electric showerhead. There's a bakery that makes a wonderful "cuca" or, in German, "Streuselkuchen". It's a type of cake that is a lot better than cake that can be filled with just about anything from fruit, cream, chocolate, nuts, and a type of creamy milk product called requeijão. It really doesn't matter what you fill it with, it's always good. Brazilians are great when it comes to adapting foreign foods and getting creative with them. 

Ivoti also has lots of hills. In one week, my belly already shrunk. I was getting fat in Matias Velho.

Here are some pictures and then I have to go. 

Everything that isn't a street looks like this.

Same thing. 

The view from the end of the city.

Until next week.

Elder Dickson