elder siebers: 47. Madureira, Rio de Janeiro

Monday, June 2, 2014

47. Madureira, Rio de Janeiro

2 June 2014

Sorry for the extremely late email today, my world got turned upside down this week! We had an alright week. Elder j.Silva has been really sick all week and its been kinda a setback. On Sunday night I got the call, I'm being transferred to Itaboraí (Ee-tah-Bore- Ai-ee). Not only that I'm opening a new area and to add on top of that- I will be training another new Elder. I either have a knack for training or I have a serious thing to learn....I 'll go with that...

Almost seven months in Madureira

I haven't heard too much about my area, actually I've heard some conflicting descriptions. My experienced and well aged District Leader (who goes home this week) said that about a year ago it was an exploding area, lots of new people moving there because of a new oil plant. Others said that I will teach a lot of cows, and Elder Evans who did some divisions there, the first word that came out of his mouth was:

"Dust"

... so its going to be quite the shock leaving busy Madureira....

[I seriously love technology and social media. Being the mother of a missionary in 2014 is different than it was even ten years ago. Last night a friend of Cooper's in Madureira (who is also friends with me on Facebook) posted a picture of Elders Siebers and Silva and said that he was being transferred. Through Google Translate we were able to go back and forth a few times and in addition to committing to stay in touch, she was able to tell me Cooper was going to Itaborai. So last night Scott and I spent an hour on Google Earth looking at street views of this rather small town on the other side of the bay. I think it's going to be a big change for Cooper. For my CT locals I would say it looks like going from Manhattan to Goshen CT. For my Western friends I would say it looks like going from Los Angeles to Hurricane UT. We found the LDS Chapel in Itaborai and look who was walking down the street! (see below)]