A very hot hot summer

I was invited to teach for a month in the University of Navojoa. Sonora is a terrible place to be in the summer, but at the same time it was a great opportunity for me to have more experience in teaching. So despite the high temperatures and the long hours of intensive teaching, I had a good time. Even had the chance to play two special songs at church and be with the family (my dad's side).

Last Sabbath in the Brazilian church in Montreal

I've had the opportunity to be in many churches, and especially to play viola in different countries. And this time, while living in Montreal, it was not the exception. Feom the very first Sabbath that I arrived, I shared my talent and worshiped with my music. Since then, I felt accepted and welcome in that church. Many people would not understand why I chose to go to a Brazilian church instead of going to the hispanic one or even a french-speaking one. Besides the obvious reason that is not to ne explained here, I like the Brazilian worship style and convivencia.

But then I had to say goodbye, and believe me, saying goodbye is never easy. And this time is especially difficult because this church had become my "family" in Montreal (I did not know anybody in the city, and even before I arrived, they helped me out).

I might not be Brazilian, and I might not have moved to Montreal (for now) as a permanent resident, but the people in this church opened their heart to me as if I was to stay there as part of their church family.

I know that (almost) anywhere I may go, there will be a church where I can feel at home.

Major updates

Ok, so here I am, updating this blog once again. It had been a very long time (more than a year), but I will summarize it in a few pictures. From my time working in Montemorelos, I don't have any pictures (maybe because it was all the same routine!).


First of all, a little bit of my second trip to Brazil, this time to the state of Sao Paulo for a month.

I went back to Brazil in January 2010. This was a short visit to UNASP.

With my TESL trainers from England/Australia.

One of the lectures at the Music Festival @ UNASP.

And I had a chance to visit the Jewish-Adventist church in Campinas, SP.
Great church!

And I could not miss it, the Livraria Cultura in Sao Paulo.
I wanted to stay there the whole day!!

Back in Mexico, I retook my French lessons, this time at the Alianza Francesa Monterrey. I had great lessons and great teachers. And I also got the chance to pass the first DELF test. I still have a long way to go in French, but I'm happy I'm on the right track!

I went to a lecture given by Jack C. Richards, from Cambridge University Press. I even got him to sign a book for me!

Missao Calebe 5.0

Maraial, Pernambuco, Brazil

I'm finally posting some pictures of Caleb Mission (previous post about it).

The whole month of January was a blessing in Maraial (and I'm sure it was a blessing all around Brasil where the "Calebs" were). I was the first to leave the group (I came back to Recife on Jan 31st); therefore, I did not have any information about the number of baptisms they had. However, to my surprise, Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Sandra (the Mayor or Maraial and his wife, who is adventist) came to Recife yesterday and decided to visit me at the Union. She told me that 16 people were baptized and that her husband is getting baptized this coming Sabbath. It totally made my day, my week, my month!

I left without seeing the fruits of the mission there. All these time, I had only been praying for them, but yesterday the Lord allowed me to hear just a little bit of what He's doing in that town. The Lord is pouring his blessings unto those people and is guiding them to the light. I thank my Lord for allowing me to be part of that story, but most important, for allowing me bring people to Him.

Calebs in action (L to R: Mauricio, Naide, Sendy, Mr. Itai-the evangelist, Rafael,
Wesilany, Cizinha, Jessica, Sister Vade-the cook!, Cristina and Jedson.)

My kids!! I taught them English every evening for three weeks.

Maraial

Inviting the people of Maraial to the community service project and evangelistic meetings

"You are just like the wind: you cannot be stuck." YC

Learning Portuguese

One of the things that has made my adventures in Brazil more exciting is the language. The first days I was comparing everything with Spanish, making learning Portuguese even more complicated. Then I decided to just say the words even if i felt they were incomplete or wrong to me. Now, I am memorizing and using more words in Portuguese and reducing the amount of Spanish words in my conversations :)

Talking about language, yesterday in a restaurant I was reading the menu and I saw “x-hambúrguer”. By the way, the Anglicism ‘hambúrguer’ and ‘sanduíche’ are just a few of the words that Portuguese borrowed from the English language. So, I could not understand what an “x-hambúrguer” was until today that I started to read my recently acquired Portuguese book where it says that in Portuguese you use “x-hambúrguer” because the name of the letter X is ‘shis’ having a similar sound with the word cheese. Therefore, “x-hambúrguer” is read shis hambúrguer. That is just very funny and interesting :)

I love Portuguese! I love languages!

Major updates

I just realized that my last post is from mid June, and I kind of feel bad that I haven't updated this blog like in ages. Sometimes I feel like I want to write something, but then laziness comes to me and I keep on sayingtomorrow... tomorrow. But finally I'm writing again and this time it will be about new adventures. I realized/decided that life does not really have to be that normal and monotonous. That's like looking at things with a negative perspective. Instead of doing that, all I do and all that happens to me will be an adventure, even the most simple things.

The beginning of my adventures date from July 2009. I found myself heading to Memphis on July 3rd knowing just a bit of what it was going to be all about. After a couple of weeks of babysitting I found out that there was going to be an unusual adventure. Some friends tried to discourage me saying that I was being exploited, but somehow God had prepared me to see the good side of any situation and that helped me not to give up. On the last week of July I found myself in northern Florida enjoying the beach and playing with a 4 year-old boy that was scared of the waves. Finally,August came and my USA/TN adventure ended. I was glad that it was over because I was ready for whatever was coming next, but at the same time I felt like I needed to stay longer to fully enjoy what TN could offer to me.

August 11th, I was on my way back home, excited because I was going to see Sara again. She did not know what I had planned and that was even better. Our Houston-Monterrey flight was the same, so while waiting for my connection flight in Houston, I decided to go look for her on the other side of the airport. She was surprised to see me and I was so happy to see her! After that we had 6 great days together to do some cooking, paperwork, meeting friends, eating out, shopping, etc.

On August 16th the big adventure started. This time it involved 3 more friends, so it makes it even more interesting. Somehow I was sad to leave because I wanted to be with Sara, but I was excited as well because I was going to see some of my friends again. After long hours of waiting, running at the DFW airport, sleeping and walking around planes, we got to our final destination, AIU (formerly MC). This big adventure will end in January, but I'm sure there will be more to come, small or big but there's always new adventures to enjoy.

Thank God my adventures ended up being great ;)

Mission Trip (Puerto Vallarta)

Silent Drama performing during AY

My brother and some friends. (I know... the only good looking guy there is the one wearing black... fo course!! lol)

With my brother in Guadalajara

lunch time in Guadalajara