I came across an old mission buddy on Facebook this week and we’ve been reminiscing since. He reminded me that when we were working together in the mission office (he was Assistant to the President and I, the financial secretary), that a 17-year-old new convert (“…the boy with the long hair”) had come to us and asked us to teach his attorney uncle about the church because he was getting a lot of flack at home. My friend remembers it this way:

Carlos came back after we gave that discussion, so excited that his uncle was telling the family to lay off Carlos, that the Church wasn’t a bad thing. He went on and on about how impressed his uncle was with you. Then he suddenly stopped and looked embarrassed. “Uh, my uncle was impressed with you too,” he stammered. I just started laughing. I didn’t need his uncle to be impressed with me. I tried to tell him it was okay, but he was determined to remember some good thing his uncle had said about me. Finally, he looked up grinning with an “I got it!” look on his face. “You know what really impressed my uncle about you? Your shoe size! He said he never saw feet that big in his life!”

So you were the reason the heat came off Carlos, allowing him to stay active, go on a mission, marry Monica, be a bishop, stake president, mission president, and now the First Quorum of the Seventy. Steve! You made a GA!

He’s referring to Carlos Godoy of the First Quorum of Seventy.

I arrived in São Paulo this morning after an uneventful but long (9-1/2 hour) flight from Houston.

My driver was there to pick me up when I exited Immigration, so that made the lengthy drive to the Renaissance Hotel downtown bearable. He talked the entire time and then thanked me for the “papo” (chatter) as he drove off. I didn’t have to say much more than agree with him about politics, road construction, governmental corruption, square kilometrage of Brasil compared to other countries, etc.

He was well-read (or more likely, well-televisioned).

Now I sit here at 6:00 p.m. and the sun has set. We are in deep winter, in spite of 70-degree temps and blue skies earlier today.

Tomorrow I fly down to Blumenau once again. My hopes are more realistic this time, I think. It took a few months to finally realize that 30 years of changes can be more than intellectually-challenging, they can shock one emotionally as well. I think I am ready to face this city in my history once again, but with reset expectations.

This afternoon I decided I did want to visit Blumenau, Santa Catarina once more. It turns out I will be in Brazil three days earlier than originally planned due to flight availability, so today I bought a ticket on Gol to fly from Congonhas airport in São Paulo to Navegantes (and subsequent bus-ride to Blumenau) the day after I arrive next week.

I kind of rushed my trip last time because of a feeling of closure upon finding most of my old mission memories subsumed by progress, growth and time. I’ve been thinking about doing this once again — this time without the expectations. Let me enjoy the memories, reminisce and try and see it with 21st century eyes.

Had lunch on Friday with an old mission buddy who I hadn’t seen in almost 25 years. He was in town for a periodic check-up following liver transplant surgery in January.

It was interesting how around the subject of my personal life he and his wife tip-toed. They asked me about work, travel, where I had lived in the last 25 years, etc.

Not once did they ask, “So, are you married?”, “Do you have any kids?”, “What callings have you held?”. It was as if they had choreographed the conversation beforehand and had determined what not to ask.

So they would not have to know.

After 90 minutes, I guess they can see I’m the same person as they once knew and will perhaps feel more at ease next time so we can talk about our lives.

Last week Facebook let me know that I should look into ‘friending’ someone with whom I shared a “mutual friend”. It was an old Brazilian mission buddy who I not seen since I left Brazil 30 years ago last month.

I quickly invited him and he accepted with a very nice note indicating that he was so excited to catch up with me after all of these years — and that if I were ever in São Paulo, to look him up.

I wrote back, “Coincidentally, I find myself in São Paulo right now….”

While not able to physically see each other, we did ultimately catch up via an hour-long phone call that he made to my hotel room on the other side of the city.

“…heavily urbanized São Paulo metropolitan area, with an estimated 19,889,559 people in 2009 over 7,944 square kilometers (3,067.2 sq mi), is the largest metropolitan area in the nation.”.
wikipedia:

He caught me up with his life, career and family and then asked what I had been up to the preceding 30 years. I referred him to my Facebook profile, which clearly lays out my life, relationship and career. I figured I would let technology do the vetting so I didn’t have to deal with the uncomfortable “so, what is your church calling”-type questions).

He is a really great guy with lots of enthusiasm still. He currently works for the church’s real estate arm and was literally on his way the next morning to “close on the large, beautiful piece of land for the temple in Fortaleza”.

That said, he barely spoke of the church, except in the context of his job, and did not make me feel uncomfortable in the least.

Welcome back into my life, Elder Rocha.