19. To My Family

A letter to my family in Nampa, Idaho, written in the mission office in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, March 31, 1969.

Well, here it is the end of another month and time pushes relentlessly onward. Within the next week will be realized some of the greatest—if not the greatest—anniversaries ever commemorated by man. This is an exciting time of year. April 6 we recognize as the date of the Savior’s birth and as the foundation date of the Church in this dispensation. Appropriately enough, the Church will be assembled in another annual general conference—declaring to the world the glorious message of the gospel and its restoration.

This year Easter happens to fall on April 6 (probably the date of the first Easter), and we pause in profound remembrance of the triumphant victory over death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As with Job we can confidently exclaim: “I know that my Redeemer lives” (see Job 19:25).

President McKay lists a testimony of the divinity of Christ and of this latter-day work as among our greatest possessions. And so it is. My knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that the gospel has been restored, that we can behold the Savior even in this life—which knowledge is but revelation from God Himself—all these lend to life purpose, dignity, and peace.

Last Monday I prepared and sent you a tape instead of a letter. I hope you have already received it. When you borrow a tape recorder to play it—if you haven’t yet—find one that plays 1f speed because that was what it was recorded on. You might dig out my little tape recorder (without messing up the box of stuff that it is in) if you want to buy new batteries. However, I do not know what speed it plays. To return the tape, send it airmail first-class. If the cost is not too prohibitive, you could even send it registered just to make sure (although this is just an added precaution and not really essential). On the outside write: TAPE WITHOUT VALUE / FITA SEM VALOR.

Thanks for the letters. Mom and Jerry are the most faithful in that department. Since you realize I keep pretty busy here, I hope you share all these letters with Ray and Sheryl and with Gene and Cheryl. I cannot write them each as often as I would like.

To answer a few questions from Mom’s letter: No, we do not live in the mission home now, although we eat our noon meal there every day. We are living with a nonmember Brazilian family a few blocks away. The dona (landlady) certainly is nice to us—like last night she happened to find the Tabernacle Choir program on the radio and came and told us and had us listen and fixed us some hot chocolate and cake. She is always doing things like that.

Prices are still running about the same. The cruzeiro is inflating pretty fast. When I came in December a U.S. dollar equaled 3.02 new cruzeiros (NCR$). Already it is at NCR$3.97 (or a cruzeiro novo equals about 25 cents). The bill I am including is worth about ¼ cent. The Americans here call it 10 beans because that is probably about all it is worth. The largest denomination printed (10,000 cruzeiros or 10 cruzeiros novos) is about $2.50 in U.S. value.

The stamp on the outside of some of my letters—Leia o Livro de Mormon, o livro mais interessante no mundo—simply means, “Read the Book of Mormon, the most interesting book in the world.” There you just learned a little bit of Portuguese.

The name of the Church in Portuguese is A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias, this differing from the name in Spanish, La Iglesia de Jesuscristo do Los Santos de Los Últimos Dias. Brazilians can both read and listen to Spanish and understand over eighty percent of it, but Spanish-speaking people cannot understand Portuguese. The grammar of the two languages is similar, although Portuguese is somewhat more complex. In reality the Portuguese language is probably closer to Italian. I can understand a person speaking Spanish—yet it sounds like Portuguese being spoken with a serious speech impediment because of the differing pronunciation.

As in the United States, German was nearly the national language in Brazil. In the U.S. the Continental Congress decided by only one vote to remain with English rather than change to German. That was how close we were to being German-speaking. German would have been the language now of half the people of South America had not it been banned by the Brazilian government during World War II because of anti-Kraut sentiments.

Well, both time and space are gone again. And so until next week, may the Lord be with and bless you.