Friday, August 1, 1969

While Elder Stewart and Elder Nielson went banking this afternoon, Elder Richins and I went to the Santos Dumont Airport to meet a Brother Anderson, arriving from São Paulo. He is from the Auditing Department in Salt Lake City. This mission was the ninth he was visiting of the ten in South America. While waiting for his late flight, we decided what an auditor should look like so we could recognize him. Brother Anderson, a quite young and rather loose man, was not what we had been expecting. He was distinctively American, though not auditorish, but he recognized us because missionaries look rather the same nearly everywhere.

Most of his work was with Elder Stewart, as accountant. Things were looking good until 1,700 conto (NCr$1.700) were found extra in the petty cash. They never did figure out where that much money (US $425) came from. We worked until about 8:30 and called it a day. Then Elder Stewart and I took Brother Anderson out to eat. We had camarão à Biana (a very spicy Brazilian shrimp dish).

As if this were not enough to make an interesting day, add more: A call came from the North saying Elder Jeffrey Walters in João Pessoa had hepatitis. The President and Sister Johnson were in Petrópolis at zone conference, and we had no way to contact them. Elder Richins, on his own, sent a telegram telling Elder Walters to head for Recife and to expect to continue down to Rio. Of course the President was thrilled to receive such news as he returned home after a tiring day. I'm not even sure that the 15 110-FP cards (meaning 15 baptisms) that arrived today also from João Pessoa, Elder Walters’s district, cheered him up.

Anyway, to add to the confusion already reigning because of Elder Walters, the auditor's arrival, and Dona Lourdes (the cook) being sick, a couple of sailors off the Enterprise dropped in to say hello. One of them was an elder in the Church from Seattle, Elder Richins's home, and he just wanted to get in touch with the Church while the ship was in Rio port for a couple days. The Enterprise was returning from Vietnam to the States.

All a fellow can say is WOW!