A chance encounter

When Anna and I went to Nauvoo last month, one of the coolest things we were able to do was attend some sessions in the Nauvoo Temple. As we were sitting waiting for the session to begin, I noticed that the temple workers were handing a couple people headsets. This generally indicates that those people speak another language and would be listening to a translation of the session in their native language.

I came to find out that the language they spoke is Portuguese. I got pretty excited and planned to approach them afterwards to find out if they were from Brazil (for those who may not know, I served a mission in Brazil from 1997-1999). Upon approaching them, I found out that they were indeed from Brazil. They were from the city of Campinas in the state of Sao Paulo. Many of you may have heard of the city of Sao Paulo, which is one of the largest cities in the world. Well, the city of Sao Paulo is in the state of Sau Paulo, in the same way New York City is in the state of New York. They were from a smaller, yet still quite large city in the State of Sao Paulo called Campinas. But I digress...

I haven't had many opportunities to use my Portuguese since I've returned, a fact that was made all too apparent to me as I tried to communicate with them. I came to realize just how rusty my Portuguese is. Nonetheless, I was able to muddle through a few pleasantries and thought that was the end of it.

However, as it turned out, I was to become a makeshift translator for them as they went to see the baptismal font of the temple. We were accompanied by several other people, including the temple president. The temple president then proceeded to tell the group about the history and story surrounding the font. There I was, trying my best to translate, realizing that not much of this was making sense to them. But they were very gracious and kind nevertheless, which is very typical of the nature of the Brazilian people.

Afterward, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, took some pictures and went our separate ways. The experience gave me a greater appreciation for temple and missionary work, as well as the brotherhood we have as members of the church. I was also very grateful for the chance to meet these new friends, and even though I titled this post "A chance encounter", I don't really believe it was chance.

It also made me very very much aware that... I need to brush up on my Portuguese, because I never know when I may need to use it!