Our first graduates

Tonight we finished the last section of our first self-employment workshop, and we ended with four graduates (from right to left): Sheila, Luciano, Rebeca, and Marcos. Brother Torres is on my left (well I guess it's my right, but to the left of me in the picture), and he teaches the Career Workshop here at the employment center. He participated to see what we were teaching and also to take the info back home to his wife who started the course but couldn't come to the last two classes because of illness. Marcos was one who did the most work on his own business plan. By the end of the workshop he had completed almost the entire plan for an after-school volleyball program he plans to set up for at-risk kids in a couple of neighborhoods here in Rio. He came to class prepared every night and is quite determined to get this class going. Wish him luck!  I also learned today in our class that Luciano isn't a Church member, but was introduced to LDS Employment by a friend of his who is.  At then end of our course, we passed out a little feedback sheet, and Luciano said he would be interested in receiving a copy of the Book of Mormon and learning more about our Church.  How cool is that?!

We also spent two days this week in the mountains about two hours from Rio teaching a workshop in Petropolis. When we showed up on Tuesday for the first class, we were expecting between 20 and 30 people, but to our surprise, 42 had shown up! My first reaction was to worry about being able to teach so many people in a setting that was designed truly for about 15 participants, but I soon realized that we could adapt easily enough and that many of these people had been waiting for quite some time for the self-employment workshop to come to their stake. Besides, I didn't come here to necessarily teach in ideal conditions, but rather to help as many people as I possibly can. Josh and I will return to Petropolis two more times next week, and hopefully we'll be able to spend a day visiting some of the many historic sights such as the tomb of Dom Pedro II (Brazil's second "Emperor" after gaining its independence from Portugal) and his wife and daughter, and the home of Santos Dumont. If you don't know who Santos Dumont is, just ask any Brazilian who invented the airplane. If you insist it was the Wright Brothers, prepare for an uphill battle (to say the least). Anyway, more on that next week when it all happens.