Do you feel safe on the streets?

My friend MaryLee emailed with the above question; this was my answer: Absolutely. They say there is lots of crime in Rio but we don't ever see any sign of trouble; I think we're at home in bed when it happens.

So you can imagine my shock the other night when we heard the sound of a single gunshot right here in the office. I didn't know if we should all stop, drop, and roll ( no, that's if you are on fire:) or run, or what. Elder Lemos came out of his small office; Elder Novello rushed in from the other office and we all stared at each other, wondering, what in the world? Next we all started calling for the other office missionary, Elder Edvalson, but got no response.

We searched the office: no gun, no gunman, no Elder Edvalson! Maybe something had exploded in the microwave, and Elder Edvalson was the victim, was our next thought. Elder Lemos went into the little bitty kitchen, and said, hace que não.... Approaching the refrigerator as if it were a wild dog or a bomb that might go off, he carefully opened the door...

About this time Elder Edvalson strolled out of the bathroom, which is right next to the frig,

having heard nothing--

For days the Elders had been trying to perfect a homemade rootbeer recipe, and he had put a 2 liter bottle of agua com gás in the frig to get cold. Unfortunately for the experiment, the temperature in the refrigerator was just a little too low. The carbonated water began to freeze and expand and freeze and expand

until it couldn't expand any more!

I thought that bottle looked like it was getting bigger..."

Elder Edvalson

So apparently my answer to MaryLee should have been yes, we feel perfectly safe on the streets; it's in the office that we have to watch out!