First Gravata! Avelino's Gift...




Avelino's story is very special to us.  For this reason, even though we have shared his basic story before, I want to save this journal entry.    (The last missionary couple to this Island had their photos and computer stolen when someone broke in and I really want to save this memory...so I am putting it here and then if someone needs our 'stuff' sometime...no problema!   ;)  When Avelino got baptized, he quit drinking alcoholic beverages.  We go visit him every now and again at the dock and have lunch with him.  His buddies can't believe he doesn't drink with them anymore during the noon break.  Three of his co-workers said if he doesn't drink at all for three months then they would quit drinking also.  It has been over a month. We visited him at the docks on Saturday and he said he thought a friend would come with him to church Sunday.  We were in another branch on this island...so we haven't met his friend yet.  I always want to remember Avelino's first tie!  Tie in Portuguese is: " Gravata"   The new parts about the tie are in blue. 

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April 24th, 2012
Light had left the island by the time we clamored at the cobblestone road with our gift. I held it carefully, so the dark island dust and the end-of-the-day meat vendor smells and smoke would not touch it. Avelino was home now from his work at the docks and he would be so surprised. From the church we went two streets over and one down to the prossa, winding our way down another tiny street past the hardware store where we bought a shower curtain 3 months ago, that hangs from a wire held rod in our pink apt. on Xaguate. Past the Papalaria de Patrick where I buy paper in colors for our classes, down past the farmer's market, now empty through the night until the morning sun would bring crates and bags, buckets and large bowls of vegetables and home-made goat's cheese atop the heads of wishing women...and the tired fishermen would be back from the night with groupa and cerra and many kinds of fish for the women to swish in muddy water and custom cut with large knives near the scales. The now silent market would fill quickly come dawn with bartering, squinting, and calling out for people to buy their produce, por favor.

We walked past two churches, one with a large cross catching street-light against the night sky. Past cement buildings, lava stone casas, and locked metal garage doors that come morning, would open into stores, full of rice and beans, cookies, oil, peanuts, pop, and who knows what all may have come on the monthly boat, along with the hard soap that scrapes at wash boards just before clothes are pinned on lines to flirt with the sun. Our steps grabbed at the cobblestone... almost there.

“Hola!” my husband called out as we got to Avelino's door. “Ben Vindo!” With a smile and handshake, Avelino welcomed us into the tiny apartment. A piece of fabric almost divided the small room into two and I could see the brown foot of his sleeping room-mate on a mattress on the cement floor as we sat on the three small stools in the 'living room'. I held out the hanger holding one of my husband's shirts and the tie he had chosen for Avelino. “A presente por Voce!” (A present for you!) and I handed him our gift.

During the next twenty minutes, I sat in wonder at the gratitude that I was witnessing as Avelino with a smile nigh unto a giggle, practiced and practiced at learning to tie a tie. “I have never had a gravata (tie),” he shared. Sunday, when he goes to church, he can look into a bathroom mirror there to see himself looking like a missionary. He had asked for that in his first prayer. He asked that someday he could share the truth with someone else like we were sharing with him. D & C 123:12...”and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.”

Early on Easter morning, April 8^th, 2012, Avelino got up early and decided to go to church. He wandered through the city, passing at least two churches and came to sit on a wall across the street from A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias. He had never heard about the church but felt that he needed to be there. He waited and waited. It was 7 am. After some time he left and walked around some more, only to find himself returning to the wall where he waited and waited some more...not sure exactly what he was waiting for.

Just before 9 am, we were coming around a corner on our way to church when I noticed a man sitting on the wall across from the church. “We need to invite him to come with us.” I said. As we got nearer, Elder Benedict called to him that he was welcome to come in with us and we entered into the gate of the church. But, I had prayed specifically that morning that if there was someone we could help, would we please know who and how. It was my birthday and I so wanted not to be homesick, but to be a good missionary on Easter. “He needs to come with us” the impression came again and I turned back to the man on the wall. “Come to church with us,” I said in my best Portuguese. He smiled and stood and followed us in. “He's coming!” I whispered to my husband. Avelino went with him to Priesthood meeting, then sat through Sunday School and Sacrament meeting. He sat for three hours on one chair without moving. After the meetings, we invited him for lunch and learned about him and his family. He has three children. They live on another island. Avelino said he felt guided to sit on that wall that morning and during church had felt something 'special'. So did we.

We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if he would like the missionaries to visit with him. He came with us to Family Home Evenings in some of the members homes and we read from the scriptures with him. When the missionaries taught him about tithing, he said it was no problem...because now he had the money he was not spending on drinking anymore. Through the past two weeks we have seen a light in his eyes. Last Sunday the 22^nd of April, he was baptized and confirmed a member of the Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias. He had asked my husband to baptize him. What a day of joy for us!

Earlier tonight, as I ironed the white shirt while Elder Benedict was choosing a tie for Avelino's gift...I was happy; I couldn't wait to see the look on Avelino's face when he saw the gift! A few hours ago, we sat in Avelino's apartment. My spirit smiled almost to a giggle and I swallowed a few tears as I witnessed my sweet husband teach Avelino how to tie a tie and for 20 wonderful minutes we all sat and visited and laughed while Avelino re-tied his tie over and over and over and over and over, smiling a bit more with each success.

As we climbed our way back over the cobblestones, I realized that the real gift was one given us in great measure and I understand one of my favorite scriptures better than I have before (the one I painted on our dining room wall way far away in America): Luke 6:38: Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over...