“Remember again and again that true pilgrimage is into the undiscovered land of your imagination, which you could not have explored any other way than through these lands. The challenge is to learn how to carry over the quality of the journey into your everyday life. The art of pilgrimage is the craft of taking time seriously, elegantly.”

Today was easily the coldest day so far on our trip, but it was also one of the best. We went to church at 9:00 this morning and ate breakfast there. They served breakfast cakes, coffee, small doughnuts called “dreams” and a four-foot long sub sandwich as the main event. At breakfast our youth friends surprised us with gifts like the ones we had planned for them, but from Brazil!



















It was such a sweet gesture and really made me realize how much we had learned from our friends and how much we had bonded with them on this journey. Their gifts were fun little things such as Brazilian CDs and socks. It was amazing that all these things, which probably would have been bizarre to me before this trip, had meaning now. After breakfast we joined their Sunday School class and discussed Psalm 122:1.

The church service was very nice, and really had more meaning now that we were friends with all the participants. Laurie sang a beautiful song and was approached several times after the service and told how nice it was. Julio Pedro thanked us for coming at the end of the service, and talked about a return visit from our Brazilian friends. After the service we had lunch.














During lunch we received more gifts and gave ours. We each had a backpack to give to one friend, and our individual gifts. They seemed to have the same reaction to our gifts as we did to theirs. We did not have rice and beans for lunch, but will fortunately probably have it at dinner. For lunch we had salad, several kinds of meat filled pastry-like foods, and a rice-chicken mixture. We also had Guarana and tried a pineapple-mint soy juice. We sang our Compline song for the church as a gift, and then had cake. We spent a long time saying goodbye to some members of the parish, then left to go to the “hippie market”. The market was amazing and had every kind of jewelry imaginable. There was also art, clothes, and other Brazilian mementos. We had a lot of fun shopping and found things that had been more expensive at the mall. When we finally left our friends, we gave them all hugs and brought one girl (Luciela) back to the convent to have dinner with us.

Mostly everyone has finished packing now and many people plan to wear their new socks on the airplane. We will have dinner here at the convent and go to the airport after that for our 11:00 flight. This pilgrimage has taught me so much, and I hope everyone has had the same experience. I did not know what to expect when I agreed to come, but I feel so blessed to have been able to do this. Everything was so amazing and everyone was so welcoming that I really felt like I was able to be a Pilgrim. -ginny weinmann

O God of peace, you taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength. By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.