Letter to Grandpa and Grandma Biel, September 25, 1975

 Mato Grosso Farm Scene, Brazil, 1973

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my family wrote to her.  Apparently, she also had some that were written to my Grandparents.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered in chronological order, so the best way to view them is by year, found in the index on the sidebar.


Dear folks:

Thank you for your letter of the 15th!  It had quite a bit of news that I hadn't heard yet, for example, that Roger had suffered a heart attack.  One thing you didn't make clear in your letter was whether you bought that Buick for us or for yourselves.  It really sounded like a good buy!  When I told the kids they said, "Buick?  What's a Buick?"  Anyway, MANY THANKS!  And, you can draw the US$100 out of our account to pay for it.  Please do, and put it in your name.

By the way, I didn't renew my Minnesota Driver's License.  I'll just use the Brazilian one again.

News here is a little hard to come by.  I've heard it mentioned that there's been a round-up of Communists lately, and I believe it's time for there was an oblique announcement in the paper (local) the other day saying that the people should not get excited, because certain measures were being taken to guarantee their tranquility.

In a week and a half, I'll be doing a swing through Southern Mato Grosso to try and find out what's going on there.  Apparently, the pastor got out of town- fast and went to a far corner of the parish where he's well-liked and abandoned the rest of the parish.

 Heidi Lampe, Miss Apucarana, 1975

Rachel is studying piano again, this time without being driven to it.  We've got a University girl from another town living with us- a former beauty queen- (you'd like her, Dad:  blond, long hair, blue-eyed, tallish, and very precious), also a piano player and she and Rachel are hitting it off famously.  Tonight they went to a piano concert together-  True to form, Rachel has picked up another friend older than herself.

We've got some English neighbors- or have I told you that?  They're experts in plant seed development.  Their company plans to work for 20 years in Brazil before it gets a break-even return on its investments!  They're Anglican and one studied to be a priest before he became interested in zoo-technology. 

For the last couple of months, I've been reading up on ethics and trying to work up a paper on "Pastoral Ethics".  This was to be presented for debate at the "Conselho de Pastores de Maringa".  (Local pastor's council)  It was sort of a time bomb, because there's been quite a bit of sheep-stealing going on.  They asked me to do the paper because I was the least involved of any of them.  It went over very well.  I'm happy to say, and the discussion following the six page manuscript was very productive.

Now that we know where the car is coming from it's pretty certain that we'll fly in to Minneapolis or Rochester.  Please don't go spending money unnecessarily, it's precious!  I've got boots and that car-coat that I had before, which will serve just fine.  They're here.  Not sure what the others need.  Hope we get a snowy winter!

It finally rained, Hallelujah!  It's been a couple of months since our heavy frost.  What the frost didn't kill the drought attacked, and what didn't dry up the plant lice by the billions sucked dry.  Now it's planting time again (beans, rice, coffee, and later, soybeans).

Love,

Joey