Letter to Marian and Frank, January 6, 1973

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  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 Marian and Frank, Lisa and Eric,

Since I didn't write anything on the Christmas letter, I now will make an effort to tell you the news.

Before Christmas, I helped an agronomist missionary family as they got their things ready to move to another city.  The seven of them slept here a night.  A neurotic lady from our church came a week before Christmas and stayed for four days.  Cliff had programs for three days in various places so he didn't have time right away to talk to her family.  She has had mental problems for over twenty years and has stayed here before.  She calls many times or stops by to talk, then I listen for an hour to two hours.  About the only way I can help her is to listen to her problems.  Her husband says he has a cross to bear, but the family could try to be more understanding.  Another family that has problems is a Church of Christ missionary family.  When she is overtired or under pressure, she has emotional outbursts.  They have been in Brazil for one and a half years and now are packing up to go back to the United States for the other couple that works with them wrote to the U.S. recommending that they be ordered back.  I feel sorry for them for they have many things to sell, then have to rebuy them when they get back.  They were a risk to be sent here for they spent two years in Africa and she had emotional problems there. 

The Church of Christ has different ideas.  They don't use instruments in the church for the Bible says "to make melody in your hearts" which they interpret to be without the help of instruments.  Also, they don't celebrate Christmas for they say we don't really know the date of Christ's birth, which misses the whole point.  Some date has to be chosen so that we can observe it.

Helen is happy to have a second hand bicycle.  It's been about two years since she decided that she was too big for her tricycle.  Charles's old bike was traded in for a new one.  Rachel got science sets which have a microscope.  For a science project in school, Cliff helped her build a telegraph, which she got a good grade on.  Another father helped his child build one.  Cliff said it was going to be a battle to see which father got the best grade.  The kids are enjoying the kitten born in the first part of November.  Another one was given away on Christmas day.  We think our kitten has a hernia.  Cliff says that some day it may bump its head too hard against a post.

Next week we have Vacation Bible School.  The children have vacation now until February 12th.  Then Helen will start first grade Brazilian School.  Right now she is half way through the first grade English course that I give in the mornings.  Charles doesn't have too much homework, but Rachel does, so I have to supervise that during the school term.  The teacher makes them work hard.  Every two weeks they have to give a book report.  Even though Charles doesn't have any competition, as he is the only one in his class, the teacher says he is doing very well.  At times, Rachel lets things pile up and doesn't get good grades on a test, but her final grades are alright.  Rachel, almost eleven, is 5 feet 2 inches tall.  Charles is almost nine and is getting too heavy.  We decided we should eat more fruit as all of us could lose some weight.

Some more urine tests done show that Helen doesn't have an infection, but she continues to wet.  The urologist in Minneapolis wrote indicating that a medication which was given last July at higher dosages, so now she is taking it for two months at a lower dosage.  Our field representative of the mission office said that we can take her to the Mayo Clinic when on furlough.  I hope that the problem is solved soon.  Before Christmas I spent many hours sewing plastic pants bigger for the night wetting, but the biggest bother is daytime wetting.

Our church was used in December for Baccalaureate services for college graduation for those who are Protestants.  This week a junior high school (included ages 14-25) held services here after first going to the Catholic church.  cliff had the service for the junior high school.  A week before Christmas, Cliff attended graduation of the first class in our Bible Institute in Londrina.  There were six that completed the three year Bible course.

We had an enjoyable New Year's with the Louie Becker family who live one hour from here.  We played games with the children, went for a walk to the park and finished the day by singing Christmas songs and eating my birthday cake.  Just before Christmas, we got a tape Cliff's family sent.  We enjoyed hearing it even thought most only said a few words.  It seems like they had a hard time thinking of something to say with everyone sitting around and watching them when they were trying to talk.  Seems like Frank found it the easiest to talk.  I haven't had Lutafisk or however you spell the fish dish.

We haven't gotten a letter from you in a long time.  Hope you will write us right away when the baby is born.  LaVonne wrote that Lisa is quite the artist, that she sent Mike a picture when he was in the hospital.  I hope to get Helen to write to Lisa before I mail this.  It's almost 100 degrees today and we are at the swimming pool.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, February 4, 1974

 Helen on a ladder, a bit younger than in this letter.

Dear Marian, Frank, Lisa, Erik and Julianna,

Greetings from the huge city of Sao Paulo (largest in Brazil).  Wouldn't ever want to live here- the traffic is terrible and some days there is a lot of smoke due to factories but the medical care is the best in Brazil.

We were here for five days- January 14th through the 18th for X-rays, blood and urine tests.  I was with Helen the 2.5 to 3 hours it took to do the x-rays for they let me hold her hand.  I was impressed how thorough the 19 x-rays were done on the kidney and bladder.  While the dye was in the bladder, the x-rays from the right side and lying flat on the back showed everything normal, but on her left side of the bladder a cyst was found.  She had to urinate and several x-rays showing the bladder full and half full and empty showed that the cyst was larger when the bladder was empty and in the cyst a residual of the urine stayed.  This apparently was (the wetting) better when she took sulfa or antibiotics but only surgery was the solution.  The medical term is diverticulum.  I wish I had a Merck Manual to understand it better, although the doctor did a diagram for me.  He said that this is from birth, so apparently the x-rays at Fairview Southdale taken 2.5 years ago weren't thorough enough.  I'm glad we finally found out what was wrong.  the doctor says that there could be a complication from the surgery, in that the urine could try to go up the ureter to the kidney- he called this reflux and said that he tried to prevent this from happening by doing certain things in the operation.  This doctor was recommended to me by our dentist in Maringa.  He is a urologist for children.  Since I came here, I found out that he is consdiered to be one of the best in Brazil and is well known. 

After the exams, Helen and I went by night bus to Curitiba where we me Joey, Rachel and Charles and then drove for seven hours to a city where a pastor from our district was to be ordained at his home church.  This pastor is our age but did a short course offered due to the shortage of pastors.  He had correspondence lessons to do and Joey was his tutor the last year.  Before he became a pastor he worked with his family at a tile and brick factory in the country by his father's farm.  Here shingles aren't used on roofs, but tiles.  It was interesting to see the process of how the tiles were made.  We also visited an old folk's home for 75 residents where this pastor that was ordained had worked for four years before going to our own district.  The sermon was given in German since most in that area prefer that language-  we had a copy of the sermon in Portuguese.

On our way back home we were by the ocean so we spent two days at the home of a Dutch couple who live one block from a nice beach .  This couple had lived for 15 years in the U.S., five years in Canada and went back  to Brazil to be by their only son who had married a Brazilian when the parents left Holland 25 year ago and stayed here for 5 years.  Now they are about 68 years old and haven't tried to learn Portuguese which all their grandchildren can speak.  They lived in Maringa for a few months and we helped translate for them but they decided it was too hot there for them.  Joey wouldn't go in the water but we had fun jumping in the waves.  The sun was very hot one morning.  I made Helen and Charles wear shirts but Rachel took hers off and consequently got a burn so her back peeled.  We didn't get lotion under Charles nose, thus large water blisters formed which made him look funny.  While on the beach we saw a beautiful film made in Austria, "Sissi", spoken in French with Portuguese subtitles- only Helen couldn't read fast enough so I explained as it went along.  The movie was about a girl who was chosen to be the queen of Austria- Elizabeth was her real name. 

 

Rachel and Charles had their birthdays while Helen and I were here for exams.  Rachel made a cake and invited a few neighbors.  Rachel is now my height.  According to the Reader's digest, one can double the height for girls at 18 months and add an inch for good nutrition.  She and Helen should be 5' 9".

Today is the 8th day in the hospital and Helen will get out.  We will spend two days at a pastor's home here before we go back on a 12 hour ride by night bus.  She has had a catheter in for seven days.  When she got up a plastic bag was taped on to her leg so she could walk around.  For two days she has had a lot of gas.  They didn't give her an enema before surgery.  She didn't have a B.M. for five days and then it was very hard, finally they gave an enema but still she has gas pains quite often.  The doctor didn't leave any order for gas so they gave her medicine for pain in order to go to sleep for two nights.  Just about everywhere you go, there are couches in each room for a relative to sleep by the patient.  Nursing care is better here than in Maringa yet relatives are the ones who feed a patient when he needs help, gets them out of bed, helps them walk.  Nurses come in just when it is time to give the bath, take the temperature, or give medicine, unless we call them.  There is no T.V. in the hospital unless one has a portable one to bring.  We brought a tape recorder, coloring books, dolls, and many books.  Most days I read to her and when I read all of the books, I bought comic books.  Now that she is better she will play with her dolls, so I can write letters.  Helen had 11 stitches from the surgery.  American school starts on the 11th, so I will probably carry her up the steps so that she can go.  Brazilian school starts on March 1st.  That gives her plenty of time to recuperate.

We didn't hear from you , Cynthia, Louie of Stan's for Christmas.  Laurie sent Rachel a letter. Just think, Juliana is almost a year old!  Will she be walking soon?  Wish you could send us a picture of her when she has her first birthday.  How about printing us a letter, Lisa, or drawing us a picture?  Hugs and kisses to all,

Love, Donna and Joey

Thought Eric would be interested to hear that while we were in the hospital we saw helicopters going on top of a 22 story building about 8 to 10 blocks from here to save people from a fire.  It was tragic in that 200 people died.  Many jumped and there wasn't any netting so they had an instant death.  They had fire equipment such as hoses and extinguishers inside, but the 1000 people that worked there panicked and didn't remember to use them.  The whole city stopped working to see this tragedy and many of the duty nurses went back to work and hundreds of people went to give blood that was needed.  We heard ambulance sirens all day long.  Fire started when an air conditioner exploded due to over heating of the electrical wiring.  The fire department complained of what little equipment they had and what few firemen for this size of a city, and said many more could have been saved if building codes had been enforced- such as helicopter landing on top of the building- the only helicopter that could go up there had to land on skis.  One man held a wet curtain over his nose and mouth.  He waited calmly for three hours to be rescued while others became desperate and jumped.  He said he would have waited all day and encouraged others not to jump.

Thurs. am.  We got back home.  Everyone is fine.  Helen has to take antibiotics by mouth for a month and then have a urine exam before the doctor says everything is O.k.

Love, Donna and Joey

Rachel, Charles and Helen

Letter to the Beiwel's, December 27, 1974 (Friday)

 Rachel Biel, around 12 years old.

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  This is one that I wrote to her family when I was 12 years old. She returned the letters 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 Uncle Frank, Auntie Marian, Lisa, Eric, and Juliana,

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.  We had a pretty nice one though Christmas Eve was more excited.  We opened our presents that night and went out for supper.

Thanks for the stamps, Uncle Frank.  I sure appreciated them.  I didn't have hardly any of them.  I hope you like the "1 cruzeiro" that I enclosed.  Seven of them make 1 DOLLAR.

Sorry to hear you (Lisa) and Eric had chickenpox.  I hat it when I was 4 years old.  I'm also sorry to hear you both will be wearing glasses, but many people look prettier in them.

For Christmas, Helen got an Egipcian game called CARCARA.  We had it the last time we were in the States.  It sure is fun!  Mom and Dad are playing it right now- scoring:  Dad-1, Mom-0.  I got a dart board and nine darts, we sure have fun with it.  I gave Dad a little flashlight which you could adjust 4 types of screwdrivers on to it.  He sure was happy with it.

I'm happy to hear that more books are coming even though you shouldn't have gone to the bother and work of doing it all.  My little library is finally starting to grow.  It has some real nice romance books by Grace Livingston Hill.  Lately, I read an excellent book by Corrie Ten Boom.  It's called the "hiding Place".  She hides Jews in this little place in her house in Holland and than gets caught for it and goes to a concentration camp.  You really should read it.

Lisa, Helen really misses you.  All the time she talks about is "When we get to the States, Lisa, Polly and I will do this, this and this."  She really misses you.

I can hardly believe we're going to the States in one year and at Christmas!  I always wonder if it is fun to ice skate.  We still have our roller skates, but I wonder if it is the same.

Now I have 1350 stamps.  Most of them are from Brasil.  I've 200 Brazilian ones and 151 American ones. 

This last few weeks we went to two special films: Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.  Have you watched any of them?  I liked Godspell a lot better than Jesus C.S.S.  Mary fell in love with Jesus in J.C.S.S  In Godspell the disciples were dressed as clowns and Jesus had a huge blonde afro.  He also had on a Super Tea-shirt on and overalls.  Some things in it were just a riot.

Well, I guess I'd better end now.  With Great Love,

Rachel Biel

PS.  Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that I'll start school (Both B. and A.) on March 1st.
PPSS  Dad's planning to take us (Charlie and I) on a bike hike.  We each get to choose a few friends to go along.  We'll stay out about 3 or 4 days.  My bones are aching to go (and so am I). 

Tchau

See you, I mean.
Write you later, alligators.

Letter to Lisa, 1969

Dear Lisa,

Grandma Biel wrote that you are sick.  I'm very sorry to hear that.  I hope you and your family are better now.  I'm on vacation now until the middle of February.  In Brazilian school I passed to third grade.  Do you have a school picture you can send me?  We had a storm which took some tiles off of our roof.  Many trees were blown over.  Two people died because of the storm.  I stayed for four days at friends homes while Mama and Daddy were traveling.

Merry Christmas

Rachel

Letter to Marian and Frank, December, 1971

Dear Marian, Frank, Lisa and Eric,

I see that I won't get many letters written if I don't make copies.

Joey seems to enjoy being back here.  It was nice to come back to the same house and only unpack clothing.  Within a couple of days, we were back to normal.  The girl who worked for me called the day we arrived and was here to help me the next day.  Helen was bashful about speaking Portuguese again, but within a week she had no trouble.

Joey has taken on two more preaching points twice a month.  One is about 45 minutes from here and the other is on half hour from there.  Another pastor was serving them, but he has a bad case of hepatitis so they will probably become a permanent part of our parish.  They are happy that Joey plays the violin as they haven't had anyone to accompany them.

I was gone for five days to a regional retreat for women.  Two from here went with me.  It was a long 11 hour trip to the ocean front.  We enjoyed the retreat but it ended with the sad news of a fatal car accident of the pastor and his wife, of the church where the retreat was held.  The pastor had given a talk 36 hours before the accident.  They hadn't taken their children along on the trip.  They had been her for 12 years from Germany.  Relatives from Germany were called to come and get the three small children.

Two afternoons I have taken women to visit a shut-in.  Since these women are in their 60's or 70's, they prefer German.  Joey studied for on month, twice a week, to learn some German.  The school year is over and he hopes to continue in March when classes start again.

Joey teaches the women's choir soprano and alto parts by playing the violin.  We will sing three hymns and one will sing a solo.  The children's program is on the 19th.  We have a confirmation service on January second where four will be confirmed.

We had a Thanksgiving pot luck at our church- about 45 Americans counting the children,.  At the dinner a missionary was telling of his recent trip with six children, wife and trailer driving for two months from Minnesota down to the Panama Canal then through the west side of South America coming up through Argentina and Uruguay into Brazil.  This pastor used to be with our mission but works now with the the Lutheran Free church.  They stayed with several missionaries in other countries and he said we should be thankful we have more religious freedom and friendly people.

 Charles Biel, 1971

Rachel and Charles are doing well at the small mission school in Maringa.  Charles is the only second grader.  He hasn't been having school in the afternoon so he went to a private Brazilian school where he finished first grade- doing just the Portuguese.  Next semester he will stay three afternoons a week at the American school and will have a Portuguese teacher go to his school.  Rachel has one classmate in the 4th grade.  The teacher says they are working harder this year.  There was some talk of reducing the hours at the American school and doing Brazilian school, but the math system is different and would be confusing and they are assigned a lot of homework in the Brazilian school since they only go for three hours.  A new couple will come in July for the American school so we hope that they will continue at that school.  It looks like in August I will have to start teaching Helen first grade as the mission that runs this school only accepts first graders if there is one from their mission and they don't have any.

 Rachel Biel, 1971

I have taken Rachel to see ballet put on by students of this city.  It was well done.  This week we went to hear a piano recital of the students studying in their ninth year.  One girl was from our church, who is the organist, and graduated from the course, in all, eleven years as there are two years of introduction.  Rachel is continuing lessons after we got back and is in the introduction.

Helen has been going to a nursery school every morning.  She still wets up to four or five times a day, so I think she will have to have another dilation of the urinary canal.  It will be six months in February since the last time, and the doctor said that it is usually done every six months until it is no longer necessary.  I'm planning to have her taken to an urologist in January and think she can have it done in our city.

I've been doing painting in our guest bedroom, Cliff and my bedroom and the dining room.  A sixteen year old boy did a good job in the living room.  I hoped that he could do more of the painting, but he helped while he had a cast on his left arm and when the cast came off, he went back to work on his regular job working as a bellboy at a hotel.  He had helped paint the hotel for seven months.  Some of those days that I painted were 100 degrees and when I put the paint on, it dried instantly.  I certainly got tired of painting but am glad that it was done. 

I have joined the English club which meets once a month.  It is mainly for Brazilian women to practice their English.  There are about 10 American women in this city.  One lady who speaks English that moved here in August is Dutch.  She came here 25 years ago and stayed in a German speaking community for four years, then went to Canada for five years and then to the U.S. for 15 years.  When they were here for the first time, their only child decided to stay here to marry.  This Dutch couple came to retire and be by their only grandchildren, but can't enjoy them much as they don't speak Portuguese.  They say there is no place like Santa Barbara, California, and may go back there.  He went with Joey to a rural area one Saturday for church services and visited with the members in German.

We have a kitten that drinks out of a doll's bottle.  The mother cat was run over by a car.  The kitten eats bread wet with milk.  We still have our big cat, Blackie, and our dog, Velvet.  Rachel bought gold fish with her money but didn't have a fish bowl for them, so they were in a regular bowl.  One day when we were gone in the afternoon, we forgot to put the cat out so she had a delicious meal of fish.  Charles wants a canary or a rabbit but I doubt that we will get them as it ends up being mother taking care of animals.

Happy to hear your folks got down to see you, Marian.  Hope you can do that more often.

Helen misses Lisa and Polly- especially when her neighborhood friends went to school in the afternoon and she was home alone.  I tried to read to her every day.  Now they have vacation for 2.5 months so she is busy playing.

Rachel made a list of the Yearling Books like "The Good Master" that her school bought.  Now I can't find the list.  We are going to borrow some "Jack and Jill" from one of the families to see if she likes it better than "Children's Digest" which she gets now.

Hear you went as a family on one of Frank's trips-  hope you had an enjoyable time. 

Who lost the most weight by Thanksgiving?  Joey and I lost 10 lbs. the first month back.  We didn't diet- guess it was getting back to a normal routine.

A blessed Christmas!

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, January 20th, 1971

Dear Marian and Frank,

I can't get my pen to work, so will peck away.  You will be happy to know that we got your books on Charles's birthday on the 15th.  Everyone was delighted and Charles found his two cats in the lovely cat book.  We saw the movie, "Doctor DoLittle" a long time ago.  It is an interesting book.  I started the book by Catherine Marshall and am enjoying it.  We have read only one of the condensed Reader's Digest- about the Maya family.  I have been busy reading books but also make Rachel read some to Helen.  A special thank you from all of us.

Mary wrote that Louie and Rosie have a boy born on my birthday.  Happy to hear the news and must write to congratulate them.

Thanks for the pictures.  It is the first time that we have seen Erik.  He has curly hair like Lisa had.  Marian and Lisa look very nice in the pictures.

You asked what we did on Christmas Day.  We went to a home where four families that are related got together.  It was a pot-luck dinner and very good.  It turned out to be a hot day.  We were pleased with the plays for the program that was held on Christmas Eve.   At 10:30 a visitor arrived at our home and stayed overnight.  She missed a bus to go to Cianorte.  We didn't know her before and found her to be very pleasant.  She was here this week on her way back to her home in Porto Alegre. 

Off and on, a lady who is 69 years old comes to our house, has slept here two nights and has had several meals.  She isn't quite right in her mind and none of her relatives in our country church want her for when they have tried to help she got the police to believe that they took money of hers and then the relatives had to pay.  she has been at an old folks' home in the capital of this state, but managed to get away.  She didn't have but one dress so I gave her one of mine in order to wash her dress.  The relatives know that she is staying at a home for transient people and that she comes here often but no one has done anything about it.  The lady never married and has only nieces and nephews close by.  Very sad but she talks a lot and I only understand half as he sometimes puts German in with her Portuguese. 

Mary wrote that they might get a humidifier instead of a drier.  No one has said how much we should send or did someone pay for us?

While we were in Londrina for our spiritual retreat we took the children to see the "Love Bug" about a car called Herbie.  It was cute- showing how he could win races but when his owner didn't pay attention to him, he would have temper tantrums.  "Ben, the Bear" is here this week.  We saw it in the States almost four years ago and they don't remember it. 

I heard Minnesota got a lot of snow this month.  We have had a lot of rain causing flood over the main highway to our capital, so barges have had to take people and small cars across.  Today was one of our hottest days- about 100- right now the children are swimming in the rain, or rather, downpour.

We have a seminary student coming for part of the time when we will be gone.  Now Joey is busy with Vacation Bible School in two churches.  Two girls from the Bible Institute are helping.  Also, Joey has to go to Cianorte (1 hour drive) often as he is on   commission for our mission public school.  Next month is a five day Bible camp right before Lent starts.  Starting next month I will visit women that seldom or never come to Women's Bible meetings which start again in March when summer vacation is over.  Rachel and Charles have off from school until February 9th.  I try to take them swimming several times a week.  Rachel knows how to swim, Charles will dive from the shallow side and can swim a short distance and Helen likes the water, but won't put her head under.

I have asked my Dad to get three second hand sleeping bags or air mattresses.  We won't be staying at any mission home as those are for one year furloughs.  They would give us money to rent a furnished apartment but we hope that won't be necessary as we hope to stay with our brothers, sisters, and parents.  I think the only deputation will be visiting churches in Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio on the way to Minnesota and then later we will go to Havre, Montana, perhaps by train as the latter pays for half of our support.

We just heard that we will be having physicals at the Mayo Clinic when we are on furlough.  Apparently, the clinic was happy to have the opportunity to study those that live in tropical or semi-tropical climates.  There are many types of worms here that they have never heard of in Minnesota.  Charles just had a blood test, an X-ray and gets hysterical whenever anything is done.  He had a sore muscle in his leg and the doctor ordered tests, but everything was normal.  I don't know how it started, but he is the worst when it comes to shots.  Three people have to hold him down.

Joey is teaching Charles how to play chess.  The cards you sent we played once showing how they had to follow suit and the highest card takes the trick.  But, we didn't explain about hearts yet.  While in Londrina we got a memory game consisting of pairs.  Most are animals, fruits, and different designs.  Usually, we play with about 40 pairs at once- all are turned over and mixed up.  So far, Charles has been the winner.  I remember in what area one was turned up that I want, but I don't do well.  Even Helen does as well as I do much of the time and she doesn't even pay attention to the cards that are turned up.  They are calling me to play a game now.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Sorry but this typewriter jumps and we haven't been able to get it fixed.

Letter to Marian and Frank, February 5, 1969

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  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 Marian and Frank,

We have read in the TIME magazine that the peak of the Hong Kong flu was in January.  We hope that those of you who had it have recovered.  There have been a few cases here but since it is summer, it has been no more than a cold.  So the newspaper says.

We had a nice rest at Bible Camp for our missionaries.  Bible students who are on vacation and work there during the summer take care of the children in the morning while we had Bible studies or listened to lectures.  In the afternoon there was swimming.  There were volley and basketball courts.  Cliff and men played against youth at a youth Bible Camp 15 miles from our camp.  The food was excellent but we had to wait up to 45 minutes to be served after we sat down and it was late by then- 1:30 for lunch and 7:30 for supper.  A couple of times Helen fell asleep before the food came.  There wasn't room for all of the families on the main grounds so four families had to be 1 and a half mile away.  We were the only ones with very small children and it was inconvenient as we only returned there just before supper.  One day, Rachel was sick with a fever and the next day she had diarrhea.  The camp is located in the mountains by Sao Paulo and was cool in the evening and excellent for sleeping.

On our way home we had car trouble and spent a total of 7 hours at a gas station in the country while Cliff went to a city to get different radiator.  It had a clean bathroom and eating place.  We got home at two in the morning.  We had a 20 year old youth with us that was going from the Missouri Lutheran school in Sao Paulo to near our city.  We met this youth when we went to visit missionaries of the Missouri church that are studying Portuguese in Sao Paulo.  One family is from Brownton, Minnesota and have met my sister, Olive, who lives there.  They spent part of one day with us at Bible Camp.

The church in New York where Cliff interned wrote and asked him to find a work of art to be presented at the end of April for churches in the Eastern States that have been promoting missions and that have mission interest.  It was hard to find something but Cliff got a primitive art of Jesus and disciples around a triangular table with flowers in the middle.  Above them is a curtain with gaudy ribbons to pull the curtain back.  The colors are vivid and the painting is simple but we found several things that are meaningful such as a table shape that could signify the Trinity, flowers for the ressurection, and the curtain could represent the sin which separates us from God and the red curtain could signify Jesus's blood which took away our sin, etc.  They wanted to spend $50-$80, but it cost $130.  Now we are going to wrap it for air mail and hope we can send it or else find an American going there soon.

While at Bible camp, we had a birthday party for 4 children that had birthdays that week.  I went to the nearest city and bought things to go with the cake that was made at the camp.  One girl was 2, another 5, Charles 5 and Rachel 7 and besides them, two adults and one teenager had birthdays. 

Since we got back two weeks ago, we have had someone for dinner almost every day.  The first few days other missionaries came through on their way to their homes, then a Brazilian boy from our former parish came here for three days and traveled two days with Cliff when he had services, and other Brazilians, mostly youth, have come on the other days.  We had Vacation Bible School here last week with about 26 children.  Next week it is in our country church.  This week Cliff is gone to another state for meetings on Evangelism.  He is near a beach and we could have gone along but I didn't think it would be much fun if the children couldn't be with cliff, as he has meetings all day and in the evening.  In two weeks he will be gone for 5 days for Bible camp in Londrina which is the time that many Brazilians celebrate Carnival before Lent starts.

The last two weeks we have been going to a dentist who is our neighbor.  Cliff had most work done- one tooth had an abscess and had been hurting but most dentists were on vacation.  Rachel and Charles had their teeth coated with fluoride.  I had some work done and Charles had two large and two small cavities.  In the States, Charles was given medicine to make him sleepy so here he almost didn't let the dentist work but with medicine on the gums he didn't feel the shots but it was hard to convince him of this.

Rachel starts Brazilian school in two weeks and we will continue with Calvert for English.  For her school she needs a white duster to wear over her clothes so that all the children will be dressed alike- some schools use uniforms. In August, we were told the American School plans to have second grade so we can send her then.  During vacation we have gotten some library books from the American School.

It is still very hot- 90 to 95 every day, but I have started to think of winter clothes as May last year was our coldest month.  I have taken apart some of my skirts that haven't been used for years and am having them made for slacks for the girls.  The many dresses we brought along for the girls are out of style for they don't use dresses with full skirts that tie in the back and for this hot weather, straight dresses are cooler but with material from full skirts, dresses can be made.

I read in the newspaper from my hometown that a girl who I at times babysat for when I was in high school, was elected as one of the representatives of the Lutheran Church of America for a meeting to be held in Brazil in 1970 of the Lutheran World Federation.  We hope that she will be able to visit us in our home.

We have given three male puppies away but have Luci, a white female and the mother.  Last week, a friend of Rachel's gave us a kitten but it doesn't like the dogs and has had to be rescued from a tree, the roof, and inside the attic of a bedroom.

We got pictures of Ricky and Shannon.  When do we get one of Eric and Lisa?  We have to try to get some pictures taken soon.

Love,


Donna and Joey

Letter to Lisa, Late 1970's

Helen with Bobby, late 1970's

Dear Lisa,

Hi!  How are you?  Rachel is visiting us.  You knew that she is studying in Campinas, didn't you?  Well, she did anyhow.  She brought a friend from Campinas with her, so we are showing her the city!

I'm sorry I didn't write sooner.  (hope you forgive me)

Tomorrow is Independence Day, so I don't have school 'til tomorrow.

My birthday was last month.

I have just finished "The Hiding Place".  They were in World War II in Holland, where they hid some Jews and went to prison.

Now I am going to school on Rachel's bike.  I sold mine to the neighbor who still hasn't payed.

Every Tuesday, I go the the German Folk Dance.  I don't have a partner, but I dance with a girl.  It's just to learn anyhow.  

Rachel has three friends sleeping here. It seems like the room is crowded.  Charles had a friend over, too, so we are quite crowded.  Rachel is going away today so I already planning a party.

My Mom gave shots to a lady.  She's really fat.  Goodbye!

Your cousin,

Helen

P.S.  Write soon!

Letter to Marian, December 9, 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.


Dear Marian and Frank,

Thanksgiving has come and gone and soon Christmas will be here.  This year we celebrated Thanksgiving twice.  We were in Cianorte the day before Thanksgiving and seven families were present.  There were few children as most were in the hostel for school.  We had turkey for the first time since we have been in Brazil.  We didn't have a long visit as it had been raining and started again on our way home.  We almost spent the night on the road as it was terribly slippery.  I took us two hours to go 22 miles until we got to the tarred road.  The other dinner was here in Maringa with about 60 present- 2 Baptist families, 2 Methodist, about 7 from the United Missionary Society and us.  After dinner the school children gave a program.  Both dinners were pot luck.  I made 5 pumpkin pies and salad.

Our church held its annual fund raising drive the 24th of November.  Some of the men came here three days before and made wooden benches, tables and put up canvas on top for shade.  The women had a bazaar of embroidered pillowcases, aprons, tablecloths, and little girls' clothes.  Women made potato salad for dinner and steaks were barbecued by the men.  In the afternoon, cakes were sold.  We ended up throwing some potato salad away and cakes were sold very cheap to get rid of them as the attendance was poor.  It was a lot of work plus very hot in the days of preparation and the day of occasion.  It was a lot of work, but the fun and fellowship- and the profit made it all worthwhile.  One of our missionaries told of his church which prepared 170 chickens and 3 steaks and had 65 chickens left and many steaks.

On the day of our bazaar, Rachel woke me up at 1 a.m. to tell me that Velvet, our dog, was having puppies under her bed.  I thought the gestation period was 3 months instead of 55 days so thought we had premature puppies.  There are 3 male and 1 female.  They are mostly white with a little black on them and have a smooth fur- the mother is part poodle and all black.  The children are delighted to have puppies around.  We have an empty bedroom upstairs where they stay but at times Velvet moves them under Rachel's bed.

Rachel and Charles's baner-ha school had a bazaar for which I baked 9 duz. cookies and gave 2 aprons from our bazaar.  Rachel is having graduation on the 19th of this month from kindergarten.  She is over half-way done in first grade Calvert.  Rachel is doing very well in school.  On most tests in this course she has gotten 100.  She loves to read and reads her books to Charles.  We plan to send her to Brazilian first grade in February.  In August we hope the mission school here will have second grade.  Charles didn't get many stars for good behavior at nursery school.  He was the youngest one there and even though he couldn't sit still for long he has learned some songs.  While I teach Rachel Calvert in the afternoon he plays next door with a 4 year old boy and gets along well with him.  Helen is starting the "why" age.  She has several little friends that she plays with and older girls like to take her for a walk.

For Christmas we are expecting the Dahlen family.  They are in our language school.  I helped her shop in early march while our husbands were at a conference.  They have a girl Rachel's age and Charles age- a boy.  She will stay with me while her husband visits other mission homes which can only be reached by dirt roads and she doesn't want to go with due to arrival of a baby in February.

The middle of January we are going to a Bible camp about an 11 hour drive from here.  Other families enjoyed it while we were here on furlough.  All of our missionaries should be there and it will be the only time we get to see several of the families.

Once a month Cliff goes to where we lived before (Loanda) and serves 3 other places, too.  The farthest is a 4 hour drive from here.  When he goes, we won't have church services here.  Due to his traveling or having church services in the morning once a month in our country church, I give Confirmation two or three times out of four in the month.  It is held at the same time as Sunday School.  the youth in our country church and one here are planning to present a play for Christmas.  The Sunday School will have some poems and sing, our adult choir will sing two hymns and the same for the youth.

The end of October we had a one day women's retreat.  Women came from several cities nearby and from our country church.  In all we had 75.  Our women's group made chicken-rice soup for dinner and cakes for coffee in the afternoon.  Dona Ana from Curitiba was our speaker.  We discussed the ecumenical movement and evangelism in our church.  We divided into two groups- one German (led by a pastor's wife who is from Germany) and I led one of the two Portuguese groups.  The points discussed are to be sent to Switzerland in preparation for study of the Lutheran World Federation to be held in Brazil in 1970.  We think the study could have been more profitable had we been able to discuss this in each church before this meeting and leaders would have been better prepared for the discussion groups.

Since there is summer vacation from school now until the middle of February, we are planning to have a week of Vacation Bible School in the city and another in our country church.  VBS was held in July for the first time in these congregations and enjoyed very much by all.

We had some very hot weather- 98 to 100, but now it is cooler at 85 to 88.  We have had very little rain which has been bad for the crops.  Some larger cities have had to ration water but thankfully, we have plenty of water.

Pete and Elna Mathiesen

Karen, Mark, Kristine and Paul

(courtesy Karen Mathiesen)

We continue to have many guests- example this week- the family of the German missionary who lives in a neighboring town, an intern from a seminary in the U.S. who spent 16 months in church in Curitiba, and Mathiason's from Cianorte.  We enjoy the visits for we seldom had them in Loanda.  I have a good helper so the extra company isn't more than we can handle.  The lady who helps me now is married and a sister to the last one I had who left to get married.

We wish you a Blessed Christmas and happiness for the New Year.

Love,

Donna and Joey

 The day Rachel printed her letter to you she was mad at her friend Lillian and wouldn't put her name down.  Charles started coloring the picture.  Each stripe on the shirt is a different color and the girl has purple hair.  I will try to send it later.  How does Lisa like Erik?  Is he as good as she is?  Your son arrived on Brasil's day of Independence and Grandma Biel's birthday.

Letter to Marian and Frank, May 9, 1968

 

Donna Biel at a farm in Brazil.

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.
Dear Marian, Frank and Lisa,

We have had a taste of some cold weather.  It rained last Sunday and then turned cold.  Wednesday it was 41 at 7 a.m. and 49 in the house.  Fortunately, by Saturday it was nice again.  We got our barrels a week ago and have made use of our electric blanket.  The children have flannel sheets and Charles and Helen have sleepers.

Our barrels, gas dryer, sewing machine, etc. arrived in good condition.  Rachel and Charles were thrilled to get their toys as they have been packed since the end of January.  Boys in the neighborhood think the wagon is wonderful.  I spent one day separating things and putting each person's clothes in a separate barrel.  I have been doing some mending on the sewing machine.

Starting last Thursday, a girl from our church that is working in a doctor's office started living with us.  We had an empty bedroom and she has her own bedroom furniture.  She plans to stay here four months and then she will be married.  She does the supper dishes and pays about $9 dollars a month for food.  If we decide to go to a movie or visiting she will babysit.

Now I have a good helper who comes every day and stays until 5:30 and on Sundays until 3:00.  We pay her twenty dollars a month but she eats well and only weighs about 90 lbs.  She is 20 years old and had worked for five years in Sao Paulo.  I will need a good helper as it looks like the American school here will not have first grade so I will teach by Calvert.

The children and I went with Cliff to work in the rural areas.  One Saturday he had two services.  One was a wedding.  The kids were somewhat disgusted with the horrible roads.  On that trip, I got about 25 bites on each leg from a mosquito that lives near a river.  My legs swelled up and itching was terrible but this was taken care of by antihistamine medicine.

 Unpaved roads in Brazil in the 1960's

 

Friday we were gone all day to different farm homes.  Charles fell off a wall and on to cement where coffee beans were drying.  He scraped his nose and forehead and has big scabs but we were glad he wasn't hurt worse.

 Clifford Biel at a Brazilian farm in the 1960's

The farm homes that we were at were nice.  These families live about 12 miles from here, half of the way on country roads, but they come here to church.  Sunday we went to other rural areas where he usually has service twice a month.  The roads are better than at the other rural areas but when it rains hard he doesn't go as it is too hard on the jeep and several don't have cars.  It was interesting to see where Cliff goes but three little children who aren't quiet in church has made me decide not to go again except for Bible study once a month in the largest area.  In the rural areas the women preferred to speak German amongst themselves.  Sunday Cliff will be officially installed by a pastor from Curitiba representing the German church of Brazil.  A choir of 25 is singing for the occasion.  I hope they will continue to sing every Sunday.  In the afternoon, the women are having a tea for Mother's Day.  Cliff has started a Wednesday service with Bible Study and a film but so far the attendance has been poor.

Rural Congregations in 1960's Brazil: 

We bought linoleum for the kitchen.  It is pretty.  The other day parts of it had paint eaten away when we gave our sink a lye treatment.  I was cleaning with rubber gloves and the pail was accidentally spilled.  Now we will move the rug so the spots won't be so noticeable.  We were surprised to see that a wall of the living room was removable in three parts.  Now we have a dining room.

Thanks for your card, Frank.  We were shocked to hear of Martin Luther King's death and yet I suppose it could have been expected even earlier.  We don't get the Time Magazine now but Andy Olsen's sent us a Newsweek on King's death.  We are waiting to see who will win the nominations for Presidential candidates.  Frankly, I can't see Bobby Kennedy as President but he seems to be popular.

Tomorrow our city celebrates its 21st birthday.  There is a parade and it's a holiday for this community.  The governor comes to dedicate some new buildings.  The Japanese ambassador will be here and a Brazilian marine band that took second place in the U.S. at a band exhibition.

Helen kissing the Brazilian flag at the parade.

Are your plans any more definite about moving?  How are you feeling, Marian?  Harvey wrote that Lisa has to have supports in her shoes due to poor arches.  I'm not surprised for her feet turned outwards.  Will she outgrow this or always need arch supports?

Helen is quite a talker now- says short sentences.  "Shut the door, it is mine."  She says Jesus, jelly, butter, etc.  She misses Rachel and Charles when they are at school 8am-11am, then she sleeps in the afternoon, so she doesn't play with them much until epm.

I went to the delivery room with the American teacher at the American School.  I helped her translate as her Portuguese is more limited than mine.  It was her first baby- total labor and delivery time was less than four hours.

Hope we get a nice long letter from you soon.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, November 29, 1966

 Clifford Biel, Charles and Rachel

1966

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here. 

Dear Marian and Frank,

Baby Lisa

Well, Nels was right.  He said you would have a girl and waht a big one!  We were glad to hear that everything went well.  You certainly were fortunate to find enough money to get tot the hospital.  What an experience!  I like the name Lisa- one of the missionaries has a girl named Lisa.  I agree with you as to delivery without pain- so far, Rachel's was the easiest- I had Demerol.  In February, my sister, Olive, had had boy without pain but my deliveries have been too difficult to go without a hypo.


I hope you don't get discouraged and give up on breast feeding for when you give cereal and soon food, she will be content.  I am still breast feeding Helen.  Now she is a cheerful and smiling baby but in the first 2 months she had a lot of gas pains.  She still wakes up to be fed at night.  At 3 months, Helen weighed 15 lbs.  Since we don't have baby food, she doesn't get more than cereal- occasionally, with egg yolk in it, bananas, and sometimes carrots.  When she turned 3 months old she started turning from the back to her abdomen.  She likes to sit in the corner of the sofa chair.  When we talk to her she coos and coos.

You must have lost all of your weight gain since Lisa weighed 9 lbs.  Did Cynthia lose all of the weight she had gained?  She  wrote that the doctor said she is in good physical condition.  Hope they will have a baby soon.

We will find out in January when we will go on furlough.  I wrote that we could go home early but the earliest would be March and probably won't be until July.  We are anxious to see everyone.  When Louie and Rosie get married I hope that we can have a family picture taken to keep on our dresser.  Louie to be transferred about now.  To where will he go?

 Louie and Rosie's wedding photos, 

which did indeed, sit on my Mom's dresser for years.

This last week we spent in Paranavai where Joey helped with special services which had films.  The Olsen's go home when we do but they decided not to come back due to their adopted children.  Three have Indian blood.  Here adoption is frowned on and they think that heredity is stronger than the environment and that Olsen's girls could become prostitutes later in life.  Here couples who are childless usually remain that way.

 Sharon and Randy

Native American children adopted by Ardys and Andy Olsen

Our house was sprayed by government employees for the first time.  It is to kill a bug that looks something like a cockroach and transmits a disease called chagas disease.  It affects the heart and a person lives to 2 to 3 years after he is bitten.  This is common in Northern Brazil, but I haven't seen the bug here.

Helen has already had the typhoid vaccine.   Ardys Olsen brought oral vaccines from Sao Paulo.  There were many cases of typhoid in Paranavai- 3 cases here and 2 deaths.  Helen just had her firs polio shot- there is an oral one here, too.  The 4i n 1 shot is hard to get here but the doctor says that if it is given, the whooping cough vaccine isn't as strong.  And since many children have whooping cough here I am going to give the 3 in 1.

Same technique Dad was using.

We have some 4-H books that a friend of mine sent.  She is working for the State of Oregon and was a college roommate.   Joey made a beautiful design from the cover of two cans and in the center put a picture of himself, Rachel and Charles.  The lid is cut into many sections and then with pliers he curled the strips and bent some in other directions.  He also made bells and plans to make angels.


Rachel and Charles talk about Auntie Marian all the time- saying Auntie Marian gave me this or that.  I don't know if you will be able to stand them for very long- they are such live wires- both extroverts and talk continuously.  I told Rachel I wished she was a radio so that I could shut her off sometimes.  You will be anxiously waiting to have Lisa start talking but when they come to the question age it is hard on one's patience.

 Charles and Rachel with Bobby

We are having a heat spell.  I'm glad we don't have water shortages as some of our neighbors do.  Poor Helen has had a cold for a week.  It is windy in the morning but hot and stuffy in the afternoon and evening.  It is hard to get into the Christmas mood.

Our children are always so dirty and clothes soon get holes in them from scrubbing.  I'm looking forward to seeing them clean.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter from Donna, , Minneota, Monday, January 1968

Donna with Helen, Marian with Lisa, Rachel

Winter 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  The most interesting parts are recorded here.

Dear Marian and Frank,

Thanks for the birthday cards. ...  

It certainly was good to hear Louie's voice Friday.  Saturday Joey left for the Moorehead area where he will be until Friday and when he gets back we are going to see Louie at Mary and Harvey's.  Rachel is getting excited about the wedding.  We didn't say much in case they decided to wait awhile.

...  After the wedding we want to stay one night with you and one at Cynthia's, then we will go back to Mary and Harvey's and fly from Minneapolis ...  We decided it was best to leave from Mpls. as it will give us more time to visit Julia, Stan's and your folks.  We only saw Julia's on Christmas day and now we won't see them as they have chicken pox.

We have a nice stroller that we are wondering if you want to use, if not maybe Cynthia can use it.  You can take Lisa on long strolls.  Its seat can be put in three positions- straight up, partly back or lying down position.  It has a basket in back for diaper bag or groceries and top on it for shade.  We will bring it down when we go for the wedding.  

I was glad to see our barrels go on Saturday.  A trucking firm from Marshall got them and they will go to New York.

 Rachel is kept aware of the world news.  The other night she said she couldn't sleep thinking of the bombs that fell in the water and the ship in Korea.  Thursday will be her last day of school.  When Helen sees a bus in a book she says "Rachel".

We haven't had the flu but Helen and Charles had mattery eyes and colds and Joey has a cold.  The reason, I now find out, that my sister, Nyla, was crabby on Christmas Eve Day was that she had the flu and was sick all the week she was here.

Helen now gets out of the crib by herself.  She is quite a clown.  She put on Rachel's coat and said, "Hi, Rachel" so we all called her Rachel and she giggled.

My family is having a family reunion for us on the 11th.  We will leave her the 15th and be in De Witt the 16th for rehearsal.  The 5th we will be at Harvey's and on the 6th we go to the Cities as on the 7th the children have their last dental appointment.  The have had their teeth covered with a fluoride coating and I am going to have it done, too.

We are giving our TV. to Rosie and Louie for their wedding gift.  We are taking it this weekend as we won't have room when we take our suticases.  The T.V. is a floor model.

All for now.  It won't be long and we will be in your neighborhood.

Love, 

Donna and Joey