Oct 26

October of course is always wonderful because General Conference is a huge boost to our hearts. We were able to see all the sessions in English. This month we were able to attend some group meetings, group and district activities, training zone conferences, transfer meetings, baptisms and so many other great things.  

Typical Brazilian Street here in Cuiaba

Dad drinking a "to-go" orange juice - it came in a bag! :)

Feeding visiting Elders our standard - French Toast

The kids would love this - it's a statue thing in the mall.

I took this because we finally rode the bus! Yea!

This is Elder Tavares fixing Mom's computer because another Elder turned the screen sideways!

Of course your dad does find time to work and I continue my course of unimaginable this and that, sometimes being quite helpful and other times not so much.  But we love it. I felt I should add a few Experiences that add to the fun of it all.  The other day as I was showering and totally covered with soap when the water went off.  I rinsed off by using the clean water from the back of the toilet to rinse off and clean my bangs and dry off my soapy hair and feeling some what sticky, got ready to go to the office. (Note we did get water within two hours but how could I have known we would be so blessed!)  Que benção!  (That's what they say a lot here - kind of like "thanks for the experience!")  
The thunder here is crazy loud. We were lying in bed one night and I truly thought the building next to us had suddenly collapsed, but no, just a storm. We live in a blast furnace most of the time (95-100 and humid) but when it rains we have a cooling trend for awhile and it is wonderful.  I just broke my tooth off, post and all, so I am looking forward to a dentist experience.  

This doesn't really do it justice, but you can see some of Mom's torture.  I'll let her tell the story next time.

Last night we went to a wonderful activity with the group in San Matheus and a little four year old girl just fell in love with me and just talked and talked to me.  The awesome thing was her nine year old cousin (cutest young boy) would translate everything she said - just a little slower.  The problem was he translated her Portuguese by using his Portuguese!  He was too kind for words and his thoughtfulness was so sweet.  I understood little but I never told him that. 

This is the Elder's House (top) and church meeting house (bottom) where we went to the churrasco.

We just put the sign up above when we went to the churrasco (like a BBQ).

I thought I'd show how they get water (no pressure otherwise)

The churrasco was great, I helped with some of the cooking...

This is Mom with the little girl and "translator" by her side.

The sister in the middle was just called to Maceio (Brett & Becky have been there!)

We went to Presidents home to have lunch with the departing missionaries.  They were all excellent missionaries and it was hard to let them go.  Sister Reber gave them her final motherly advice and she cried because she realizes this will be the last time she will see some of these wonderful missionaries that she has loved so much.  It was a beautiful experience she asked them to always, read their scriptures, pray, attend the temple, and marry a rock solid member of the church, and one more thing that I can´t remember.  President Reber asked them to stay solidly in the middle of the path and not go toward the edge.   He told them about an experience he had with a rain storm and a bus.  The rain had washed away the road on the edge under the road and the only safe place was right in the middle.  Good advice but mostly it was the spirit of gratitude for a job well done.  

Here are the seven returning home, 2 Americans, 4 Brazilians, and 1 Peruvian

Loved it !!  Our hope is we will leave our mission feeling that it has been a job well done, so keep up the prayers.  I might come home speaking Portuguese. :) xoxox 
The Church is True.  
Com amor, Mom    

09 October 2014

It's been a bit since we posted, probably because there's not that much to report - a lot of office work is being done.  It's hot, but that's not unusual - this week was pretty much 100° every day, and it's only spring here.  We went on "divisions" last week in São Matheus, along with President and Sister Reber and the Davises.  Here's a picture.

Group on "divisions" in São Matheus (a new group in the mission)

We also fed the Elders in the office french toast (not in the office):

Breakfast - French toast with cream syrup

We found a really nice park (with mosquitoes), but it's too far to walk:

This is a map of the park, several Kilometers around

Speaking of walking, Mom and I walked down to a shopping area in town, about 1.5 miles from the office.  We left after work at about 4:00pm because I had to get some bills paid at the local "lotérica" (where all bills are paid, of course!) and it was closing at 5:00pm.  The shopping area is call "Praínha" (Pry-een-ya), which means little beach but we don't know why it's called that since there are no beaches around... funny.  We saw this cool group of trees with hanging yellow flowers on the way there, along with a shot of the city...

We went to two baptisms this week in our ward.  I got to baptize the two kids at the second one, and Mom was asked to give the baptismal talk at the last minute - fortunately (read, tender mercy) she picked up her little yellow thought book at home before the meeting.  Picture (font and kids and I):

Me with André and Andrea

We also got caught in the rain (real rain) for the first time, we were drenched - I'm not sure this picture does it justice.  We only walked (read, ran) from the office to our apartment, which is only a half-block away!

The banks were on strike last week - not too fun for us!

 A lot more pictures than words this week - next time we'll have more words... :)

Love you all,
The church is true!
Dad