Update July 14, 2015

Dear Family,

We heard about the Supreme courts decision.  Just stay in the boat, read your scriptures, attend church, pay a full tithing, pray always, and know we have total confidence in your goodness! Your wonderfulness bring us alegria! 
The Lord is in control and the joy we experience here as we see miracles is awesome.  Today president told us about a couple of the Sisters in our area who got on the bus and shared a message and asked is anyone interested in hearing our message?"  A lady in the back raised her hand.  They are now teaching her family.  The Sisters later learned that the lady felt something when they got on the bus and knew they would say something, but because she was in the back of the bus she did not hear their message or their question but raised her hand anyway. The Lord prepares the hearts of those who will listen.  What a great story.

Our new Mission President and his wife have wonderful conversion stories which I think you might enjoy.  Sister Oliveira was baptized when she was ten, her family was converted before when she was seven but no one realized she hadn´t been baptized until she was ten years old.  The missionaries came to her home looking for a Sebastião da Silva who drove a bus which he did and his name was Sebastião da Silva but he was not the person the man was looking for, but while the man was there he saw what a good family they were and told them about the church and asked if he could send missionaries to their home, which he did that night.  The whole family joined the church and were very active, sealed in the temple the next year.  Now for the President Oliveira story.  He worked where Sister Oliveira worked and they became good friends.  He wanted to start dating her but she said her goal was to marry in the temple and he needed to be a member of her church.  His parents were very strong Catholic so he said I am not interested in checking out another church to which she replied then I am not interested.  Later he was thinking and realized he really wanted to know her better so he started to check out the church.  He read the Book of Mormon, attended church for three months and received a testimony.  He found the elders and said I want to be baptized today.  To which they replied you need to have these seven discussions first, he asked if they could teach them all that day because he needed to be baptized that night. (I cant remember why, if it had to do with military service or something else) They said you need to attend church to which he replied I have been attending every Sunday for three months, You need to read some of the Book of Mormon to which he replied I have read it the whole book and have a testimony.  After that they taught all the discussions and he was baptized that night.  The interesting side note to that story was that the zone had faithfully made a goal and they were one baptism short with one day left and no one on the radar to fulfill the goal... and along comes this man and asks to be baptized, answering their prayers.  Now for the rest of their story. They dated and actually were planning on marriage and Sister Oliveira felt uneasy about things and she said to President Oliveria I feel you need to serve a mission to which he replied I am not interested in serving a mission and she said then I am not interested in marrying you.  They parted on unhappy terms, and as he thought about it he prayed and asked God what would be such a big deal if he chose not to serve a mission and a vision was opened up to him and he saw those who would not join the church and come into the kingdom if he did not go on a mission.  He was totally ready to serve and went to see her to tell her and she said, no I do not want you to serve because of me, I want you to serve because you want to serve the master to which he replied, I am.  The rest is history, they have served ever since.  Sometime I might share President's health experience but right now this blog is too long.  You are all our favorite people and we love you all so much.  The Church is True.  Be Steadfast and immovable.
Com Amor, Mom and Dad

4th of July Update 2015

Happy Fourth of July!

We have a new mission president, President Adilson I. Oliveira, and his wife Elizabeth Oliveira.

They are wonderful people, both long-time members of the church here in Brazil.  They are from São Paulo, and he headed up the Institute program there and was a teacher for many years.

We had transfers and saw 18 of our best missionaries return home last transfer.  But we only received one new missionary - a Sister missionary from Paraguay.  It was hard seeing President and Sister Reber leave, we had dinner with them their last two nights.  The first night we made chili dogs (which were quite good!) and the second night we went out to eat at Ney's place for hamburgers.  It was a good time, until we went back to the car and found it had been broken into and Sister Reber's purse was stolen.  That was sad, but fortunately no documents or very important things were in the purse (and almost no money).

I think we forgot to put in this picture of Mom with her "birthday" gifts! :)

The last two days have been large zone conferences here in the North - we do two zones each conference, about 50 people a time.  We (Mom) had to make breakfast for them each day, so Mom made a bunch of cinnamon rolls (they were awesome!) and banana bread, and we added apples, bananas, juices, water, and some sweet breads that we bought.  It turned out great.  The conferences were good, they were mostly to introduce the new President and his wife, and so that they could get to know the missionaries as well.  President Oliveira did interviews after each conference for those that live outside the city.

We tried to replace a light bulb in our bedroom (the only one) and the wiring sparked and the light wouldn't work.  Mom wouldn't let me do the electrical work... something about being electrocuted and dying, so we're in the dark (go ahead, I left it wide open!).  Then this morning one of the Sisters staying with us pushed down on the sink (I don't know why you would do that) and it fell down into the cabinet!  Good times! [As of this update, both repairs have been made]

Elder Davis no longer is authorized to drive (and neither am I now that the church changed up some of its policies), so we don't have a car to get around in.  This is a picture from our first bus ride - we're pretty good at it already! :)

Bus Rides are fun!  We almost lost Mom and Sister Davis on the last one!

At the park.

One of the baptisms that we attended this month.

All is good here, we're starting to prepare for David and Jessica and Eli's visit next month!
Love to all, the church is true.
Dad and Mom