Mission 2 - Week 2

This week was awesome, as usual.  We received more training, although not as much as we had hoped - everyone is busy so they quickly show us something and then say "Let us know if you have any questions."  We feel a little nervous because we don't want to make mistakes - we are working with Brazilian missionaries and their visas to Argentina, as well as renewals of visas for all foreign missionaries serving in Brazil.  Our office is nice and Mom and I are working side by side now since one of the employees quit last week (hopefully not because of us!).  Sorry about the shades in the picture, we were headed out for lunch (hence the backpack also).

Our office setting.

Really, as you can see, the office is comparable to an office in the US - good internet, nice computers, color printers (HP), and whatever office supplies one needs.

So, there were three highlights of the last wek:
(1) On Wednesday there was a Brazilian holiday so nobody worked in the office - we had it off, so we went with several other senior couples to a place called Campos do Jordão which is like a small German village in Brazil.  

One of the german houses in town

Looking down on a street where we had lunch

Another set of shops in the shopping area

There we went to a garden area called Amantikir (ah-man-che[ese]-key-er, kind of).  It was beautiful, here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Mom in the middle of a grass maze

Emerald Pool from walkway above

Greenhouse next to flower gardens

The second maze - all hedges, very cool

On bridge in the "Lake of Bridges" garden

We were framed!

Fountain in the English Garden

Beehive in the welcome center to the gradens, you can even see the layers of honeycomb

It was about 3 hours from São Paulo, about midway between here and Rio de Janeiro, well worth the trip and a lot of fun to be with the other couples.
A few more pictures (by Mom's request):

Mom next to a Dragon in the Japanese Garden

Cactus flowers in the Desert Garden

See the beautiful yellow bird in the middle of the picture?

(2) Friday night we went to the temple again, and were a little worried because it was difficult at the veil the last time, and the session wasn't easily understood because they use a very formal Portuguese.  When we got there we were asked to be the witness couple, so we may have been even a little more nervous.  When we entered the endowment room we found that there was a deaf man in the group so they had set up a TV screen, so the entire endowment was displayed on the screen word for word as it occurred.  It was such a blessing to us because we could read and understand almost everything, including instructions about the veil.  It was such a wonderful experience, Mom said she's going to pretend to be deaf whenever we go! :)

(3) Of course, the biggest event was the birth of another beautiful little granddaughter - Mackenzie Jean Beckstead!  Such a cutie, and just born this morning 10/16/16 (if only it had been 16/16/16!).  Thanks for calling us Jenny, all the best for your quick recovery.

Here she is!

Another highlight was the Fort Collins temple cultural celebration - which we may have stayed up late and watched - not sayin' that's what we did...  It was awesome to see them build the temple out on the field and the kids were great in all the performances.
I was asked to teach the lesson in priesthood next week on keeping the Sabbath Day holy, so that should be interesting...  Oh, we met the mission president finally - he spoke in church.  President Thomas is very nice.  We think he's going to assign us to an outlying branch or ward on Sundays, but we'll have to wait and see.
Ric Davids called us today, so I'm sure we'll do some things with him in the next little while.

Love to all, the church is true.
Dad and Mom