Mission 2 - Week 34 Reber Reunion Trip!!

OK, here it is, what you've all been waiting for (and didn't even know it!)
Thursday morning we got up early and took Uber to the airport, met the Reber's (after a long wait, their luggage was last off the plane), then flew up to Recife in the Northwest.  This afternoon we rented a car and met up with Eduardo and Priscila Veras, who were overseeing the reunion.  They took us to a very nice beach area called Porto de Galinhas, just south of the city.

Lots of sail boats - these were all stopped
at a coral reef close to shore.

Priscila Veras, Mom, and Stephanie Reber

As usual, the clouds were amazing!

You can see why this is a big tourist area in Brazil

Mom and I at the beach

All four of us at the Porto de Galinhas entrance sign

We ate some really awesome shrimp tacos, and enjoyed walking along the beach.  When we got back to the hotel, the Rebers decided to call it a night because they were tired from the long travels and we decided to go to dinner with the Veras.  Well, about three blocks into our trip to the restaurant we got t-boned by another car that wasn't paying any attention.  He hit us full speed without even trying to stop.  We were very blessed to not be hurt but for a few bruises, he hit in just the right spot right in the middle of the car - so he got the support between the doors and the frame.

His car - probably totaled.

Our rental car - definitely totaled.  He hit on the side Mom and
I were on - I was driving and she was in the back seat.  We had
a few bruises, but nothing more - which was amazing!

It took over 3 hours for the police to arrive, and then another hour and a half to resolve what they were supposed to do - which wasn't to attribute blame or investigate, just take our reports then it goes to another agency to determine blame, etc.  Fortunately, I had purchased the rental insurance (it's much cheaper here in Brazil), so the next morning Mom and I drove down to the car-rental agency and swapped out the car for another one.

Friday morning, the Veras came and we went to see the older part of Recife where the city was first settled about 500 years ago, called Olinda.  When we arrived, we recognized it as a place we visited in 2010, when we came with Becky and Brett on the cruise.  It was very pretty and historical as well.  

From Olinda looking back at Recife

As is our custom, I paid these two to sing to us.  It was
funny because they just made up the words as they played.

Another view from Olinda

Us with the Rebers

One of the old churches in Olinda

Us with the Veras - they were awesome to show us all around

Becky and Brett should remember these little wooden carvings
of the city, we bought one when we came last time

After Olinda, we came back to Recife and walked around a bit.
Recife is in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

We decided to all put our foot into the picture...

There were a lot of nice older buildings in town

Afterward, we went through a session at the Recife temple, then over to the reunion, which was all very awesome.

The Recife Temple - beautiful day

Missionaries and Spouses at Recife reunion

All the missionaries that served in Cuiabá - they were all
older, so Mom and I actually didn't know any of them on
the mission in Cuiabá!  But they are all awesome!

We got up early on Saturday and flew back to São Paulo, arriving in time to drop our luggage at our apartment then head over to meet everyone at the São Paulo temple.  We went next door and had a great lunch.  Mom had left her purse at the temple (which we didn't know at the time), so we retraced our steps trying to find it but to no avail.  The rest of the group had gone over to the chapel for the reunion - but being a chapel that we had never seen, we got a little lost and ended up in front of the institute building.  A nice young couple drove up and asked if they could help.  The wife got out of the car to go teach her class, and the husband offered to give us a ride to the other chapel.  He spoke perfect English so I asked him if he learned it on his mission.  He said, "Yes, but not in the way you might think."  He then explained that the day he arrived in the mission field he was mistaken as an American (he definitely looked like an American) by some American missionaries.  They came over and started talking to him in English.  He said that to his amazement, he understood everything they had said, and then he was more amazed when he answered them in English!  He said that from that day he's been able to speak and communicate in English just fine... Amazing.

Our São Paulo group was by far the biggest.  You can see
where Mom's purse was left - it's in front on the bushes on
the bottom right side (red Boston purse)!

Our group and the restaurant, and for those with
inquiring minds, yes, I was able to snag a bunch
of the missionaries' tabs and pay for them before
they found out!  It was quite fun - and they really
appreciated it.

This is our group in the chapel after the reunion

This is Mom with a bunch of the Cuiabá Sister Missionaries

So we met with the missionaries from São Paulo, by far our biggest group of the three reunions.  It was a great meeting and I was really impressed by the callings that these returned missionaries now had in the church - just fantastic that they were all doing so well, and that their leaders recognized the need for church callings for them (and for everyone!).

Sunday morning we were up early again and flew to Porto Alegre.  We checked into our hotel (very nice), and then went to lunch at some friends of the Rebers.  It was delicious and they were very nice to us.  They own an Orthodontics practice in a nice area of Porto Alegre, not too far from the temple.  They built their house up above their office and it was very nice.  After lunch we headed over to the church for the reunion.  It's the same building next to our mission office when we were young missionaries in the Brazil Porto Alegre Mission.  The office was still there, but was used now for Stake offices and the new mission office was built next to it.  Our reunion was held in the institute building, also new.  We knew and worked with all the missionaries that came to this reunion so it was very special for us (as were the others!).

This is their nice Orthodontics office - house upstairs

This is the family on the left, with us on the right. (Delvaux)

This is the old mission office - you can barely tell that
the door was moved to the left, the original was patched
over to the right of us in the picture.

This was the group of missionaries that met in Porto Alegre
and in this case, we knew them all!

After the reunion, Keith Reber and I found the apartment where we had worked (at different times) while young missionaries.  Here's a picture of us pointing to it - it was my first apartment in Brazil, up on the third floor.  I remember shooting bottle caps with our finger and thumb off the balcony onto the street below.

This is us in front of our old apartment

On Monday morning we slept in a little, after three straight days of early mornings it was nice.  Then we took a walk around that area of Porto Alegre.  It was very nice and relaxing.

Fountain at the park

Oh, and we saw this very modern trash collection service - two
guys throw big trash bags into the back of a truck...

This statue was at a park that we walked
through on our morning "passeio".

Afterward we headed out to Gramado, about 80 miles from Porto Alegre, I think.  It's a very nice area, settled by european settlers - mostly German.  Our hotel was awesome, right at the side of a lake, and that afternoon we went out in swan paddle-boats on the lake - too fun.  We then went downtown and did a little shopping (I bought a "cowboy" knife made out of a railroad tie) and found a new treat - a Trudle.  It's kind of hard to explain - but it's a hollow roll of belgian bread that is baked and then the inside is lined with a think frosting of either doce de leite (sweet milk candy) or nutella (chocolate), or other goodies.  Here's a picture.

That's our hotel in the background.

These are "Trudels" - delicious.

Afterward we went to a Fondue place that was all you can eat - but we really only managed one round, which was cheese, vegetables, meat, and sweets (dunked in chocolate).  It was very good.

At the Fondue restaurant

Tuesday we went on a bus tour of Gramado and Canela, the neighboring city.  It was only Stephanie Reber and us because Keith picked up a cold that kept him in bed all day.  The tour was a lot of fun and we stopped at a place that had tram rides, so we took a ride on them.

We started the bus tour in Canela, right next to Gramado
That sign says "Love one Another" - it's in front of the
church made out of rocks - below.

This church is quite famous because it's
made entirely out of rocks.

This is what the town looks like, defitiely European influence

This was the entrance to a big amusement park outside
of town, no, we didn't go into it.

Another tourist attraction called Frozen World.

Entrance to the tram cars

This is a picture of the waterfall at
the park taken from the tram car

Mom and Stephanie in the tram

This was dinousaur world - looked like Jurrasic Park!

We also saw a transformer on the tour

Famous entrance into the town of Gramado

We thought that this train coming out of a building was
... interesting!

After the trams and the beautiful views of the waterfall, we stopped at one other stop - a chocolate factory!  It was amazing.

This is the chocolate factory - it was like an amusement
park on the outside.

And this was the inside - we may have bought a little
too much chocolate, as in we still haven't made a dent
in it - even after giving a bunch away as gifts

Then we headed home and did a little more shopping and visited the Trudle place again!  Then we had asked the hotel where the best hamburger place was, so we went there.  But it was a fancy Italian restaurant and we were tempted to stay but I really wanted a hamburger (this is important later in the story!) so we asked to doorman at the restaurant if they had hamburgers and he said no but the place next door does!  We had stopped a little too soon.  So we went next door to Me Gusta ("I like"), a specialty hamgurger place, and ordered three hamburgers.  We asked for them to be cut in thirds so we could each try the others' burgers.  So two hamburgers came, MarJean's and Stephanie's and they were cut in fourths because the guy had forgotten.  So we shared them as we waited for mine.  When we finished we realized that mine wasn't coming - I was the one that wanted a hamburger!!  So I asked the owner (and waiter who took our order) and he hadn't realized we ordered three.  I don't know how he missed it and he was very apologetic.  So, in the end, I never got my burger.

Wednesday, we drove Keith around to some of the sites we had seen the day before, as well as to the waterfall in the cool park.  We didn't ride the tram cars, but we went for a nice little walk (Mom wasn't feeling well at this point) at the park, with more pictures.  Oh, and we saw a guy burning a wasp nest out of a tree - kind of exciting!

A different rock church in Gramado

This was the guy burning out the wasp
nest, which was even more exciting
because we had to walk right by him (and
the wasps!)!

We stopped twice and bought "pine nuts" - but these are a
lot different than the ones you get in the USA.  They are
huge balls of seeds - which you can see here being taken
apart.

Mom and I almost got eaten by dinosaurs!

Then we drove back to Porto Alegre and the bid the Rebers good-bye as they dropped us at the airport and we flew back home to São Paulo.  What a fantastic trip.

Thursday, Mom was very sick and I wasn't feeling too well either.  I went to work for a half-day and Mom stayed home.  On Friday, I went to work in the morning and stayed home in the afternoon, and Mom went in the afternoon after staying in bed in the morning.  Saturday and Sunday we were both down, but managed to make it back to work on Monday - which will start our next blog!

Love to all,
The Church is True,
Dad and Mom

Mission 2 - Week 33

OK, I'm not sure if we're catching up or getting behind little by little...
Monday we went over to the office early for a special devotional meeting with the Young Ambassadors from BYU.  It was awesome, and they sang a few songs in Portuguese, to the great pleasure of the mostly-Brazilian crowd.  They bore testimony and shared sacred experiences, three of the group were missionaries that had served in Brazil - they helped the others with the pronunciation and some translation.  It was soooo good.  Afterward, I went up to the American that "hates" BYU and said, "It just makes you hate BYU even more doesn't it?!" (What?!  I said it with a smile.)  He said, "It was good, but it still doesn`t change my opinion!"  Wow, seriously?Anyway, let's move on.  FHE that night was presented by Elder Schoiser, they are one of the Brazilian couples that meet with us.  It was very nice, about the PR work that they do throughout all of Brazil.  He told the story of a young man that came into the church by helping on one of the big service projects - Helping Hands (Mãos que Ajudam, here in Brazil).  His father was a minister in the Assembly of God church, but when his son decided to serve a mission the father was very proud of him and would tell all his congregations, "My son is a full-time Mormon Missionary!"  The cool part was that when the son returned home from his honorable mission, as promised in his Patriarchal Blessing, he baptized the rest of his family into the church - including his father (who had to change professions!).
Tuesday was a busy day trying to get things done before our big mission reunion trip with the Rebers.  We were able to score some really nice VIP tickets to the Young Ambassador performance (thanks to Elder Schoiser!) so we cut our English class a little short and took off for the Arena where it wass being held.  Traffic was crazy so we combined Uber, walking, subway, Uber, and walking to get there.  But we made it a half-hour before the performance, so it all turned out great.
This is a link to some of their Belem performance here in Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfISA_ffqM
Try it, it might work... (try cut and paste if it doesn't)
Anyway, the performance was fantastic and the crowd just went crazy when they would start singing in Portuguese.  One of the girls started singing over the Rainbow in English then started the second verse in Portuguese and the place went nuts!  It was fantastic, and her pronunciation practically flawless.
Wednesday, the day before the big trip, we hurried home after work and finished up our packing - meeting the Rebers at the airport here in São Paulo and flying up to Recife.  We also moved all of our stuff (well, most of it) out of the main bedroom so that Rebers could have our room and bed when we passed through São Paulo for the reunions.

I'm going to end this blog here and make the next Blog a full report of our trip with President and Sister Reber - our mission presidents from Cuiabá.

Love to all,
The Church is True (and so are my roommates! - Go BYU!)
Dad and Mom

Mission 2 - Week 32

Well, we had caught up and then got behind again.
This week was another great week.  We started off on Monday with a Family Home Evening Lesson on the development of the brain in children.  It was presented by Elder Sharmahd, one of our doctors here.  He talked about the importance of interaction with kids, especially at young ages, like 1-4 years old.  The full development of the brain is dependent on this interaction and attention to them.
Tuesday was another busy day at the office, with Jouber still on vacation there is a lot more to do.  We taught our English class and they surprised Mom with a bunch of gifts and sang "Mother, I Love You" in English, it was very tender.  Afterward, Mom went to "book night" with the other Sisters.
Wednesday we went to the temple after work and did sealings with some of the other couples.
Thursday we walked over to the transit office to find out what happened to our "everything" transit passes and found out that they were never mailed to us but instead were waiting at the main transportation office in downtown São Paulo.

 Friday morning we fed the Elders from the South mission French Toast for breakfast, then went to work in the office for awhile. 

Secretaries from the São Paulo South Mission

Afterward we took a bus then Uber to the main transit office downtown and finally picked up our bus and Metro (subway) passes!  We used them on the Metro coming home and they were great to have.

We saw some pretty cool government buildings on our way.

And there was a demonstration going on outside the building!

Here they are!

We went back over to work for awhile then went to see Guardians of the Galaxy II with Sharmahds and Sister Cox.

Saturday we went to the MASP (Museum of Art, São Paulo) art museum, which is a very nice museum with some classic art work like Rembrandt, Van Gough, Renoir, etc.  It was fun and we found one painting called Bryce Canyon!  

You probably guessed, but this is Bryce Canyon!

We had lunch at La Mexicana restuarant and were able to buy some corn tortillas from them - they don't have corn tortillas here in Brazil at the stores.

On the way home I got this cool shot of a
glass building with the blue sky and clouds
reflecting in it...

Sunday we barely made it to church on our usual two-bus ride, but we got there in time and it was a lovely mother's day meeting.  We taught our Temple Preparation lesson for the first time and it went well, we have about 10 people in the class.  We came home and Skyped with most of the kids since it was Mother's Day and it was very nice.

Special Post - Schoiser

For FHE last Monday we had a lesson by a Brazilian couple, Elder and Sister Schoiser.  They are really awesome and just extended their mission another year.  They head up Public Relations for the Brazil Area, and they are very good at it.  Well, he told us a couple neat stories in his lesson that I thought I would pass along before I forget.

There was a city in Brazil (he didn't identify it), where all the pastors of the other churches got together and formed a pact against the church - committing to speak against the church and not support anything done by the church, and ensure that they warned their members against hearing the missionaries, etc.  This made missionary work in that city just about come to a standstill, and even the members were having a hard time.  After praying about it and considering the circumstances, the mission president announced to his assistants that he had decided to put a brand new pair of Elders in the city (he even used the term Greenies).  There was quite a bit of discussion as the assistants thought the area was hard enough already, without having new missionaries there.  But, the President was convinced and put a new pair of missionaries in the city.  When they arrived there, they knelt and prayed then went out to work - feeling that they should go to the local radio station and see if they could get an interview to smooth out relations - not knowing, of course, about the pact of the pastors.  Well, it turns out (not coincidence, of course) that all the pastors were having a meeting with the radio announcer that very afternoon, which was just finishing up when the young missionaries arrived.  The secretary thought that they were part of the group so she ushered them into the room.  The pastors, I'm sure a little embarrassed, closed the meeting, having achieved their objective - committing the radio announcer to speak against the church.  When they left, the missionaries were there in the back room with the radio announcer by themselves.  The announcer looked at them, and noticed one of the name badges and asked, "Elder Amoral, are you from ... ?" and named a city up in the North of Brazil by Teresina. The Elder responded, "Yes." and the announcer said, "And your mother is Maria Gabriela Amoral?"  A bit astonished, the Elder said, "Yes!  But how did you know that?"  The announcer then said, "I know it because I am her brother."
The radio announcer, his family and several others were baptized within a two week period, he began to announce in favor of the church and church activities, and the church started growing like crazy in that city - the fastest growing in the whole mission.

The second story is similar, in one of the activities - like "helping hands", some of the young people brought a friend that ended up getting baptized.  His father was a pastor for the Assembly of God church, which is really big in Brazil and speaks against the church regularly.  But when his son decided to go on a mission, the father would proudly tell people, "My son is Mormon Missionary, serving the Lord."  When his son came home from his mission, he baptized his father into the church.  His father is super active and one of the local leaders and has helped teach the gospel to many of his former congregation.

Just a couple stories to show how much the Lord is involved in the missionary work - here in Brazil and throughout the world.  I am more and more convinced that there are very few (if any) coincidences when it comes to the Lord's work - His plan is awesome... and as God's children, we're all awesome!

Love you all,
Dad and Mom

Mission 2 - Week 31

Well, like I promised I am trying to catch up this week... I know it's Saturday!  Lay off me... 😁
Monday was a holiday here, so we did more cleaning and organizing.  We had the Whitings over for dinner, potato bar with chili.  It was fun and they are nice folks.  No Couples' FHE because of the holiday.
Tuesday we had a staff meeting in the office and found out that Elder Costa is being released as the Area President and Elder Aidukaites is taking his place.  We taught our English Class after work and it was another full group.  We went for a walk to get Mom some exercise as her sugar was still high this week.
Wednesday was a very busy day in the office.  After work we went with the Whitings to the temple and it was a very nice session - but very small.  Neither Mom nor I were feeling well today.

I keep getting fun temple pictures because we
are always walking by it.  This one with the
Brazilian flag...

Thursday I got up early and went with the Whitings to the Police Station to help with their government registration (for all foreigners coming into Brazil).  It went very well, with Fabiano's help - he is a person that the church pays to expedite government processes at the Police Station.  After work we ran into Marcelo and Renata from Cuiabá, what a pleasant surprise.  They took us out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the "Liberdade" neighborhood, which is a predominantly Asian neighborhood here in São Paulo.  It was very good food, but we ate a lot because it was all-you-can-eat.

Marcelo, Renata, and David, their youngest

Friday I finished my Mission President report for Ricardo and Deborah - this is only important because I promised it this week in the staff meeting on Tuesday!  Tonight a couple that we had recently befriended took us out to eat...again.  And, once again, we went to an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant and it was very good.  It was by our apartment so we just walked over, but when we came out it was raining so the wife made the husband walk over to their apartment and get their car to take us home.  It was amusing.

Eliane (no, not Elaine) and Mom at the Japanese Restaurant

Saturday we went to the early morning Feira and bought vegetables.  

They always have a lot of fish, and cool displays

I didn't realize there were this many types of potato!

Later we went with some couples to Ibirapuera park and walked around.  Mom almost bought a nativity, but it was R$1,000 (about US$330) - hand-carved and pretty big, so she decided not to.  So another couple (Salisburys) went ahead and bought it!

Nice skyline shot of some of São Paulo

A lot of the trees were in bloom, beautiful

So, cows of different colors and design have shown up all
around the city, we don't know why...yet.  This one was at
the park.

Gorgeous flower at the park

It was a beautiful day, so everything was lovely

Mom was even conquering her fears - this was a huge spider
sculpture, luckily it was behind glass...

Sunday was our first really bad transporation day for buses to our Ward in Perdizes.  We had to take alternative buses each leg of the trip and then walk a bit in the end.  We got to church about 20 mintues late!  This is the first time we've been late to church here in Brazil - not bad for 7 months.  After Sacrament Meeting we were told that we weren't going to teach again, so we have yet another week of preparation.  After church we went over to Mike and Carliana's house for lunch - it's nice because we speak English there since he's American and they used to live in the US.  After lunch we made it home on the bus, rested some, then Skyped with the younger kids.

Love to all,
The Church is True,
Dad and Mom

Mission 2 - Week 30

I think we're getting a little behind, so we'll catch up this week sometime.
Monday (4/24) seemed like a very long day at work.  Jouber started his vacation for 3 weeks.  We did get a lot done.  FHE was by Sister Cox and she had each couple tell about themselves, a "Getting to Know You" activity.
Tuesday we taught our English class after working in the office. We played a few rounds of Bingo with the students and it was fun, and definitely a learning exercise :)  We walked over to the mall afterward and bought a few groceries and picked up some money at the bank - not in that order.
Wednesday we worked quite a bit again - the FM group folks came by and changed our internet name and password so for the next few days it only worked intermittently - it had worked for six months without a glitch after I put in a new user name and password shortly after we arrived.  You see more on this episode in tomorrow's note. Tonight we went with the Sondereggers (last meal), Shumways, and Sister Cox to the Mancini Italian restaurant (where we went with Celso from Cuiabá).  The Lasanga was delicious... again. 

Inside the Restaurant, a lot of "Atmosphere"!

The fountain at the entrance to the street, the
Mancini family owns the whole street and they
have several (5 I think) restaurants on it.

I know it's not a great picture, but I tried to get more of
the street in the shot (next to the Fountain)

Walking to the bus stop after was a bit dicey, but we made it home just fine.  Oh, Mom had another "fell into her purse event", if you know what I mean.  This time the really nice silk napkin from the restaurant FELL into her purse and she found it there when we got home.  Yes, a little embarrassing.
Thursday the maintenance folks had to come by as our internet wasnt't working at all!  So, after playing around for awhile they decided it was the router that had gone bad and they went and bought a new one and installed it.  It worked after I finished setting it up for them.  Tomorrow I will have another entry on this topic (seriously!).
Friday was another long day in the travel department.  After work we went to the temple and it was great.  Afterward we saw Ricardo (our supervisor, really nice guy), who had just gotten sealed to his mother and now-deceased father, with his brother (who was our stake president when we first arrived in São Paulo).  It was very cool to see them there.  The maintenance people had to come by once again to "fix" the internet problems and put in yet another username and password.
Saturday we had dinner with the Whitings, the new couple next door.  They are super nice, he's a doctor and she's a nurse and neither one speak Portuguese.  Passeys also came over, so it was a nice visit and meal.
Sunday we were a little concerned about making it to Perdizes ward because there had been a bus strike over the weekend, but we made it with no problem - which was a good thing because Mom had to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting!  It went very well and she got a lot of nice comments afterward.  We didn't teach our Temple Prep lesson again, and didn't have a lunch appointment so we went home after church, then Skyped later with the older kids - James and Amanda are buying a house!

Love you all.
The Church is True.
Dad and Mom