We started the week by getting more work in the office. Daniel is out because his wife had a baby and Cristina is gone on vacation through the end of the year. Jouber has been in and out because he wasn't feeling well. So, a bunch of the others' work has come our way - the biggest piece being the first registration of missionaries that come into Brazil. We're keeping up, but I think Jouber is giving us his work as well as the others' - and he forwarded Cristina's phone to me when he's supposed to be answering it while she's gone. I think it's a game of "see if we can get Elder Harris to cry Uncle!". We'll see... :)
Monday night we were in charge of the Family Home Evening and we interspersed scriptures from the creation in Genesis with pictures from the Pantanal - all the birds, alligators, flowers, and other animals (iguanas, armadillos, etc.) that we could get off our computer. It went well and now everyone wants to take a trip to the pantanal, so we are probably going to try and put one together next February or March (because people are leaving in April).
Tuesday we took food over to the Burkes again (she broke her ankle) and showed them the slides. On Wednesday we went to the temple and it was great, as usual. Mom doesn't even use the headsets any more, or the English card at the veil.
Thursday night we went to dinner with Tamiris (Sister Barbosa from Cuiabá) and her fiance Mosia (Mosiah in English). He's a super nice guy so we're very excited for them to get married in April. They chose the restaurant and it was an all you can eat pizza place - which we didn't need, but it was good. Oh, they were over an hour late meeting us there! You have to love Brazil...
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| Tamiris, Mosia, Mom and I |
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| Tamiris was the only one wanting dessert after dinner - watch the video next! |
Friday night we went to dinner (again!) and a movie with the other couples in the mission. It's always fun to have a night out with them. We saw "Sully", it was about the plane that landed in the Hudson river, Tom Hanks was excellent as the pilot. Then Saturday was clean up and bake cookies for the São Paulo West Mission Christmas party. Then in the afternoon, we still had energy to go on a pretty long walk to get Mom's 10,000 steps. It was a nice walk through a new area by our apartment. We found some new things:
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| A very large new park, we didn't even walk around the whole thing. |
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| A new type of flower, absolutely gorgeous! |
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| Our very own decorated wall down from the Park. |
Today, Sunday, we went to our new ward again. After church the Bishop asked to talk with us and told us that he wants us to meet all the leaders in the ward. We said that would be great... then he explained that his idea to accomplish this was for us to go to lunch with one of the leaders each Sunday after church... here it comes... starting today! So we went over to the bishopric counselor's house for lunch. It was delicious, we had to take a picture of the salad, but the whole meal was very good. And, luckily, we had their son take a selfie of us afterward :) (OK, he was in it so it really IS a selfie.)
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| This was just the salad - delicious! |
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| João Pedro, Tom, MarJean, Eder, Michelle, Elen |
Oh, I have to share his conversion story. He was baptized way back in 1972 - yes, when I was on my mission. He was 11, and his family rented out a back room to two girls studying in São Paulo. One of the girls was from Cuiabá and was a member of the church, but didn't really want anything to do with it. Her family sent a referral to the missionaries asking them to drop in and visit her. So one day they knocked on the door and asked if they could come in and he (the 11-year-old) let them in. They asked to see Vera, but she wasn't home. As they sat in the living room (they had asked for a drink), they put a pamphlet of the Joseph Smith story on the table. When the mother came into the room, she saw the pamphlet and said, "Oh, who is that?! I just had a dream about him last night!" The father of the family had passed away, and in the dream she was walking arm in arm with Joseph Smith. She said that she knew it wasn't her husband but felt only calm in his presence - in English, it wasn't awkward at all. Of course, the Elders were amazed, but did their job and began teaching them the lessons. So, long story short, she and the kids were baptized and she stayed faithful until her death a few years ago. Cool story, huh?
We love you all, Merry Christmas! We'll be home all day on Christmas so call/Skype/Facebook/message/etc. any time!!
The Church is true!
Love Dad and Mom