More Fun With Missionaries

Our Missionaries, who are completing their missions, taking the de-worming pill before the farewell dinner and testimony meeting at out house. Elders Nunes, Rowland De Sousa, Sister Longo, Elders Margenta, and Cézar .

A final visit to the Porto Alegre Temple.

Another group of missionaries, on their last day.

Some of our beautiful Sister Missionaries.

Farewell to Elders Bradley and Yancey.

Missionaries, missionaries, missionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We were traveling the whole mission one week, giving trainings in every Zone. On the last day Curt got up to begin the training and I realized how tired he was. He had worn the suit coat from a black pinstripe suit with the pants from a gray plaid suit. When he sat down I whispered to him about it and we laughed and pointed it out the the missionaries. At the break we went out to the car to get the right suit coat.

Our Missionaries in the Bagé Zone

The Pelotas and Pelotas North Zones

The Rio Grande Zone. Sister Modesto on the right is popular wherever she goes because she brings brownies to the meetings.

I liked this photo showing Elder Hardy with a suspicious look, getting money out of the safe.

Our Missionaries

Our Missionaries who are serving in Cachoeira

Some of the Elders who are serving right now in the office.

Brownie Sundaes with hot fundge Sauce.

Elder Suzarte decorated the chalkboard for one of their baptism services.

Lunch at McDonalds in Pelotas with a few of our Elders.

Some of Our Friends Here

We started the week with some news that we were hoping we wouldn’t get. Our Temple Presidency was missing a counselor because Presidente Arius was called to be the Temple President in Curitiba. So the Temple has been running without a 2nd Counselor for about 2 months. They called our Elder and Sister Pereira (who were helping us in the mission office) as counselor in the Temple Presidency. Those of you who have really good memories might be thinking - didn’t Elder Pereira already serve in the Temple Presidency? The answer is, yes. When they were released last November we invited them to come serve with us in the mission.

The Perreira’s have been just wonderful, Elder Pereira helped us with renting our apartments, and fixing them up, and Sister Pereira helped me with doctor and dentist appointments. Sister Pereira is an amazing seamstress, and She helped me mend/wash all of the donated missionary clothes that we received. She also loves to fold things and have all of the cupboards really organized and beautiful. I also kept Sister Pereira busy with making Dentist appointments. We have lots of missionaries who have fillings fall out, and root canals, and even one whose crown fell out. I'm glad that our boys didn't have those problems on their missions.

In the photo below we were celebration Elder Pereira's birthday. This is a view of our living room. I wanted you to see it so that you can compare our Armoire on the right side of the photo, with the furniture in the Knightons home in the next photo.

These are the other American couples who are serving here in Porto Alegre. Brother and Sister Schade, President and Sister Knighton (Porto Alegre Temple President) and Brother and Sister Blackham.

We were invited to FHE with President and Sister Knighton, (Temple President.) The Blackhams are from Saint George, the Knighton's are from American Fork, and the Schades from Naperville Illinois. While we were talking to the Schades, we realized that we lived in the same ward in Chicago, but I honestly don't remember them. We know a lot of the same people though. I feel silly that I don't remember them. It was fun to speak English all night. I made an apple crisp, and we took our chicken-foot dominoes to play with them.

The Knightons also invited us over to watch General Conference together (the Sunday Session.) We are also planning to get together to have a Thanksgiving dinner in two weeks.

A funny part about visiting the Temple President's home, is that we have the same furniture in our home. We both have the same dinning room furniture, and living room couches. The upholstery is different, but the style is the same. We have an armoire for our TV and even an umbrella stand/entryway piece that is the same. We are lucky though because we have a beautiful baby grand piano in our home. Bayard, the man that takes care of our home says that he thinks the piano was here when Curt served his first mission.

This is the Luis Eugenio and Cátia Asconavieta family. He is one of our Stake Presidents in Pelotas. The Asconavieta family is a very strong force here in the church. There are three brothers right now in Pelotas, Luis Eugenio, Victor who is an Area Seventy, and Francisco who is Curt's first counselor in the Mission Presidency. Cátia and Luis Eugenio always invited us over for lunch after Stake Conference, and give us some of the famous candies from Pelotas to take home with us.

Some Funny Things That I Want to Remember

The one good thing about traveling, is that Curt and I are on a quest to see a capybara. There are signs on the highway that say they are around, but we have never seen one. So the more Stake Conferences we go to, the better our chances of seeing a capybara in the wild. We had a fun 5 hour drive to Bagé for their Stake Conference. As we got farther out into the far reaches of the countryside we started to see a lot of Wild Turkeys. We counted around 8 which we saw on Saturday, and on Sunday during our return trip home. It is getting close to Thanksgiving, hummmm . . . I wonder if we will have time for another trip to Bagé towards the end of November? When we were returning from Pelotas one night we saw two Foxes, kind of silvery gray colored with their eyes gleaming in the headlights. Curt also thinks by the laws of deduction, that we saw 3 capybaras near Bagé. But as a former high school science student I feel that just because they were too small to be a calf, colt, or sheep and they were standing in water (which capybaras LOVE) we can't actually count this as a capybara sighting. I feel that the distance was just to great and we need stronger evidence. I feel inclined to call it a hypothetical capybara sighting.


With that aside I would like to confirm a true capybara sighting. When we were in Pelotas I talked Curt into driving to the bus station to check out the capybara that the missionaries say lives there. HE WAS THERE! The only problem is that it was very hot that day so he was napping inside a concrete culvert, keeping cool. We'll have to do another drive-by on a cooler day to see if he is hanging out in the open. There were also two Emu there (the large bird that looks almost like an ostrich.) It was fun to see them. Our Elders told us that here they are called Ema.


A week ago, Curt and I were touring the mission with his two assistants, and by Thursday we were all getting a little sleepy. We were on the beautiful highway between Bage and Cachoeira - there are lots of hills, and forests of eucalyptus trees (which they use here in construction.) Curt rounded a corner and there in the middle of the road was the funniest looking bird you have ever seen. It was about 3 feet tall - a seriema. He/she was so startled and we were so startled. Curt slammed on the brakes and he/she ran away. We got a good laugh about it all because he/she reminded us of the big bird, Kevin, in the movie "UP," with the colorful tufts on top of it's head.


I had to share this photo of the amazing maid who works across the street from our building. All of the maids here in Brazil wash the windows weekly. Usually they invent ways to clean the outside with a long squeegee or a broom or mop. But this courageous maid across the street from us just climbs right out onto the window ledge (3 stories up) and cleans the outside of windows. Since I am afraid of heights, I have great admiration for her skills and courage.

And lastly, for all of you who think that Coca Cola will rot your guts out, you might enjoy this sight that we saw at a gas station one day. I thought it would give you a laugh.

During the Months of October and November we have been enjoying the "Parada de Vacas" the "Cow Parade" here in Porto Alegre. There are over 100 cows at different locations in the city, decorated in different ways. This one named Vaxi is located in the Rodaviaria (Bus Station) It is painted exactly the same way the taxis are painted here. You can see a map on the base that shows where all of the other cows can be found throughout the city. Some people have been driving around the city, and taking photos by each of the cows.

This next cow is at our Moinhos de Vento Park. It is decorated with all of the different Bairros (Neighborhoods) in the city. Curt is pointing to Moinhos de Vento.

Here we have the Leão-de-Vaca

This is Mumu, the name of one of the big milk producing companies here in Rio Grande do Sul.

This one is probably our favorite cows. ZERO HORA is the name of one of the two local newspapers. At every main intersection in the city you can buy a newspaper from young people who walk up and down between the stopped cars. We have a favorite sales girl that we pass every morning on the way to the mission office. She walks past our car with a huge smile and always says "Bom Dia."

It is Springtime here in Porto Alegre. Curt and I just love all of the beautiful trees. We have a park near our home in Moinhos de Vento (Wind Mills) that is almost like an arboretum, it has so many different kinds of trees. Check out this Jacaranda tree that Curt is standing by. I especially love the carpet of lavendar petals on the ground. They call these trees Ype here in Rio Grand do Sul.

I just loved this flower, it really looks tropical doesn't it?

You don't find bouganvillea like this in Utah.

I love the flowers on this Callistemon. It is nicknamed Bottle brush tree, and you can see why. If you want to take a trip to southern Brazil, you should come in October. Everything is so green and blooming and beautiful. The temperatures are just perfect too.