Epistle #10

This is the Curitiba Temple at night. We didn't have time to go inside.  This was the city where Rick served on his mission in 1966

 President and Sister Cordon of the Curtiba Mission in the Mission home

The Cordons with two of their children, Heather 18 and Dallin 14

The Ponta Grossa Stake Center.   Same ground as the old chapel Rick used to go to in 1965.

Rick with President Samways of the Ponta Grossa Stake in the same hallway of the old chapel.  It was  remodeled  and added onto in 2009.   President Samways father made our wedding bands that we wear today.

An old church just outside of Ponta Grossa

The tall top heavy trees called Parana Pines.  They have pine nuts the size of my thumb

These little stands are all over in the banana plantations all over in the jungle  about an hour outside of Sao Paulo on the way home from Curitiba

This is the huge chapel in Curitiba where we had two Zone Conferences.  This was the biggest Cutural Hall I have ever seen.  Note the huge windows with the palm trees just outside.

The other side of the same cultural hall.

This is the line of Elders to see Rick after Lunch at the Zone Conference in Curitiba.  I sat on the chair to the right and talked to them until they went in to see him.  They helped me a lot with Portuguese.

A few of the beautiful Sisters in the Curitiba Mission.   This is where I got my Hugs.

Sister Cordon and two of her missionaries.  The one on the left played for the famous Corinthians  Soccer Team here in Sao Paulo.
He has quite a story of how he gave it up to serve his mission.  Great young man.

This is Elder Simper from the Tule Springs Stake in Las Vegas.  He says he knows Doug and Lisa

We took the Cordons to dinner at a Rodizio Pizza place where they bring all kinds of Pizza to your table.  This was the California Pizza that is like eating a fruit salad of pineapple, mango kiwi, strawberries, pears.  great.

Here we are eating after conference with the Cordon's  Dallin even had blue ice cream pizza.

Can you see the cement legs of the road on the mountain. That road takes us up 2100 feet through the jungle and tunnels to get back to Sao Paulo.

The tunnels in the mountain jungle coming out of Santos after Sao Paulo South Missin Conference.  It is a big 2100 foot climb up from the Port city on the coast.  Some of the tunnels were close to a mile long.

This is what is left of our banana stalk that I got a week earlier.  They have ripened very nicely

The little bananas are the size of my thumb and are so sweet when they ripen.

Here we are with President and Sister Richardson (left) and Elder and Sister Hill the other AMA.

These two Elders are serving in the Sao Paulo North mission, which is where we live.  They stopped by one night to have Rick listen to Elder Antonio's (left) heart.  So I made them stay for dinner.  We had a great visit.

This is Sister Rachael Pike of the Duplex ward in Provo.  She said that Doug and Jennie babysat her family a couple of times while they lived there.

With her companion Sister Da Silva from Manaus in the Amazon.

This is Elder Araujo (right) who reminded me so much of Carter when he smiled, dimples and all.   They work in Santos on the coast.

This is our cute little car we drive when we travel.  A Chevy Mriva.  Cute Driver too

This is a road bridge over the highway.  They use a lot of this kind of bridge.

I found this nice man on the beach and took him home with me.

Can you see the big container ship leaving the harbor of Santos?

 Epistle #10 May 19

Dear Family and Friends. 

Here we are again in the great BIG country of Brazil.  I keep saying that I am going to start doing a little at a time on this blog, but never happens.  So here goes the last two weeks and they have been very eventful. 

May 1^st we got to spend some real quality time on skype with our newest little grandchild, Theo.

What a cutie and we are so grateful for skype.  We could almost touch him.  It must have been a fun day for his Blessing.  My high school friend Mary Ann Free Smith (the artist) happened to be there for the blessing of her GREAT-grandchild.  Oh how glad I am that I am not there yet.  Just wait a few years Gabi.  She loved meeting some of you.

 May 3^rd we saw Kevin on TV,Channel 2 I believe, and couldn’t believe how calm and cool he was.   I worked with my friend Clyde(Clagee) on Portuguese and she gave me a new restored version of the comic book Little LuLu.  It was so fun, because I was raised with her in the comics in the newspapers we got.   It is all in Portuguese and really stretching my learning.  She says once I get this way of reading and speaking that I will understand so much more.   Elder Hill (Dr.) and his wife left for Rio de Janeiro and Vitoria for conference visits and we prepared to go south to Curitiba the next week. 

May 4^th we went to the temple with our branch from the CTM. One of the Sisters from another branch who has just been here a week and a half just cried all the way through the session.  When she got to the Sealing room, she continued to cry even with her companion there.  I went over and asked if she would like a blessing and she said she thought it would help.  Her branch Pres happened to be the man doing our session, so he asked Rick to help and hoped she would feel better.   We found out that she was home schooled all her life in New York and had never had any real social interactions except the church and that her father and brothers who are inactive have teased and emotionally been quite abusive to her.  She has wanted to serve a mission all her life.   She has wanted to go home every week, but they keep trying to convince her to do another couple of weeks.  Maybe some extra prayers would help.  Sister Stoneridge is her name.

Thanks.

May 5^th  Tonight I made a Mummy Pizza for dinner and it came out so cute and tasted sooo good,  but talk about heartburn.    Today earlier Clyde told me about a very spiritual experience she had as a young single mother.  She was applying for a job that she needed very badly to keep her family fed.  She knew she would do well if she got the job, but also knew that there were others there more qualified than she.   When the applications came out and the special forms she was to fill out about herself she knew she probably wouldn’t get the job.   But a woman across from her at the same table asked if she could help.  She seemed to work there.

What Clyde couldn’t fill in she would help her do.   So after she went in for the interview, they liked what she had put on her forms and hired her right there.   When she went out to thank the woman who had helped her, she couldn’t find her anywhere.  She asked the people at the same table where she had been if they had seen her and they didn’t ever see anyone there.  She searched the offices and never found the woman again.   It wasn’t until about 6 months later that she realized just what had happened and she began to cry.   That woman had been sent to her to help her.  She was an angel.  I truly believe there are angels all around us just like the one that helped her.  Sometimes we see them and sometimes we don’t.   I also know Heavenly Father knows us and knows what we need and if we are doing all we can do he will help us in any way possible.  

May 7^th Today I baked Dark chocolate cookies with chopped up chocolate bar in them, because there are no chocolate chips here.  I made them to take to the little gentlemen that open and close the gates at three different places in our complex.  They are so sweet and kind.  One is on a cane and says hello in English every time I go through.  I don’t think they liked them though.  None of them has said a thing since.  I think they fed them to their dogs.   They are sort of scared of English stuff.  

Mothers Day was so fun especially when you all called and sang and let me be a part of Andre’s farewell.  What a party if must have been too.   Thank you all for supporting Kelli and being ME.

I teared up most of the day, but it was fine.  What an amazing wonderful family we have.  You are the greatest.  The Sister Missionaries were so cute, they found some candy and made little cards for us all.   They are wonderful. 

Monday Night for FHE I made my homemade Chili and it turned out great.   Reminded me of BYU tailgating parties.  

Tuesday we skyped Kennady for her birthday and  got to see her toothless or almost toothless grin.   Tooth fairy better be good to her.  Talked to Andre’ just before he went into the MTC and felt his excitement.   What a joy to know the tradition is being carried on by our wonderful grandkids.  It will be fun to hear from him.

May 11 we also left for Curitiba where Rick served part of his mission.  It was a six hour drive and we got there about 9:00pm.  We stayed with President and Sister Cordon for 3 nights while Rick did his presentation and saw missionaries with health problems for two days.  Also met an Elder Simper from the Tule Springs Stake in Las Vegas.  He said he knew Lisa and Doug.  President and Sister Cordon are from Bountiful and have two teenagers with them, one 14 and one 18 who is going to BYU this fall.  They were so fun to be with and were wonderful with the missionaries.  They took us around the Curitiba Temple built in 2008, with the big Parana Pines all around it.  We could only see it at night though and were so busy we couldn’t do a session.

On Saturday we went to Ponta Grossa to take 5 keyboards to the Stake center there.  The Stake President met us and took us on a tour of the Building that was just remodeled in 2009.  They rebuilt over the old chapel that Rick remembered being in on his mission.  His father was the one who made our wedding bands that we both wear.   The keyboards are for a woman from Florida who is coming on her mission here to teach the people piano skills.  See there are all kinds of missions. Then we drove home 9 hours.  As we were about 2 hours out of Sao Paulo we came through miles of banana plantations in the jungle in the mountains.  We stopped and bought a bunch of mini-bananas still on the stalk.   The bananas are the same size as my thumb. 

See the pictures.   There were also a million trucks on the road with us. 

Tues May 17 we have been here in Sao Paulo South Mission Conferences.  Three days here, but one was yesterday in Santos on the Coast.  We dropped 2000 feet in elevation to go to the conference there.  One of the Elders that met us at the church reminded me so much of Carter.

He has the same smile and dimples.  His name is Elder Araujo.   Also met Sister Rachael Pike from the duplex ward.  Her Parents are Mission Pres. in Arcadia California and she and her parents will meet at the airport two weeks from now as they are all going home together.  Before we went home, we stopped and walked along the beach, and watch the big ships, most of them freighters coming and going in the busy port.  On the way home we got to see the road we came down on as it dropped out of the jungle.  We could see the big cement posts of the road that ran back and forth along the jungle mountain in between the tunnels that we had to go through.  And of course more trucks.  It looked like a spider web along the mountains. It was really beautiful and the nicest road we have been on yet. 

One more day tomorrow with the SP Sul(south) Mission Conference until next year.  President and Sister Richardson will be going home in July and  President John and Sister Susan W. Tanner will be taking over this mission.   We shared tutors with them.   The Richardsons have 12 children, all theirs.  So they have had 4 with them in this mission.  The oldest left on his mission on Sunday and entered the MTC today.  He is going to Dallas Texas even though he is fluent in Portuguese. 

We love working with the missionaries and they are so kind to me as a new speaker of their language.  They correct me and teach me new things and I have grown to love them dearly.

I am planning on many missionaries in our family, so read and learn  the Book of Mormon  and the best book ever Preach My Gospel, a book truly inspired for using in FHE and Church as well as Missionary work.  We found out from the missionaries that had dinner with us last week that there are 70 LDS families that live in our big complex of eight buildings here.   I would love to meet and get to know some of them. 

Next week we go to the desert state of Brazil called   Mato Grosso.  The city is called Goiania and is just southeast of the Capital Brazillia.  The temperature there now is still 86-88 degrees hot.  So I get out the summer clothes to go there.  We will leave Tuesday May 24 and will be home Friday the 27^th.   So Happy Memorial Day weekend.  

I also can’t believe that Matt is graduating from Medical School.  What an accomplishment for him.   All of you in attendance, hug him a big one for us.  Brazilian Style…Abracos big back pats.

Our hearts will be with you all as he walks across the stage.   I assume Steve and Kevin are going to do the hooding, if they do that.  Rick will be there is spirit.

Love to you all, the Gospel is true and we are grateful to serve.  Thank you for your love and support.  And may the Lords choicest blessings be with you.

Always and forever.

Elder and Sister Call