Settling In

We finished the Provo MTC experience on Friday February 16th and spent the weekend with Kimberly and family, and the famous grand cat, Kit Kat.

On Saturday we had a great time visiting with Paul and Patty, Meredith and Steve, and Todd, since we would be leaving for Brazil before Aunt Pat's funeral on Tuesday. We went with Meredith and Steve to see the grave site where Aunt Pat will be buried next to Uncle Bob.

We also had a fun time visiting with three of the Sister missionaries we had know in Gramado, Sister Hanna, Sister Rodriques, and Sister Snyder. On Sunday after church we went with Kimberly's family up to Kirk's house for dinner, where we were able to meet our newest grand dog, Uinta

We them visited Chris and Linda, staying at Destry and Matt's house, although Destry wasn't home.

We had a nice visit with Stella and her girls,

We then enjoyed a lovely visit with Aunt Lois, Shelley and Ashley.

Monday morning Kimberly and Eddie drove us up to the Salt Lake airport, where we started our journey to Sao Paulo. It had snowed about six inches overnight and was pretty cold. Because of the weather our flight to Atlanta was delayed a couple of hours while we waited to have the plane de-iced. Our schedule had a four hour delay scheduled in Atlanta, so it ended up being just two hours. Our overnight flight to Sao Paulo was long but uneventful.

We traveled with the Olsens, another senior couple going to the Sao Paulo Area Office also. We were met at the airport by two couples, the Passeys and the McAlisters and a large van to take us to our apartment. We were pleasantly surprised by our apartment. It is in a large apartment complex of 11 adjoining 12 storey buildings, six on one side of a beautiful garden area and five on the other side. We are in the building called Aguas de Cambuquira on the third floor, really the fifth floor because of the ground floor and a parking garage floor.

The gardens between the buildings are beautifully landscaped, and there is a nice playground and a gazebo there.

This is the look through our front door of the apartment.

We then have the kitchen to the right with a bathroom, a utility room and a store room down past the kitchen.

Through the front door past the kitchen is the living room and the dining area.

Down the hall we have a second bathroom, a small bedroom also used as the study, and the master bedroom.

This is s picture of the building we live in from the outside.

The temple is just a block down the main road from our apartment. This is a look from in front of the temple back at our apartment buildings.

The temple is so beautiful and well landscaped.

Next to the temple is a stake center where we are attending church until we receive an assignment from the mission president to attend another ward somewhere.

There is also a building that used to be temple housing but is now being converted into a visitor's center. There is a statue of the Christus inside the rounded glass part.

The Area Office building is behind the temple and the stake center. A young couple we knew in Gramado, the Nacarados have since moved to Sao Paulo, and we were able to meet with them and have lunch and dinner.

All in all, we are very happy here and it is so much better than we had imagined for the largest city in the western hemisphere. Brazil is such a large country. Here is a map in our office building showing just how big Brazil is in comparison to South America.