August Update

August has been an exciting month for us. The bishop of our Brazilian Ward, Jardim das Rosas, has the cutest little baby daughter, Alana. She turned one on August 5th and we were invited to have dinner with the family after church. Here are a few pictures of the party. She loved the little Raggedy Ann type doll we gave her.

We took a trip with two other Senior Couples to go see the Amazon River and the city of Manaus, a city of about 3 million people on the Rio Negro just before it merges with the Amazon. It is a four hour flight from Sao Paulo. It is famous because as the two rivers merge the waters don't mix for about four miles. The Rio Negro has dark almost black water, and the Amazon has muddy brown water. Both rivers are very large. We attended the Manaus temple as soon as we landed, and it really is a beautiful temple right on the banks of the Rio Negro.

We stayed at the Intercity Hotel, which has 16 floors and a roof top swimming pool which we enjoyed. We had a room on the 16th floor, and the views were magnificent from our room.

 We took a boat excursion to see where the rivers merge, and it was an amazing sight to see.

We passed a few floating villages along the shore.

At one stop along the Rio Negro there was a nature hike through the jungle on an elevated walkway. There was water everywhere below the walk, with the trees and brush growing up out of the water.

The huge Lilly pads were growing below the trail, and we could see across to the Amazon River in the background. We didn't see any wildlife on our nature hike, but it was still enjoyable. After the hike we ate lunch before getting back on our tour boat.

After lunch the boat took us up some channels of the river through an archipelago of islands. There were a few local businesses along the side of the channel.

The channels got pretty narrow in some places, and we had to keep our arms in to keep from being scratched by the passing branches. It was a beautiful ride through the jungle.

Out on the main river, we passed the city of Manaus and went under the Manaus-Iranduba bridge, which is a 3.6 km crossing over the Rio Negro River. The highest section is a beautiful suspension section.

We sat in the back of the boat and enjoyed the wonderful views.

We visited an area where some of the passengers got in the water with the famous pink river dolphins. These dolphins are born gray but turn pink as they get older. The older they are the pinker they get. The water didn't look very clean, so neither of us got in the water. The worker would feed the dolphins fish and the people in the water would be around in a circle watching.

This was the tour boat we were on.

We made a stop at a native Indian village and they put on a show of dancing and had some of their trinkets for sale. The native women wore only grass skirts and flower necklaces.

We passed the bridge again on our way back to Manaus.

On Saturday before our return flight, we stopped at the Municipal Market where they have lots of souvenir shops

After the shops we went to see the famous Amazon Theater in Manaus, sometimes called the Opera House. It is a beautiful old colonial building built in 1987 when Manaus was in its heyday of rubber production.

We went on a tour of the building and were able to watch some students practicing, hoping to become part of the main orchestra.  We were able to hear the magnificent acoustics of this building.

They took us through the large ballroom, which was the social center of the city when it was a booming rubber town.

It has a beautiful hardwood dance floor made up of 12,000 pieces of beautiful woods.

 The ceiling is painted with a beautiful mural.

All around the edges are beautiful ornate paintings and carvings where the balcony is.

It was just a three day trip, but a wonderful break from our Monday through Friday office job. 

This week we had a visit from two of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve, President Ballard and Elder Soares, the longest and the shortest tenured members of the 12. There are five missions here in Sao Paulo, and all the missionaries were invited to a meeting with them in the stake center beside the Temple. The were between 700 and 800 missionaries. What a sight to see! We thoroughly enjoyed listening to these two Apostles of Jesus Christ instruct the missionaries and bear their testimonies. The Brazilians loved seeing Elder Soares, the first Apostle from Brazil.

Update August 1, 2018

It has been two months since we updated our blog. Time flies by so quickly we can hardly keep up. Working in the office Monday through Friday, there is not too much to write about that would interest anyone. During the month of June the Brazilians celebrate a holiday called Festa Junina.  It is held in many different places. It is like a Mid-Summer festival in Europe, but here it is in the middle of winter. They dress up like hillbillies and play games and eat lots of food. We attended three different parties at different times, one in the Catholic Church close to where we live, one at the stake center by the Temple, and one at the ward we attend. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Several of the senior couples got together one Saturday and went to a big park in the center of town called Ibirapuera Park.  That is like Central Park in New York City. It is near the center of Sao Paulo, has two lakes, bicycle and hiking paths, and artisan shops. It was pretty cool that day, so we looked through the shops and then headed back home. Here are a couple of pictures of structures in the park.

One thing that has been frustrating for all is trying to get the Temple Visitor's Center open. It has been complete for several months now and is just waiting for the city government red tape to allow it to open. This is a picture of the Director of the visitor's center and his wife, Elder and Sister Casado. They are Brazilians but have lived in the US for the last year to be close to their kids and grandkids. They were called to be the directors as a two year mission, and are pretty frustrated waiting for the center to open.

There were some dignitaries from Salt Lake that came to inspect the Visitor's Center.  The curtains around the Christus statue were open and the lights were turned on for them, too. The lights were supposed to be turned off and the curtains closed after they left, but somehow were left on for one evening. We were able to get a picture of how it will look once it is opened. 

It is going to be beautiful and we hope it will be opened soon.

Another Saturday several of the senior couples went on a trip downtown to see a modern art museum. called Pinacoteca. Most of the art was too modern for our taste, but it was lots of fun.

 Next to the Pinacoteca is a train station that Brazil imported from Scotland about a hundred years ago, and it is still in use.

 This is what it looks like from the outside.

While we were downtown we went up one of the tall buildings where you can see over some of the city. It gives you a little perspective of just how big Sao Paulo is with 23 million people, even though you can only see a small portion of the city from here. It takes a couple of hours to drive from one side of the city to the other.

 After the view of the city, we all went to a symphony concert in the Municipal Theater in the center of town. We enjoyed seeing the inside of this beautiful old theater.

The senior couples like to get together a lot and do dinner. Here we are at a restaurant in the shopping center across from the Area Office building.

 A young couple we knew in Gramado on our first mission, Rodolfo and Mariane, have parents who live here in Sao Paulo. One time when Rodolfo and Mariane were visiting with her parents, we were invited to dinner in their house. It is the first American style house we have been in here in Brazil, and is in a large gated community of single family houses. The Casado couple are related to Rodolfo and were invited to the dinner also.

 This is Rodolfo and Mariane.

As you know, Brazil is crazy about soccer, so when the World Cup (Copa do Mundo) was going on our whole office came to a halt, and everyone watched any game Brazil was in at a big auditorium in the office. Here is one of the parties for one of the games. One senior couple was dressed up for the game.

 There was a huge refreshment table.

This is Neymar, one of their better players.

Everyone was so disappointed when Brazil was eliminated.

One of the Sister missionaries that we knew on our last mission in Gramado, Sister de Paula, had a wedding in July, and we were asked to be the "padrinhos."  There were six men and six women as padrinhos. The women all wore dark red dresses and the men had red bow ties. Sister de Paula's fiance was from Chile, so this really wasn't a wedding, but more like an elaborate ring ceremony. Their official wedding and sealing was in Chile after this ceremony. This ceremony was held in a huge chapel of our church. The bride asked us to help pay for the flowers as our wedding gift.

 

 It was a fun time had by all.

We get together with the other Senior couples a lot for activities and dinners. Here is another gathering at one of the couple's apartment. Our apartments are small, but we have fun squeezing in.

We took another couple from our group out to the poor neighborhood where the church we attend on Sunday is located. They were quite surprised to see that part of the city, and just how poor it is. The streets are narrow and many of the buildings have graffiti on them. Some of it is pretty good paintings, but most of it is just gang writing. There is always lots of trash around, sometimes just piled in the middle of the road.

 At the church we attend one of the members has a three wheeled fancy motorcycle. We had to take a picture of it and then try it out.

We were able to meet with two more of the sister missionaries we knew on our last mission, Sister Peixoto and Sister Rocha. We met them outside the temple and then took them to dinner.

Last Saturday the Senior couples rented a large van and we drove our car and went to the Campinas Temple, which is about a two hour drive from Sao Paulo. The temple is beautiful and we had a wonderful time.

We are having a wonderful time on our mission and can hardly believe that we are about one third of the way through all ready as we hit the 6 month mark this month. We miss you all and hope this finds you healthy and happy.  Come visit us!