Spring Update

The month of September flew by so fast we don't know where it went. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, spring starts the 21st of September. The winter here in Sao Paulo is not too cold, mostly having lows in the 40's and 50's. We had some beautiful 80 degree weather at times as well.

All the American couples took a two hour trip to a place called Holambra. It was started as a Dutch colony after World War Two and has some American and Brazilian influence, so the name combines Holland, American and Brazil, Holambra. Every year they have a big flower festival in the Spring. It was very crowded like Disneyland. There were some beautiful flower displays.

 These are real roses that they somehow dye to come out in multiple colors

 These are just facades to make it look like a village in Holland.

 There was a youth group performing traditional Holland folk dances.

 We still are amazed by the neighborhood where we go to church on Sunday. The hills are just covered with brick houses built side by side with no yards.

 One Sunday the Elders in our ward wanted to show us where the really poor neighborhood is in our Ward boundaries. This was an area with dirt roads and wooden shacks. The poverty there is extreme, but look at the satellite dish.
 Then there are big beautiful apartment buildings where the middle class lives.

 The second week of September we went to the Campinas temple to attend the wedding of one sister missionary we knew on our last mission in Gramado, Sister Nelson.

 In the little town of Embu das Artes there are many artisans. Here is a picture of one lady doing knitting,. She works so fast you can hardly see her hands move. Heidi has purchased three of her knitted vests from this lady.

There was also a puppy fair going on where they were trying to sell these adorable puppies. Hard to resist these cute little guys.

The department we work in at the office is called the Materials Department. Within Materials is included the Distribution Center. On Monday this week the whole department went to visit the site of the new Distribution Center that is just being completed. It is a very beautiful building and huge inside.

There is a garment factory that is currently in our Area Office Building. It will be moved to this new building in this space. They make garments for all of Brazil.

One of the senior couples that we work with were celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary, so we joined them and two other couples for a night out at a beautiful fondu restaurant called Chatezinho. 

 The atmosphere was  very beautiful.

 We had live music from a man playing the harmonica, and he was very good.

 The food was fantastic and the atmosphere very romantic. Great place to celebrate an anniversary.

Saturday morning before conference, which starts at 1:00 p.m. here, all the senior couples got together for a pot luck breakfast. We had a large variety of food, and we enjoyed each other's company.

Well, life on a mission is wonderful. As you can see, this mission is not like a mission for young missionaries. We work hard during the office hours Monday through Friday, but we have lots of time to enjoy ourselves with the other couples and seeing the sights.