Out with the old and in with the new.

The end of the year just seamed to fly by. We had a wonderful thanksgiving with all the other Senior Couples. Heidi decorated the tables for the dinner.

  

A couple of days after Thanksgiving one of the Brazilian Senior Couples invited all the Senior Couples out for a Churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) at the house of their daughter and son-in-law, which was in a very rich neighborhood outside the city. They have a beautiful house in a gated community that looks almost like being in the States again, with the main house in the front, a pool in the middle and a party house in the back of their yard. The food was great and everyone had a wonderful time.

They even had a cute little dog that we just adored.

We decorated up our little apartment the best we could for Christmas, and it turned out to be very beautiful.

The city even decorated some of their double length buses for Christmas.

We celebrated Heidi's birthday at home, at the office, and at an office Christmas party.

We attended several Christmas parties put on by different wards and our office.

 And we went downtown Sao Paulo to see how it was decorated.

 Our ward put on a Christmas party for the members at a beautiful rented party location in the middle of a jungle area. It was beautiful and had a pool for the members to swim in. Most of our members live in very poor areas, and some of them had probably never seen such a beautiful place. Christmas time is in the Summer here so it was pretty warm.

The Senior Couples got together and performed a bottle band and sang on three different occasions: once at the office Christmas Party, once at the Sao Paulo West Mission Christmas Party, and once at the garden gazebo at the apartments where most of us live. We had a fun time and the people watching laughed a lot.

All the Senior Couples got together to celebrate New Years Eve. We didn't get a picture but it was lots of fun, followed by games at the Copas' apartment. We then saw a building that had the windows blocked out to say Feliz 2019, (Happy 2019).

Shortly after the new year, Heidi hosted the "Girls Night" at our apartment.

One of the first weekends of the new year the Seniors all got together on an outing to the Butantan Institute. This institute is famous for its work in making anti-venom. They had lots of snakes, lizards, scorpions and other poisonous things that they extract the venom from to make the anti-venom. The grounds were beautiful and we all had lots of fun. 

  

Not all the animals on display were poisonous, but we enjoyed seeing them all.

We go to church in a very poor neighborhood. I'm not sure this 4 minute video of a walk through on the poorer neighborhood will work, but we will include it to see.

 These are some still pictures of the neighborhood where we go to church and where the members live.

 You can just see the steeple of our church at the top of the hill and a little to the left of the tower.

This a picture of the chapel.

The members are so loving and generous, and we love them dearly. It really is the highlight of the week to spend our Sundays with them.

This month we had the privilege to be in meetings with and to hear from the Presiding Bishop  Gerald Causse, Richard J. Maynes, and our Area Presidency, who are all members of the Seventy. The Sao Paulo Temple Visitors Center and the Brazil Area Distribution Center were both dedicated this month. It was great to hear from these General Authorities. Here are some pictures of the Distribution Center and the Visitors Center. This first one is the garment factory.

 President Aidukaites in the center is our Area President. He told us here how Elder Copa helped him gain a testimony when he was 8 years old, when Elder Copa was a missionary living in his family's house.  I challenged him to read the Joseph Smith pamphlet, and then questioned him on the details. He says that he never forgot that or my name. He invited us up to his office one day to make sure I was the same Elder Copa that had lived with his family.

 This was the pulpit they used for the dedication ceremony for the new Distribution Center.

 Look how small the people are in comparison to the shelving.

This is the Visitor's Center, the first one in South America. It has been completed for about six months, but the government dragged their feet in letting the Church open it.

This last weekend six of the Senior couples spent Friday and Saturday in a little Germanic town called Campos do Jordao. Here are some pictures of the town.

This is our group having dinner at a fondue restaurant.

 This was the little hotel we all stayed at...below.

Our Saturday activity included a tour of a gorgeous garden park and a tour of the Governor's Palace.

 This was a fun maze in the middle of the park. Heidi led us through the entire maze without making a wrong turn once.

 There was this amazing tree house in the park as well.

  

The Governor's Palace was interesting. It is more of a museum than a palace, and the Governor of Sao Paulo State just visits there occasionally.

We will close this time with a beautiful sunset we experienced this week, walking from our office to our apartment.