We have had some wonderful times recently, like a baptism of a young lady in the ward we attend on Sunday.
We are lucky to be in the Area Office where all the General Authorities coming to Brazil pass through. Here we are with our own Brazilian Apostle Elder Soares.
Even though it was a rainy day, we were still able to enjoy the beauty of these wonderful falls.
In the Iguassu area are many diverse and fun things to see and do. We went to see this dam, which is the largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world.
We drove into Paraguay and Argentina and visited the point where the three countries meet.
Just outside the entrance to the Iguassu Falls Park is a very large Bird Park located in a natural Atlantic Rain Forest with walking trails all through it.We spent our last day there before flying on to our next destination.
There were many varieties of birds in the park, some you could be up close and personal with.
Sometimes we were actually in the cages with the birds!
In addition to the birds, there were lizards, alligators, snakes, spiders, and butterflies.
From Iguassu we flew on to our next destination, Gramado, where we served our first mission together.
We stayed at the beautiful Sky Hotel.
The first evening in Gramado we went downtown to see the beautiful cathedral of Saint Peter.
We also walked through the famous covered street in the downtown area.
The lake is surrounded by beautiful hydrangea plants, but unfortunately we were there at the end of the season for these beautiful flowers and saw only a few.
We then went to the lake called Rita Bier. From the lake you can see the LDS chapel where Ken was branch president for a year. We lived a block away.
The lake has a lot of buildings of German architecture surrounding it.
This is Cassandra's bed and breakfast, where we stayed for 2 weeks when we first arrived in Gramado
We then went to the waterfalls called Caracol, where we took a walk through the beautiful park.
Canela is a town just five kilometers from Gramado. There they have an interesting craft fair in these cute little cottages. Most of them were closed because it was not the weekend.
The old Canela train station has been made into a museum.
Canela has its Cathedral of Stones that is even larger than the cathedral in Gramado.
The next day we drove to Nova Petropolis, a town about 40 kilometers from Gramado where we worked for six months of our last mission. It is a beautiful drive through the country.
In the center of town is a beautiful park.
In the center of the park is a green maze made with bushes about 7 feet tall. The object is to try and find your way to the center of the maze.
We went past the building we found to rent while on our last mission for our church meetings in the center of town.
We were invited to a member's country home for a large barbecue lunch.
Back in Gramado we stopped by for a tour of the crystal factory to see how them make crystal.
The next morning we went to see Mini Mundo (Mini World). It is a fun park where there are miniature versions of famous buildings and castles, most from Germany.
We then spent some time at A Mina (The Mine). A famous rock and mineral collector decided to display his collection in a replica of an underground mine.
The collector also had a big collection of fossils and petrified objects.
The owner has a collections of various colored geodes.
We visited the man that started the Gramado Branch of the church, Altanizio Lima, who owns one of the 22 chocolate factories in Gramado. He gave us a tour of his factory and also gave us lots of chocolate to sample.
We stopped by Bridal Veil Falls for a quick picture.
We reluctantly left Gramado for our next destination, Rio de Janeiro. Flying in, we saw some beautiful views of beaches.
After landing we headed straight to Corcovado, the mountain with the 90 foot tall Christ Statue.
The views from the top of the mountain looking over Rio are spectacular. This first view show the place where we lived for three years in Rio, right at the bottom of the race track.
This is a huge cemetery in the middle of Rio.
Our next stop was the cable car up to Sugar Loaf mountain.
The views from up top are as beautiful as from the top of the mountain with the Christ statue.
This is the view looking back at Corcovado and the Christ statue.
This is the view of Copacabana Beach.
This is Botafogo Bay and beach.
Here is another view of Copacabana.
On Sunday we attended church in our old Jardim Botanico Ward.
We stopped by to see the building we lived in when we were working in Rio 40 years ago.
We then drove down to the new Rio de Janeiro Temple, which is still under construction.
This is the beach near the temple in the area of Rio called Barra da Tijuca.
On our way to the airport to fly back to Sao Paulo we passed by Sugar Loaf again.
On our flight out we passed over Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach.
We then flew back to Sao Paulo where we live and work on this mission.
We drove the family around the beautiful part of Sao Paulo, with its modern buildings.
We then drove them out to where we go to church in the slum dwelling part of town.
We then drove back to our favorite part of the city where the temple and our apartment are located.
Across from the temple site is the apartments where we live.
We took a little tour of the Temple Visitors Center .
We reluctantly had to say goodbye to the family as they flew back to the USA.
We were able to have a gathering of all the senior missionary couples to say good by to our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Thomas.
This is the building we live in on the third floor. We do not like the window covers.
It is one of eleven buildings just like it together in a big complex with a beautiful garden and playground in the middle.
In the park area between the buildings there are several of our favorite trees this time of year that have purple and white blossoms on the same tree called quaresmeira.
This is the front door of our apartment. We had the Copacabana sign made, and Heidi made the wreath.
This is a look at the inside of our apartment, starting with the living room.
There is a small dining room as part of the living room.
The kitchen is off to the right as you come through the front door.
There are two bedrooms, the smaller one we also use as a study. There are two bathrooms and a store room not pictured.
One other couple celebrated their wedding anniversary on the same day as us, May 28th. All the senior couples decided to come with us to celebrate our anniversaries at a beautiful fondue restaurant called the Chatezinho.
One Saturday the Senior couples made an excursion to the Sao Paulo Botanical Garden. It was a lovely outing and a great break from the hustle and bustle of this huge city.
One interesting custom Brazilian women have is to show off their stomach when they are very pregnant. We saw two having their pictures taken at the Botanical Garden the day we were there.
We received permission for a trip home to attend the first wedding of our grandkids. Joshua married Catania in the Beautiful San Diego temple on June 29th. We flew on Copa Airlines to Los Angeles, rented a car and drove down to Oceanside. There we rented a five bedroom home through AirB&B with a lovely swimming pool. It was a wonderful time to see the family again and to participate in the temple ceremony.
We then flew back to Sao Paulo to finish our mission.
We now have just two weeks to go before the end of our mission. We will be stopping in Houston to visit with Cameo and family for three days before returning to Pleasant Hill on August 16th.
