More happenings in April and May 2016

Ricardo Nacarado was having a birthday, so we took him and his wife, Vanessa, out to a traditional Gaucho Churrasco and show, since they are a poor young couple here in Gramado and could never afford to do something like this on their own.

We had a birthday cake that we brought in after we had dinner.

They had some stuffed cows in front that we took pictures with.

At the end of April there is a celebration of the colonial days here in Gramado. They have a parade in downtown Gramado where they have a lot of ox drawn carts and use the costumes from the time when the first German and Italian colonizers settled in this part of Brazil.

The Elders in Canela, who are part of our District and Zone, asked to come over for a Sunday night dinner.  They usually only get one meal a day from the members, and don't have much money to buy food, so they asked us for a meal.  The two Zone Leaders are American, so we fixed them barbecued chicken buns, like sloppy Joes.  They loved it, and then we played games for a little bit with them.

Outside of Nova Petrópolis is a beautiful vista of the surrounding hills and valleys.  We took the Sister Missionaries up there to see the view.  It shows how beautiful this part of the world is. You can see again how flat all the mountains are on top.

This place is called the "Ninho das Aguias" which means Eagles Nest. They use it as a starting place for hang gliding because of the updraft.

About 35 or 40 kilometers from Nova Petrópolis is a town called Feliz.  We go visit there with the Sisters about once a week to see one member who lives there, Nadir Santos on the right below.  His wife is not a member and is not interested in the gospel, but we give them a message each time.

It got very cold recently as we are going into fall here.  You can see we are dressed warmly for our Zone meeting.

One of the families that the Sisters were teaching is Gleisse, Joao Carlos and their little boy Alison. They live in Picada Cafe, about 15 kilometers outside Nova Petrópolis.  In order for them to be baptized, they first had to be married.  They are poor and didn't have the money for a wedding, so the Sisters bought her a wedding dress at a second hand store, we paid for the documents they would need, Heidi made her a wedding bouquet from flowers we picked along the road, and the members of the branch helped with a giant fake wedding cake, and all the food for a wedding luncheon. Ken performed the wedding in the Gramado Chapel.

After the wedding and luncheon we had the baptism.  Sister Nieznanski was able to come back for the baptism, as she was involved in teaching them.

The Saturday before Mother's day we attended parties at three of the branches in our district, Gramado, Taquara and Sao Francisco de Paula.  Below is a cake that the Gramado Branch prepared for their party.  It says "Mother's Day".

After Sister Molina finished her short term mission, we received a new missionary, Sister Ferreira, to work with Sister de Paula in Nova Petrópolis. They were companions in the Sao Paulo MTC as well.

Sister de Paula drew caricatures of all the missionaries in our Zone for the last meeting.

Last P-Day the Sisters wanted to bake goodies in our kitchen.  They made chocolate chip cookies, banana bread and brownies and had a great time.  Vanessa Nacarado and one investigator from here in Gramado also participated. Ricardo Nacarado and Ken enjoyed the fruits of the work.