More Garden Project Pictures from Papa (10/26 & 10/27/17)

Our Praia Grande Garden Project - Cassio Nascimento, Project Champion (Project Leader).

Cassio's garden

Cassio's wife, Rosani, and 6 yr old daughter Heloisa. Carrot held by daughter was first one harvested. Beautiful, humble family being blessed for their faith and hard work.

Sandwich with lettuce and cucumbers from garden.

Heloisa in her school uniform 

Letter...Finally! (10/24/17)

Hello family!  

In less than a week, we will be in North Dakota for Logan’s baptism!  We are so excited!!  Can’t wait to see all of you that will be there!

We are currently in Ribeirao Pires for the second week of a World Health Organization wheelchair training.  4 people from the States came for the training… an OT, Brian, a PT, Jennifer and the Dows, who are the Wheelchair Specalists over the Brazil and Africa areas.  A PT from Manaus, Juliana, joined us for this week’s training.  We train 12 people each week.  Can’t believe how much we have learned about the importance of correctly fitting a person for their wheelchair.  The participants found out quickly, as they were each assigned to sit in a wheelchair and stay in it for the week! The coolest thing was learning how to make good seat cushions yourself, to relieve pressure from the spine!  I am in my second week of sitting on one and I love it!!!  

Religion isn’t brought up in anything we do, but Jennifer was asked in class why we do what we do.  WOW, the spirit filled the room as she explained fast offerings and humanitarian donations that people freely give.  She explained that we do it because we love Jesus Christ.  It was powerful.

Thursday or Friday, Papa and I will sneak away from training to drive over to Praia Grande to buy supplies and meet with participants in the “garden project”.  It is kind of funny that we are “garden specialists”!!  Spence Mortensen would be so proud!

Yesterday we were in the lobby of the hotel waiting for our ride to get there.  Papa started talking to the lady behind the desk.  She started asking a lot of questions and asked for literature!  Jennifer brought a bunch of Liahona magazines and Book of Mormons with her to hand out!  You never know when someone will want to know about the church!!  Glad Jennifer was ready!

So happy Logan did well!  Shayne, have fun in Japan and Ryan and Laura in Hawaii!!

Love to all!!

Papa and Grandma

“Strong people don’t put people down, they lift them up!”

Garden project in Praia Grande

Papa and Ana putting together wheelchairs!

1st WHO graduating class

Presenting certificates to graduates

Opening ceremony

First 12 World Health Organization trained graduates in Brazil! Sharp ladies!

Spring Time in the Southern Hemisphere (10/5/17)

Even MLP has come south to avoid the Wasatch inversions and cold temperatures.

Spring has sprung in vibrant colors!

The flower photos were from the Holambra Annual Spring Flower festival we attended our first weekend in São Paulo. Unbelievably beautiful!  Good Dutch food too.

Pictures from Papa (10/3/17)

Jau: Town of roughly 145,000 people in center of São Paulo State, 300 km northwest from São Paulo City. Known for sugar and women's shoe capital of Brazil.

Lots of my favorite color: Green sugar cane!  Excellent highways too 

Typical scenery once you leave São Paulo.  Not too cool, not too hot right now. Perfect temperature for springtime in the Southern Hemisphere.  (Certainly much cooler and less humidity that the Caribbean!)

Cristiany Castro (President of FEAPAES Franca) with one of the "continuing education" clients of Jau Special Ed Program.

Papa giving impromptu closing ceremony speech. You can tell how interesting it was by the two women in the background! The audience and my senior comp. thought it was OK.

One of the 2 garden projects we inherited.  If they only knew how limited our gardening skills are!

Wonderful project for families with small space.

With a little fertilizer, topsoil mixed with sandy soil and water, anything grows in this part of the "promised land."

Hollambra city entrance

Did we mention that they have beaches an hour from SP?  (Guauja)

Definitely need my Churchill fins! (Ryan? Sara? Por favor! Snorkel gear too please.)

P-day with Senior Comp

Still Alive in Brazil! (10/3/17)

Update from Grandma with Photos from Papa: 

Hello family!

Just the grandparent like figures checking in!!  All is wonderful here, with life getting a little busier each day.  We have been traveling quite a bit.  On the 27th of September, Papa and our boss, Fernando, drove to Riberão Pires for meetings on a  wheelchair project... I stayed home to attend ¨play practice!¨ The play is so hilarious ... we are like a bunch of kindergarteners, dressed up in sheets, putting on a play...reading the script.   

The next day Papa and I drove 4 hours to Jau for a Wheelchair closing with Apae.  It was great. They had some of their handicapped students dancing the Capoeira (originally an African song... I think the Brazilians dance to it to learn soccer moves!). It has a strong beat and the young, down syndrome performers kept the beat with their kicks and twists... kind of like Tae kwon do. They beamed with pride!  They also had two young men in wheelchairs perform.  The instructors put them on the ground and they just flopped around to the beat! So cool!  They handed out awards and a few speeches were given... of course they asked Elder Anderson to speak on behalf of the church.  There were 60 wheelchairs to be handed out.  We only witnessed one, Ketlyn... she was so excited to get her new chair and so disappointed when it didn´t fit - someone had made an error.  She was remeasured and promised a new one in 2 weeks.

We were so excited to watch conference on our TV... and of course the internet stopped working!  No pajama session for us!  We watched both sessions on Saturday with the Moores.  Susan and I crocheted infant hats as we watched.  They fed  us a wonderful Brazilian dinner! Enjoyable day.  Sunday we went to the chapel to watch in Portuguese.  We were to meet up with Fabio and Rachel.  Fabio decided to hang out with friends instead, but his grandmother came.  She always brings us grapes.  We drove her home and then Papa and one of his YM from 1978 went to visit another of the YM that was less active now.  Nelson, the first YM, borrowed my missionary tag! They were well received!  We watched the afternoon session with the Moores, and again had dinner with them.

Yesterday, I had an intense training for translating missionary applications.  Papa drove Elder and Sister Lopes to a garden project a couple hours away.  We met up again for FHE with the senior missionaries... Next week is our turn to present.

We think of you all often... our photo frame continues to make us smile!  Keep the pictures coming!

Thought for the week:

¨God has no phone, but I talk to him everyday. He has no Facebook, but he is still my friend.  He has no Twitter account, but I still follow him!¨

You are in our thoughts and prayers!  

Love to you all,

Papa and Grandma

The special ed school in the rural town of Jau (accent on the "u") about 200 miles northwest of São Paulo

Mom and Sister Susan Moore keeping up with providing hats for newborn babies in the pediatric hospital down the street from our home.

Women are masters at "multi-tasking."  Two days of General Conference resulted in wonderful counsel and 12 new hats!

Our "Bussola" (Compass) (10/1/17)

From Papa:

São Paulo is so huge that it is very difficult to get your bearings.  Moroni (on top of the temple) is the best we can do for a compass.

The only problem is that for the first couple of weeks we were here, we "assumed" that Moroni was facing east.  It just didn't make sense with the sunsets and moonrises.  Finally, I used the compass app on my iPhone to confirm the direction Moroni's trumpet is facing.  It is due south!!

Lesson learned:  There is no Church doctrine regarding which way Angel Moroni must face on temples.  Although in many temples Moroni faces east for symbolic purposes (Christ's second coming will appear first in the east), it is not a requirement.

In the case of the São Paulo temple, Moroni is facing the major thoroughfare (Avenida Francisco Morato) that passes in front.  Could it be because Samba bands march down this street during Carnival season and Moroni plays a mean jazz trombone?  (I don't think so, but the temple and Moroni are beautiful regarding of the direction they face.)

Update From Grandma (9/25/17)

We have been super busy!  I will back up a couple of weeks to cover everything.... 

The 7th of September was Independence Day here, so we rented a car with another couple and headed to the beach.  A lot different than the Caribbean and sooo packed with people. We didn´t stay long.  While we had the car, we also went to Embu, which is a town full of paintings, arts and crafts. We had a blast looking at everything.  We didn´t buy much, but I´m looking forward to going back.  We did pick up a small woven navy blue rug for our apt.  It was perfect to match the pillows Papa found for our couch.  Another couple let us borrow 2 bedspreads for our beds, so our apartment is looking really cute!  We also drove around Santo Amaro to find where we lived from 1976 - 1978 (Our home was gone, but we did find the church!) and then to Morumbi where we lived 1978 - 1980.  We have a friend here living in the same building we did back then. We were on the 19th floor and he lives on the 25th.  We hope to get to visit him before we leave. We went by where Shannon went to school. We also drove around where Papa worked for 4 years and up to the top of the highest peak (3,724 feet high) in Sao Paulo, Pico de Jaragua...beautiful views.  That night we went to the Salisbury´s apt to have birthday cake.  It seems like every night there is something going on.

Once a month the ¨Sisters¨ have a girl´s night out. For this month we were going to discuss our favorite conference talks, but ended up just chatting and eating.

Things at the office are starting to get busy.  Assignments are starting to come in. I have been asked to translate missionary applications before they are sent to Salt Lake for assignment.  I will also check that everything is done correctly.  We have 2 doctors serving here and their wives do the same thing for the medical part of the application.  I will be trained soon!  Should keep me out of trouble!  Papa continues to keep super busy with our projects.

Sept.16th and 17th was Stake Conference,  Saturday night was difficult for me.  I wasn´t doing well at understanding any of the speakers and it was very warm in the building, so I decided to go outside and cool off.  I was having a little bit of a pity party for myself.  I sat there and prayed for help and to know that we were doing the right thing, being there.  I felt a little better, so I went back inside and Papa was holding a little girl that was about 8 months old.  She just sat there staring at me for quite awhile.  Finally she leaned towards me, so I took her.  I sat her on my lap and tried playing with her...she continued to stare!  No smile, nothing!  And then I held her close and she laid her head on my shoulder and patted me on the back!  Tears filled my eyes as I really felt like I had just gotten a hug from my Father in Heaven! I felt God´s love for me!! Special experience!

Sunday the 17th of September we flew to Petrolina, with stops in Bahia and Salvador!  We had 1,600 codornas being delivered the next morning as part of a project there.  We arrived at our hotel at around 1 am... all the lights were out!  Very simple and plain, with beautiful views, BUT no 110v electricty, just 220v! Couldn´t charge cell phones or use Papa's ¨Noo-Noo¨.  (We got a converter the next day).  The shower was an electric one... I almost decided to stick with cold showers!!  The wind blew like crazy every night we were there.

Monday morning we headed to the church at 9am to meet the 27 families who would be receiving the ¨codornas¨ (a type of quail). We had an hour to find and purchase codorna food (40 kilos for each family).  After driving all over to get 3 bids, we purchased the food and returned to the church.  The people continued to wait.... all day!  The birds didn´t arrive until 9 pm that night!  The people waited happily and no one got angry!!  We did a training with the people and reviewed what was expected of them to fill the time!  The people were all so nice and  humble.  Little Albert was my favorite.  He is a very intelligent 9 year old... he became our best friend!  He was learning Spanish and English in school, so he shared with me all the words he knew. One of the sisters was asked by a member of the Stake Presidency to go and prepare some food for the group that had waited all day without food.  She returned at 7pm with something like a sloppy joe made out of hot dogs, cake and soda.  Everyone loved it.  The codornas arrived, not by truck as thought, but inside and in cardboard boxes tied on top of a small car!!  It was a long trip and they ran into a rain storm, so had to find shelter until it ended.  The quail were separated by sex, so they added the 15 male to the 35 females and the boxes were handed out. For the next two days we visited the homes of some of the 27 families who received the quail.  They needed to have or build a room to use just for the quail.  The walls and floor needed to be painted with lime.  They had the cages mounted on the walls, hooked to a watering system.  They used chicken wire to cover any window or other opening.  Pretty impressive!  Some used existing bedrooms in their homes, other created a new space outside. Some we visited were less prepared.  

We returned home late on Wednesday and on Friday we headed to the beach area about 1 1/2 hrs away to meet with 5 families receiving gardens.  They served us lunch and then we had a meeting with Elder Anderson giving wonderful instructions and counsel.  We returned home about 6 pm... we left at 6:15pm to meet up with the other seniors heading out for Mexican food.  

Saturday morning we got up at 5 am to head to the airport to pick up a new couple, the Barretts, who were arriving.   We got home about 10 am and at 12 we took the Barretts shopping.  We all met for a pizza/beans and rice dinner at 6:30. (Tradition when a new couple arrives.) 

We are finally back at work today with lots to catch up on!

Happy birthday to Anna, Kevin and Lizzie!  AND happy anniversary Ryan and Laura!  We love you!

Thought for the week!

¨Faith is not by chance but by choice!¨

Love to all,

Papa and Gma

Game at FHE tonight!

Home sweet home in Petrolina!

Hundreds of Small green parrots pairs come to the trees between the office and the temple everyday to spend the night.  They leave by morning. Quite loud little birdies.

Papa is instructing people who will be receiving gardens.

New home for the tiny little Codornas.