A little taste of a transfer of Zone Conference

Richard, a man that Dee visited with these Sisters (Mendes and Pereira)and invited him to be baptized.  He accepted and wanted Dee to baptise him.  Very special baptism!

Just a glimpse of a typical kitchen in a church building ( this one actually nicer than most).  Pretty simple with absolutely no plates, pans, silverware........nothing.  If they are furnished with that type of stuff, it gets stolen...........by members!

Some of the Elders from our smallest zone, Osório
l-r E. Soares, E. Marin, Pres., E da Silva, E. Foot

Some of the Sisters from Osório
l-r S. Domigues, S. Quintel, me, S. Sandoval, S. Strahl

Porto Alegre Zone
l-r E. Glasgow, E. Azambuja, E. Menezes

We got to participate in another baptism!  (this was taken after with Elder Maciel and Elder Moura)
This was the night that our car window was broken and we were almost robbed, (it was probably happening right when we were taking this picture!)  I just happened to go our to the car, it was in the church parking lot and I think I scared the robber off before he could take anything!!  So glad he ran off and wasn´t in the car when I came out.......in the dark.......by myself!!

Me with the Sister training leaders after our Leadership training meeting.  Such amazing Sister missionaries!!

One of our very favorites!  Elder Pimenta.  He was the assistant when we arrived and served until he left, 4 months later.  It was hard to let him go.  He hated leaving too.  He loved being a missionary!!

Canoas Zone
l-r E.Santos, E.Romero, E. Fernandez, E. Albrect, E. Cheeks, E. Kinnear

Gravataí Zone (the zone of boxers, actually garments :) It´s the only zone of all Elders!   l-r E. Marques, E. dos Santos, E. Loor, President, E. Knebel, E. Clementino, E. da Fe, E. Castillo, E. Oliveiro

At lunch with 2 Elders Berheimer and Costa and their investigators

Struggling through my part of the training at Zone Conference!  Ahhhhhhh.........will this every get easier!!

Just a little sample of some of the lovely photos I get!!  Ingrown toenail problems.

Novo Hamburgo Zone

Some of the Sisters from Passo Fundo plus the 2 Sister Training Leader Leaders  l-r S. Pompeu, S. Soeiro, S. Hoover (stl) S. Bartels (stl) S. Fernandez, S. Rochas, S. Caires

Gramado Zone  the zone full of Sisters!  Only 2 duplas of Elders.

A little P-Day fun!

We went to the Farroupilha (Ragamuffin) Celebration.  Everyone dressing similiar to this man.  Like a gaucho (cowboy).  That´s what they call people from Rio Grande do Sul, ´gaucho´ and they speak ´gauché´.

A little different look, interesting hats........still gauchos!

Farroupilha is a celebration in memory of when the state Rio Grade do Sul, caused a civil up rising as they tried to become independent from the rest of Brasil in 1835.  Despite the support of Italian revolutionary Garibaldi (wonder if that´s where Garibaldi chocolate comes from?), the gaucho led revolt ended in 1845.  Even though they were defeated, it still is celebrated with regional pride.  A cowboy type celebration where they meet together with friends and family in cabin like houses like these in a huge park and have a churrasco (huge bar-be-que with tons of different meats, like Tucanos).  They ride horses, wear clothes like these shown, the women in long dresses, cowgirl style.  It´s pretty cool.  We´ve discovered that Rio Grande do Sul is a state like Texas.  Everything thing is bigger and better, they think!  

A section of the park had a big market place where they sold handmade items and all sorts of other stuff.  Very gaucho type things.

The food section of the park reminded us of the State Fair.  They even had `Lays` type potatoe chips.  They made them fresh right there.  They don´t even sell chips like these in the store!!  It was a special treat!

A Typical Day!

This is what happens when the President leaves his phone laying around at the chapel during interviews.  The Sisters (and
 it´s generally only Sisters) take selfies! From front to back:  Sister Schimdt Brasil, Sister Medeiros Brasil, Sister Mariño Ecuador and Sister Heiner Logan UT  

I took the office secretaries with me to get 21 pillows at Zaffarri (store like a Super Wal-Mart).  It took 3 full carts to get them to the car and then it filled the car completely up!  We give our new missionaries a fresh new pillow to take with them on every transfer during the mission!
Elder Gonçalves Brasil, Elder Bangerter South Jordan, UT

President and I went with the Elders to teach a lesson and invite this young adult to be baptised.  The lesson took place in his bedroom.......the only quiet place in the house and no one else wanted to participate.  He was baptised the next Sunday!
left-Elder Pacheco, ctr-Elder Marins

We happened to be at the place at the right time.  We attended Sacrement Meeting in one of the wards in our mission and after the Elders held this baptism so we got to attend!
Elder Favoretti and Elder Nascimento both brazilians

Cátia Biehl da Silva, she and her husband Sérgio) clean the mission home.  They are wonderful!  They lived in the US for a time and both speak great English, she always speaks portugues with me to try to help me learn (I wish she wouldn´t......but I know it helps!)  She is so encouraging because she suffered when they lived in the US.  She knows how hard it is!!  She always sends inpirational texts and is so sweet and supportive of the work!  They are excellent in caring for the mission home!  They are members of the ward were the mission home is but it´s not in our mission so we have only attended there one time.  

Our Second Tranfer!

What a great group of Missionaries!  We only had 12 weeks with them but came to love them so much in that short time!!
S. Meireles BR, S. Aguayo Chile, E. Dieckman Florida, E. Tridade BR, E. Milton BR, E Hernandez Texas, E. Beraldo BR, E. Tullis Modesto CA, E. Aguilar Honduras and E. Nascimento BR

Only 2 Sisters leaving in this group.

The next day, Elder Glasgow, Arkansa arrived from the Provo MTC.  He had problems with his Visa so he did his mission training there.  Great Elder, he´s going to play football at USU.

And another beautiful group arrives!!  A big group of American Elders (5). Five Brazilian Elders, two Brazilian Sisters and a Sister from Mexico!

Matt and Drew´s visit

Looks just like them!  It was super fun watching this artist do this caricature of the boys.

The boys and the magestic waterfall (the picture doesn´t do it justice)

In our hotel for a late night pizza fest!  We had fun with Kaitlin (Matt´s friend from Brasilia)

Love this boy!

A really cool waterfall (that we are standing in front of)

Gramado with our boys!

Mission Activities

Grêmio Soccer Stadium
stadium to 1 of the 2 soccer teams here in Porto Alegre.

There are a lot of Mc Donalds here, but not many have salads.  I´ve only seen one (we go to a lot, although we NEVER go there in the US)  It just feels so American!

Sister Macena and Sister Hansen with their recent convert!

We were glad to discover, they have Açaí in the South!  Davis will be the happiest.

We did a split with the sisters to this family.  Dee challenged the father to get himself worthy to baptise his sons.  He didn´t quite make it so Dee was plan B.  (father isn´t in this picture)

Sister Henriques, Chile and Sister Passos, Brazil

Sister Santos (love her accent) she´s from the North

Sister Soeiro

President and Sister Pimentel

This is an awesome family of one of our Stake Presidents in the Mission, President Pimentel of the Passo Fundo Stake (the farthest area in our mission, about 4 hours drive).  This is his wives family, a sister and her kids and her parents (far right) her dad is the patriarch and 3 neighbor kids that they feed every Sunday.  Oh! and a couple of our sister missionaries, Sister Bartels and Sister Silva.  They were so kind to feed us after Stake Conference.

Elder Basset from the Area Presidency and his wife, Angie, did a mission tour.  They stayed with us and it was a great experience.  They helped us so much and inspired our missionaries!  We had 2 gathings of missionaries, one in Porto Alegre and the other in Gramado.  At each location we had a training and a lunch (group photo to come).  The other couple is a Senior Couple, Brother and Sister De Paula.

We stayed overnight in Gramado after the conference and went on the town with Elder and Sister Basset.  This was a one of the many Churrascarias in Gramado!  It was super fun to have Matt and Drew with us and a friend of Matt´s from Brasilia.

Our first group to finish their missions!

We became so attached to this group in just a short 6 weeks.  It was so sad to see them leave the field.  We hope to have a connection with them for years to come!!

Crepes com frutas vermelhas e molho de limão Siciliano.  The dessert we served at the departing dinner of this group of missionaries and one of our favorites......so far!  One of the greated blessings of the mission is when we arrived, I discovered that Sister Campos had hired a couple from one of the stakes in our mission to do the dinners for missionaries arriving and departing from the mission.  This has taken a huge load and worry off my hands!  It is such a blessing to be able to relax a little and just focus on the missionaries with out the stress and pressure of making and serving a dinner.  The price for the service is very reasonable and we have been very satified with their work.  They have done other things for us as well.  They hosted a dinner that we had with all the Stake presidents and thier wives and just recently they prepared all the food for 2 lunches that we served at our mission tour.  That was 2 lunches of 90 + missionaries and leaders!!  

Sisters returning home.  Sister Alverdes (American far right) went home 9 months earley with health issues. 

I think they are excited to have fulfilled a great mission!!  Elder Gonçalves (in front) taking selfie.  He is our Financial Secretary in the Mission Office.  Amazing Elder!! 

Our First Transfer.......receiving our first group of 20 missionaries!

Also a trip to the temple just to visit the grounds.  Our missionaries that are in the close zones can attend the temple on P-Day once a transfer.  The Sisters from farther out zones can go every 3 months.  We feel blessed to have a temple in our Mission!

We took them to have a little tour of the Mission Office.  They also had dinner at the Mission Home.  Our new assistant Elder Martinelli, with Elder Pimenta and Sisters Hoover and Milhomen serving as Sister Training Leader Trainers.
 (front row)

Our first group of new missionaries fresh from the São Paulo MTC.  There are 20 of them.  Sixteen Elders and 4 Sisters.  In this group there are 3 American Elders, 2 Argentine Elders, 1 Elder from Mexico, 1 from British Columbia and a Sister from Ecquador.  All the other Sisters are from Brazil.  Such a nice group!