Week 3, Sao Paulo

This week we were busy moving our desks (we get to be by windows now) to an area that is a little more secluded and quiet so Mike can make phone calls to missionaries.  We learned more about our jobs and reporting.  We had a wonderful experience in the temple on Wednesday evening where we were able to do some sealings for families who can now be together forever.  Sister Cox went with us.  There is so much peace in the temple.  I love how I feel so safe and loved and accepted there.  It is a wonderful place.  I have always wanted to live within 30 minutes of a temple and now we get to fulfill that wish.  We are five minutes away!

On Thursday at 7 am, we were picked up and driven to the Policia Federal to have our Visas processed and to get our ID cards for our stay here in Brazil.  It went very smoothly thanks to Fabiano who helps get all the missionaries through there and for Tom Harris who works in our office and gets all the necessary paperwork through to Fabiano.  Each week all the new young missionaries from the CTM go there as well.  We had fun visiting with them.  We met Mike's mission president, Grant Bangerter's grandson, who is starting a mission here in Brazil.  His father, Paulo, and his mom Jalayne are mission president's in Salvador Sul.

For lunch on Saturday, we met with a group of kids and their parents who are going to or have been foreign exchange students in the U.S.  We were asked to go with the Shumways, (another senior couple) to speak with them on what they can expect living with an LDS American family.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids are so amazing and so excited and speak English so well!  They will do fine. We ate at TGI Fridays, so that was fun! 

We got to go to a musical on Saturday night, Singing in the Rain!  It was our first date, 27 years ago at the Boulder Dinner Theater.  The only difference here was that it was all in Portuguese!  I was happy I knew the story line well because I would have been lost otherwise.  It was excellent!  The singing and dancing were fabulous as well as the sets and the acting.  We loved the rain scene as it literally poured buckets of rain on the stage.  It was incredible.  We went with our good friends, Marjean and Tom Harris and Shirley Cox.

Shirley's last day at the office was on Friday and now we are on our own.  We are her replacements and she is not easily replaced!  She has done an amazing job here and we wish her the very best as she returns home to her family in the U.S.

We had a great family home evening lesson with our group of senior missionaries about how to make the most of being together 24/7.  We feel like we are doing a pretty good job of it and enjoy each other's company a lot.  We are finding that we can work together in an office environment and that we both have a lot to offer.  We are praying hard each day that we can help the missionaries who are struggling on their missions.  We know that we are instruments in the Lord's hands and that we need to maintain a certain level of spirituality so that we can give the right counsel as needed and directed.  It's a good way to live!

Here's a quote I came across this week and I think it really is so true.  Everyone is fighting some kind of battle and we need to be a little kinder and a little more understanding of each other and way less judgemental.  That's my goal for sure.  I ask for forgiveness to anyone that I have offended or caused pain in anyway and hope that I can do better today and tomorrow and from then on!

Have a great week and know that there are at least two people in Brazil that love you, pray for you, and want you to be happy!