Week #5, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Do you ever feel like you are just beginning to get the hang of things and you go to bed feeling really happy and at peace with yourself and the world, and then bam, just like that you question your worth and where and how you fit in to God's plan and you all of a sudden feel very small and low?  That was my week!  I guess that's how life goes though, really.  I wanted to post this because sometimes I think I come across as all rainbows and lollipops and life really isn't that uncomplicated.  Life is hard and we have to hang in there through all the rain storms to see the beautiful rainbows at the end!

I'm sure tomorrow will bring a week of positive, good things, but right now, I'm reflecting on what I can learn from feeling down.  Here are the things that are coming to mind:

Help others!  When you feel down yourself you can better empathize with someone else who feels down.  Our job here is to help missionaries who are struggling with some kind of anxiety or depression and I can really understand where they are coming from.  I hope this helps me to help them better.

Keep going!  I've heard it said that Satan works extra hard when you are about to do something important or great.  We have the potential to do an amazing work here!  Feeling down will just give him power to hold me back! 

Be patient with myself!  A lot (maybe all) of what I'm feeling is totally normal!  We are far away from home and everything that we are familiar and comfortable with.  I've also heard it said that "there's no growing in a comfort zone and there's no comfort in a growing zone!"  Do you love that??
I sometimes don't want to believe this is the case, but in my case, I find it to be too true!  I am out of my comfort zone in every possible way so growth is sure to come my way!  I'm excited to discover the ways that I will grow while we are here!

So those are some of my current thoughts!  Just getting them out of my head is making me feel better already! 

We really did have a great week!  We are feeling more and more on top of our To Do lists each day.  We love our office, the people we get to work with, all the other senior couples, our church congregation, our apartment and it's perfect location.  We are so very blessed in every way!

The highlight of the week was getting to hear from our church's Area Presidency at a special devotional they had on Friday morning.  The chapel was completely full of church employees and senior missionaries.  We are so blessed to be able to work in the same building with these great men who have devoted their entire lives to doing God's work.  They are humble men who love God and others with all of their hearts and you could feel their love for each of us as they spoke.  It was in Portuguese, but I understood what they were saying if not in my head, in my heart.  The love of God is real here and everywhere in the world.  We need to love each other and help each other.  That is God's message to me and I hope to you too!

I thought you would like to see a picture of each of us at our desks:

Here are pictures of the outside of our apartment complex.  It is a beautiful place to live and very safe.  We have guards at every entrance and the entire complex is gated.

 This week was the solar eclipse that was viewable across the U.S.  We missed it down here, but we got to see a lot of cool pictures from family and friends.  Here are a couple that I especially enjoyed:

Yesterday, a group of seven senior couples took an excursion about 2 1/2 hours northwest of here to Holambra which is a Dutch village that was established in 1948.  They were having their Expoflora, Flower Expo, which was like a home and garden expo combined with a state fair.  It was a lot of fun.  Our favorite thing was the drum group that performed.  They were made up of young people who looked like they ranged from about 10-18 years of age.  They were incredible. 

I've always wanted to be a drummer so it made me very happy.  One of the things I enjoyed best about when my kids were at Niwot High School was when they had the Fall all music department concert and they always ended with the marching band coming into the auditorium being led by the drum line.  They would circle the auditorium and it was exhilarating.  This brought me back in time for a minute and it was amazing!

The food was good, the flowers were incredible, there was a lot of dancing and it ended by them blowing the petals of 18,000 roses over the crowd of people.  Fun day!

 Check out the license plate!

It was a good day! Wish we would have bought some of those wooden shoes!

Thanks for hanging out with me for a little while!  I'm feeling a whole lot better!  Here's my message for the week...  I get these pictures and thoughts from Instagram, usually from bofm365 and mormondaily.  Check them out!

God is there waiting for us to ask for His help!  He will help us all figure this life out!!  Have a great week!