Week #6, Sao Paulo, Brazil

This week was a really busy work week for Mike.  He is doing a lot of phone counseling with missionaries who are struggling with different kinds of mental health issues such as homesickness, depression, anxiety, companionship struggles, etc.  He is so good at it and he really feels the Lord's hand in the counsel he gives.  Since we are missionaries and not Brazilian psychologists, we can't treat anyone, but rather, give advice and helpful hints on how to deal with those issues.  I have been able to talk to a couple of missionaries myself and give motherly advice with a lot of help from the Lord.  We have some really good resources to draw from and the missionaries are very receptive and want to feel better so they do the things we suggest and they are seeing progress.  It is a very rewarding mission.  It is also very hard--hard to watch people struggle, but we know God is with them and that He will help them through all their challenges.

Yesterday, we went to the outdoor market (feira) to get our fruits and veggies.  It's a lot of fun.  Later in the day, I went with some others to explore the Sam's Club for the first time.  It was awesome.  Very much like the ones in the U.S.  I stocked up on some necessities.  Last night, we checked out another burger place up the street from our apartment, Stunt Burger.  I'm on a quest to find the best burger in Sao Paulo.  It was really good and will be hard to beat!  We were able to eat outside and they had outdoor gas heaters with cool gas flames (two of my favorite things). I was so happy! We will definitely go there again.  Also, this week a couple of the senior sisters and I walked around our neighborhood and found a lot of cool little stores and restaurants.  My friend showed me a craft store that had yarn so I can start crocheting again.  We feel like we are really starting to adapt to our Brazilian surroundings.

I didn't take too many pictures this week but here are a few of our office/temple/church complex.  Every evening, we have tons of little green parrot couples fly into the trees at the church complex.  They are very squawky and it's a lovely happy thing to walk out to at the end of each work day.  We love them!  I'll try to get pictures of them for next week's blog.

This picture is of the new visitor's center that they are constructing.  It is going to have a beautiful Christus statue and is going to be a wonderful addition to the complex.  They are also finishing up a subway stop just outside the complex so people will have easy access to this wonderful place.

 This is our office building. 

When you come out of our office building, we face the back of the temple on the left and the back of our chapel on the right.

 The temple was closed for a couple of weeks and they did some work on the Angel Moroni statue on the top.  He is cleaned up and the scaffolding should be coming down soon.

We had a couple of birthdays in our area this week so we celebrated Henrique and Ivan with a delicious chocolate cake from a local bakery called Sodie Doces.

This Walmart picture was taken from our office complex grounds.  Just an idea of how close everything is.  We have everything we need right around us; grocery stores, a mall, a lot of restaurants and cool little shops, our church, temple and office.  Everything within a short walk! We are very fortunate. 

When we were stopped at a light waiting to enter the Sam's Club parking there was a kid dressed as a clown juggling in between traffic.  Weird!

I leave you with this quote from Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

 I hope that we can all focus on the things that mean the most in this life:  God, family, friends, serving others.  In the news this week was the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.  We pray for the people of Houston and surrounding areas and for the love of God to be in the hearts of all people to get through this terrible disaster.

Also, let's remember this wise counsel from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, former member of the Twelve Apostles:

It's easy to get caught up in the things of the world, but when we are caught up in the things of the Spirit, the things of the world will generally work themselves out.  Maybe not in our timing and our ways, but in God's ways and in his timing.

Have a great week!