Week #15, Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 30-Nov. 5, 2017

This week's highlight was Halloween.  This was my costume this year and I bought this little Jack-O-Lantern for our office and we kept it full of caramels all month (with the help of our office mates)!

Just a little reminder of our fun empty-nester FHE party a few years ago in Longmont! One of our best costume efforts!

Here in Brazil, it isn't really celebrated to the extent that it is back home.  A few kids in our apartment complex dressed up and they were darling.  We actually welcomed a new couple to the area office, the Brook's, and we all went out for pizza on Halloween night.  But before dinner, the Harris's had a Halloween pizza party for the English class.  We take over teaching this week, so it was fun to get to know some of the people in the class by teaching them a fun Halloween song, doing a reader's theater, and a Halloween crossword puzzle.  They are a very fun and lively group and so anxious to learn English.  It's going to be a lot of fun working with them.

I wanted to share some of the pictures I took off of Instagram and Facebook of our family and their Halloween costumes!  Halloween is kind of a big deal!!

We had a little bit of a rough week with a few unexpected challenges and it really made me ponder about what a senior mission is and what it isn't.
What it is:
It is a chance to serve the Lord and other's in ways that get us out of our comfort zones
It is a chance to go to far away lands where we might not otherwise ever go to
It is a chance to make new friends
It is a chance to learn a new language (or at least try to)
It is a chance to grow closer to our family even if it's through FaceTime and this blog
It is a chance to get closer as a couple
It is a chance to learn new skills (computer mainly)
It is a chance to learn a new culture
It is a chance to eat delicious new foods
It is a chance to truly put ourselves in the Lord's care and have faith that He will take care of things
It is a place where we look out for each other, our fellow senior couples and the young missionaries
It is hard sometimes, especially hard to be far away from our family
It is a place of love and acceptance
It is a place where you experience miracles, both big and small
It is worth it!

What it isn't:
It isn't easy
It isn't a place for criticism and harsh attitudes
It isn't a job in the workplace with unrealistic expectations from unreasonable co-workers
It isn't always rainbows and easy weeks that fly by, sometimes it's boring and the minutes creep by

What it is far outweighs what it isn't and we are learning every day how to lean more on the Lord and less on our own understanding.  We are learning that everyone has challenges, most of us have a lot of them and they are hard ones!  We are learning so much about ourselves and our capacity to be servants of the Lord and how important that is.  We just hope we can serve honorably and really do all that is required of us with a good attitude and with joy!

I really want to think about these two thoughts as I go through this week.  We really do need to serve each other and love one another in order to be happy.  There really is no place or need for anything greater than these.

Have a great week!