Week, #24, Sao Paulo, Dec. 31, 2017-January 7, 2018

A new year has begun!  Last year was full of many wonderful adventures and blessings.  We got to spend a lot of time traveling to be with our family and in July, we began our mission!  I am so grateful for each experience that we got to have in 2017 and we are looking forward to all the adventures ahead in 2018!

Here is a sampling of some of our top memories from 2017:  Mike started and completed his physical therapy and healing from his shoulder surgery, we started learning Portuguese with amazing tutors from BYU, went to Provo for Portuguese immersion, celebrated Ryan's birthday at Casa Bonita, Ali began selling Monat and Jaimee, Mega and Kimiko started shortly after, visited Justin's family in San Antonio, spent lots of time in Colorado Springs,  Springs families spent lots of time in Longmont, spent two weeks in San Clemente, CA with Nancy and Dale, went to Todd's hooding and graduation (PhD in Finance) from Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, Kathy came to MS and we took a road trip with her to our birthplace in Florence, Alabama then on to Nashville and Atlanta, visited Steve's family in Kennesaw, Georgia, went to a Brave's game with them, flew to Philly and visited Melecia's family, met our first great-grandson, Jaydison Mounga for the first time (Madison and Joseph's new baby), found out Todd and Kimiko were expecting another baby (boy), rented our home for 18 months while we are in Brazil, packed up all our personal belongings and stored them in the basement, had our farewell, packed up our bags and went to Provo, spent a week at Hannah and Chase's apartment (they were in Nauvoo for his family reunion), entered the MTC, had a week of mental health training in Salt Lake, had a family reunion at Bear Lake, Todd and Kimiko and boys moved to Logan, Utah, where Todd began teaching Finance at Utah State University, flew to Sao Paulo, began our mission, found out Hannah and Chase are expecting their first baby (girl), Garrett and Louise had their first baby (our second great grandson, James), Eric and Hannah both completed their studies at BYU and will walk in April of this year, celebrated Christmas and New Year's in a new country far away from our loved ones and we survived, we made lots of new friends in Brazil! Crazy, busy, fun, blessed year!

For New Year's Eve we had a quiet evening in our apartment until about 10:30 when we joined a group of people from our church here to celebrate a little bit with them.  Here we are with fellow senior missionaries, Neil and Lori Whiting and Ruth and Brett Barrett with their daughter Karston who was visiting from Utah:

This picture definitely doesn't show it, but the fireworks around us were incredible.  Incredible as in nonstop and very loud for hours!!  We could see several displays from our living room window.  It was a crazy, loud night for Sao Paulo residents!

Let this year be the Year of Gratitude!  Every morning when I wake up, my goal is to say Thank You to my Heavenly Father for all my blessings!  Truly, sincerely thank him for everything I have in my life!

This past week, on January 2, 2018, our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson, passed away.  He was 90 years old.  He will be remembered for being a positive, loving man who taught us to never ignore a prompting, enjoy the journey, take care of the widows and needy, have an attitude of gratitude and so many other wonderful positive things he shared with us through word and deed!  We are so happy he finally gets to rest from his work here and be reunited with his dear wife Francis on the other side.

On Thursday, we had a birthday dinner for our sweet friend, Ruth Barrett.  It was fun having her daughter here to celebrate with her!

Some of my senior sister friends in our matching dresses!  This is the best dress ever!  So comfortable and comes in about 18 colors--wash and wear and accessorizes with everything.  It's available on Amazon, message me for more info, HaHa!

Me, Carol, Lori and Marilyn

 

 

 On Friday afternoon, after we finished up our work at the office, we took the bus and then the subway downtown to the Mercado Municipale, this huge indoor food market.  There were tons of fruit and veggie stands, meat, cheese, nuts and fish stands, and lots of places to eat.  We tried the famous Mortadella sandwich which is pretty much hot bologna and cheese on a bun.  It was pretty good!

These little piggies went to the market and none of them came home!  So sad!!

This is the Mortadella Sanduiche!  People come from all over to wait in line to order these!!

After the Mercado, we shopped a little bit on 25th of March Street,  shop after shop of party supplies, jewelry, arts and crafts, toys, you name it, they had it in vast quantities.  It was amazing and completely overwhelming.  Here are the men, waiting while we popped into the fabric store for a little look see!  It was a fun outing!  On the way back, we stopped and saw The Greatest Showman (for the second time--it was that good!!!).

Our BIG news of the week is that Todd and Kimiko had their baby boy on January 5, 2018 at 5:46 a.m.  His name is Jordan Robert Griffith and he is so adorable and perfect and we are in love with him already!  This is truly the hardest thing about being so far away, but we will see him lots over FaceTime and we get to go see him in Utah in April!!!  Oh my goodness, right?!? xoxoxo

This is going to be a great year!  It is what we make it and we are going to make it a good one with the help of our Heavenly Father.  We hope all of our family and friends will make it a great year as well full of love, service, and gratitude.  I am grateful for my Savior and for His Atonement, for His great and limitless love for each and every one of us.  May we all be eternally grateful for Him and all He has done and continue to do for us!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND A GREAT 2018!!