Wow – I know it’s been awhile since we have updated our blog
– we have been pretty busy doing our work for the mission. Still taking care of houses and helping out
at the Mission Office. We have had a
lot of missionaries come and go in the last few months and have had a lot of
moving and housing activity to take care of.
I think we are up to 57 houses now – but we need to close some of them
as we will not be using them for a while.
Our traveling is always interesting – most all of the
“freeways” here are two lanes and we get behind a series of trucks like the one
pictured below. “Long vehicle” for sure
– about 100 feet long. There tends to be
quite a build up behind each one of these – they go like crazy downhill – but
uphill it’ a very slow crawl.
We do love it when we are on the road visiting places – it’s
a lot more interesting than being in Salvador doing more administrative
work. We have been in Salvador for a while
now – this next week we are going to start another round of visits. It is amazing visiting these young men and
women that are serving here. Some
complaints – but mostly just focused on helping people learn about the church
and helping others they meet in any way they can.
Here is a recent picture of one of our training sessions –
we have seven zones in Bahia and this is the one in the southern part of
Salvador – all such great kids. My boss
– President Bangerter is beside me and his wife. He has more energy than any three people –
especially when it comes to training.
Hard to keep up with as he is constantly on the go. Our missionaries are mostly from Brazil, a
few from the US and Mexico in this picture.
We had one disappointment this last month. Aaron, Kristen, Kacey, Sam, Veronika and
Chase were going to come down for a visit for a week. Everything went smoothly until they got to
the airport and checked in and learned that Brazil is one of the few countries
that requires a tourist visa to come here.
Most places in the world let you in for travel – but Brazil is
different. We had to have visas because
we are staying here for a year and a half – but even if it’s a week there is a
tourist visa required. I think they
loosened things up during the Olympics –but tightened things up – maybe after
they finally got Lochte to leave. Any
way, we have rescheduled their coming down – now end of October and early
November. The weather during “winter”
here is a little spotty but mostly cooler.
I think it starts to warm up again in October. Cooler means it gets into the low 70’s with
rain and some wind.
Kaye and I decided we would go up to the resort ourselves
that we had planned for the family and had a great few days off. Some pictures below – it was tough duty but
someone had to step up:
This was my favorite picture below – we were having
strawberry smoothies and a monkey was jumping from chair to chair to figure out
what we were doing. Kaye caught a great
picture of him in mid air:
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We are looking forward to their visit – October is supposed
to be whale month up at the resort we are staying. Hopefully, the whales will hang around for
our visit
We lament not being at the festivities and visiting friends
and family in the US during this period – we can’t tell you all how much we
appreciate the pictures and videos that you send and the conversations we
have.
But there are some pretty incredible people here in Brazil –
not only the ones that are working through their personal situations without
much in the way of material possessions – but also some really bright and
interesting young people. Here is a
picture with one of my favorites – Elder Costa e Silva. He is from São Paulo – although after his
mission he will be heading for the U.S. to school and his family has moved
there. Incredibly smart, caring and
personable. He speaks English very
fluently and also took the time to learn Danish – “just because he likes
learning different languages”. He is
our financial secretary and has been doing a great job. With more like him the future of this
country, despite its current hardships is going to be very bright.
Lastly, I thought I would throw in some pictures of some of
the graffiti that is all around the city – a lot of it is the “tagging” you see
in the US, but there is a well-known artist here who does a lot of them. Here are a few that reminded me of the U.S. –
for “some” reason:
Take good care of yourselves. We love and miss you. Paul and Kaye
Go Cougs!
