A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

I could have written a thousand words in the time I have spent trying to find, download, upload, and post photos on this blog. I will try again, but after I write a few words.

We are having so much fun! We live in a place that has purple trees! I think they may be jacandará trees. They have pods that look like monkey ears, and beautiful purple flowers. The trees are huge, and all purple. There is another tree that has little plums that grow out of the trunk and large branches of the tree. I thought something was wrong with the tree when I saw it. We have a joão de barro bird that builds a mud nest and mates for life. They say if his mate is unfaithful, he closes her up in the mud house, but I don't see how that could ever happen. I think she would fly away before he got enough mud to close the door. There is a bird I call the 4 o~clock in the morning bird that starts singing loudly way before the sun comes up. There are two different pretty yellow birds I've seen. Sometime I'll look them up on the internet.

The weather is spring-like: rainy one or two days, hot for a day or two, but mostly mild and breezy and beautiful. They tell us that will change, that Porto Alegre is the hottest and the coldest place in Brazil. A taxi drive said it snowed once twenty years ago, but it still gets cold, andthey don't have central heating. But now we are loving the primavera--spring.

Bob is a great missionary. We tell everyone we meet that we are missionaries, and he gives them a passalong card, and tells them they can call the number on the back to receive a free DVD about Christ, or a Book of Mormon, or a Christmas (Natal) DVD.
He talks to taxi drivers, laundry workers, sales people, people in the graocery store, a skateboarder waiting for a bus, a group of university kids playing in an impromptu samba drum band. they let him try the drums. (He played drums in high school pep band.) I smile, and try my Portuguese, and they feel sorry for me and try to help. Tonight we are taking a Book of Mormon to a family that we gave a card to. They called and asked for someone to bring them a video. The office elders took it to them last night, and they asked for a Book of Mormon, and made an appointment for tonight for us to bring it to them and tell them about the Restoration.

Everyday we have personal study from 8-9, companion study from 9-10, language study from 10-10:30 or 11. This is what every missionary is to do. We have about 150 some missionaries. About 100 are Brazilian. (When Bob was here they had Brazilian missionaries in all of Brazil. There was only one mission for the whole coulntry.) The Brazilians are to study English, the Americans, Tongans, Europeans are to study Portuguese. Yesterday I worked on cardinal and ordinal numbers. 1,2,3, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. There were about 10 missionaries in the office today for individual interviews with the mission president, and while they were waiting, I took a paper around and had each one say the numbers up to 20. Brazilians have a hard time saying "th"--it's not in their language. We had lots of laughs with them trying to say "thirteenth" and me saying "setemo,oitavo, nono" 17, 18, 19. They talk so fast sometimes! I have learned to say "More slowly, please," in Portuguese. But somtimes they talk fast, and I say something memorized like the 13th Article of faith, of the pledge of alegience and say it really really fast, and then we laugh and they try to slow down.

It is so fun here. We don't watch TV, we only have church books to read, we don't go to movies. But we are associating with some of the finest, happiest, most sincere and loving people I've ever met. I don't know what Brittany Spears or Lindsay Lohan or Paris or Brad and Angelina are doing, though I do hope they are OK, but I don't miss hearing about them. Daily I see blessings come to us and to those around us, and thank Heavenly Father for his love and kindness to us all.

We pray for you all. We love you so much. Thanks for your support. (I think I wrote a thousand words--I hope you enjoyed reading them!)