Forró

It has been a busy week this week. On Monday, Diane was in charge of the 8 am devotional (and did very well, as normal). We then had our daily half-hour Leadership Pattern session (in English) at 9 am. Since we didn't have a chance to do our extended Leadership Pattern session (in Portuguese) during our alignment training we did it for an hour today at 1 pm. We had our regular Family Home Evening with the senior couples at 5:30 pm then another Family Home Evening with the Krafts at 8 pm. After the lesson, Brother Kraft asked Diane to bear her testimony which she did (in Portuguese). It was a busy day!

The Krafts

Several of the missionary sisters have been asking for the opportunity to study Portuguese. I told them if they really wanted I would be willing to give a Portuguese class. Since no one else stepped up to offer, We now have two English classes (Tuesday and Thursday) and two Portuguese classes (Wednesday and Friday) each week. On Tuesday we went to ElDorado Shopping (in case you haven't figured it out by now - shopping means mall) to find some text books for the Portuguese class. We wanted to use the same text we got for Diane a while back. They didn't have any, but the Zauggs were able to find some at another bookstore Tuesday night.

Our Portuguese textbook

On Wednesday, Diane decided to go out with Sister Zaugg to learn about stores that are close by our apartment. While she was gone, I needed some information she keeps. She is organized enough for me to find the information by myself.

Bird of Paridise

 As we were crossing the parking lot we noticed it was transfer day. We were very involved with transfers in Canada, but not here.

Missionaries waiting for transfers

 It did give us a chance to see some of the missionaries we have met.

Not being transferred 

Thursday was a rainy day. Badu had to pick up some electronic supplies on Santa Ifigenia Street. There were store after store of electronic products. It took two hours to drive downtown, an hour to find what he needed and an hour to return. We got back right at 5 pm, just in time for our English class. Diane stayed in the office and was getting worried she would have to do the class by herself.

Friday evening we went to see "Little Prince" at the Jardim Sul Shopping. We had never been there before so we saw some new areas of the city. The show was sold out so we went to a Middle Eastern restaurant then came back home and watched "Pure Country 2 - The Gift" on Netflix.

Reflection on a van on the way to Jardim Sul

On Saturday we had two church activities. The first was a high priest party for the Morumbi Ward. Since all of the other senior couples attend that ward we were invited. It was a churrasco (barbecue) at the home of the high priest group leader.

Waiting in the courtyard

In front of our condo prison

 Elder Hale had a car so he shuttled us to the home where we had the party - pretty nice!

The courtyard where we had the churrasco

The kitchen area

The churrasco

 It gave us a good chance to get to know the Hart's. He is the area doctor who will take the place of the Swensen's. She is a nurse. Neither speak Portuguese, but she speaks Spanish. It will be a challenge for them.

Lunch with the Hart's

We decided to walk home after the party. In the evening the São Paulo 5th Ward had a soup night with three types of soup: Bean, mandioca, and caldo verde. Each was very good. We also tried some black guaraná which is spiked with açaí, a fruit from the Amazons (as is guaraná).

Heating up the soup

We don't see the Kwai family very often since he is a branch president at the CTM (MTC).

With the Kwai's

 We had a mixture of Brazilian and American music (very loud, of course).

The Music Man

 Many started to dance. When they played the Forró (typical of northeast Brazil) we had to give it a try, even though we had never danced it before. We did OK after watching a few of the others dance.

Our dance instructors

It has been a good week and we seem to be doing a lot, but we need to get started training the new Council Technology Specialists. 

Yes, she loves the piano!