Rainy Week

This has been a rainy week. Sometimes at night there is so much rain the streets are like rivers. It's OK, though. We need the rain.

Our flooded playground

Diane spent most of the week finishing the report for May. We met our goal. When we first started working as Area Technology Specialists for Brazil in October 2014 only 28% of the stakes had technology specialists. By the time we arrived in Brazil in March 2015 there were 32% of the stakes with technology specialists. In May 2016 we reached the 70% mark. There are many being released and others sustained, but each month gives an overall increase.

Meanwhile, Paul worked on consolidating information on chapels we have visited and training we have given.

Friday night we went to eat at the Outback. It took two hours to be served and to eat, but the food is good. When all the senior missionaries go together on the bus or to events it looks like a Mormonada. We learned in our Portuguese class that you can place "ada" at the end of a noun to mean you have a lot of them.

Half a Mormonada at the Outback

The other half

Saturday we went to Embu das Artes for the last time. This is one place we will really miss. It is an old Jesuit settlement that has been turned into an art village. On Saturdays they have a big art fair with a lot of booths set up. There are also a lot of shops. It gave us a last chance to buy some souvenirs.

Making wooden signs

Gazebo in the praça

Even the park benches are pieces of art

One of the many artists in town

Two Bahians watching us from the window

I like the one in the sweater

The old Jesuit church

Colorful buildings

We decided to visit Buenos Aries, at least that is what the restaurant was called where we ate lunch.

The restaurant

Sharing a meal

Courtyard

The weather was good most of the morning, but as we were about to leave we got caught in a brief downpour. It's a good thing we remembered our umbrellas. Embu is about 30 km out of São Paulo, which takes about 45 minutes by bus. along the way we saw a new favela. The people find empty land an build their wooden houses.

New favela

Church was a little different this Sunday. Tad R. Callister (General Sunday School President) was visiting our meetings with his wife and with our Area Seventy, Elder Rais. Can you imagine the Sunday School teacher giving the lesson with the General Sunday School President in the class? At least the class was in Portuguese so he wasn't certain what was being said.