most of the time we eat breakfast in our appartment sometimes like today (Saturday) Grandpa/Vernon will go down to the cafeteria and bring our meals up to the appartment so I don't have to get dressed up. All the Sisters have to wear dresses in the cafeteria and all the Elders have to wear a shite shirt and tie.

we get up at 5:30 or 6:00 A.M., exercise, groom, and get ready for the day

The bed is wonderful. We usually go to bed about 9:30 and Grandpa/Vernon listens to me read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese to help me learn how to pronounce the words correctly
We get to sleep around 10:00 or 10:30.

Saturday is our preparation day. We wash clothes and linens, mop the floors, change the sheets and clean the bathroom.We usually get everything done by noon.

We access to three news channels in English, Fox, CNN and the BBC. so far my plant is still alive.

A flat tire in the middle of Sao Paulo traffic

We went to the Afro Museum today. On our way home right in the middle of traffic (Sao Paulo has 6 million cars ) a man in a truck next to us waved to Grandpa/Vernon. He rolled down the window and the man said "You have a flat tire".

Within seconds we could tell that we were driving on the rim so we pulled off the road into the front of this medical lab. It was a blessing that we were able to get out of the traffic and that there was a place to pull off.

Three Brazilians came to help us. One was the guard for the lab. It was quite the operation. We were concerned because the traffic was getting heavier and we needed to get back for a special fireside for the missionaries with the producer of the movie "The Other side of Heaven." There just happened to be a break in the traffic after we got the spare tire on. We made it back just in time too. There are so many little miracles that happen everyday to bless us in our efforts to support the missionaries as they prepare to go out and share the gospel with the people of Brazil.

Each Saturday the "Feira" comes to a large parking lot a few blocks from the MTC here in the neighborhood. It's an open air market where vendors come to set up their stands. In addition to fruits and vegetables, there are stands that sell meats, handmade articles of clothing and jewelry. We have been there a few times just to look around and buy a few items. We really don't need to buy any food because everything we need to eat is provided for us in the cafeteria. But it's fun to look around.

We normally take a half a day on Friday and half a day on Saturday as our P-Day. The half day Friday morning is usually the time to go to places of interest such as museums, the flower market, historic sites, etc. The half day on Saturday is used for cleaning, shopping, and washing clothes. It wouldn't be hard keep busy during these 2 half days, but we have to remember that we need to keep things clean and we need to have a little break from the routine of the work at the MTC. Now that we have found a way to download our pictures, we'll being sending more of them. Ate mais (Catch you later)

Love Dad/Vernon/Grandpa

posting pictures

We finally figured out the computer picture downloading and posting technology. Now we just have to figure out how to take pictures that aren't blurred or washed out. We will try and post a picture everyday.

Grandma/Jerry had to eat fast to go check on the choir before the meeting got started

Grandpa/Vernon is checking everything out before the dinner started

The Bednars got stuck in traffice and were late for the dinner we had about 15 minutes to eat before the meeting started so we all came back after Elder Bednar gave is talk and finished eating the wonderful meal the CTM (Portuguese for MTC) cooks had prepared

This is a close up of us with Elder and Sister Bednar during his visit to the Brazil MTC on may 19th, 2008. The MTC President and Sister Woodward are on the right.

An apostle visits the Brazilian MTC

We were blessed to have Elder Bednar come to the mission on Monday the 19th. We had a dinner before the meeting during which he asked President Woodward what was the biggest challenge we were facing at the MTC. President Woodward indicated that homesickness and discouragement seemed to be at the top of the list.

Then Elder Bednar gave the most wonderful talk. Following are a few of my notes

• First I want to comfort the afflicted
  
  "I have come to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. You can do this. You will have the Lords help to do this. I am a witness that the Lord knows you and that he has directed me here to talk specifically to you. You can do what you have been called to do."
  
  Alma 26: 27 (Ammon’s home coming report)
  Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give you success.don’t just sit.
  
  GO to work. ACT. Get going.
  
  Bear with patience thine afflictions: pray with all your heart for help.
  
  I will give you success
  
  (Joseph Smith said faith = action and power ) Too often you think: give me the power then I will act. But Joseph said you must act first then the power comes. The Lord can and will bless you with strength beyond your own. Not because you need it but because of the lives that you can bless.
  
  You must learn to be an instrument through which the Holy Ghost can work. This isn’t about you and me. You are called to serve and bless the lives of other. Remember you have to Act first. Only when you have done your best and can do no more then the power comes.
  The power does not come to make it easy but to bless us in our afflictions. The children of Israel where told that they would cross the river Jordon on dry land, but the waters did not part until they got their feet wet.
  
  Don’t focus on yourself. Act to bless and serve others then the power will come.
  
• Now to afflict the comfortable:
  
  Pride and priest craft come when we teach for recognition and attention from other and from ourselves.
  
  Alma 26: 22Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.
  
  You must repent of your pride-fullness and realize success is a gift from God. You don’t convert people to the gospel, I don’t convert people to the Gospel. The Holy Ghost is who converts the one and the thousands. Our responsibility is to become a worthy transparent vessel and get out of the way and let the Lord operate through us, and become the instruments through which the Holy Ghost can work.
  
  After the meeting he shook every missionaries had and then met again with the MTC Presidency, the doctor and his wife and us for dessert. During this time he talked to me personally about senior couples' missing their grandchildren. He said I give you an Apostolic blessing: "You will bless the lives of your children and grandchildren more by serving missions than by being there to see them be baptised or graduate from high school. Seeing you serve will be of greater influence than anything you could be doing with them.

Happy 8th Birthday Braydon

We are so proud of Braydon and feel sad that we can not be with him on this special birthday when he turns 8 years old and can be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost to be his constant companion. We feel the influence of the Holy Ghost in our life every day here in Brazil. One missionary told us that when he decided to keep all the mission rules he was able to learn better in class. I have received this help too when ever I was willing to do my best to be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. What a wonderful gift to receive from Heavenly Father on our 8th birthday or when we are baptized a member of His Church here upon the earth.

Jerry's job

Jerry’s job
I am in charge of delivering the mail that comes every day except Sunday to the CTM. Our P-day is Saturday but if mail comes I deliver it that evening. One of my biggest challenges is to identify who Sister Lopez is when we have five sisters with that last name. Silva, Sousa, Santos are very common names in Brazil. Sometimes the Brazilians will just put the first name of their missionary and anticipate that we will know who their missionary is. The sister I replaced said sometimes it is just like doing family history research.

New American missionaries come on Wednesday and Brazilian missionaries come on Thursday. It is my job to see that they write a letter home to their parents that day. They bring their letters to me and I take the letters for Brazilian parents to the post office and send the American letters in the Pouch that goes to Salt lake and there they are put into the US Postal system. There are always missionaries that did not bring stamps or envelops with them and I have to figure out the best I can what they need. I remind the missionaries that after their first letter home they have to write their letters on their p-day and go to the post office themselves. I give the first orientation to the American missionaries.

I give them their meal ticket, closet locks, missionary hand book, schedule for their first two days and their room keys. I take them on a brief tour of the building and take them up to their rooms to make sure they can set the combination on their closet safe. Almost every day I have to let some missionaries into there room because they either misplaced their key or left it in their room and someone locked them out.

My biggest challenge next to the language is leading the choir. The choir sings at the Sunday night fireside and for every Tuesday night’s devotional. I have to select the number we preform, get the music copied if necessary for 100 missionaries. then I put up signs for the practice which is held one hour before the meeting starts. On Wednesday I make sure the pianist has the music for the following Sunday and Tuesday so they can accompany the choir. I select the opening and closing song for each meeting.

I keep a list of all the missionaries that have experience leading music and playing the piano, flute and violin. I send out notes asking missionaries if they will be willing to lead or play for the meeting and they come by my office and say yes or no. Usually they say yes but sometimes I have to change the songs so that it meets their comfort level playing in front of a large group. I am never given a theme for the meetings and just have to pray that the hymns fit the spirit of the meeting.

Besides all of this I am a counselor to the Relief Society president which means I conduct Relief Society every third week and make out a schedule for the lessons that are taught from the preach my gospel manual. We also hold the new sisters orientation meeting right after Relief Society.

our apartment

Our apartment

Vernon and I live in an apartment that has been made out of three of the missionary dorms. One room is a carpeted living room and study. We have lovely off-white drapes, off white brocade couch and a love seat, a mahogany and glass coffee table and a mahogany low entertainment center that holds a TV and DVD player. There is a large solid wood corner desk with an over-head book shelve at the other end of the room.

The kitchen has a tile floor and granite counters and cupboards that go all the way to the ceiling. We have white lace curtains, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, stove top and oven. We have a medium size refrigerator and freezer, a table and four chairs and an extra mahogany folding table with two wooden stools that fit underneath it. We keep this table folded up at the far end of the kitchen where I have another sink with a built in porcelain washing board. I have a stacked washing machine and dryer next to this sink. Opposite the washer and dryer is a large cupboard with a counter. Under the counter is a shelf with a pull-out ironing board ( I really like this arrangement). there are additional cupboards beneath this shelf.

The apartment was furnished with dishes, utensils, baking pans, kitchen linens, and cleaning supplies. We even had a big bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen table. At first I thought they were artificial until the director asked me how I liked the fruit. There was also a box of chocolates and a pot of flowering begonias on the desk in the living room when we arrived. There was pop and bottled water in the frig too. I felt like V.I.P. s not missionaries

The bedroom is carpeted and has a king-size bed, end tables and lamps, a ceiling fan and lovelly bed lines. The room has two built in ceiling to floor closets with built in drawers and a really neat shelf for shoes that pulls out. We have the same lovely off-white drapes in the bedroom and a love rose colored bed spread and nine pillows (rose, floral, and white)

We have granite counters in the bathroom and tile floors. The only roughing it we have is that we don’t have a tub. The toilet, shower, and one of the sinks are closed off. The other sinks and ceiling to floor cupboards are open to the bedroom. All of our towels and floor rugs were provided. We also just go to the storage closet to get toilet paper.

Down the hall is an additional laundry room that is just for the three couples. I can put four loads of wash in at a time and have three dryers. We trade off days to us the laundry room so we don’t over lap. We have an exercise room that is being put in right across the hall from our apartment. We have three guest rooms available for visitors and family that come to visit. My sister who served in Siberia and Cairo said I’m not on a mission; I am on a vacation.

food and transportation

transporation in Sao Paulo
We took the bus and the subway saturday (May 10th), to see an art museum on the other side of town. We went with the doctor and his wife and the mission president and his wife. Sao Paulo is a huge city; one of the largest cities in the world. There are between 18 and 20 million people just in this city.

I hope we can learn how to travel the public transportation on our own soon. Grandpa/Vern gets to ride free because he is over 65; but I have to pay. It costs about $1.25 to ride the bus and about the same to ride the subway. I don’t think we will try it on our own until we get a map of the subway system and a bus schedule.

The museum had a special show of Japanese art that was very nice. There were also several galleries of old 16th and 17th century oil paintings and sculptures. I learned, during my schooling in New York, that Sao Paulo has a high concentration of illustrators and graphic designers. So I enjoyed the modern art display I think the best.

Grandpa/Vern and I have to be very careful walking because all of the sidewalks are maintained by the store or home owners. Some are stones, some are tile, and some are cement. Some are very nice and well maintained; while others are uneven, cracked and broken. The woman that showed me how to walk to the post office told me to keep my eyes on the ground if I want to avoid falling. I like to look and smile at people while I walk and say “bom dia” (good morning) or “boa tarde” (good afternoon). So looking down is quite unnatural for me. So I try to keep looking up and down while I am walking.

We also learned that cars have the ride away and pedestrians have to yield to the cars and motor bikes—which are all over the place winding in and out of the traffic. We were told that there are, on an average, about three to five deaths a day of these motorcyclists.


There are hundreds of little shops on every street. Some are only the size of a small bedroom. Others are two levels high but still very narrow. Many shops are on the front of a home. Some of the people move the shop in at night and park there car where the shop is during the day. Space is at a premium here in Sao Paulo and ever square foot is used. You can also see people putting up make shift tents and living on the grassy mediums between some of the major streets.

One landscaping feature that I really like here is a plant that grows on the walls. This makes the stucco wall look wonderful, like a green hedge instead of a wall. Graffiti is everywhere except on the high rises or gated areas. Even if there were to be some paint sprayed on the plants that grow on the walls, the plant is trimmed regularly and the paint would be gone.

The food here is wonderful.
They always have white rolls for breakfast lunch and dinner. They always have cucumbers, carrots, beats, lettuce, chard, cabbage, unions, peppers, tomatoes and onions—cut up and presented a different way each meal. At least every other meal they have cooked and chilled broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant and string beans. Some times they have olives, crated cheeses and mushrooms but not very often.

Every Thursday night we have pizza. It is not like American pizza but just a quick bread crust with melted cheese. Some have various meats such as red sausage, or ham and pineapple, or olives and onions. They also make a dessert pizza with chocolate on it and slivered almonds and it looks like cream cheese. Everyday they have some type of pudding dessert. I have not been eating the desserts so I don’t know how good they are, but they seem to disappear fast.

Every meal they serve white rice and black or red beans, sometimes beans with chicken, other times beans and sausage. Every day they have chicken, beef, and sausage or ham cooked different ways.

They serve two kinds of fresh maid juice one is usually orange juice and the other, one of their local fruits. They have four different types of juices and different soft drinks on tap. They also have carbonated water on tap that you can mix with the fresh made juices. All the water in the the CTM is filtered and safte to drink and tastes wonderful. Every meal you can have apples, bananas, papya, grapes, pinapple, watermelon, and guava. The missionaries are allowed to take apples and bananas out of the cafeteria. They can eat as much as they like but are told to take small portions and go back for more rather than waste food.

Brazilians typically have cheese and sliced ham to make a breakfast sandwich. They also have three flavors of yogurt on tap every morning. The milk here comes in cartons that do not need to be refrigerated until it is opened. They serve hot chocolate too in the morning; but I have to ask for hot water. They serve granola, bran cerial, and two kinds of regular sugar coated grain flakes. They also serve two different kinds of sweet breads for breakfast as well.

You can see why missionaries and senior couples usually gain weight here.

We are n Fall here but the leaves don't change colors, as far as I can tell. Vernons says the only way you know it is fall is you see people shaking their trees so the dead leaves fall out. It is more like natural pruning. It is getting cooler about 50 degrees F, and is raining more and more. We have a small space heater that so far keeps our apartment fairly warm. I don't know if it gets colder if the little heater will be enough. But I have a microwave so at least I can have hot water to drink when ever I want.

Our work here is definately not relaxing but I do enjoy not having to plan, prepare, and clean up after meals three times a day. The plants here are as beautiful as I have ever seen. I get up every morning and walk two miles on a track--14 laps equal one mile. It is outside but enclosed within the MTC compound so I am completely safe walking at 5:45 each morning by myself.

I am hoping to get into a routine with my work in the mail room and help desk so that I can start participating in the evening language classes with the missionaries. I don't think I will pick up a second language as fast as Txanton did. There is a Brazilian sister missionary here who lived in Provo for just two years while her father completed an MBA. She speaks English wonderfully with only a slight accent. I often ask her to translate for me in the mail room and during our choir practices. She is just about Txanton's size but has black hair and very dark eyes.

Leading the music is still scarey and I feel totally inept during the practices. Some how something happens during the performance and the choir sounds wonderful inspite of the crazy practice. There is nothing quite like a choir with around 100 males voices and 50 female voices.
the pianist is very good and the best part is he is so patient with me and just says:

"what ever you want Sister Chris. I'll do it".

I had a young elder sit close to the front Tuesday night and lead along with me just incase I lost my timing I could follow him. All the missionaries have so much fun singing they don't seem to care that I don't know what I am doing.

five days on our own

We have just completed five days on our own now without our trainers. They left on Tuesday April 29th. I have been so busy, I have not had a minute to learn how to use my camera! I could keep the help desk and mail room open from 7:00 A.M. until 10:00 P.M. and there would be a missionary with a problem walking in the door about every 10 to 15 minutes. The biggest challenge for me is of course is the language. I have to draw pictures, search through the dictionary, or search for someone who can translate for me.

We had our first P-day today. We cleaned our apartment, washed clothes and sheets, and walked to the grocery store. I was surprized how expensive most of the food is. Fruit, Beans, and rice however are cheap, along with flowers and plants. I new favorite fruit is Papaya. The Doctor of the MTC said it is good for your digestion. I have it three times aday.