Our kitchen has the perfect light for growing violets. Sister Linford gave me this violet when they thought they were leaving the first time. It did not have any blooms on it when she gave it to me. When they had their call extended I gave it back to her in full bloom. When they left a month and a half later the blooms were gone again. But within a short time this little plant burst forth with blooms again. The fern we bought at the outdoor market never died but it didn't flourish so I finally replaced it with a ficus tree (Benjamin tree). We bought it at the supper market for 10 Reais about five American dollars. It is two feet tall and doing wonderfully well. I have three other house plants that are thriving so I am a happy camper.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
perfect light for violets
Our kitchen has the perfect light for growing violets. Sister Linford gave me this violet when they thought they were leaving the first time. It did not have any blooms on it when she gave it to me. When they had their call extended I gave it back to her in full bloom. When they left a month and a half later the blooms were gone again. But within a short time this little plant burst forth with blooms again. The fern we bought at the outdoor market never died but it didn't flourish so I finally replaced it with a ficus tree (Benjamin tree). We bought it at the supper market for 10 Reais about five American dollars. It is two feet tall and doing wonderfully well. I have three other house plants that are thriving so I am a happy camper.
We visited the museum of Japanese immigration on our p-day expedition last week. We learned that most of the Japanese came to Brazil to work in the coffee fields after Brazil freed the slaves. They brought with them their wonderful knowledge and skill in farming vegetables. They introduced most of the vegetables that are in the Brazilian diet. We learned that there were two groups of Japanese. there were those who stayed loyal to the emperor of Japan and those who embrace Brazil as their new home. Many did not stay long and returned to Japan but others stayed on and flourished with the much longer growing season. Brazil today has the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan . 
PiZZA is just going to get better at the MTC
This is the newest addition to the Brazil MTC. It is almost completed. There a few pipes that still need to be put in place. We have Pizza every Thursday night and the director (Aldo Francesconi..Italian descent) of the MTC is convinced that now we will have the best Pizza ever. We also often have Bar-B-Qued meat just like the "Brazilian Churrascaria" We are so spoiled here. . .so much fresh fruit and all the fresh vegetables to build wonderful salads. They have even started making whole wheat rolls for us. The food is so wonderful that I am disappointed when ever we go out to eat.
Bishop McMullin visits Brazil MTC
Bishop McMullin, the second councilor in the presiding bishopric visited the MTC this evening. What a blessing it is that we live in an age when transportation and technology enable the leaders of the church to strengthen the members and the missionaries throughout the world. Once again blessings were pronounced on all the missionaries who will commit to faithfully serve the Lord. . . that non-members in our families would embrace the gospel . . . that family member who have become inactive and left the church will return . . . and that active family members would remain faithful. How blessed we are when we give of our time and means to assist the Lord in preparing the world for his second coming
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
4 missed birthdays
Cooper Happy Birthday on the 30th of December . I can't believe how well you read the scriptures
Hyrum Happy Birthday on the 6th of January. Wow you are five years old and will be starting school soon I loved the picture of you a Jacob pretending to be bushes in front of the dinosaur.
Lyncoln Happy Birthday on the 11th of January. I saw you on Aunt Anne's blog I could not believe how long your hair is and you sounded so grown up on the telephone the other day
Zachary Happy Birthday on the 13th of January, I love your back yard I bet you are having lots of fun playing outside in the middle of winter
Hyrum Happy Birthday on the 6th of January. Wow you are five years old and will be starting school soon I loved the picture of you a Jacob pretending to be bushes in front of the dinosaur.
Lyncoln Happy Birthday on the 11th of January. I saw you on Aunt Anne's blog I could not believe how long your hair is and you sounded so grown up on the telephone the other day
Zachary Happy Birthday on the 13th of January, I love your back yard I bet you are having lots of fun playing outside in the middle of winter
Friday, January 2, 2009
My spelling is not improving
Sorry for all the spelling errors. I forgot to run the spell check before I posted the following entry. I also ran out of time so I did not have time to do an edit on the text. But I hope you can enjoy it and decipher what I was trying to say. Jerry
Christmas at the MTC in Brazil
Christmas w
as wonderful at the MTC in Brazil. We had 146 Elder and 27 Sisters and four missionary couples that spent the night. We had quite a range of talent. The battery on my camera died so I did not get picture of everyone of the 17 performances.
Our opening number Was Elder Jones singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" he sang it in a Frank Sanatra style and really engaged with the audience. He has a voice that is every bit a good as anything I've heard on Boardway. He was in the BYU music theater program for a year before coming on his mission.
The second number was Elder McBride telling the story of the Grinch that Stole Christmas. He told it in a wonderful deep British accent and when he quoted the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who he used wonderfully different voices. We followed his performance with several musical numbers. I had more Americans participate than Brazilians and more Elders than Sisters. I would have two American Numbers then a Brazilian number. We had seventeen performances in all and the program lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.
Everyone loved it!
This is Elder Head quoting a segment from Shakespear's King Henry the V "Saint Crispins Day Speech" He was terrific and many gave him a standing ovation
We have an Elder here from Tonga and he taught four other Elders how to do the Haka, a traditional war dance . This was a real crowd pleaser
This whole district had a chorus line and sang their own arrangement of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. This number was absulutely hilarious and so well done. Elder Dunn was the lead singer. You don't see him because he is on the floor and the rest of the Elders for the most part stayed on the stage as the back up singers. I had the chairs in a semi circle so the performers could interact more with the audience and no one was sitting more than four rows from the front. It worked out really well.
Elder Rhodes writes poetry and read three of his poems. The poems he shared were quite humerous and his performance was even more amazing than his writing
E. Price sang Believe from the musical "The Polar Express" I expect to see him on stage at BYU too after his mission. The tie is all embroiderd with sequens. He thought the people in Brazil would enjoy it, plus he has worn it every Christmas since his grandpa died. His grandmother gave it to him so he could to carry on the tradition.
Elder Grabnor is From a small town in Brazil and the most fabulous piano player I have ever heard. He played the "Hungarian Rapsody #2" as well as accompaning a Brazilian Sister who sang Think of Me from Phatom of the Opera. He also sang the male part of the song. If it had not been for him we would not have had any Brazilians participate. He got his whole district to sang "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" and he accompanied the Trio of Brazilian sister who sang.
These two Brazilian Elders were from Elder Grabnor's district too. We borrowed the guitar from one of the teachers. They sang in a vary typical Brazilian style which I am coming to love. 
This is Elder Bumbough. He played in BYU's symphonic band and really entertained us with his makeshift drumming. he was throwing the sticks up in the air and catching them and making all different kinds of sounds with his note book on this piano bench. These sticks were some old dowels that I found along with the boxes of music stored in the mail room.
These three Brazilian Sisters harmonized beautifully together. The sister on the left also sang "Think of Me" The sister on the right lead the 50 missionary departing district preformance of Faith in Every Foot Step" on the 28th of December. Some of these Brazilian Sisters are really quite amazing
This was our Christmas Barbershop quartet singing We Three Kings. All four of them had such strong voices that the did not even need microphones.
as wonderful at the MTC in Brazil. We had 146 Elder and 27 Sisters and four missionary couples that spent the night. We had quite a range of talent. The battery on my camera died so I did not get picture of everyone of the 17 performances.Our opening number Was Elder Jones singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" he sang it in a Frank Sanatra style and really engaged with the audience. He has a voice that is every bit a good as anything I've heard on Boardway. He was in the BYU music theater program for a year before coming on his mission.
The second number was Elder McBride telling the story of the Grinch that Stole Christmas. He told it in a wonderful deep British accent and when he quoted the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who he used wonderfully different voices. We followed his performance with several musical numbers. I had more Americans participate than Brazilians and more Elders than Sisters. I would have two American Numbers then a Brazilian number. We had seventeen performances in all and the program lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.Everyone loved it!
This is Elder Head quoting a segment from Shakespear's King Henry the V "Saint Crispins Day Speech" He was terrific and many gave him a standing ovation
We have an Elder here from Tonga and he taught four other Elders how to do the Haka, a traditional war dance . This was a real crowd pleaser
This whole district had a chorus line and sang their own arrangement of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. This number was absulutely hilarious and so well done. Elder Dunn was the lead singer. You don't see him because he is on the floor and the rest of the Elders for the most part stayed on the stage as the back up singers. I had the chairs in a semi circle so the performers could interact more with the audience and no one was sitting more than four rows from the front. It worked out really well.
Elder Rhodes writes poetry and read three of his poems. The poems he shared were quite humerous and his performance was even more amazing than his writing
E. Price sang Believe from the musical "The Polar Express" I expect to see him on stage at BYU too after his mission. The tie is all embroiderd with sequens. He thought the people in Brazil would enjoy it, plus he has worn it every Christmas since his grandpa died. His grandmother gave it to him so he could to carry on the tradition.
Elder Grabnor is From a small town in Brazil and the most fabulous piano player I have ever heard. He played the "Hungarian Rapsody #2" as well as accompaning a Brazilian Sister who sang Think of Me from Phatom of the Opera. He also sang the male part of the song. If it had not been for him we would not have had any Brazilians participate. He got his whole district to sang "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" and he accompanied the Trio of Brazilian sister who sang.
These two Brazilian Elders were from Elder Grabnor's district too. We borrowed the guitar from one of the teachers. They sang in a vary typical Brazilian style which I am coming to love.We also had an American Elder sing a song he wrote and play the guitar. It was called "Father Father" and was about Joseph Smith and the restoration. It was very beautiful too and we all could feel the spirit very strongly as he played.
This is Elder Bumbough. He played in BYU's symphonic band and really entertained us with his makeshift drumming. he was throwing the sticks up in the air and catching them and making all different kinds of sounds with his note book on this piano bench. These sticks were some old dowels that I found along with the boxes of music stored in the mail room.
These three Brazilian Sisters harmonized beautifully together. The sister on the left also sang "Think of Me" The sister on the right lead the 50 missionary departing district preformance of Faith in Every Foot Step" on the 28th of December. Some of these Brazilian Sisters are really quite amazing
This was our Christmas Barbershop quartet singing We Three Kings. All four of them had such strong voices that the did not even need microphones.Happy Birthday Cooper
Grandma is sorry I did not have your birthday in my Birthday book. But I do now! We went out to your blog and saw you blowing out the two candles on your doughnut cake. The cake looked Delicious and you look so much older. By the time Grandpa and I get home you will probably be talking. We have been trying to call you for the last two days but no one has been home. We Love you.
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