Temple closed form April 5 through April 21

Here we are on the beach at Maceio, 

it is about 4 hours south of Recife.

 We were invited to go on a road trip during our two week break 

with another couple serving at the Recife Temple. 

Elder Anderson has a Brazilian drivers license 

and they had planned to drive around the Recife Temple district

visiting the towns where many of the Patrons come from.

Most cities on the beach have a big open air markets

 that cater to tourist

after a while it all starts looking alike

The beaches that we have seen in Brazil are beautiful 

and generally quite clean. 

Here in Maceio they have a lovely walk way that extends for miles. 

Sister Anderson and I walked for an hour or so along the beach 

planning to meet up with Layne and Vernon at the point. 

We got our points mixed up, however, 

and ended up waiting for an hour or so in the dark

at the end of the walkway under a street light until they found us 

Here is the car that we drove around in 

and the hotel where we spent our first night.

We drove through many little towns

stopping along the way to eat, take pictures, and stretch our legs

Even in the big cities you will see horse drawn carts

on busy streets filled with cars

I love taking pictures of clothes lines

There is a lot of cattle ranching in Brazil.

These white Brahma are typical. 

You often see little homes along the roads
with fruit,vegetables, or handmade items for sale.

A lot of people leave the country

 to try and make more money in the big cities.

These people often are the ones that live in the poor housing

 you see all over Brazil

We ended up driving back to Recife at the end of our second day out. We had heard that April was not the high tourist season so we did not make reservations ahead of time. We stopped in three towns along our route only to find that there was "no room in the inns"  By now it was 8:30, so we decided to just drive back to Recife

We still had lots of munchies in the car to keep Layne awake. We also kept him awake by answering open ended sentences like: If I were to write a book it would be about. . . , The thing I remember most about my childhood is . . . , Knowing what I know now . . . etc. (my friend Geri had sent me 100 of them) We kept the conversation going until we got into Recife at about 11:30 P.M. Everyone enjoyed learning more about each other and we vowed to make reservations for our trip North.

The summer break from school is over here in Brazil but the youth still come to the temple on Saturdays.

We had fifty young woman in the 9:45 A.M. session and 25 young men in the 11:00 A.M.

Then the girls dryed off and come back again at 1:30 P.M. 

The boys returned at 3:15 P.M.. 

Sealings take place throughout the day on Saturday. 

In Brazil you have to get married civilly first then you can be sealed in the temple.

The fountain is a favorite spot for photos and for the kids.

Sometimes the kids can not resist and jump right into the water.

Of course the guards remind them that the fountain is not for wadding and splashing in.

The  built up ground around the fountain is the second most favorite spot for the kids. 

They roll and slide down them and get very adept at dodging the sprinklers 

that come on automatically on the back side of the grassy knolls 

Playing tag around the grounds is also something the kids love to do when their parents are in the temple

The temple has the best grass I have ever seen in Brazil. 

The gardeners work six days a week to keep the grounds beautiful.

These boys have been here for a week. 

They are from Cabo Verde Africa. and were sealed to their parents

Young and old enjoy the benches that are placed throughout the grounds

The walls around the garden areas also provide a lot of seating

and of course the mango trees provide a lot of shade

Coming to the temple in Recife is definitely a family affair.

Often times couples take turns tending the kids so they can attend as many sessions as possible.

 Many of these wonderful people are only able to come to the temple once or twice a year 

so they stock up at the distribution center.

Some, like the families from Cabo Verde, may only get to come once in a life-time.

 This Saturdays we had six bus loads patrons. We were worn at the end of the day, 

but it was a good day.

Festa Junina is a big party in Recife

Festa Junina lasts the whole month of June in Recife. 

They stack piles of wood along many of the streets 

and on June 24th celebrate with large fires. 

It is similar to Sadie Hawkins day in the States. 

Young and old dress up like hillbillies

 with plaid shirts, straw hats, pig tails or braids and mustaches.

This was our wards celebration of the holiday.

Our bishop and his wife, Flavio and Rebecca Escobar, love to party and this was a fun evening with a great turnout. Bishop Escobar is also the temple recorder

We fell in love with Elder and Sister Luis. They just finished their mission here at the temple and will be greatly missed. The young sister missionary also just left. She is from Argentina. She met and developed a friendship with a missionary from Brazil going to serve his mission in Argentina, while they were in the Missionary Training Center. 

This holiday celebrates with lots of corn on the cob, corn bread, sweet corn soup, and pop corn. There were all kinds of other food like chicken stroganoff, rice and beans, fruit, cake and milk pudding.

We bought hats at the market and tried to get into the spirit of the festival.

There was a live band that played non stop for the whole evening. The whole ward family came as well as many less active members, investigators and other people from other wards. It reminded me of the old days in Boise when I was growing up and my parents took me to ward dances throughout the stake.

Here are our wonderful senior sister missionaries

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I am dancing the Virginia real with sister  Gala Hansen.

We love the sister missionaries, Sister Maxwell is from Michigan. We have them over for dinner once a month. They are terrifc missionaries. Since we have been in the ward they have had at least two or three baptisms a month. They brought investigators with them to the celebration

There is a park right next to the church where there was a celebration also going on.  This one was sponsored by the City of Recife.

 They have dance completions all month long in the parks.

We walked over and watched for a while during our wards celebration.

Here at the temple the early birds, monkeys and joggers get the Mangoes.

Most every morning  about 5:00 or 5:30 a.m.
I go walking around the temple grounds.
These round green fruit in the front are the mangos I picked up off the lawn one morning.

The temple sits on what use to be a mango orchard.We have huge mango trees that produce year round.
While one part of the tree is dropping its leaves another part is blooming
 and another part is filled with ripe fruit.

This is our dining room, scripture study area, and game board.
We put one of the lamps from the bedroom on the table to give us more light for studying.
When we have two or three couples over for dinner we bring in an other table from another apartment(remove the lamp of course) and four more chairs. Everyone has the same furnishings and tableware in their apartments so it makes it quite nice for entertaining. 

This is our living room. The computer is on a little desk off to the left. We have a TV in the large "armairo" All the programming is in Portuguese except for the BYU international channel is sometime in English.
We were able to get all six sessions of conference in English which was wonderful.
We have the computer hooked up to the TV, so we have been able to watch the Bible mini-series, some history documentaries and even season 12 of American Idol on Youtube.

Here is the bedroom.
The wall opposite the bed is filled from floor to ceiling with built in drawers, shelves and our two closets.

The kitchen came furnished with microwave, hot plate, dishes, pans, toaster, blender and cooking utensils.

We have only had to buy a few things and we brought a few things with us like a really good can opener.

We bought this little oven and cabinet from the Bairds when they left. The microwave just fits in the cabinet which gives me more counter space. I have been making whole wheat bread and rolls every week now. 

This is the open air hall out side our apartment. Just beyond the doors is our laundry room. It has five washers and five dryers which we share  with the patrons that come on the caravans so the missionary couples usually do their laundry on Monday when the temple is closed and the caravans are gone 

This is the "Alojamento" (apartment building) for missionaries and caravan patrons.

We actually do go to work everyday. We are working the afternoon shift this month so we leave for the temple about 1:30 and work until 9:30 PM. 

Vernon is so handsome all dressed in white!

Behind us are my wonderful  Mango trees which I like to think of as modern day "manna" from heaven. Almost every morning there is a fresh supply.There are normally enough for the missionary couples, the patrons, the staff, the monkey and the birds.