Where's the Beach?

We took a trip down to the coast to get acquainted with the Paranagua area of our mission and Heather and Dallin found a wonderful beach on a perfect day. There were smiles all around!!

Sorry Tanner

Dallin, Heather and Bonnie put together a really nice package for Tanner only to find out at the post office that it was going to cost about $100 to send it to him. Oh well, I guess Heather will have to take care of it all

Heather's Missionary Companion Goes Home

Heather has loved going out with the sister missionaries. She spent a couple days with Sister Concha and was sad to see her leave the mission. She can't wait to have her own name tag.

Heather Finds a Pool!

Heather found a pool and got a good workout in. Yahoo! Brazil National Team next?

The Curitiba Mission is doing great. It is amazing how busy we are. I apologize for not updating the blog but we have been very involved in the work from dawn to dusk. Here are just a few things we have done in the past "almost" three weeks: 3 Zone Conferences, 2 sets of arrivals of new missionaries, 1 set of departures, multiple baptismal interviews and baptismal services, 1 branch conference, 175 missionary interviews, 1 area leaders council meeting, 2 missionary surgeries and dozens of Dr. Bonnie calls including 2 dog bites, a lot of colds and flus, montezuma´s revenge, dinner with our district president. We have wonderful missionaries. President Araujo made sure I had two of the best for my first several weeks, Elders Homero Amato and Stevan Hewett from Sandy, Utah. They were very helpful and really on the ball. They helped us get our feet well planted here in the mission. Elder Amato was transferred to be a trainer for his last 6 weeks in the mission. It certainly was not what I wanted to do but for sure, the Lord needs new missionaries trained correctly and he is one of the best. Bonnie shed lagrimas over that one!! In the last transfer we had many spiritual experiences and there are several missionaries now who will have opportunities to serve in new ways. We traveled to the far side of our mission this past weekend. It rained all four and a half hours there and was freezing cold. Mongolia has nothing on us here. Our "quaint" hotel had no heat and we about froze. We took the district president and his wife to dinner at a unique little Churrasquaria recommended by the hotel. It turned out to be a truckstop. I wish we had arrived in the Ford pickup. The beast would have felt right at home.

First Trip to Guarapuava

We had to really layer up for our nights rest in Guarapuava. The chill factor was on and we wore a lot to bed to stay warm. Heather won the coin toss and got to sleep next to the heater which worked only enough to keep her warm. One the way home we stopped at a german dairy that offered some very nice goodies for road weary travelers.

Hercules' Baptism

Ok, this was a special night. Hercules was baptized. He cannot speak or hear anything. The assistants taught him by writing on the chalkboard, reading the scriptures and hand signals. It made for a very special baptismal interview. He was baptized on Tuesday night in the middle of transfers so many missionaries attended. It was great!!

Getting Ready for the New Missionaries

Shopping for missionary items can be quite a chore. To get from the basement to the apartment Heather, Dallin and Bonnie stole a hobo cart to carry their wares.

Scouting in Brazil

Dallin is still working hard on his scouting here in Brasil. He has finished the gardening and fingerprinting merit badges since his arrival. Our mission secretary, Elder Duarte, was very big into scouting here in Brasil before the mission and gave Dallin a Brazilian scouting pin. He is wearing it here on his uniform. It is a purple fleur de lis pin over the left pocket next to the international scouting patch.