Today is Sister Gamarano's 20th birthday. We celebrated yesterday because we had Multi-Zone Meeting in Sorocaba all day today. Top photo: We went to McDonalds in Tatui for a Birthday Lunch, Sister Gerber, Sister Gamarano and Sister Barrus. We came back to our apartment and had cake and ice cream and opened a birthday gift. Happy Happy Birthday, Sister Gamarano!
The trees in Tatui bloom year around but right now there are so many trees in bloom, it is beautiful. The white blooms are jasmine and they just perfume the air as you walk down the streets. The same week we took these pictures, Kylie and Michael sent a picture of Addy reclining in a 'snow chair' in their backyard.
New Year's Eve the three of us stood out on the balcony and watched fireworks going off all over the valley. The Brazilians really like to celebrate holidays and they really go all out on New Year's Eve with the fireworks. New Year's Day we had a dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes. Later that afternoon we left for Sao Paulo to put Kelsey on the plane to return to the States. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to my daughter. Just four more months and I'll be able to hug all my kids and mug on the grandkids!
These two families were the happy and grateful recipients of the clothes that our Pella 2nd Ward sent down with Kelsey. Kelsey also brought a few dresses with her for the children. It was like Christmas for them. All the ties went like hotcakes! Felipe, the next to youngest boy in the top photo, found a shirt and tie that would fit him but no pants. So Elder Barrus gave Dalva some money and she took Felipe shopping for new pants to go with his new shirt and tie. He was so excited, that was the very first time in his life he had gone shopping and bought any kind of new clothes. Dalva bought him some new shoes to top it all off! Felipe and his siblings live in houses behind Dalva.
The Saturday before Kelsey left, we went to Embu. It is an artist's town next to Sao Paulo. There are hundreds of store fronts and booths. Everything they sell must be made in Brazil. Top photo is the sign welcoming you to Embu das Artes. Kelsey, Al and I had fun shopping at the different stores and booths and visiting with people. We met an American family from Arizona who live in Sao Paulo right now. The Minden Family. He works for a US company there and they have six beautiful children. Photo 3: We ate at an outdoor restaurant while we were there, delicious! On the way home we stopped at the "Corn Palace". We had a drink made from corn, corn ice cream and a bread that was a lot like the scallop corn I make for my family. Al and I liked the corn drink but Kelsey wasn't wild about it but the corn ice cream was really good.
Photo 4: Just outside the Corn Palace was a beautiful little garden with a pond. In the pond were several turtles. When the turtles saw us standing there, they were right there staring at us, we threw them some bread crumbs and they were right on it! They must expect that kind of treat. As we left we snapped a picture of Kelsey with the Corn King himself.
Kelsey enjoyed the sites around the Praca by our apartment. They really went all out decorating it for Christmas. It's real name is Praca Martinho Gueddes but everyone calls it Praca de Santa. Probably because there is a statue of a saint in the middle of the praca!
Christmas Day we invited the Sister Missionaries, Sister Gamarano and Sister Kapp. We also had Luciana over for dinner. Luciana was baptized a couple of months ago. She has three daughters, Esther, Livia and Marila. All three girls have now been baptized, also. The girls were spending the holidays with their father and his family so Luciana was alone for Christmas. We made little gift baskets for the Sisters for Christmas, they had fun digging through them.
Top photo: Rosa and her family decided since Kelsey, Al and I could not be there Christmas Eve, they would move their traditional Christmas Eve feast to Friday, December 22, so we could be a part of it. It never fails to amaze me how generous and kind the people here are. Photo 2: The praca next to our hotel is busy every night with individual trailers set up (like the Cassia County Fair) serving food. Bauru is famous for the Bauru sandwich, which we all had to have one, of course! Photo 3: Rosa had told me she was making something for me, wow! She made a table runner, a long, long table runner. She crocheted all around the edges and painted the beautiful roses at each end. This will always be a family treasure. Photo 4: Kathy, Rosa and Kelsey. All those paintings you can see in the background were painted by Rosa. Photo 5: Al, me, Rosa, Rosa's daughter Silvia and Silvia's husband. Silvia speaks English very well. Her daughter married an American and they live in Utah. In the top photo her daughter and her husband are the first two on the left side of the table. Photo 6: Rosa painted this, can you see what it is? At first we didn't see it, but it is the Nativity.
We were so thrilled when we picked Kelsey up from the airport in Sao Paulo the morning of December 21. That same day was our Mission Christmas Party in Sorocaba so we were so happy to introduce our daughter to Presidente and Sister Ribeiro and the wonderful Elders and Sisters. Elder Barrus and I are nestled between two of our favorite Elders, Elder Marinho and Elder James. They were the Elders who were here when we first came to Tatui. They took such great care of us, we would have been lost without them. After a great program and meal, we were each given a balloon and a church card to write a message on and attach to the balloon. Then we walked and walked and walked! to a shopping praca and released all the balloons at once. There was a stage set up and the Elders and Sisters from the Sao Paulo North Mission sang Christmas carols to the crowd for about 30 minutes. It was fun but Elder Barrus and I were tuckered out after the walk there, luckily we spotted a taxi on the way back and jumped in!
Christmas Eve couldn't have been better! Our Kelsey was with us and our sweet Grace was baptized. Grace's older two sons, Haury and Ronie have been faithful members for some time. Al and I have been their home teacher/visiting teacher for the last year. Grace has always been so kind and such fun every time we have been to her home. In fact, every time we go, there is a party! Sisters Kapp and Garmarano asked us to go with them to Grace's a few weeks ago. We went and Elder Barrus asked Grace if she felt she was ready to be baptized. I bore my testimony to her but told her she needed to be sure she was ready, I knew that I needed that assurance from prayer that I was ready to be baptized when I was seventeen years old She said she was and decided on Christmas Eve. It was a joyous occasion. Elder Barrus baptized her and Edsen Costa, first counselor in the Branch Presidency, confirmed her.
