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.
