Brazil and monkeys...

Here's the latest from Brazil. The park looks wonderful and definitely NOT like any parks here is Mesa! The pics of the monkeys in the trees remind me of the monkey habitat at the Phoenix zoo... where they warn you going in NOT to touch anything cuz of monkey... stuff... and they let you wash your hands with antibacterial soap on the way out... anyway... here are some excerpts:

oí família Everything is going good here. This week we had another activity and it turned out great. We didn´t have as many people this time but we still had 23 investigators there. This week the assistants slept over at our house a few times and one of them was elder wardrop! It was kinda cool being with `your father´ again. His first area consisted of my area in the past but now it divided and the area industrial is it´s own area. So to bring back old times he and his companion came with us one day to see some of the members that are still active and visit some that don´t go anymore. When he was here, he was really really sick. He was sick for the first six months of the mission. It was funny because everyone was like surprised that he was better now. But it was fun. Yesterday, we went to central park. It´s an awesome park with a waterfall, river, park toys, and a part that is really wooded. ... We also found a ton of monkeys which was really cool. We went exploring a little in the jungle and we´re probably going to go back there to eat lunch or something ... As for the bakery, if we buy something we can eat stuff there. It´s pretty good but the cheese bread, as it is translated, is way better in uberlândia. Uberlândia is in the next state over and that state is the king of cheese bread. I never saw cheese bread in the u.s. but it it way good. Its just cheese in bread form. yum yum. Still no packages so i´ll see you all later. Elder Lewis

Prom!

This weekend was Prom. I will have to say from my years of experience, it is much easier to send a boy off to a dance than a girl. All I have to do is pick up a flower and iron a shirt... no hair and makeup etc... but boys are just as cute and just as much fun! With the girls, I always saw the date and could take their pics... but not always with the boys... out the door to pick up the date and then I wait for the pics from the dance. Finally... after my last dance send off... someone came up with the idea of all the couples meeting in one spot and the parents come take pics. Great idea... loved it.. and it was fun to see the other kids too. So another Prom is over, everyone is home safe and sound and I think they all had a great time!

Day activity on Friday... On a Diamondbacks tour before the game

With one of the players... Felipe somebody that plays second base... I can't remember his name

Go Diamondbacks!

Ya know how ya take pics of the girls primping and getting ready... well, this is Trent getting ready for Prom.

All ready to go!

Off he goes in his borrowed chariot.. Thanks big sister!! Cameras ready!

What a good lookin group!

and silly too!

Pretty flowers

Trent and Taylor

at the restuarant

more from Brazil...

Hi familyNice to see everything is going good at home. Everything is good here and we had stake conference this week and an area seventy spoke at all the sessions and was a really good speaker. I forget his first name but his name is elder aveira. Having stake conference and general conference really close together makes it a little more difficult to baptize because our investigators have to go to sacrament meeting at least 2 times. But all is well, maybe we´ll have one this month but we still have to convince her mom to let her get baptized, she really wants to but her mom is a little unsure. Her name is amália and she is friends with another member in the branch. As for the talent show, it went really well. We had over 50 non-members there! As for the performers, the band we had canceled on us the day before and some dancers that said would come never showed up. But it was still really fun and alot of people performed. At the end of the month we are giong to do a 4 day activity with another talent show and different games and stuff each night and one of the nights we´re going to do another talent show. The nephew of our stake president has a good band that will play and we found some AWESOME street dancers last night that want to perform for us. So this next activity will be pretty cool. We also ate at bob´s burgers this week and they pretty much have the best hamburgers and shakes in brazil. The shake is really good because it´s like in america and thick. And the mega big bob is the hamburger we ordered and it has 4 big patties and greesy and delicious. This computer doesn´t have usb so next week i´ll send some pics.That´s pretty much it for this week, anyone have questions for me? I have not revieved any more packages except mom´s for those who are wondering. Tchau, tchau, Elder Lewis.

the weekend...

I always look forward to weekends (maybe... just maybe it's cuz I WORK all week!).... and this weekend was great as usual... Mike finished up the moulding in the bedroom and we are now on a quest to find some new bedroom furniture. I think I've gone to at least a dozen furniture stores on my lunch hour and NOTHING! Of course I HAVE to find a bargain... so I will keep looking! Krislin spent the weekend with us and it was fun. We went on a shopping spree to the mall, found some great deals and ate a yummy pretzel! What a way to spend a Saturday!Great woodworking by Mike... We have a very lovely EMPTY bedroom!Crafting at Michaels
The finished crafts!Shopping at the Mall wouldn't be complete without a trip to the candy store!
Good ol Claire's! Now this is a blast form the past... I used to take my girls here (MANY years ago) to get the cheap deals... Krislin and I got the 10 for $10 deal... but when I took my girls here we used to get 10 for $5.00! The price may have changed... but digging through the clearance racks and finding oh so way cute darling stuff was just as fun as ever!

News and a request from Brazil

Here's the latest from Brazil. I can't get over the place they have church! Wow... am I ever grateful for the buildings we have here. If his first comment sounds weird... well... I was a LITTLE worried when I didn't hear from him on Tuesday morning! But it's OK... I'm fine now and my heart is beating regularly again! If anyone has any ideas for Brandon's request, just email me or leave a comment. Thanks

oí família I´m alive! Everyone stay calm. President just changed p day just for this one week. We had an activity with him this morning so he changed p day to today this week. The activity was fun we just played a bunch of games and also some games of knowledge of preach my gospel and a game of who knew the bible the best. He also took us to lunch at a pretty nice resturant that can feed a bunch of people. So everything is all good and peachy. So elder camargo and i did an activity this week that went really well we had over 70 peole there. We just played a movie from the church and gave out popcorn and juice. We are also going to have a talent show this week and a movie about fasting the tuesday after and we are planing an other with all the games we played this morning and a few more for the week after that. Hey mom or anyone.... what are some cool things to do for activities that are cheap ... We want to always do activities because its way more effective and more fun that knocking doors. So that´s pretty much what we did this week, we talked to tons of people, the director at one of the shcools is about our best friend and that is really good because there are 3 sessions every weekday and 300 something people every session. so we can talk to almost a thousand people in a matter of a couple of hours and at only one school. There are tons of schools here just dotting the neighborhood and the kids pretty much attend the one that is closest to their house. ...But easter here the big to do is to get a chocolate egg. At the stores they are about 20-30 bucks depending on the type. But some members in our branch made one for everyone and everyone was happy. It was also alot cheaper. The pics are ... our church building, after we set up for the activity... Anyone have any questions for me? See you all later.Elder Lewis

Oh how lovely IS the morning!

Happy Easter Everyone! I am so enjoying this beautiful quiet sunny cool peaceful perfect Easter morning! What a time to reflect!... Today me Mike and Trent are just relaxing and waiting for Church. Yesterday however, we had our family Easter egg hunt/picnic... How did we do that in the rain?!? Well the Easter Bunny is clever and hid a buncha treat filled eggs inside Teresa and Steves house, so we still had a great egg hunt/picnic/family time and stayed nice and dry!

Eggs were everywhere!

That's a lotta eggs!

Eggs in the fridge!?!

Checking out the goodies!

There were 180 eggs and we found every one!

Mike taste testing one of the family favorites... Jello beans... very yummy and made by Kristin!

Finding eggs sure works up an appetite!

So cute... Trent, Krislin and Quentin

Time to relax!

Day off... but still working...

YAY! I have a day off!!!! .... YAY!we're working on the wood floor in the bedroom remodel.... YAY!it's coming along... but it is a LOT of work and NOT easy!!! Somehow it looks SO much easier on TV and in the how to videos! BUT we will prevail and have a LOVELY floor and save a LOT of money! Here it is so far...Moving, demo, tools, STUFF!The closet is finished, now on to the bedroom!

It's official...

We have a new eagle to add to our flock... Trent is officially an Eagle Scout! YAY!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped!

He made some shelves and a picnic table for a men's shelter

All finished!

New area in Brazil...

Here's the latest from Brazil. Brandon got transfered... I REALLY think I would like living in his house!

Oí família - I made here to anápolis safely and my comp is pretty cool and his name is elder camargo, he is brazilian from rio grande sul. We are in a branch and not a ward. Our chapel is an old wedding party place. Our area is about an hour bus ride from our house, and an hour and twenty minutes back. The pic with the little sign is the other side of the road of our area. But we live where there are plenty of stores and other stuff. Our house is connected to a bakery and there is a place in our house where we can look into the kitchen and smell all the stuff they are making. our house is pretty big too, we have two big rooms kitchen a room to study a big bathroom a room for all our clothes and a room for each companionship. we live with two other elders, elder andrus from green bay. and elder araujo from são paulo. ... But ya, our branch needs alot of help and me and elder camargo have planed activities every friday for the next 4 weeks. Right now we need to help the members out. Pretty much the whole branch is related and there are some family problems that leak in. But we had conference this week, we watched it at the church in the center. on sunday we watched it in english and the rest in portuguese. I didn´t like wathcing it in portuguese because the translatores are so boring it was hard to pay attention. I understood what they were saying but it was just monotone for two hours. But conference is always good to go to and i liked everyone´s talks. That´s about everything.... Até próxima semana Elder Lewis

Conference weekend...

I just love Conference weekends... cuz I love conference and cuz I love Spring and Fall. Maybe I would like Summer and Winter better if we had conference then too! I loved hearing our Prophet speak of course but probably my favorite talk was the one Jeffrey R Holland gave on Christ.... a perfect talk for the Easter season. On Sunday the fam came over, so along with being spiritually fed we always make sure we are physically fed too! We ended Conference with a yummy baked potato bar and then a marathon game of Phase 10. We would probably still be playing, but some of us had to go to school and work the next day! I didn't get the camera out til we started playing and getting goofy!