Catching up ... AGAIN...

We've had a lot going on the past few weeks... Cleaning up after the holidays.... yep... THAT'S always fun... we had a tamale day, Dalin was blessed... and lots of basketball (see post below).

We had to eat SOMETHING while the tamales were being made! so the McDonald's fairy came!
Looks yummy!

Tamale makers

Dalin on his blessing day!

Isn't this a cool picture! Now these are MANLY men!

The cute family!

Brazil news

I'm still trying to catch up on life and here is the latest news from Brazil. The long awaited letter is here! Brandon is a REAL missionary now and in his first area! As you read or skim through notice two of his roomates are from this area. Amazing! Some excerpts:

Hi family,I made it to goiânia and i met presidente Tobias! We then dropped our stuff off at a hotel down the street from the mission office. Then we had a meeting with sis. Tobias and then Presidente. Then we went back to the hotel and slept and then had dinner at Presidentes house. He has a really nice house, it is an entire floor of a building, and the food was really good. Then we talked for a while and with the missionaries that were going home the next day. Then back to the hotel. The next day, back to the office and talked with Pres. Tobias for a while so he can get to know us a little better, and then a while later we got our areas.I´m not in goiania, but in the next state over in a city called Uberlãndia. It´s a good size city but we are in the outskirts, our area ends where the houses end and then there is nothing but open. Some people still use horses to get around. It´s cool, and my companion is Elder Jason Wardrop. He went to highland his fresh., somph., and junior year. .. So ya, i´m here and it´s fun. The members give us lunch everyday and everytime it has been pretty good. I help out with the lessons but its coming. We also don´t have any brasilians at our house, just 4 americans... Also, another elder in my house is also from mesa, i forget his first name but DeBoer is his last and he went to Desert Ridge.The other one is Elder Christianson and he is from Idaho. The people here are really nice, we can get in to almost anyone´s house if they are home. But the problem is to get them to do stuff. No baptismos this week, but hopefully soon, we are teaching some people that seem like they will keep commitments. This area is pretty cool and sometimes we see wild parrots fly by and some other cool birds. There are also a million dogs here wonder around and bark at everything. Our house is actually not that bad, just before i got here the elders bought a new house and it is not bad. Its hot and humid here but not too horrible. So thats about it, qualquer perguntas? (any questions?) Oh ya, the bus ride here was 7hrs and it had no airconditioning, when we were going fast it was fine but when we were stoped it was really stuffy. ... Talk to you later.Elder Lewis

More Basketball

Catch up time... In the past two weeks, we've had three more basketball games... Won two, lost one... not too bad! Here are some highlights from the games:

Watch out Trent!
Cute fans

Trent

Flying Andrew!

Go Tau!

Go Trent!

more cute fans

The Monterey crowd!

Andrew

Tau

Chandler

Trent's fan club

Tau

Trent

The Latest from Brazil

Here's excerpts from the latest news from Brazil:

Oi familia, Christmas was like i said in my last letter. We did some activities and i just chilled with my district. And for new years we aren´t doing anything special but tonight we get to watch Os dez mandamentos ( the ten commandments). Jan 6 is the day i´m leaving to Goiânia! We got our passports and flight times today, i leave at 8:20 in the morning and get there just before ten. There are four other elders and one sister going to goiania with me. So we are just reviewing now and its coming fast. ... its still hot here and i´m getting a pretty good tan. I got a picture with my companion from provo and he developed it and i look mexican and he is as white as you can get. So yep, nothing much happened this week. ...It´s great to here from everyone and you don´t have to condense your emails because i don´t have a time limit here like in provo. Have fun this week and i´ll be in goiânia next time you here from me.Tchau.Elder Lewis

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We spent a quiet new year's eve curled up on the couch watching movies. We actually made it to midnite! I hope everyone has a great New Year! YAY 2009!

Catchin up...

Time to catch up ... It was so nice having some days off and enjoying time with the fam and celebrating Christmas... of course we felt an empty spot for our family that wasn't physically with us, but know that they are serving and safe. AND speaking of safe... here is an excerpt from Kristin's blog of her little experience before Christmas:

...I just finished working Saturday, and was going to stop at Christopher Diamonds on my way home to get my ring cleaned. As I pulled in and parked in front of the store, I saw that the glass doors in front were completely shattered. ... I was trying to figure out what could be going on as I got out of the car. As I walked up to the store, I thought I heard him say they were just robbed. I asked if he was OK. He started walking towards the doors, and I told him who I was (we've known him for a long time). He came out and told me they were just robbed, he had gotten pepper sprayed, and his dad had been shot. Just then the police cars were showing up. I had called Jaron to tell him what happened. My phone call was at 6:51 pm. We found out later the robbery happened at 6:48 pm. I knew I was there very shortly after since the police weren't there, but I hadn't known it was so close! My flight I worked earlier landed about 15 minutes late. Had I been on time, I easily could've still been there when the robbery took place. I can't stop thinking about that and how fortunate and watched over I was!!! ... As far as Christopher Diamonds, the dad will be fine, and both suspects were caught. The Chandler Police did an excellent job! I am truly grateful that I was watched over, as well as the families involved.

So our family has LOTS to be grateful for. But as with all our family gatherings, there was lots of fun, kids, eating, game playing, movie watching, shopping, food, eating out and even some sleeping in.... BUT... then MONDAY had to come and it was back to work... but only for three days, then a few more days off. YAY!! We took WAY too many pictures to put on the blog... but here are a few highlights... Giant bugs?!? no that's just us going in to see the Polar Express in 3D... It was soooo good!All Trent wanted for Christmas was one thing... so I told him I had to turn his request over to Santa and he had to BELIEVE....

Well... I guess Trent was a good boy cuz Santa brought him his gun... he hardly let go of it the rest of the day!
Lots of food... Cute kids...Everyone looking for the pickle... Jadon found the pickle!
Lots and LOTS of presents

From Brazil...

We didn't get a phone call from Brazil cuz Brandon is still at the CTM there, but we got an email the day before...

Hey family, tudo bem? ... I get a christmas breaktoo because today is my pday and tomorrow we are doing a diffent scheduale. We get to watch Its a wonderful life, and we are doing games during the day and watch the 1st pres message at night. This keyboard is REALLY bad so don´t mind any misspelled words. ... Christmas feels the same asany other just a little warmer. I found out more bout Goiânia this week. We found a teacher that was born here and he said it is a really clean city and everyone there is rich and there are a lot of shoping centers. Then outsde of the main city there is only small towns and farms. So thats sounds fun. We got a new teacher this week because they are making him be the presidents secrtary while the other one is on vaction for a month. So now we have a chinese teacher but he has liveed here his whole liife. For some reason it is easier to undertand him wen he talks. Irmão Sato is his name. Well i can´t stand this keyboad anymore so gladd to see everythig is good at home. FELIZ NATAL!