THE Phone call...

I actually kind of had a Mothers' Day weekend... lots of fun... and Sunday was the highlight with the family and yummy food and THE phone call from Brandon! He sounded great in English AND Portuguese and we talked for over an hour! I think we asked him a hundred questions... we were just so excited to hear his voice and hear all about his mission. I'm happy to report he is in a good area, doing great, having fun, has a great companion, eating a LOT of beans and rice, has good living conditions, fluent in the language, healthy and working hard to spread the gospel! Thanks Brandon for the great phone call and for your example of service! Love ya!

A HAPPY little mama

We had the phone on speaker so everyone could hear.

We called Dustin and Aimee on another phone so they could talk to him.

Everyone got to talk!

Just chillin after a great day. Thank you Steve and Teresa for letting us invade your house!

Shopping Spree...

Well... it really wasn't QUITE a shopping spree... we would have had to spend a LOT more time and money... but on Saturday, me Kristin and Krislin flew to Salt Lake just for the purpose of shopping... Our destination: The Wood Connection! We woke up early to catch the 7:00 flight, but on our way to the airport we got stuck in this...

There was some kind of really bad accident and the freeway was completely stopped. The warning sign wasn't posted soon enough and we were stuck! Needless to say we did NOT make the 7:00 flight, but we got on the next one.... and we had plenty of time to eat Cinnabons!

We made it to our destination and had a great time. We bought some lovely stuff and then went on to our next stop... lunch. We didn't want to waste any time so we stopped at Wendy's. I haven't been to a Wendy's in a long time and it was pretty darn good! Anyone who knows me KNOWS I like chocolate rootbeer (try it ... it's yummy!)... so I noticed they offered ice cream sodas.... so I ordered root beer with chocolate (they didn't even make fun of me) and it was MOST yummy! After our tummies were full we went on to the Quilted Bear. It was very busy and had a LOT of stuf.... but we noticed that half the store was stuff we had just seen at the Wood Connection and quite pricey! So we left with more ideas than purchases. Then it was back to the airport!

Empty suitcase...

filled trunk!

We did meet our goal of filling up the three empty suitcases with our deals and we made it safely home. I can't forget to give a big THANKS to our chauffeur for the day... my brother Dan!

Happy shoppers back on the plane. We can't wait to go again!

from Brazil...

Here's some excerpts from Brandon's last email. We can't wait to talk to him on Sunday!

Oí família!Transfers were this week, this was a 5 week transfer this time and my companion and i stayed the same. It´s all good because me and elder camargo get along well. We had a miricle this week and this is partly why we didn´t get tranferred. This sunday we had 23 investigators! Woo Whoo! We did a gincana Thursday friday saturday and sunday. A gincana is just a bunch of games. We also had another talent show and the band showed up this time and we had a ton of people there. We also had a ping pong tournament, people here like to play ping pong but pretty much only our church has tables for it. So now were going to get the elects out of those 23 people and do some baptizing.That´s pretty much all that happened this week. ...I also got the packages from kristin and dustin. They were just at the office in goiania waiting for someone to bring them to anápolis for a while. I had to beat the other elders with an ugly stick when i opened them up. But good to hear that others are on the way! Amerian food is GOLDEN here. I got some pretty nice offers for some stuff but i decided to eat the food instead.That´s pretty much it so i´ll talk to you all on sunday ... don´t forget. Tchau! Elder Lewis

WOW... 6 months already!

Today ... Brandon has officially been on his mission 6 months!!! He's a quarter of the way through... it's just amazing. Congrats Brandon! You're awesome! So to celebrate this occassion... I thought I would post a picture of him as a little boy, but most of that stuff is still in boxes and tubs... but as Trent and I were going through a few pics last night we ran accross this one... My future missionaries... Aren't they cute! I used to dress them alike ... a LOT... but it was fun and they were always people stoppers wherever we went with their happy smiles and adorable dimples....

What cuties!

Here they are as teenagers... still smiling with cute dimples... hmmm... and still dressed alike!

Here they are just a little while before Brandon left... smiling, dimples... and... hmmmm.... STILL kinda dressed alike.

Thanks Brandon for your service and example to all of us, family, friends and your brother... maybe the next picture of you two together you will both be smiling, with cute dimples and dressed alike in missionary atire! I can't wait to take that picture!

Cannibals at our house...

I haven't posted in a while and it's basically been a slow news week... but that's OK. Mike has been busy demoing (is that a word?) more baseboards and tile. So Saturday we were working away and stopped for lunch. (this is where I get to the cannibal part...) Sometimes Mike lets one of the birds join us... (not very often and usually when we are finished...) So... we were eating leftover wings and pizza and well... here is a picture of Kiwi (one of three cannibals in the house) eating wing bones. The other two birds eat chicken and eggs too.. so I call all of them cannibals! A bird eating bird is just wrong in my book! Kinda eerie! Kiwi almost looks like she is enjoying eating those wing bones just a little too much! But have no worries... I AM the cook in the house and if any of our birds gets out of line I DO threaten to cook them!

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