Evan: Yesterday I visited a clinic for dependent women about an hour away from our office in São Paulo. The Director (he's over this kind of welfare support for members throughout Brazil) had invited me and another welfare worker to accompany him on his long trip. He’s a psychologist and travels throughout the country checking clinics, hospitals, psychiatric doctors and consultants to ensure that they are a good enough resource for bishops to use if needed.

It was a great trip--He’s a professional and I learned a lot. Also the other welfare worker is a really fun guy. The three of us laughed together a lot. We ate a late lunch at a great little restaurant and I had one of the best chicken breast meals of my life! It was stuffed with a mild cheese, tied together with toothpicks, given an outside crust of breaded something and deep fat fried (yes I know that if you deep fat fry anything it’s going to be great) And for dessert we all had candy bars. I know I only have another 15 months to try them all (like I did in the US when I was young) but I WILL try! 

We all 3 love chocolate and I found the Brazilian equivalent to snickers!!! Of course they have a lot of other kinds of candy bars that are really good too.

Also, since the other 2 only spoke Portuguese I really learned a lot of Portuguese at the same time. Mom had to stay home because her right leg hurt (yes, the same one that the stroke hurt) and she instead watched TV at home with her leg elevated. It helped her a lot, besides the director drove like he was on a roller coaster, just like everybody else here in São Paulo and mom would’ve gotten really sick for sure.

Well, so far this year Brazil has 9 welfare projects going on throughout the country that we are all involved in. Two involve wheelchair donations (132 wheelchairs), a food project for 2 stakes to help grow family food gardens and raise chickens and eggs, a water project way out in the arid northeast to drill a well for people in a small village, a children's playground for needy kids and orphans, and donations of equipment and supplies for several small undersupplied clinics and hospitals. Since our department oversees the whole of Brazil it's unrealistic for anyone in our department to visit any of them, except for the ones close by.

I still love it here--every minute of every day and I think I’m even liking it better! I’m enjoying the big city life I guess and the freedom that we senior missionaries have. Plus now that 2 months have almost gone by I’ve been able to eat and enjoy a lot more things.

Thanks so much for all the emails, facetime visits, Ichats, Skype visits, videos, etc. We love them so much.

Here’s a few of our recent photos:

Rush hour--buses have their own lanes and get around the traffic pretty efficiently.
This is the street right in front of the temple. No old busses!

My desk (and yes I cinched the tie all the way to the top just for the picture)

The REAL Moee, right Jonathan?

All the avocados are this big, but they are a little sweet and not as much flavor, but I like them.

avocado

My favorite summer shirt--really light and thin. I'm allowed to wear this outside as long as I wear my name tag.
Let me rephrase that: I CHOOSE to wear this outside and I think I'm supposed to wear my name tag, which I of course do.

Like the name on this box of zip lock bags? 

Look, she's smiling!

Which one would you rather be: 1-- the guy that falls or
2--the guy that gets gets hit by both the ladder and the man who falls?
The ladder is not leaning against the building. It's leaning against the man on the ground and a few thin telephone wires about a foot below the top of the ladder. I guess the guy on top won the coin flip because he's got the only hard hat.

Yes I'm old enough to not care what I look like when it gets really hot.
(Good thing I brought Taylor's hat to Brazil)

On the way to work with the other 2 couple missionaries. Lots of wild parrots, birds, dogs, banana and guava trees and flowers.

I really like this tapioca-style dessert. It's a fruit called jogú, gojú, jejú, gujó, jugó or something like that. I’m afraid to ask again because I’ve asked so many times already!

Fried mandioca in the center, a square meat pastry, feijoada (black beans over rice with meat, which I'm kinda addicted to), deep fried cheese-stuffed puff pastry, and other stuff. I really like it all.

Fried banana--really good, even mom likes them. Hard crispy outer shell, really flavorful banana inside.
I like all the food here! Well at least all the food I've decided to eat, because there's still some things I haven't decided to eat yet--just give me time.

She's still smiling!