Bem Vindos ao Brasil

Last week DuVall and I were able to visit my parent's in Brazil; this will be our last trip since my parents mission ends in July. (YAHOOOOO!) This time we went without the childrens. Yep, without the kids!!!! I can't believe my parents even let us through their door. Good thing they did though, because we had a fabulous time! DuVall's mom, Linda, came with us too and we all had such a good time together. Before going to Belo, where my parents live, we stopped in Rio for a couple days. It's such an interesting place with a lot of cool things to do. We rode this amazing and somewhat scary tram ride up to the point of a very high mountain called Sugar Loaf. We were literally in the clouds. We also shopped at the street markets and tried to get to the Christ the Redemer statue but ran out of time! We found out that our driver from the hotel was LDS. Actually in his words..."Oh, I used to be Mormon!". He hadn't been to church in quite sometime so we asked him to take us to church and insisted that he come in with us. He did and I think he was glad. He told us that God must have put us in his path and that he needed Christ in his life. We are hoping he will continue to go to church.

While in Belo we visited some amazing places as well. We stayed in a small town called Tiradentes, and also visited a place called Ouro Preto; a small town with really old churches and a lot of history. We ate at some very unique restaurants, shopped at the local central market, visited the local zoo, fed wild monkeys and these very cute animals called "quachi", (i spelled that wrong) saw bright blue butterflies, and just enjoyed being together.
Thank you dear Jodi for coming all the way from Alaska to watch our kids. I missed them terribly while we were gone but knew they were in excellent hands.

On our last day in Brazil we went to a park that my parents often go to. There are three things at this park that you can see but usually they don't all appear in one day. We got lucky. We saw the amazing blue butterfly, two in fact. We fed the cute little quachi, and fed the wild monkeys. It was very, very cool.

Ouro Preto, "City of Gold", another very intesting place, filled with cobblestone streets, steep hills, very old churches, street markets, and more. This town is home to one church inparticular that has the third most gold of any church. (In the world or in Brazil? I can't remember.) Anyway, it is truly amazing inside. It took years to build and you can tell because it includes art and arcitecture of many different time periods.


Holding onto my Mom as we walk down one of the steep streets. Thanks little Mommy for holding me up!

Tiradentes, a very European looking town, streets lined with stones, old churches, quaint shopping, and unique restaurants. This is where the man who started the revolution lived, until he was found by the portuguese and cut into pieces and spread along the road. Lovely.

This is a picture of the "slaves" church. During the day the slaves had to build the slaveowners' church. At night they could work on their own. They were using gold leaf in the slaveowners' church and would "smuggle" extra gold leaf under their finger nails and in their hair to use in their own church. The slaveowners would never lower themselves to walk into the slave church, so they never knew.

This was our second time visiting Tiradentes. It really is an amazing place and would love to go back someday!

Central Market in Belo Horizonte

Linda and I taking in a small military beach in Rio. The sand was like tiny little clear pebbles.
So Cool!

The view from our hotel. Copacabana Beach.

Linda and DuVall at the top of Sugar Loaf, in the clouds.

Me and DuVall on the first tier of Sugar loaf. (It takes two tram rides to get to the top)

Thank you dad and mom for such a wonderful trip. We know how hard you work and all that you are sacrificing to serve the Lord. Your example is simply amazing. Belo will be a better place because of you. Good Luck with your last five months. We love you!