My Good Friend Habib

The last two days have been pretty great I have to say. Saturday I ate lunch at Raimundo, Dina, and Nalva´s house, a family that I baptized here in Valparaiso. They were also feeding the missionaries so it was a pretty fun experience chatting with them too. Elder Palmeira (far left on the couch) was trained by my MTC companion Elder LaPorte and Derek Hall was teaching his parents before when he received his mission call to Brasilia. I had met him before but it was fun to chat with him again. I got to hear all the updates from the mission and joke around with the missionaries so that was fun. They were talking about how much dust there was and how large the area was etc. It was funny because the family responded with, "Well when Alex and Heward were here there weren´t as many asfalted roads and there was only one companionship in the ward." So we kept joking with them about how easy they had it now etc. It was fun, they´re funny guys so it´s good to joke around with them. We ate Lasagna which is definitely one of my favorite brazilian meals. It is so good, it´s not the same as we eat in the States, but similar. They had two huge pans of Lasagna, one with white sauce and the other with red. So good.

Anyways, after the missionaries left we were waiting around for Adriane to meet up with us (she has a car) to go to the famous Lago Paranoá, the artificially created Lake surrounding part of Brasilia. While we were waiting Alex and Nalva put on some music and were trying to teach me to dance Forró, it´s kind of a mix between swing dancing and more Latin like dances that you´ve seen (eg. Salsa) the legend is that Navy seamen from the US brought it to the northern part of Brasil but I don´t really know about that. Alex is really good at it but I look like a fool, so I just let them do it. I´ll have to get it on video it´s pretty sweet.

Well we went to the lake and it was a really pretty area. I had obviously seen the lake before but I couldn´t really stop and walk around because we were always on a bus on our way to something important when we were in Brasilia. I took a picture of the famous "Ponte JK", ponte is bridge in portuguese and the JK stands for Juscelino Kubitschek who was one of the Presidents of Brazil and actually designed Brasilia and everything although it was only finished well after he was president. Alex called it "just kidding bridge." Anyways there are tons of things here in Brasilia called JK, and in Palmas (it was modeled after Brasilia). It´s supposedly the third most beautiful bridges in the world, but I don´t know how you´re supposed to back that kind of statistic up. Hold on a second I´ll wikipedia that...ok I couldn´t find a definite list of the most beautiful, though it seemed to make honorable mention on a few blogs about bridges it didn´t even make the top ten most of the time. Well I think it´s beautiful, and the area surrounding the lake is definitely beautiful. Just look at my photographic skills.

Well after we hung out there taking a few pictures we went to the famous Habib´s fast food restaurant. I´m not sure exactly where the food is supposed to be from in the middle east, Alex says it´s Morroccan food, but anyway it´s pretty good and they have chains all over Brazil, actually I just looked at their website and it says they are the second largest chain in Brazil. These little guys are the happy and sad esfihas, in my opinion the best food Habib´s has to offer is esfiha. I ate 13 of those little esfiha guys myself. Those happy faces turned into scared faces real quick when they saw I was an esfiha eating machine.

Carne!

Well I´ll just tell you now there is no organization to these pictures. They´re just kind of thrown on there. Well I arrived here in Brasilia safely this morning and Alex picked me up at the airport. It was really interesting being in a city in Brazil that I already knew really well, instead of how I always felt lost in São Paulo. Well we went and saw his mom who works in Brasilia not too far from the airport and she was really happy to see me, I had always called her mom when I was in Valparaiso and it´s just that kind of really close relationship. Anyway she walked towards me to give me a hug and then paused and said, "I can give you hug now right?" It was funny. Then we went back to Alex´s house and dropped off the luggage and picked up Nalva, a girl who´s family I baptized and we went through the whole "I can hug you now, right?" routine. Then we went back to Brasilia and picked up Adriane from her work and went to the mall. We went to the "Shopping", what we would call the mall, and played at the arcade place for a while and rode this virtual reality roller coaster thing (pictures)and then we went for the really good stuff. We went to a churrascaria called Portão do Sul where we took some pretty goofy pictures in front and then ate ourselves silly. It was really good food.

Oh and one more thing, I couldn´t write yesterday but it was a pretty cool day I got to see all the touristy parts of São Paulo. The places I had always heard about while I was in Brazil but never had the chance to see. I saw the Praça da Sá which is a huge square right in the middle of São Paulo with an enormous Catholic Church. I made a joke that it´s kind of like the Salt Lake Temple, because it´s the center of the city. Anyway I got to see Liberdade, the famous Japanese neighborhood of Brazil where the largest number of Japanese people outside of Japan live. It was really cool, it was like an enormous Lee Lee´s market, seriously, that´s exactly how it felt. Oh and people speaking portuguese with a Japanese accent is awesome, I loved it. I got to see the Avenida Paulista which I would compare to the fame of Times Square in New York. I saw Parque Ibirapuera, a huge park in the middle of São Paulo and another historical square of São Paulo with some really old mansion like buildings. There was this one that is a museum now that totally looks like the mansion from The Count of Monte Cristo with an even bigger front lawn. It was really cool. The pictures were all taken at night so they didn´t turn out very well but you´ll see them when I get home. Ok well I love you guys and I´ll talk to you later.

Gooooo-Kart!

Well here we go day two. Once again a great day! It started out pretty great I have to say I woke up feeling very loved whereas last time I went to sleep I woke up with Ralph the pitbull snuggled up with me this time I woke up with their other dog, a mutt that looks kind of like our old dog taffy, snuggled up at my feet, I thought ok no big deal and went back to sleep only to wake up again 10 minutes later with Ralph sticking his cold nose all over my arm. There was enough space on the bed for only his head which he laid down next to my arm I thought ok no big deal and let him rest his head on my bed. That was my first mistake, it´s the classic camel in the tent story, next he put his paws up and then he squeezed his whole huge body onto the bed, it was amazing I thought there was no way he was going to fit. Quick sidenote as i´m writing this he is asleep again on the bed next to me snoring quite loudly. Anyway he managed to pull a Harry Houdini and squeezed onto the bed with me and managed to lay down so it looked quite funny two dogs and a large american all on one tiny and I mean tiny bed. I was afraid it was going to break. Well as it was kind of cold it wasn´t so bad to be snuggly, and me and Ralph have really bonded, I think i´m his favorite now.

Well today I talked to a sister from my mission who´s working in the MTC here in São Paulo and I went to one of the malls here. It was alright but i´ve seen that before, the interesting part is just driving around, you wouldn´t believe the traffic and movement here and the streets, the absolute insanity of it all. I get so nervous sometimes when we drive it seems like you´re about to get in an accident every two seconds. So later tonight we decided to actually go somewhere where you can get in an accident and did we ever. We went and did one of Araújos favorite night time activities we went go-kart racing. It was awesome! Let´s just say there is a reason americans invented racing we rock at it, yeah I won. I also had the best lap time. Yeah. Actually Araújo passed me at one point but then he wrecked and was never even close again, i just pulled away. I was so intense I didn´t even realize how much damage I was doing to my hand, that´s the price for victory I was so concentrated on victory (that´s right Rochelle I´m competitive) Well that was pretty much my day. We came home and here I am writing to you guys about it. Well I love you and I´ll talk to you again later.

Planes, trains, and automobiles...ok no trains...yet.

I´d like to be able to tell you that everything went very well with the flight to Brazil, but lets be honest there is just no way that a flight that long will ever be able to be described with any positive words, but the fact is I made it, that´s important. There were some very interesting things about the flight that I would say turned it from a mundane activity to something a little more exciting. It all started a couple weeks ago when I had been looking for Dan Brown´s great book, Angels & Demons... Well after I couldn´t find it I settled on another book and randomly selected Michael Crichton´s book Airframe. Well it turned out to be an interesting choice. I would compare it to watching Jaws while on a house boat, actually I take that back it would be like watching Jaws while stranded with just a life jacket in the middle of the ocean, or working among an African tribe afflicted with some kind of virus and reading Outbreak. This book, Airframe is about a plane crash, yeah that´s right a plane crash. I finished the book while in a plane somewhere over Colombia. The interesting part the plane that crashed in the book had almost the same flight time as the plane I was riding in.

The other bad part about the plane ride was the lady sitting next to me she kept pushing me farther and farther into my corner, and she was old so you can´t really do anything about it. She was almost cuddling with me. The good news is I did finally get a nap today though I got to cuddle with someone else. We got along alot better. The picture of my cuddle partner is included.

Well onto the really good stuff. I got here at about 8:50 and cleared customs and everything by about 9:10. My friend, formerly known as Elder Araújo, now Rafael, was there waiting and we headed back to his house. After about an hour and 15 minutes fighting through classic São Paulo traffic we arrived at his house. I took a shower really quick and then we ate lunch, it was awesome I guess I forgot how good it is, or his mom is just an amazing cook but MAN that was good stuff. Then he went to work and I took a nap until about 6:00pm when he got home and woke me up. We both said it felt like the mission again when he walked in the room to wake me up it was kind of funny. We´ve pretty much been laughing non-stop remembering the fun times from the mission. It was also really nice to be able to talk again about the really spiritual stuff too and it just helps you remember how imporant the mission is for your spiritual well-being. Then tonight we went out and just cruised around saw some sights and ate some açai, the most amazing fruit ever.

My Super Heroes

IT IS FINISHED!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Anniversary, Happy Mother’s Day, Happy Father’s Day, Happy Birthday …. to us (and everything else until it’s paid off)! It seems like it’s taken forever, but our “new backyard/patio” is a gift that will keep on giving - celebration after celebration - year after year!

Sunday was both Mother’s Day and our Anniversary – and I got beautiful flowers from Dale and Ryan. I should have taken pictures sooner 'cuz the roses died, so I moved the tulips to that bouquet. The bright pink flowers are very large and beautiful and still blooming (but stinky)! Corey and Jen gave us a wooden ship wind chime to hang from our new patio and I got a beautiful necklace from Mark and Caroline and stationary made by Braiden and Kloey. Monday we belatedly celebrated Scott's birthday by swimming and barbecueing delicious carne asada and grilled honey/citrus onions and peppers - it was delicious! I feel well loved!

When Children Speak

There are two fields of thought when it comes to first language aquisition, the innatist field, and the behaviorist field. First language refers to how children aquire language. Behaviourists believe that children watch and learn from people around them, so a child will not say something unless they have heard it from an adult. Innatists believe that children are born hardwired with the ability to speak, and they will say things that they have never been taught. What do you think, those of you who have children? Pay attention when they speak, it might be surprising.