Beautiful Brazil

This post shows the Beautiful things that there are to see in Brasil! 

We must say that the people in brasil are the most friendly and welcoming people there are. We have fallen in love with them and appreciate how there are accepting of us.

Lucas and Thalita Alonso are Instructors at the MTC

 São Paulo Temple with Christa

Trip to Rio De Janeiro
This is always inspiring and beautiful.  Melinda thinks Rio is the most beautiful city in the world - and we have been to some beautiful cities in this world. The landscape is breath-taking. We have been here a few times over the years - always beautiful views from above the city, along the beaches, or sailing into the bay.

View from Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf), showing Rio, airport, to Niterorí. Ted baptized his first convert in these waters.

                                                  The famous Copacabana beach in Rio.

                                       Mosaic sidewalk along Copacabana beach with Christa.

Christ the Redeemer stands above the city of Rio. It is magnificent - and a site to behold!

Overlooking Pão de Açucar from the site where the Church produced an olympic video. Watch it -- you see many of the beautiful sites of Rio. "Devocional "Erguer-se e Brilhar" com a Presidência Área Brasil." Youtube.

                                One of the old streetcars still used for visitors to see the city of Rio.

                                               One of our favorite spots in the world.

                                                Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado.

                                             This is a most amazing site looking up from the city.



Santos

Santos is about an hour from São Paulo. Lucas and Thalita took us there.  It is his home town. The beaches are wonderful, the water warm. We walked along the beach, went to an aquarium, and ate pasteis.

 Santos, from a freeway lookout on the road from São Paulo. Santos is São Paulo's beach city.

Santos, through an amazing statue where you can hear the sound of the ocean.

Melinda and Christa at the beach.

São Paulo

Looking down from 26 floors atop the Banespa building in downtown São Paulo, a city of 20 million people in the greater São Paulo metro area.

São Paulo Cathedral on the Praça da Sé (Center of the city).

















MTC  (CTM)
Whenever a staff Member or senior missionary has a birthday or special event, there is a party.  There is always a large cake in the middle of the table. The rest of the table is covered with trays of pastries, sweet treats, and juices.

                                                        Rainbow out our Window.

Panoramic photo of the MTC auditorium where we have choir practice, devotionals, and mission conferences.

P Day at the São Paulo Zoo and the Rock Shop

So we went back to the Zoo! We did not see it all the first time. I had another reason to go back as well. I remember going to the São Paulo Zoo as a young Missionary in 1967. Not a lot has changed, but I remember taking a picture of the elephant houses and I wanted to see if that was still there. And GUESS WHAT it was - take a look at these to pictures.

Taken in 1967, Notice the city in the background.




Now take a look from the same spot in 2017. The vegetation has obviously grow and design of the buildings has changed a little. I was excited to see this again. It brings back saudades.


The Giraffes are always a big hit at the Zoo!

2017 Giraffe eating

Below is a picture from 1967 that I  took.

And here again in 2017

A very real setting for this tiger. He was upset with the vultures that were hanging around! I think if I were one of them I would be a little nervous of the tiger!

Some of the Missionaries when I was here as a young missionary had a pet parrot as you see below.
The Zoo has a great exhibit of exotic Birds.

On this P-Day  we stopped by a rock shop, where they have a large display of the stones found and mined here in Brazil. They have displays of the raw stone, down to the cut and polished items and semi-precious and precious stones.

We enjoy the days when can go out to the city and see the sites. São Paulo is a huge city. The city itself has 11 million people. the metro area has 22 million. The streets are crowed and there is a lot of traffic. To go shopping 1.9 miles away can take up to 30 minutes and even a hour on soccer game days!

Christmas Time in Brazil -2107

Christmas 2017

"During this Christmas season and throughout the entire year, may we seek with our hearts and souls our beloved Savior,

the Prince of Peace, the Holy One of Israel.

For this desire, in large part, defines not only who we are as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but even more who we really are as Christ's disciples."

((First Presidency Message, Ensign, Dec. 2017)

Nativity at The Brazil MTC

Nativity and Sister  and Elder Whitaker

Brazil MTC

President and Sister Grahl

Our Favorite place in the MTC to take pictures. It tells about how the Missionaries are instructed here!

Nativity at the Stake Center next to the São Paulo Temple

Faith makes all things possible.

Hope makes all things work.

Love makes all things beautiful.

May you have all the three for this Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And who could not forget Santa at Christmas time!

Warmest Wishes,

Elder Ted and Sister Melinda Whitaker

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(tedwhitakerfamily.blogspot.com)

A Little Piece of Peace and Quiet in the Big City!

Peace in the Center of the City

Today is our P-Day. It is hard for us to decide what to do , as we have no one else to do anything with. We decided to go the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo.  We have been there before. So this is more of the same from a few months ago when we went with some of the instructors! It is about 15 miles away and I took us about an hour. It is a big park in the middle of the city. It has a lot of paths that are used by walkers , runners, bikers. It have grassy area, some lakes. It is very pleasant. We ended up finding the Bike rental area and rented bikes, A three wheeler for Sister Whitaker and a regular  bike for me. The three wheeler did not work out to well. We then went to a mall and had hamburgers at Johnny Rockets! 

Here are some pictures of the Park.  

A Selfie of course.

The Black Swans are Beautiful

Just one of the Many Walking paved paths

The park is a very peaceful, restful park right in the heart of the City

We hope that you can find a Peaceful, restful place where you can go and feel the spirit of the Lord to bless your life! We love it here in Brazil. We love the Missionaries. We bear testimony that the Lords loves each one of us and he will bless each one of us every day!

Celebrating Brasil Independence Day!

Brasil's Independence Day!

Dinner at the food court at Shopping Center North with our Brazilian friends, the Cavalhos, and Elder and Sister Snyder -- then off to an opera by Wagner.



São Paulo's Concert Hall - Sala São Paulo.  It is an old colonial train station that has been restored into a beautiful arts center. The concert hall is magnificent! We loved the huge orchestra, but had a hard time following the opera, sung in German with Portuguese subtitles.

We were invited by Brazilian Branch Presidencies here at the MTC to celebrate Brazil's Independence Day with them at a very nice churrascaria (Brazilian BBQ) on the outskirts of São Paulo.

The salads and side dishes were so numerous that we had a hard time choosing which to sample.  Of course the national dish, feijoada (rice and beans with chunks of meat) was offered. 

There were about 45 of us enjoying lunch together.  The Brazilians are a jolly and lively people.  It was noisy, but we have a good time trying to figure out what they were all talking about.

Every few minutes the servers brought around meats on a spit: filet mignon, chicken hearts (a Brazilian favorite), chicken, leg of lamb, pork, and other cuts of beef.  They also had fried bananas, pineapple coated with sugar and cinnamon and then cooked on the BBQ, and chunks of cheese cooked on a spit over the BBQ.  We ate way too much and then . . . a very large chocolate cake arrived decorated with slivers of milk and white chocolate.  What a feast!!

After our meal, we drove a short distance from the churrascaria to a Buddhist temple. We were surprised how large and authentic it was.  We went into the center "chapel?" and sat on the cushions facing the statue of Buddha.  We walked around the buildings and then strolled down into the garden where there was a pond with fish and a bridge crossing in the center.  The vegetation was nice, with monkeys swinging from the tall trees. 

Entering or leaving the temple we saw many small statues of buddha in whimsical positions. 

A tourist posing with one of the statues.

We are standing by the pond in the temple garden.

One of the many beautiful flowers in the temple garden.