Muito Obrigada!

Jerica and the aborbora (pumpkin) we are going to try to make into pie today!

That phrase ("thank you so much!") was the first Portuguese I learned well, and the phrase we use the most every day. We are so grateful all the time for the good, good people all around us!

So many new friends have been so kind and generous to welcome us into their culture and help us experience so much here that there is to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.

The 15th of November is like independence day here.
They didn't do a lot to celebrate, but we were invited to a hotdog fundraiser that evening to help the youth go to FSY (a big church youth conference) in Manaus in February.
As you might be able to see in this, a lot of homes have outside kitchens.

We were invited to a group date at the nicest restaurant in town,
with seating outside along the Amazon (in the background on the left.)

What a fun pool and park,
the bigger kids were all so good to help the littler ones on the swings.

It's always awesome to stroll the river front streets along the Amazon, day or night.

A group of friends rented a bus and invited us to a cachoeira (waterfall) outside of town.
The water is colored by the minerals, and looks black. It's called the Rio Urubu (vulture river.)

 

Brazil won against Argentina in soccer!
Unlike the holiday, for the game victory there was much celebrating in the streets. Here's an impromptu parade of motos waving flags and honking horns. We could hear cheers all over the city when the final goal was made, and some let off fireworks. When fireworks hit and broke the water tank of our neighbor George, he was such a good sport, he just laughed and fixed it.

Time is going by so quickly, and we haven't posted as much as we hoped to. The internet isn't always working and we are also just so busy! Things often take longer than we think and all that goes into daily life takes a lot of time. We have been so grateful for the many shopkeepers and food vendors and service providers and other people that help us in so many ways every day.

Luzinete, our beloved friend who took on the job of doing our laundry.
She also brings us so many mangos from her yard, one night when she stopped by with some it was such a blessing because the beans we thought we were going to eat for dinner had gone bad, so we filled up on mangos.

This photo is terrible, but, the moment was sweet. We were having trouble with reliable transportation, so David went to Manaus last week to just buy a used van big enough for us. A very kind Pastor was selling the van he used for his congregation, he was very good to be very clear about all the problems the van had, though it runs great. Our neighbor, George, helps us all the time. He owns a car wash and was so meticulous when we hired him to clean the van, and when the tire blew a few days later, he ran around helping find lug wrenches to fit the varying sizes of the lug nuts and helped get the tire changed out. 

Our good friend Luis also helped with the tire, he always seems to be around when we are in trouble. He helped David know how to find vans in Manaus, woke up at 2 am to give him a ride to the bus, and here he took David to buy a jack.

Our girls have also been busy with so many youth activities, like seminary and preparing for a big musical performance the youth are putting on this month. This weekend there was "Evening of Excellence" for the young women of our church.  The personal progress program that has helped the young women set and achieve goals is being retired and a new program will begin in the new year.  I was so impressed with the goodness of these amazing young women and their leaders who displayed evidence of countless hours put into creating beautiful growing experiences for the youth over the last many years with the old program. They showed slideshows of awesome looking activities and sang sweet songs and shared tender expressions of faith and love. It was truly an evening of excellence.

All of us are also busy 3 nights a week teaching English. We were so grateful to our friend Robyn in Provo who took time to help us understand the vision and workings of the EnglishConnect program we are using. It's a fantastic and simple to use curriculum that many impressive minds and hearts have created, we are grateful to them, too. And to the local church leaders here whose great love for and interest in helping the people here have improved life opportunities helped to get the classes going. We teach the weekly lesson on Tuesdays, which includes themed conversation practice as well as a faith-based "self-reliance" message, which the class has really appreciated. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, we have open practice time. It's so delightful watching the determination and effort of our students, and they have been so great to also help us with Portuguese in the process!

The girls take turns running a "child class" so parents can attend
or coming in to practice with the youth and adults in the regular class.

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!