The Brazilian Mr. Darcy and $1.75 lunches

Curitiba at sunset, beautiful huh?
Today was a good day at the office. It has been cold and rainy all day so it was nice to hear Camilias parents were going to come pick us up and take us to lunch then to work. How nice that was! We found a place near to the office builiding that is a buffet for 3,50 R$. For those that dont know the exchange, thats an all you can eat buffet for $1.75. Its really clean and stuff so Im not to worried about getting sick.

Camilia and I started really planning what we're going to do teaching wise since next week we start teaching the morning class that goes from 9 am to 1 pm tues. wed. and thurs. I am so worried about having to speak portuguese infront of people for 2 hours a day, while everyone gets to hear my mistakes...but thats why I came down here, not to mess up but to get better at the language! We made some sweet powerpoint slides, and I made a doll that we are going to dress up as a class to show what is interview appropriate and not, I somehow always come back to fashion...what a blessing and a curse! Hopefully I wont forget my camera on monday so I can start putting some photos back on this thing! It looks really blank and blah without them :(
The Federal University of Paraná, its a gorgeous Building that I walk past every day on the way to the office.
Today all the advanced english students came in to take their placement test and they all came to talk to me afterwards. It was fun to help them out, and I spoke with the teacher and he wants me to come in once in a while to talk with the students, and I'm happy to help. Speaking of English...

This really nice returned missonary sister as I said has been asking for help about going to BYU, so i got her the information and application for the English Language Center and told her that would be the best place to start. She is working on her passport right now and trying to save money, so I told her to get ALL of that worked out before she starts trying to apply or anything. I was amazed at everything people have to do to come to the US to study, and how incredibly hard and expernsive it can be for them to even get into a school here. So hats off to those of you have done it, and to those who help out others (mom and dad) you are a blessing to the lives of those around you!

The street where we went in search of pastel, Rua 24 horas...its a bunch of stores open 24 hrs. a day, unfortunately they had no pastel.

I just went and got some pastel with Camilia who ate one for the first time in 8 years. It was a good experince for her lol...she got the one with egg, cheese and meat inside, yummy! Its like 8:30 at night and its friday so like everyone is out drinking. People yell crazy things at me at night and whistle, its probably better that I cant understand everything lol...right? But its like that in any big city i think so its no big deal, i just find it so different and funny than the way people treat me in Provo.

The Conference center from above, it wont look this empty tomorrow morning!
Tomorrow as many of you know its general conference. Hooray! I got some great quotes from general athorities (dunno if thats spelled right, english keeps looking weirder and weirder to me) in an email today and they were a good reminder of why we have conference every 6 months. It helped me remember that application of personal revelation during conference is so important, and that if we dont apply the teachings we recieve we are no better for having watched it. So I'm determined to make this conference a meaningful one for me! I hope everyone else has that desire too:)



This is for Patty, its downtown São Paulo, I used to catch that red bus on the overpass to ride home from Rua 25 de Março...your gonna love Brazil!
Before I go, I have to say how excited and proud I am of one of my dearest and closest friends that I have had the pleasure of knowing since I was like 10. Patty got her mission call this week and is going to probably the best country...Brazil. I just want everyone to know that she is going to be an awesome missionary, you can tell because she is already such a good example to everyone and exemplifies so much of what we're taught at church, shes going to be such a sucessful missionary! A gente vai falar portugues agora juntas, que bacana! Estou bem animada para você!! Parabéns de novo furp!!

To the family getting together this weekend, I feel really far away from you and wish I could be there to hang out and everything, but this is something I know I need to be doing. There will be other conference weekends I'm sure! But have a good time and enjoy eachothers company. I have to go put out the refreshments for the self employment class that is here, I've already been working for 8 hours and I have one more to go, and I enjoy it here so its not bad. Oh and the reason this is entitled the Brazilian Mr. Darcy is because the guy from A&E's Pride and Prejudice look-alike is in the class that is here right now, Camilia and I both agree we need a photo of him hehehe....

Thanks again for all the emails and comments that you all send, I love getting mail and hearing from you!