Home again - Canela

April 18  Saturday   (photos from Florianopolis)



As close as we got to getting wet

After a very long night, we arrived in Gramado this morning around 8:00 a.m.  It was raining here, too.  Pres. and Sis. Copa met us at the bus station to give us a ride back to Canela.  Sis. Copa stayed with most of our luggage as Pres. Copa drove us home.  He then returned to Gramado to pick up our luggage and Sis. Copa.  They have been such a blessing to us and are always willing to help us.  The traveling over the last week and lack of sleep must have caught up with Ann - she has not been feeling well the last few days.  We arrived in Canela, and she went to bed.




By the fruit market - fed crumbs
from lunch to pigeons

We unpacked and discovered that I didn't have the power cord/charger for my computer.  We called the hotel to see if we had left it there - and it was plugged in the lobby outlet.  The desk clerk said he would go to the post office on Monday and call us with the charges to mail it to us.  In the meantime, Merl and I went to several computer/technology stores trying to find a replacement cord.  There was nothing in town that would fit my Dell computer.  (Disclaimer:  Having a dead computer for a week after the emergency flight back to the U.S has led me to be seriously behind in writing on this blog - I feel hopelessly behind.)


McDonalds here, too

Rough sea

While we were out cord looking, we did some grocery shopping since we had no food in the house.  We had given Copas and the missionaries all our perishables before our trip.  We also stopped at the yarn store for some new colors of thread to make bookmarks.  We also picked up some small plastic bags and ribbon at Plastico to bag candies.



Before we went back to the U.S., we asked the Elders if there was anything they would like us to get for them.  The resounding response was American peanut butter, followed by Skittles, Starbursts, and licorice.  One also specifically asked for Sour Patch Kids.  On our flight from SLC to Colorado on Frontier Airlines, we were only allowed one bag each, so we traveled with a small suitcase inside of a larger suitcase.  This seriously limited what we could take back with us.  I asked Rachel if she could pick up four small jars of peanut butter and some Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, and Starbursts for the missionaries as we  could use all our luggage on the trip back to Brazil.  She outdid herself!  She had giant jars of peanut butter and several large bags of the candies waiting for us.


Roots trying to reach ground

Merl and I spent the late afternoon and evening making 75 small bags of American candy for the kids in SF de Paula tomorrow.  We also added an Articles of Faith card in each.  I practiced reading my talk several times - hope I can get the pronunciations correct. . .

Fall is coming to Brazil - the rain and humidity are chilling.  We have no heat source in the apartment (except the oven) as David didn't think we would need propane for the heater in the front room.  It felt good to finally climb into bed to get warm