Last Sunday at Church

Sunday was our last day at Church in the Indianaopolis Ward here in Sao Paulo. We have enjoyed our 4 short months here. Everyone has been so welcoming and nice. We will always look upon our time in Sao Paulo as a good experience. 

Eric served with the Young Men while we were here and that was a good experience for him. The girls were blessed to have a Primary President that lived in Washington for 8 years and spoke English along with her three boys, 9, 6, and 2. Renanta was so helpful and nice to our family. We also attended Church with 4 other American families and were lucky enough to have Sunday School in English. I have to admit I am looking forward to being able to understand Church again!!!

Mermaid Tail

There is a girl who comes to the pool with a mermaid tail and Gretta was dying to try it and Saturday night she finally got a chance.  Gretta was so excited! She LOVED IT! She has been begging for me to buy her one! Gretta and Eliza are also obsessed with a show called Mermaid Tails, so I think it was even more exciting for her to try the tail. 

Alanna's Baptism

Teresa's daughter, Alanna, got baptized on Saturday. She turned 8 on January 1st.  She has been such a great friend to Gretta and Eliza while we have been here in Brazil. We will miss Teresa and Alanna very much when we go back. 

Alanna's baptism was beautiful. Sister Renata Pizzirani took some beautiful pictures of Alanna in her baptismal dress, made a beautiful cake and decorated everything so beautiful. 

The whole Primary showed up to support Alanna and the Primary kids also sang at the baptism. Lots of Teresa's family also came. 

Gretta and Renanta

The boys all playing "football" soccer after the baptism. 

Models?!?!

Saturday Eric took the girls to Ibirapera Park to play in the morning and while he was there a lady approached him and told her she was a model scout and she thought the girls great potential models.
Haha! Everyone always tells me how beautiful the girls are. I know they are beautiful, but here it is a bit more rare to have blonde hair and blue eyes, so Gretta & Carli stick out a bit.
My friend Tiffany Laney is in South Korea and her kids have spent a lot of time modeling kids clothes since they got there. I think she posted that last week they did 8 or 9 shoots and her kids pictures have been all over town. I guess we on the modeling bandwagon fast enough!

Eric's Last Day of Work in Sao Paulo Brazil

We drove Eric to work his last day. Here he is in front of the "Robo Cop" building. 

Anna Made It Home Safe and Sound

Anna's flight home was uneventful and she arrived to Rochester safe and sound even if it was really cold!

She wrote this on Facebook before she left.....

Headed home from São Paulo! Thanks Gretchen Snyder Fors and Eric Fors for a great trip. Just checked the weather-- 86 in São Paulo, -13 in Rochester. My body will be in shock with the 99 degree difference. Oi!

She took her family a part of Brazil summer with their Havaina's. Hopefully it's not 6 more months before they can use them!!!

Thanks for coming Anna!

Sao Paulo Temple with Anna

Thursday morning Teresa came and watched the girls, so Anna and I could go to the Sao Paulo Temple. It was a beautiful day in Sao Paulo and it was wonderful to go to the Temple with my sister. I was a little scared to go without Eric because sometime the language barrier can be tough, but it was actually one of the best Temple experiences I have had since being here.

Eric and I have been able to go twice a month to the Temple while we have been here which is such a blessing! It has also been wonderful because we have been able to go together so much. At home we have to drive 2 hours  to the Chicago Temple, and then usually take turns watching the kids while one person goes to the Temple. And the whole trip takes more than 7 hours with the drive and swapping. It's been wonderful to be 25 minutes from the Temple and having Teresa babysit the girls. 

I have also been so impressed with the faithfulness of the Brazilian members and how Temple going they are. Even on a Thursday morning the session was almost 100% full. Every time we have gone it has been full, overfull, or almost full. 

After we went to the Temple we meet Eric for lunch with some of his co-workers. First we got a taste of Sao Paulo Traffic. I took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to Eric's office because we wanted to drive by the nice shopping street in Sao Paulo. A trip to Sao Paulo wouldn't be complete without experiencing some traffic!!!!

 I wish I had taken some pictures of lunch. We enjoyed a nice buffet lunch and now I know why some nights Eric wasn't hungry for dinner when he got home from work. There was a lot of good food and even dessert. One of his co-workers told me that the place we went was one of Eric's favorites because they served dessert. Eric is going to miss going out to lunch with his co-workers everyday! 

Then we had to say good bye to Aunt Anna. We are so glad she came to visit us. We sure had a fun visit!!!

Thanks Anna for coming to see us!

Eliza took this picture after we dropped Anna off at the airport bus.