27 June 2010

It has been awhile since we added details of our Brazilian Adventure.

I have decided to show you where we currently live. We have moved to a condominium situated across Avenida Professor Francisco Morato from the São Paulo Temple called Residencial Vertentes do Morumbi.  We simply refer to it as the Vertentes.  We live in Apartment #13 of the condo building called São Pedro. The elevator would show you that we live on the first floor, but this is misleading.  In Brazil, the first floor is usually called Terreno.  Above the Terreno in our building is one level of a parking garage as well as a couple of apartments, and the next floor is the first floor.
 



The flags you see above the entrance to the São Pedro building reflects that this is World Cup season, and everyone is hyped up supporting Brazil in the World Cup being held in South Africa.






I have also included a few pictures of the Vertentes courtyard that we share with the other building that comprise Os Vertentes.













These are pictures of some beautiful orchids that are growing in the courtyard.
















The following pictures are of our apartment in São Pedro #13.

The first picture is of our apartment door, and our neighbor's door.  One of two elevators is seen on the right. There are four apartments on this floor.


The next two pictures are of our front room, first looking from the hallway leading from the front door, and a view of our front room looking back toward the front door.






The next picture is of the hallway leading to the master bedroom.





 The door at the end of the hall on the right leads to our study, and the door to the left is our bathroom.





On the left before the doors is some storage shelves.


















Here is our study, with a comfortable chair, desk and chest of drawers.
We have the computer set up here in the study. You can also see a heater in the corner that we purchased for when it gets cold in our apartment



This is a bathroom.  It is crowed, but adequate for our needs. The "john", though not visable, is immediately on the right upon entering the room.




Our kitchen and laundry are directly off to the left as you enter our apartment. In the back is a storage room and a second bathroom.




To the right of our bottled water is our pantry and limited shelving for cooking utensils.  It will give you and idea of how we prepare our meals.
To
 




Well, this is our apartment, with the exception of the master bedroom.  Unfortunately, that picture didn't turn out well, and so I will have to post it later.


We feel fortunate to live in such nice accommodations.  Our rent is about $800 Reis per month, or about $450.  In addition, we pay for our electricity and internet/tv services.  All in all, we are grateful for all we have and the opportunity to be here in Brazil among a wonderful people.

We may be moving to another apartment here in the Vertentes within the next couple of weeks, as we have a slight mold problem.  If we do move, our apartment will be somewhat smaller, but otherwise pretty much as you see in these pictures.

Tchau.

02 June 2010

On our recent trip to Santa Maria we looked up one of David's 1965 baptisms, brother Gideon Gay.  He's 90 years old and still sharp as a tack.  We had a nice visit in his ward where we got to do the music and bear our testimonies.  This man has been a great influence on many of the people in Santa Maria, and we were thanked by quite a few of them.  Oh, the tender mercies of the Lord!

A successul Brazilian Elder

Here is a sweet Elder who learned English from his companions here in Brazil.  He has been a volunteer in our employment center and we've made good friends with him.  He recently got a job with Apple computers on their help/technical staff.  What a great reward!