Brasil!!!

top row: Nardo, Tecla, Deborah, Monica, Kleber
Bottom row: Matt, Michael, Jared

Jared, Thiffany, Paulo & Eliane

Matt, Simone, Junior, Irene, Jared

Matt, the Farias family, the Lima Family in front of the Curitiba Temple

Jared in Brasilia, where it all started 15 years ago!

Matt & Jared next to Lago Tocantins in Palmas

Jared outside the Campinas Temple at dusk

Matt & Jared in downtown Riberao Preto

Wow! Two posts in one week! We are on a roll. So this is my (Jared) first attempt at blogging, and probably my last. It's just not really my thing, but I wanted to let you know how my trip was and post a few pictures. My friend Matt Imbler who went with me to Brasil did a really good job of recording what we did on a day to day basis, and for those of you who are interested in that check out Matt's blog at www.incrediblebrasil.blogspot.com .

First let me say the trip was truly incredible. It was everything I hoped it would be. We covered tons of ground and saw lots of people. We ate the food (to the tune of about 6 extra pounds), spoke the language, got reacquainted with old friends, made new friends, and generally reminisced.

I haven't calculated this out, but I think roughly we covered the equivalent of San Francisco to Des Moines. The cities we visited were Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Riberao Preto, Campinas, Sao Joaquim da Barra, Palmas, Porto Nacional, & Brasilia. We rented a car and did the stretch from Curitiba to Riberao Preto by automobile. It took us a while to figure out the photo radar they had implemented since our missions and we probably owe the Brazilian government a small fortune in tickets. I may end up a fugitive, because I probably won't be paying the tickets!

For those of you who don't know, this whole trip came to pass because a young man I baptized on my mission got sealed in the Campinas Temple and invited me to the sealing. It was a wonderful experience. We got reacquainted with Junior and his mother Irene, and met his bride Simone. I couldn't help but think that for this one experience, the entirety of my two years spent as a missionary in Brasil were well worth it. The Campinas Temple was gorgeous (I will post a picture of it so you can see that I am not lying). We ended up having other experiences that also let us know that our missions were worthwhile. We found Paulo, a man Matt, baptized who was now the bishop of his ward. We found Valeria, a woman Matt taught, who had since married a return missionary in the temple and had a beautiful little boy. She serves as the YW president in her ward. We found Kleber, a young man who was a very recent convert when I served in his small branch. He is now on the high council in the stake that has been organized in his city.

To be honest, I have to say that we found plenty of people we had baptized who have since fallen away from the church. That was disappointing. At one point, after finding out that several people I baptized had fallen away from the church, I was a bit discouraged. I wondered if I had done something wrong or possibly baptized people who never really had a chance at being active church members. As I reflected on this, I realized that no, I wouldn't have done anything differently. I realized there really was no way to know who would "hold to the rod" and who wouldn't, and that I had been called to preach the gospel to all those who would hear. I had done my best and had actively searched for whole families to bring to the gospel, but along that path had been happy to share with anyone who would listen.

I was also impressed at the faithfulness of the church members we met with. Many of them travel much greater distances than we do to get to church. Many of them have to travel by bus rather than car. Junior and Simone had to travel 22 hours by bus to get to the temple to be sealed. Many of them serve to a greater extent in their wards or branches because there are fewer members to do the work. I realized that many times I am going through the motions of being a good church member. Seeing my Brazilian brothers and sisters push forward with so much faith and such good attitudes made me realize that I can be better.

I found that much progress had been made in terms of infrastructure and in the economics of the average Brazilian. My recollection was that the roads in Brasil were terrible, narrow, full of potholes and speed bumps. I found that the roads were vastly improved. In fact, there were some freeways we traveled on that you could easily have mistaken for freeways right here in the USA. Their traffic laws including drunk driving laws appear to have made the roads much safer to travel on then they once were. When I was a missionary in Brasil, very few people had telephones, now everyone has a cell phone. I can only think of two people I met in two years that had a computer. Every single home I visited had a computer and everyone had an email address. Very few people had cars, now a much greater percentage of people have cars (again, everyone I visited with had a car, although I don't think that is entirely reflective of the general population). One of the cities we visited, Porto Nacional, had so poor of drinking water that even the locals added bleach to the water to make it potable. Now the water is treated and safe to drink from the tap. My general assessment was that as much as things have changed here in the States in the last 15 years, things have changed even more in Brasil.

I was once again impressed with and grateful for the generosity of the Brazilian people. In particular, I would like to thank Fabio and Rosangela Farias for allowing us to stay with them, feeding us and acting as our tour guides while we stayed in Curitiba, and for arranging our visit with Roberson & Ivanete de Lima. Thanks to Luiz & Valeria Machado for helping us reconnect with so many people in Riberao Preto. Thanks to Paulo & Eliane Nogueira for the wonderful meal they prepared for us as well as the gifts they gave us. Thanks to Jonatas Duarte for accompanying us (and driving us) to church in Porto Nacional. And finally, thanks for Kleber & Monica, Nardo & Tecla and Michael & Deborah for allowing us to spend so much time with your family. We truly appreciated the wonderful meals you cooked for us and the time you spent driving us all over Tocantins!