The McKinneys Arrive in Curitiba!!

Today Elder and Sister McKinney from American Fork, Utah arrived in Curitiba.  They will be serving in Prudentopolis, a city in the interior of Parana.  The branch there is super excited to have them.  After a day of preparation and recovery from the long flights from the US we will be driving them out to their new home. Elder McKinney served a mission here in Brazil as a young man and even passed a transfer here in Curitiba and in Paranagua.  They will be a great asset to the Lord's work in this part of Brazil.

7 de Setembro Parade

Presidente Cordon with Felipe Cortes, City Councilman who is a friend of the Church here in Curitiba.

On the reviewing stand (palanque) with Romulo Freire, Director of Public Affairs for the Church here in Curitiba, Presidente Furusho, Presidente of the Boa Vista Stake, and Alan Kardec, who works with Public Affairs for the Church.

Here come the missionaries and members!!

Our missionaries passing the palanque singing Called to Serve.

Passing in front of the palanque.  

The Cordon family with Governor and Mrs. Beto Richa on the Palanque.  On the far left is General Soares, head of all Brazilian armed forces in Southern Brasil.

Missionaries passing in front of the grand stands.  If you look carefully, you can see the members of the Sao Lourenco stake wearing yellow Maos Que Ajudam (Helping Hands) shirts in the stands.

Zone Leader Council Meeting

Our September Zone Leader Council meeting was held in the Barigui Chapel.  After lunch we had a leadership temple session which was really needed.  This is the first time that we have done a temple session with just the mission leadership.  In council we discussed the importance of accompanying our families that we are teaching and the importance of commitment and follow up.

September Blessings: New Missionaries!

We picked up our new missionaries today and we are proud to say that now our mission has yet another country represented.  Amongst our new missionaries we received back row, l to r: Elders Yesquen (Lima, Peru), Elder Poe (Olympia, Washington), Elder Franco (Canaa dos Carajas, Para, Brasil), Elder Haycock (Sandy, Utah), Elder Stauffer (West Jordan, Utah), Elder Rodriguez (Sao Carlos, S.P., Brasil), Elder Affonso (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), and Elder Lake (Wilsonville, Oregon).

Another Chapter Closes

Today we bid farewell to yet another group of excellent representatives of Christ.  It gets harder each time to say goodbye.  We changed the transfer itinerary to better accommodate the arrival of new missionaries so this group flew home on Monday after the transfer meeting and prior to the arrival of the new missionaries on Tuesday.  This will allow the new trainers a little more time to prepare their homes for the new missionaries and resolve the problem of what to do with the new missionaries on their first night in the mission.  Front row, l to r: Sister Alves, Sister Cordon, Presidente Cordon; Back row, l to r: Elders Alexandre, Hansen, Andrade, Hugo, L. Pereira, Christensen, Holliday.