Thanksgiving Arrives in the Mission!!

New Missionaries arrive at the Alfonso Pena Airport.

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Thanksgiving brought a new group of missionaries to the Curitiba Mission.  It is the biggest group that we have received in quite some time.  13 arrived today and only 8 went home so we were able to open three new areas. (Front row, l to r: Sisters Medrado, Lima, Cook and Cordon; Back row l to r: Elders Matos, Gomes, House, Searles, Miller, Farr, Lima, Gunn, Barroso, Monteiro, Presidente Cordon)

New Trainers at the Mission Home

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I love the training for new missionaries and the emphasis on experienced, obedient missionaries receiving the responsibility to train.  The 12 week training is so good and we have seen a huge improvement in the quality of our new missionaries as they finish the training period.  This is our new group of trainers.  We met at our home this afternoon to review the 12 week program and discuss their new companions.  Many in this group have already trained, a few have done so several times.  Several have been zone or district leaders and one was released as my assistant to train.  (Front row, l to r: Elders Rocha, Clift, Keaton, and Folsom; Back row l to r: Elders Arriola, Veiga, Trevisanut, Brino, Gray, Maia, Sisters Patton, Arce, and Hass).

Missionaries Returning Home for the Holidays!

Today 8 Brazilian missionaries finished their missions and headed home to family and friends.  This is the first time in a long time that we have had just Brazilians leaving.  Our hearts go with them to places like Acre, Rio, and Manaus!  Ja temos saudades!!  (Front row, l to r: Presidente and Sister Cordon, Sister Morais (Rio de Janeiro); Back row, l to r: Elder Lima Santos (Alagoas), Elder Oliveira (Acre), Elder L. Santos (Rio de Janeiro), Elder Costa (Pernambuco), Elder W. Pereira (Ceara), Elder Pinheiro (Manaus), Elder S. Lima (Goias).)

Annual Stake Presidents' Christmas Jantar

Christmas Dinner 2012 with all of our wonderful Stake Presidents and their wives!! We are really going to miss our great friends. (back row, l to r: Presidente and Sister Do Carmo (Campos Gerais), Presidente e Sister Oliveira (Paranagua),  Presidente e Irma Augusto (Mission Presidency), Presidente e Sister Tavares (Portao), Presidente e Irma Furusho (Boa Vista), Presidente e Irma Costa (Sao Lourenco), Presidente e Irma Pires (Pinhais), Presidente e Irma Sankari e Bebe (Novo Mundo), Presidente e Irma Santos (Iguacu), Presidente e Irma Michalisa (Boqueirao); front row, l to r: Presidente Samways (Ponta Grossa), Presidente e Sister Cordon, Irma Samways.

Sister Cordon, Irma Sankari e seu bebe, Irma Costa e Irma Do Carmo.

Irma Furusho, Presidente e Irma Benvindo Michalisa, Presidente e Irma Santos, Presidente Augusto, e Presidente Tavares.

Presidente e Irma Samways da Estaca Ponta Grossa.

Tonight we held our third and unfortunately final Christmas dinner for all of our stake presidents and their wonderful wives.  What a treat to spend the evening with these great men and women who give so much of their time and talents to the building up of the Church here in Brazil.  We had the opportunity to speak to the growth of the missionary force worldwide and prepare them for the arrival of many new missionaries in 2013.  The dinner was spectacular as is everything that Sister Cordon organizes.  We will truly miss our dear friends with whom we have served.

November New Missionary Training

We had the opportunity to be with all of our new missionaries who arrived in October and their trainers.  It was a wonderful day of training complimenting all they have learned so far during the first 6 weeks of their time here in the mission field. (front row, l to r: Pres. and Sister Cordon, Sisters Da Rosa(Montenegro, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and Lysenko (Connecticut). Second row, l to r: Elder Morales (Vallenar, Chile), Elder Gomes (Minas Gerais, Brazil), Elder Edgar (Bountiful, Utah), Elder Long (Idaho), Elder Gonzalez (Lindsay, California), Funk (Arizona). Third row, l to r: Elder Pereira (Santarem, Brazil), Elder Mullins (Georgia), Elder Woodruff (Provo, Utah), Elder Oaks (Provo, Utah), Elder Grigg (La Canada, California), Elder Borges (Franco, S.P., Brazil).  Back row, l to r: Assistents Elders Hobbs (Heber City, Utah) and Brino (Botucatu, S.P., Brazil).)  Click on picture to see complete view.

Zone Conference #7 in Ponta Grossa

Elders Black, Morris and Gray studying diligently.

Sisters Silva, Hass, Barbosa, and Horkley review their indicadores chaves (key indicators)
during Sister Cordon's training.

Today we met with the Campos Gerais and Ponta Grossa Zones in the Ponta Grossa stake center.  Sister Cordon gave a wonderful training, highlighting the training the missionaries had received from Presidente Godoy of the Area Presidency regarding traps the missionaries frequently fall into.  The assistants covered the importance of the Area Book and the zone leaders each chose a topic that their zones needed.  President Cordon covered the importance of the Book of Mormon and its role as the great convincing power of the restoration.  We had several practices and of course we all ate Irma Burnedette's lunch!  Wow, what a day of baqueteando nas palavras de Cristo!

The Biehn's Finish a Wonderful Mission

Our beloved Elder and Sister Biehn left today after serving their third mission.  Their service in the mission headquarters will be greatly missed.  Elder Biehn helped keep everything functioning smoothly, you would think he had been an air traffic controller or something like that.  He also taught piano lessons to several people.  Sister Biehn served as the mission nurse, mother in residency, chief birthday organizer, and much more.  They have now gone home and we will see them in Bountiful here in 7 months however knowing them, I don't think they will be there long before a new mission calls arrives.  Hmmm, maybe China?

Paranagua Stake Conference

We had the great pleasure of having Sunday dinner with the Gerhardt Pereira family in Paranagua today following their stake conference.  This year we missed seeing their son who is serving a mission in Uruguay.  Irma Renata Gerhardt Pereira spoke Saturday night in the adult session of conference.

November Zone Conference #6 - PARANAGUA ZONE!

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Almoco da Conferencia

Paranagua tem fogo nos osos!! E o ar e quente tambem!  This conference we had the opportunity to take Dallin with us since he did not have school today.  He participated in the conference and did the practices with the missionaries. (Front row, l to r: Sisters Da Rosa, Lysenko, Sister & Presidente Cordon; Second row, l to r: Elders Haycock, Machado, Funk, Oaks, Moody, Simplicio, Hobbs; Third row: Elder Brino, Dallin Cordon, Elders Miranda, Pinheiro.)

Governor's Wife, Fernanda Richa, Visits Bishop's Storehouse

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Today we had the honor of hosting the governor of Parana's wife, Fernanda Richa, and Carlise Kwiatkowski, Presidente de Provopar, in a visit to the Bishop's Storehouse.  It was a good opportunity to help the government here understand how the Church takes care of its own members physically, spiritually and mentally.  Senhora Richa received a statue of the family with a copy of the Proclamation on the Family.  Each received a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Pictured left to right, Presidente Cordon, Presidente Furusho (stake president, Boa Vista Stake), Fernanda Richa, Carlise Kwiatkowski, Romulo Freire (Diretor de Assuntos Publicos).

Mission Presidents' Seminar, Campinas, Sao Paulo

This weekend we attended the seminar for all Brazilian mission presidents and their wives in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil.  We had the opportunity to see several of our former missionaries and to spend three days learning from four General Authorities of the Church, Elders Adukaitis, Costa, Godoy and Mazzagardi.  What a spiritual feast!  It was great to get the spiritual batteries recharged and refocus our efforts.  We are so blessed to have such great leaders who have dedicated their time and talents to building up the kingdom.

Elder and Sister Adukaitis

Elder and Sister Godoy

Elder and Sister Mazzagardi

Me standing next to the love of my life.  Sister Cordon is always looking regal and brings a special light to any place!

Sister Cordon with Sisters Castellano and Cardoso who came to visit us at the hotel.  What a blessing to be reunited with these dear sisters who served so valiantly.

We also met Sister Castellano's family.  Now we know why she was so great!  

Mission presidents' wives singing at the social event Monday night.

November Zone Conference #5 - Boqueirao and Jardim do Sol

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Even dividing up the zone conferences into just a maximum of two zones per conference results in huge meetings.  Today we met with the Boqueirao and Jardim do Sol zones in the Boqueirao Stake Center.

November Zone Conference #4, Boa Vista and Sao Lourenco

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Zone Break-Outs!

We met in the Boa Vista Stake Center for today's zone conference with the Boa Vista and Sao Lourenco zones.

Zone Leader Council Meeting, November 2012

Our zone leaders just keep getting better if that is possible.  We had a great training with them today and will be expecting great things in the months to come from them.