Day 7:

Sunday morning we got up, got ready, ate breakfast, and walked to church. When we got there they led us upstairs (the chapel and kitchen are downstairs, classrooms are upstairs) and asked how old I was. Then the led me to the Relief Society room. Dad said, "I guess sacrament is last, good luck!" The sisters were very cute! The one on the left below was the first to welcome me in (I think she is in the Relief Society presidency or something). She found out I do not follow Portuguese and just led me to a seat. Luckily the lesson was on a talk I had remembered from conference. Even though I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, I could feel the spirit. I also gained an appreciation for visual aids and object lessons... both of which I completely understood! :)

The girl next to me was one of my favorites! Her husband is by dad (he's in the bishopric).

The girl that first welcomed me is married to the man by her (the guys are brothers).

Here's a picture of the brothers with their mother.

There was going to be a baptism at 4pm, so we went back to the hotel to take naps (church started at 8:30am, so it was just around noon when we got to the hotel). Before the baptism we wanted to walk to a dome building dad had seen from a distance before...

You can see the dome building in the very back of the picture.

There were lots of stores closed for the main part of Sunday.

Street markets, like this one, are not usually alive until the evenings.

If you look close you can see how everything is closed tight.

Getting closer to the dome building.

We saw the dome and we saw the pink building from a distance.

Dad didn't think they would be the same building, but they sure were!

Pretty interesting looking.

Here's a building we walked past that I liked.

Black and white version...

The dome building.

I just had to throw this in...

Dad is walking around the pink dome building.

There's an awesome looking church.

Dome is made of colorful tiles or something.

Another cool building next to pink dome building.

Another view from pink dome's gardens.

I'm standing in front of the pink dome building.

Dad is in the direction of the buildings above.

I love how they designed the grounds here!

There are two continents named on the statue,

America and Africa. Can you guess the other two? :)

I'm standing in front of the other side.

We went to a triple baptism! We got there 10 minutes early and it started about an hour or so late. We were there for two and a half hours and had refreshments. They had chocolate cake and juice. The chocolate cake was pretty yummy (not tasting like chocolate entirely) and the juice was interesting. I had one that tasted pretty good and then one of the missionaries told me I had to try the other one because it was the best (he's from Brazil). Well, he watched as I took my first sip (it was similar to a scene in Lord of the Rings that involved a bowl of soup). It had very large stringy things in it and was pretty weird tasting! I simply smiled and tried to take little sips every now-and-then until dad came back from the bathroom and could 'try' the rest of it. By the time he got back I was half done and it was actually growing on me a little. I still wouldn't buy it.

Here are two of the three being baptised.

The wife would be baptised the following weekend.

The other person being baptised was a single man,probably around my age.

I don't have a picture for some reason.

Picture of the boys coloring.

By the time the baptism took place, the boy being baptised had crayon on

the back of his jumper from his little brother.

Story time (concerning crayons): Early that day, during sacrament meeting, I had been sitting by a little girl that was pretty active. I pulled out some crayons and gave them to her. She had no clue what to do with them, so I took out another set and colored a picture, put my name on the back and gave it to her. The bishop's son (in the blue shirt above) saw me coloring and so I reached out and handed him one (he was sitting in the front row on the side and I was on the second row in the middle section). Well, little did I know that the girl sitting next to us took off for the back of the congregation... she was soon at my side with another little girl. She was talking to me. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but I had a pretty good idea. Dad told them to wait until after the meeting (so it wouldn't get to much more crazy). But, a little while later the bishop's son came up to me with one of his friends. :) After sacrament was over I had five or six little kids by my side. I was scared that I wouldn't have enough, but I did... barely!

So, at the baptism they brought out the pictures they had colored the youngest (in the yellow above) wanted to show me his, but was too shy so his mom did. While we were waiting I told dad that the older boy looked pretty German to me, but the rest of the family sure didn't. Well, he must have said something to that fact to the parents, because the mom said his grandfather was German and then the dad simply said he had taken care of him since he was a baby (probably meaning he wasn't the dad). I have seen so many families where children each look a different race. Dad said that's pretty normal for Brazil because of how much they have mixed with other nationalities. They are all so cute though! The two little boys in that family were some of my favorites!