Christmas means family
Our first Christmas dinner was with my mom’s side of the family the 21st in WI. This is Jemma with her great grandma, Grace Harrison.
This is my mom with her sister Sharon Schaefer.
My mom playing a game with Jemma and my nephew Ethan.
Mason and Ethan hanging out with Jemma.
Energy
We took in an OKC Energy game before school started. We got free tickets through OC. The Energy is a professional soccer team.
It was a fun game. The game ended in a tie, 0-0.
The Dutton’s
I can’t say enough about how wonderful this family is. They are some of the hardest working people for the kingdom of God. Every where Robin goes she is showing God’s love. She is constantly inviting people to church and to the theology classes, such as people she meets in stores, nail salon’s, etc. Over and over again I saw her at work.
Allen is constantly working to. He has an eye clinic, that is a free outreach for the church. He’s usually teaching bible studies and the theology classes once a week. He also does some counseling too.
It was very exciting to work with them for three weeks.
Outside Lar Belem
There is a small chapel on the property at Lar Belem.
Bruno and Thais were married here.
They also had exercise equipment.
They also had a gym that had soccer goals set up and a ping pong table on the stage area.
Family Fun
We ate together.
We played miniature golf.
Played games the hotel had.
We went on walks, played pool, tried archery, and really enjoyed each others company.
Aguas de Lindoii
We went with the Dutton’s to this town for a long weekend. 
It was a beautiful hotel and area. 
The city was beautiful. 
The town hosted the Ivory Coast during the World Cup. 
This town is in the mountains in Brazil. The flowers were beautiful even though it was winter.
Rio isn’t the only place in Brazil that had a Christ statue.
Buddy
This is Robin and Allen’s dog. I take that back, it’s Tyler’s dog. Tyler is Robin and Allen’s son.
This is his favorite place to hang out, in the kitchen. He’s strictly an outside dog.
More with Bruno and Thais
Bill and the kids along with Bruno drove go-carts one afternoon.
All ready to drive.
Ready for take off.
Jemma is the only the who drive slow enough to take her picture.
Bruno and Thais
This couple wanted to spend a whole Saturday with our family.
They took us to a different market than the one Renato took to to. We had pastels again. It was drizzling that morning and it had rained the day before so it was chilly.
This market was a lot smaller than the other one.
They took us to the mall to get our souvenirs. I call it the Twitter mall because of the bird that is on the sign as you enter.
It looks like a mall in America.
The Walmart in Campinas is part of the mall. They have Brazilian products, not American. The other amazing thing is, every check out line had someone working it!
We had lunch there. We ate Burger King. It was the only time we ate something that was from America except for pizza. I ordered for us at Burger King, it was challenging since I didn’t know Portuguese, but we got what we ordered!
Part of the mall was uncovered, so the vegetation had natural Sun.
Bruno grew up in the church, he met Thais at work and she was baptized later. They both know English fairly well. Thais is taking English lessons with Robin. They are coming to the states in Nov. And Dec. for 15 days. Bruno had a brother that lives in Moore, OK. They will spend some time with us when they come. I can’t wait.
Agriculture in Brazil.
About the only thing I know about this subject is that they raise a lot of sugar cane because they use it for ethanol fuel.
Campinas is also in a great location to get fresh fruit and vegetables.
They are also in a great location to get fresh beef and seafood.
Traveling one day we went past several coffee bean plantations. I didn’t get any pictures though.
One day we drove by a test plot of field corn. It was set up just like it is in the states.
Part of this arrangement is made with what looks like an alfalfa plant. Alfalfa is what farmers feed cows in the states.