Sunday, November 22, 2015

Sunday = Church and the Mountains


Brazil day 4
11-22-15

This morning the alarm went off too early!

I know that “too early” is relative – but 7:00 is too early for me! But we needed to leave by 8:00 am to get to sacrament on time.

We took the bus to church. On the busses here you pay cash to ride. It costs 3.40 Reais. Which is about 85 Cents per ride. Not bad compared to the 2.75 that is costs in NYC! On some of the busses there is an attendant that you pay, and other busses the driver is the cashier. And often they are driving, shifting, and giving out change then pushing the button to release the turnstile, etc. It’s kind of crazy! And yes I just said turnstile! All the busses have them!

Church was good. The ward that we went to is bi-lingual. So there was translation for us. We of course were welcomed and everyone was so warm and happy to have us there. It was a pretty good size ward. Not big- but not too small either.

I love that the church is everywhere in the world! No mater where I travel I can go and have a home, and a family! I love that I can understand what is happening cause it is the same. The gospel of Jesus Christ is such a huge blessing! I love that I get to share it with people from different countries and cultures. I can understand a lot that is talked about because I love and understand the teachings of Jesus Christ. And for the times that I cannot understand the words – I CAN understand the Spirit! Because the Spirit ascends language barriers!

After Church my friend Marylis invited us over to her home to have lunch with her and the sister missionaries. We had a really nice lunch and I was able to tell Marylis about NYC and give her some tips and tricks – because she will be visiting over Christmas. She also gave mom and I some ideas of things to see and do, as well as good places to eat, here in Rio.


Back in the day… and I mean Waaaaay back in the day- like scripture times back in the day! People would go up to the mountains to pray and worship. We went to Church today to pray and worship! AND we ALSO went to the mountains to see Jesus!

After Lunch we headed over to Pao De Acucar. Translated into English it is “Sugar Loaf”. Sugar Loaf is a mountain that overlooks all of Rio de Janerio. You ride a cable car up to the top of one mountain- then another cable car up to the top of Sugar Loaf. The views are absolutely FANTASTIC! And it is the PERFECT look out point to see the Cristo Redentor (famous statue of Jersus) on top of Corcovado Mountain!

This morning was beautiful, sunny and blue skies and clear! When we arrived at church I pointed out to mom that we could see the statue of Christ on top of the mountain!

Unfortunately by the time we got to Sugar Loaf it was once again cloudy and overcast- grey skies and the Cristo Redentor on top of Corcovado Mountain was no longer visible.

I may have cursed the clouds. But only in my head… it is Sunday after all.

Marylis suggested that we get an Acai drink, which is like a really think berry smoothie, and pao de queijo, which are really yummy little balls of bread with cheese inside of them. SO GOOD!

The wind was blowing and the clouds WERE moving – I was completely convinced that the clouds would blow away and we would be able to see Jesus soon enough.

We arrived at Sugar Loaf around 4:00 p.m.

I spent a long time watching Corcovado Mountain - willing the clouds to go away! Mom kept telling me to stop watching it cause the water will never boil. I told her, “Of COURSE it will never boil! It’s not hot enough! Cause the clouds are blocking the sun! AND the son.”

Ahhhh! See what I did there! (Jen I can HEAR you rolling your eyes at me! All the way from NYC to Brazil! Hehehe)

Around 6:00 the statue of Christ started peaking out of the clouds. And then was hidden again, this happened a few times. (over the course of an hour or so.) THEN He was completely uncovered!

Then 5 minutes later was behind his cloud again. What a tease!

By 7:00 most of the sky was blue (FINALLY) and most of the clouds had blown away! Then by 7:30 the sun was setting and the Cristo Redentor was completely visible! I TOLD YOU the clouds would go away!

We wanted to stay until nightfall so that we could see the city lights. Plus they light up the statue of Christ at nighttime. We spent a long time up there today- but it was a relaxing Sunday activity and there were such awesome views of this grand city!

We were on Sugar Loaf til 8:00 pm and then headed home. Waling to the bus stop, and the ride home was about an hour and then we saw a little pizzeria on our way home so we stopped in to grab some dinner around 9:00.

Now I am going to work on downloading photos and hopefully will get a bunch uploaded onto facebook as well. They are coming Andrea! As far as the individual captions… ok I will try ;)




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