Fetching Talmage from Brazil

A report, based on my journal, of a trip that Rachael (age 22), Camilla (16), Eliza (15), Mary (13), and I took to Brazil to meet Talmage and accompany him home from the Brazil Curitiba Mission. We left Utah on Tuesday afternoon, May 26, 1998 (the same day Caleb Dean Cleverly was born to Michael and Shauna), and returned home on Thursday, June 11. With this trip, nine of the ten members of our original family, everyone except Anna, had been to Brazil.

Tuesday, May 26, 1998
The adventure began this afternoon at 3:45 when our United flight to Chicago lifted off from the Salt Lake airport. It was the first time Cam­illa, Eliza, and Mary had ever flown that they can re­member. Rachael, of course, is an experi­enced world traveler.

The flight was rather routine, al­though bumpy from turbulence. We ar­rived in Chicago after nearly three hours, just as evening was coming on. An hour later we were on a second United flight, this one a ten-hour non-stop to São Paulo. We called home from the air­port in Chicago (which Rachael thinks is the nicest airport in the country, perhaps even in the world), but Mom had not heard any­thing yet from Michael and Shauna about their new baby. (Shauna had gone to the hospital just a couple hours before we left.)

Wednesday, May 27
We landed at the Gaurulhos airport in São Paulo about 9:00 local time. It took little time to clear cus­toms, and we had no checked luggage to wait for, so we mostly just waited for our 12:15 VARIG flight to Belo Hori­zonte. Mary and I wandered about the terminal until we could find an ATM that would accept my VISA debit card. We had eaten twice on the plane, so we were not hungry but bought drinks at the McDonald's in the airport. I also spoke to three Ameri­can missionaries on their way to Porto Alegre.

After an hour's flight to Belo Hori­zonte, we were in the capital of Minas Gerais, the first time I had ever been in this part of Brazil. Arlen Woffinden, who has been president of the Brazil Belo Hori­zonte Mission since last July, met us and drove us the 30 km back to Belo. He took us to a point where we could over­look much of the city of some 4 million or so people and where the girls took their first pic­tures. We visited at the mis­sion home with the Woffindens (Arlen, Debi, 17-year-old Danny, and 14-year-old Avery), called home to Mom (and learned that Caleb had been born last night), showered, and ate a delicious Brazilian dinner (of pork chops, fried potatoes, rice, beans, a Brazilian variety of broccoli, and salad) prepared by the maid Rosa.

Before dinner, Avery took the four girls over to the shopping mall across the street from the mission home, which is on the third floor of a 17-story apartment build­ing, and Arlen took me to the mis­sion office, which is about three blocks away on the 10th floor of a 10-story office building.

After dinner Arlen and I went to a member-missionary fireside in Sete Lagoas, about an hour away from the mission home. The two assistants also went with us. We left Belo later than we had planned, the roads were wet from rain, and the elder who thought he knew where the chapel was helped get us lost, so we ar­rived about an hour after the meeting was supposed to have begun. Everyone was just stand­ing around wait­ing, and no one seem­ed to mind. Even after we began, people kept wandering in through­out the meeting.

It was an enjoyable evening. Arlen invited me to bear my testi­mony during his talk, which I did in Portuguese. The girls were all asleep by the time we returned to the mission home after 11:00 (8:00 p.m. back in Utah).

Thursday, May 28
This morning we went to the correio [post office] and mailed 427 cop­ies of O Casa News, the newsletter Michael does for former mis­sionaries of the Brazil Manaus Mis­sion, to all the people on his mailing list who live in Brazil. Our mailing the news­letter here in Brazil saved Michael several hundreds of dollars over what the postage would have cost from the United States. We then drove with Debi and Avery out to the American school where Danny (a junior) and Avery (an eighth grader) go to school. President Woffinden is in inter­views and zone con­ference all day.

This afternoon the four girls and I drove out to Ouro Preto (which means Black Gold), the colonial capital of Minas Gerais. It is about an hour and a half from Belo Horizonte through very lovely coun­tryside. The city, which is a national­ly protected world heritage site, looks much the same as it did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is filled with old churches. The one we toured—Nossa Senhora de Pilar—was ornately deco­rated with gold and silver and old paint­ings and statues. The guide said it was the most lavish church in Ouro Preto and the second richest in all of Brazil.

We also wandered through some of the many gem shops and jewelry stores and bought several souvenirs and gifts in the open-air soapstone market. A very persis­tent peddler ob­noxiously kept try­ing to sell us some semi-precious gems from the area and kept hounding us wherever we went. He apparently did not under­stand the word não. At the soap­stone market, the girls got brave enough to inquire about prices and make pur­chases without my standing at their side to translate for them.

It had threatened rain all after­noon but did not rain until we were driving the 90 kilo­meters back to Belo Horizonte. It was dark already, and the road was harder to see, but we didn't get lost and were able to follow the directions the Woffin­dens had given us.

Back at the mission home, we ate din­ner, a Brazilian version of chicken strog­anoff, vegetables, rice, and beans, and spent the evening visiting. It has been won­derful to be with such dear friends as Arlen and Debi.

I placed calls to Irmã Virgínia in Maceió, not knowing if she had re­ceived my letter saying we were coming (she had), and to Marta in Manaus, who thought at first I was Michael calling (which I was not).

Friday, May 29
A pleasant final day with the Wof­findens. This morning we sat visit­ing with Arlen and, after he left for a meeting at the mis­sion office, with Debi. We did laundry and repacked our bags. The soapstone we had pur­chased and a package we need to take to the Woffindens’ son in Salvador filled up the space we emptied in three bags by mail­ing Michael's news­letters and giving the Woffin­dens the stuff we brought from the States for them. Avery, who has been home from school this week with a bad cold, had gone back to school part of yes­terday but was home again today.

At about 1:30 Arlen returned home and we ate spaghetti that Debi had pre­pared. Then all of us went walking down to a central market, which was quite an eye-opening cultural experience for the girls. They were disgusted, for example, with the way unrefrigerated meat was handled and the smells of everything. They were especially grossed out by the pig head or pig tail that was being sold.

We returned to the mission home, said our farewells, and rode to the inter­national airport with Debi. It had been a delightful three days for us, and it was great to see dear friends again.

Our flight from Belo Horizonte took us to Brasília, the nation's capital. After a 50-minute layover we took a second flight to Maceió with a stop in Salvador. We arrived in Maceió at 11:05 p.m. and were met by Betânia and Sônia (Vir­gínia's daughter-in-law who is married to Tiago). Rachael, Camilla, and Mary went home to Betânia’s house, and Eliza and I went home with Virgínia and Sônia. It had been raining, and though Sônia felt it was too cold, we all swel­tered in the warm humidity.

After a little midnight supper of Vir­gínia's famous chocolate cake, some cheese, and drinks of guaraná, Eliza and I went to bed.

Saturday, May 30
Betânia and her husband Chico have a vacation home a ways south of town in Barra de São Miguel, where they used to live when their children were smaller. All of us went there this morning, riding either in Betânia's car or in a school bus (a Volks­wagen bus) driven by Inez’s friend, to go to the beach there. The girls enjoyed playing in the water. It was a beautiful place.

We returned to Virginia's house late in the afternoon, and pretty much all of her family were gathered: Inez (who had gone with us to the beach), Alexandre (who runs an English school and is not mar­ried), Betânia, Andre, Adriano (whom I baptized in 1970 and who is now a counselor in the stake presidency), his wife Amélia, and some of the younger children that Virgínia adopted after I was here as a missionary: Tiago, Pedro, and Lucas. Nine ram­bunctious grandchild­ren were also here, and the place was pretty noisy.

Tiago and Lucas are now married and, with their wives, live here with Virgínia. Tiago's wife Sônia is receiving the mis­sionary discus­sions and plans to be bap­tized. She seems like a very nice person. Lucas is 17, his wife only 15, and they are expecting a baby in August.

After eating, some of the group went over to Betânia's apartment and, after Chico got home, went to the Shopping (a mall) and to the feira along the beach. Rachael found a darling little shirt for Caleb, who is now four days old.

Tonight Eliza joined the other three girls at Betânia's house. I stayed alone at Virginia's. It must have been near mid­night that she and Sônia fixed me a "little" mid­night snack (two ham­burgers and some suco de something). I was very tired when I went to bed.

While we were at Betânia's house after dinner, I called home to Claudia.

Sunday, May 31
This morning we attended meetings in the Farol Ward. Virgínia and I went at 8:30, even though the sacrament meeting didn't begin until 9:00, so that she could attend choir practice. Only one other sister came for the practice. Betânia came with the four girls a little before church was to begin. Virgínia is the ward organist, and Betânia is a counselor in the Relief Society presi­dency. Adriano, Amélia, and their two little boys—Aldo and Mateus—also came, even though they are in another ward. Adriano is second coun­selor in the stake presidency.

Sacrament meeting was very nice, although the girls got little out of it. Even with the language barrier, the members did a wonderful job of making the girls feel welcome.

Rachael and I attended the Gospel Doctrine class together. Camilla, Eliza, and Mary went to a youth Sunday School class.

During the final hour the adults met together in a combined meeting of the Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society, which Rachael and I attended. Camilla, Eliza, and Mary went to Young Women, where Elder McLaughlin inter­preted for them. In our com­bined meet­ing, the bishop invited me to bear my tes­timony, after which he led a marvelous and animated dis­cussion on the four cornerstones of a happy marriage as taught by President Hinckley.

We met a lady in the ward originally from Feira de Santana in Bahia who knows Jailson da Rocha, Michael's first mission­ary com­panion. We hope to see Jailson in Salvador tomorrow. I sent him a telegram Friday afternoon from Belo Horizonte.

Most, if not all, of Virginia's family gathered at her house after church for Sunday dinner. We had a lovely visit.

Later in the afternoon Virgínia, Inez, Sarah, Alexandre, Betânia, and the five of us went to visit Nádia and her aged mother. They were delighted to see us and, after her nearly talking our leg off, we left sometime after dark. From Nádia's apartment, we had a lovely view out one direction of the city, a lighthouse (the farol after which this part of Maceió is named), and the sea. From the other direc­tion, we could see the building in which the Brazil Maceió Mission will have its office after the headquarters transfer in July from Recife. The mis­sion up until now has been known as the Brazil Recife South Mission.

Virgínia went to choir practice at the church, and everyone else went home to eat again. The two missionaries—Elders McLaughlin and Borelli—were there. Elder McLaughlin had made two apple pies for the occasion, which he had brought by yes­terday afternoon before we returned from the beach.

After more visiting, Eliza and I went to bed around 10:00 so we could get up at 4:00 tomorrow morning to catch our early flight to Salvador. Eliza affirmed that it had been a stretching, growing, tiring weekend, but one she had really enjoyed. It reminded me of what Claudia had observed after being in Maceió two years ago, "This is the hardest vacation I have ever enjoyed."

Monday, June 1
Eliza and I awoke at 4:00, got ready, ate Virginia's last breakfast, and were ready by 4:30 when Betânia and the other three girls came to pick us up to go to the air­port, where we caught a 5:40 flight to Salvador. Eliza had feigned sleep on the airplane so she didn't have to eat break­fast a second time.

For me it had been a wonderful re­union with these dear people here in Maceió, and the girls seemed to enjoy the visit.

In less than an hour we arrived in Salvador, the capital of Bahia and the colonial capital of Brazil from 1549 until the early 1800s, when the capital was moved to Rio de Janeiro at the time the Portu­guese royal family came from Europe to take up resi­dence dur­ing the Napoleonic wars.

Brad Sheppard, president of the Brazil Salvador Mission, met us at the airport. One of his new assistants, Elder Rómulo Mello, was on his way to São Paulo for a week for some kind of medi­cal treatment and to be sealed to his family in the temple. (We didn't figure out until tonight that this Elder Mello was Renata's brother from Manaus.)

The Sheppards originally had in­vited us to spend the night at their home, but they had a sister with what may be rheu­matic fever who had to use the only extra room, so President Sheppard put us up at a little hotel near the beach that they use to house groups of new mis­sionaries.

We freshened up before he re­turned at 9:00 to drive us up to the old part of the city, where we spent several hours touring the cathedral, many other old churches filled with gold and silver and old paint­ings, and the Pelourinho, where all the houses, shops, and other build­ings have been restored in colorful fashion to their six­teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century splendor. We saw where Jorge Amado, a famous Brazilian author, had lived and worked. We visited the H. Stern jewelry store, which included a walk through a Disney­esque mineral mine and a sales pitch to buy some beauti­ful but expen­sive Brazilian gems.

It rained on us a couple times, once quite heavily, and we had to stand in a door­way until it lessened.

The churches we had seen re­minded us of a passage in the Book of Mormon: "Behold, the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abomi­na­ble church" (1 Nephi 13:8).

The African slaves were required to build the many churches in Salva­dor but were denied access after they were com­pleted. The prophet Nephi had also seen that in vision: "Because of pride, and be­cause of false teach­ers, and false doc­trine, their churches have become cor­rupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up. They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries" (2 Nephi 28:13).

Our guide for the day, Carlos, did a thorough job, was a pleasant fellow, and we hope really should have been paid the R$100 (US$89 total or R$20 a piece) he charged us.

We took the municipal elevator the 700 meters or so from the cidade alta (upper city) down to the cidade baixa (lower city) and spent a couple more hours in the mercado looking for and buying Bahian souvenir gifts for those back home.

While we were waiting for Presi­dent Sheppard to pick us up, I con­versed with a British couple that was visiting Brazil from Lon­don. Like us, they go tomorrow to Manaus.

President Sheppard took us to the mission home (the same one Rebecca lived in for three months in 1993 when she came to Brazil with Cláudia Amato), where we met more of the Sheppard family. The mission home is on the third floor of a seven-story apartment building and has a large balcony that overlooks a lovely little tropical forest that has birds and monkeys and such.

Bruce Harper had called me from work, so President Sheppard had me call him back, then invited me to call home to Claudia. They ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, a nice change of pace for the girls, who have bravely tried a lot of Brazilian foods.

During dinner the heavens opened and dumped a lot of rain. Many of the streets turned into rivers and lakes. Mary and Eliza played sliding games with the two youngest Sheppard girls on the wet tiles of the big balcony overlooking the monkey jungle. Presi­dent Sheppard then drove us back to the hotel through the torrential down­pour. The street next to the hotel was a river.

Tuesday, June 2
Talmage’s 21st birthday. We will be see­ing him in just two more days.

President Sheppard picked us up from our hotel at 6:00 and drove us to the airport to catch our 7:10 flight to São Paulo and then back north to Manaus. The two flights were un­eventful, and we arrived about 1:30 this afternoon in Manaus. Álvaro and Marta Pinto came to meet us, along with one of Álvaro's counselors in the stake presidency who has a Volks­wagen bus.

We went to Álvaro and Marta's house, where we ate. Álvaro, who is one of several stake presidents here in Manaus, works for the Church Educa­tional System as a coordinator for northern Brazil. He and Marta visited the United States for the first time last September, when they stayed with Michael and Shauna. They have three boys: Éneo (age 18), Olípio (age 14), and Plínio (who will turn 4 on Sep­tem­ber 2, Michael's birth­day). They are trying to arrange for Éneo to come to the United States this coming Dec­ember to study English.

After we were through eating we went to the Manaus opera house or Teatro Amazonas, as it is known here. The famous landmark was built in 1896, dur­ing the height of the rubber boom in the Amazon basin. We got to the opera house just after it closed, so the girls did not get a chance to see inside. (I attended a per­formance here four years ago when I came to pick Michael up from his mis­sion.) We also visited the nearby praça and an old church built a hundred years ago (new in compari­son with the Salvador churches). It was raining lightly.

Next we went out to Ponta Negra2 and walked through the little zoo at the Hotel Tropical and down to the river. It is a beautiful spot. A lovely sunset occurred while we were there. Then we came home and ate again, after which we went to the Shopping.

The four girls slept in Éneo's and Olípio's room, and I slept in Plínio's room. Just before retiring, Marta had us call Mom and Michael and Shauna.

Wednesday, June 3
This morning, leaving about two hours behind schedule, we got in a little ten-passenger boat named "Cláudia" to go out on the river. After leaving the port of Manaus, which is capable of handling ocean-going vessels even though it is nearly 800 miles from the coast, we traveled down the Rio Negro to where it joins the Solimões and becomes the Amazon River. The place is called the encontra das aguas (the Meeting of the Waters) and is dis­tinctly visible because the black waters of the Rio Negro and the light brown of the Solimões do not mix for many miles downstream. It is a most fascinating site.

Afterward we also saw and did many other interesting things in the jungle. For example, we saw some giant lily pads called vitória régia (Queen Victoria, so named by the English explorer who first found them), ate lunch on a floating res­taurant, fished, went out into the jungle and got the boat stuck in a marsh, saw a croco­dile, many colored birds, some scary spiders, a huge snake, monkeys, a large turtle, and such things. An adventuresome day.

Back in Maceió, we stopped at the mercado, visited some friends of the Pintos, toured the school where Álvaro and Marta take night classes at the uni­versity, and ate dinner. After­ward we prepared for our 12:15 flight to São Paulo. Francisco and Marlene, whom Michael baptized four or five years ago, came to visit and took some of us to the airport.

Thursday, June 4
At 15 minutes after midnight we left Manaus on an international flight coming from Caracas and going be­yond São Paulo to Buenos Aires. For the first time, we were in five dif­ferent rows on the plane, and some­one was already in Mary's and my seats. The plane was full, but the stewardess found us other seats. We arrived in São Paulo around 5:00 a.m.

We had three hours, we thought, between flights, so some ate breakfast (having slept through the meal on the plane), Camilla, Eliza, and I mailed 12 postcards, Rachael and I got more money from the Bradesco ATM, and I called Sandra Amato about our coming to see them next week.

Our 8:00 flight to Curitiba was late in leaving because fog had closed the airport in Curitiba. We waited a while, were bused to another part of the airport, and finally left São Paulo at 10:30. After the normal one-hour flight to the capital of Paraná, we circled Curitiba for an addi­tional 30 minutes before we were cleared to land. It still looked pretty fog­gy, and I hoped the pilot knew what he was doing and would not hit the ground until there was actual runway beneath him.

There is a new terminal since we flew through Curitiba two years ago on our way to Foz do Iguaçu. We took a large taxi (something like a Volks­wagen bus) from the airport to the mis­sion home at Praça Joseph Smith in the Portão area of the city. The mis­sion office is a part of the large meet­inghouse that houses the Portão stake and three wards.

We had planned to stash our lug­gage and ask the office elders what we could do until time to meet Talmage (around 4:30 or 5:00). But, to our surprise and his, Talmage was there, and we excitedly greeted him. It was good to see him again.

Talmage and the other five mis­sion­aries being released were taken to the mis­sion home for their final meal and testimony meeting with President and Sister Adhemar Damiani, whom we had an op­portunity to meet. (Presi­dent Damiani was sustained at the April general con­ference as an Area Authority Seventy and will become a member of the Brazil South Area Presidency in August.)

A member named Tony took the girls and me to a nearby shop­ping mall to eat lunch in the food court. Mary, Eliza, and Camilla had pizza. Rachael, Tony, and I selected a buffet.

We went back to the church and found that our luggage was locked in a room, and everyone with keys had gone. So we sat in the courtyard of the church, trying to ward off the cold by staying in the sun, patiently waiting for all the mis­sionaries to return. The girls were all ex­ceedingly tired be­cause we had not really been to bed for two days.

Since we planned to spend all night traveling on a bus from Curitiba to Foz do Iguaçu (a ten-hour trip), it didn't seem to make sense to arrange a hotel until we returned Saturday morning. Some of the girls needed a shower before Saturday, so they decided to take a cold shower at the church even though it was quite cold already. I thought they were either very brave or very desperate.

After the missionaries returned and Talmage was officially re­leased to our care, Talmage and I walked over to a little travel agency to buy our bus tickets to Foz do Iguaçu. We were surprised to dis­cover the tickets were far more expensive than we had anticipated. As we considered the cost, how bushed everyone was, and how cold it was, we decided not to go to Iguaçu tonight and go find a hotel instead. We walked back to the church and told the girls our decision, and they all seemed relieved. We thought they might be upset that they all took cold showers for nothing.

We called Tony to come haul us to some hotel and, while waiting for him, got hamburgers from the lunch counter on the corner. Tony took us to half a dozen or more hotels, trying to arrange the best deal for us. Every­where we checked required us to get two rooms. The final place we found was a suite that would hold all six of us on the 13th floor of the Hotel Tibagi, located on Rua Candido Lopes just a few blocks from Praça Tira­dentes, in the center of downtown Curitiba. The room was the cheapest we found and was one of the few that had air conditioning, which in transla­tion meant it was heated, and which it turned out was very important to have.

Friday, June 5
Talmage took us today visiting mem­bers and investigators he knew in Vila Tebas. They all seemed happy to see him again. On the bus ride to that part of the city, Camilla turned white as a sheet and nearly passed out on us. A lady on the bus is the one who noticed first and quickly invited Camilla, who was standing at the time, to take her seat. She seemed to survive the rest of the day, although we could tell she was not feeling well and probably had a fever.

Saturday, June 6
Talmage took us today visiting in Pinheirinho and Jardim da Ordem (his final area in Curitiba). It is pleasing to see how much he cares for the mem­bers, and how much they care for him. Every home we visited, of course, offered us either some­thing to eat or drink, as these dear Brazilians are wont to do to express their hospitality. Here in Curitiba, for­tu­nately, it is actually safe to drink the water.

The last member we visited owned a car and drove us back into the center of Curitiba, first to the rodo­viária to pur­chase our bus tickets to São Paulo, and then back to our hotel.

Camilla has a fever and definitely appears to be sick.

Sunday, June 7
Today was fast Sunday, so we did not eat breakfast in the hotel res­taurant as on the previous two days. We decided to have Camilla stay in the room all day and rest. She has a fever and a sore throat and just looks sick. Rachael stayed with her. It appears our decision to skip Iguaçu was a good call.

Talmage took Mary, Eliza, and I to church in the Almirante Tamandaré Branch. It took us three buses to get there, and buses don't run as frequent­ly on Sundays, so we got there a little late, just in time for Sunday School to start. Talmage and I went in the class for new members. Mary and Eliza went in the youth Sunday School class.

One of the two missionaries serving in the branch was an Elder Sandberg from Bountiful. His little sister plays on Eliza's soccer team. His father was one of Talmage's seminary teachers in high school. The elder wrote a quick letter to his family for us to carry back to Utah, and we took a picture of him and his com­panion.

Fast and testimony meeting in the branch was very nice and turned into a eulogy for Elder Cleverly. It was clear, as it had been among all the members we've visited the past two days, that Talmage is held in highest esteem among these good people.

After church we went to the branch president's home to eat Sun­day dinner put together by three dif­ferent families in the branch. They even had a birthday cake for Talmage, who turned 21 last Tues­day.

Talmage also wanted to take us to visit some members in Santa Felicidade, including the Amato family, a brother of the Amato family we'll be staying with in São Paulo, but we ran out of time and energy.

The temperature both yesterday and today was delightful, much warmer than on Thurs­day when we arrived here, and the skies were clear and beautiful. It re­minded me of being in southern Califor­nia at Christmastime.

Back at the hotel, we found Camilla still alive (for which we were grateful). She and Rachael had spent a quiet, restful day. We tried calling home to­night, but we couldn't get our calling card to work from the hotel's phone system.

Monday, June 8
This morning we checked out of our hotel. It had been a nice home for the past four days. It had cost us R$128 per day (approximately US$114), plus the man­datory 10 per­cent service fee that is added to that price. Two taxis took us to the rodo­viária to catch our 12:00 noon bus to São Paulo. The countryside through the states of Paraná and São Paulo was very pretty, somewhat moun­tain­ous, and generally forested or under cultivation of some kind.

The ride itself became quite scary, however, after the divided highway leaving Curitiba turned into a narrow two-way road. The bus driver was a suicidal maniac who was bent on our destruction. He would pass entire lines of slow-moving trucks, often without regard to whether we were rounding a corner or cresting a hill and could not see what oncoming traffic we might plow into. Talmage and I had the misfortune of be­ing in the front two seats directly behind the driver and could clearly see every­thing com­ing at us. Despite what we considered a few very close calls, the driver deli­vered us safely to São Paulo six hours later. (The trip from Curitiba to São Paulo was six hours, just as we had been told, but that did not factor in the additional two hours it took to get from the edge of São Paulo across the city to the rodoviária.)

The Amatos, whom we had called last night from Curitiba, had told us to take the metro from the station next to the rodo­viária to the Saúde station near their home and that they would pick us up there. We did as they had said and made it without incident to that portion of the city. The metro was clean, not too crowded at the time we were riding it, and delivered us in about 40 or 45 minutes. Talmage got talking to a young man, 21 years old, who was a law student and who that very day had broken up with his girl friend. He was unable to get him to agree to a visit from the missionaries.

After we called the Amatos, they came in two cars, picked the six of us up, and took us back to their home. Homero Amato had been Cade's mis­sion president in the Brazil Salvador Mission. Sandra Amato, his wife, was not feeling well and was already in bed by the time we arrived around 9:00. She had been at the hospital much of the day having medical tests. Their oldest child, Cláudia, lives with her husband Joel (a returned mission­ary from the Manaus mission) in Provo, where they are just finishing up from BYU. Daniel, now living back at home, is a returned missionary from the Texas Dallas Mis­sion. Eduardo is now on a mission in the Georgia Atlanta Mis­sion. Miriam, age 14, looks very much like her older sister Cláudia did when she came to live with us back in 1993. Homerinho, the youngest, is now eight years old.

After we got to the Amatos, Talmage went with Daniel to a pizza place to get our supper. We ate and visited and e-mailed people at home and looked at new little Caleb's home page and saw our first pic­tures of him and finally bedded down for the night. Their home actually has a base­ment, unusual for a Brazilian house, and we slept on mattresses spread all over the floor. Camilla is still sick. We finally took her temperature, and it is rather high. The Amatos gave her some medicine to help bring it down.

Tuesday, June 9
A beautiful day in São Paulo. The skies were clear. The temperature just perfect.

We called home to Utah and talked with Mom. She was very sad that we had not gone to Iguaçu but understood when we explained about Camilla's not being well. It was won­derful to talk to her again. She will make a doctor's appoint­ment for Camilla for Thursday after­noon after our return that morning.

This morning we had planned to go to a museum not far from the Amatos' house, but we were all too slow in getting started for the day. Toward midday Sister Amato and Daniel drove us in two dif­ferent cars to a bus stop, where we caught a bus that took us to the temple. We had wanted to go through the temple, with the girls doing baptisms for the dead, but the temple had closed for its winter break after the sessions on Sat­urday. We were able to take some pic­tures in front of the temple.

We went into the area office next door to the temple and visited with Elder W. Craig Zwick, the Area President. His first counselor, Elder Claudio R. M. Costa (who was Michael's first mission presi­dent in Manaus), was away on assign­ment. Elder Zwick arranged for someone to take us out to the new MTC facility later in the afternoon. First we went to the shopping center across the street to eat lunch and to allow Eliza to look for a wooden monkey like Mom had purchased there two years ago, but the girls couldn't find any.

We met some elders from the Brazil São Paulo North Mission, who said their mission office was just a couple blocks away, so Talmage and I went with them to see if we could meet President Fenton Broadhead, who had served with me as a young missionary. Unfortunately, President Broadhead would not be return­ing until after we had to be back to the area office to catch our ride to the MTC.

The missionary training center was dedicated last year and is the largest facility the Church has built outside the United States. Michael's second mission president, Aldo Francesconi, is now the director of training at the MTC. He met us and gave us a tour of the marvelous facility, showing us parts of it that even the missionaries in residence never get to see. He also gave us a few cases of shampoo and Pringles potato chips that Proctor and Gamble had donated large amounts of to the Church.

President Francesconi told us that tomorrow Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve, would be in town and would be meet­ing with all of the mis­sion presidents from all over Brazil.

Our driver took us back to the Amatos' home, and we spent a quiet evening visit­ing. President Amato and Daniel went off to a meeting of the BYU Management Society, which they had invited Talmage and me to attend with them, but we stayed to visit with a former missionary that Michael had known in Manaus, Sister Bitten­court, and her husband. A pleasant evening.

Wednesday, June 10
Our last day in Brazil. We went over to a shopping center that was within walking distance of the Amatos' house and bought a few final gifts for people back home.

At the various places we had been staying here in Brazil, we had given the members either a CD or a cassette tape of the Tabernacle Choir's latest release Faith in Every Footstep, which everyone seemed to especially enjoy receiving.

At noon we joined the Amatos and some of their friends in watching Brazil's opening game in the World Cup, which is being played this year in France. Daniel had set up equip­ment that pro­jected the TV on the wall. (Four years ago Daniel had gone with us to San Francisco to watch the opening game between Brazil and Russia.) We handed out cans of Pringles potato chips to each person there.

Brazilians really take their soccer seriously, and it was a cultural experi­ence in itself for the girls to get to see and hear how they watch a game. The final score was Brazil 2 and Scotland 1, so there was major jubilation in the streets, and this city of more than 20 million people largely shut down for the rest of the day (of course, it was also the eve of a national Brazilian holiday tomorrow). This worked greatly to our advantage later in the afternoon because the traffic on our way to the airport was not too bad.

When I was a missionary in Brazil in 1970, Brazil became the first country ever to win its third title in the World Cup. When Michael was a mis­sionary here in 1994, Brazil became the first country to win its fourth title. Now that Talmage has been here in 1998, we hope that helps Brazil win its fifth title.

Late this afternoon the Amatos drove us to the Congonhas air­port, which is relatively close to their home. There at 5:30 we caught an express bus for an hour-long ride to the Gaurulhos airport on the other side of the city, and went through the lengthy process of getting out of Brazil. Finally, at shortly after 9:00 p.m. São Paulo time (which would have been 6:00 back in Utah) we lifted off and were headed home. Our wonderful adventure and Talmage's mission were coming to a close.

Thursday, June 11
We arrived in Chicago early this morning. It was raining. After going through immigration and clearing customs, we took the train to the terminal where our final flight would take us home to Utah. That flight was late because the plane we'd be flying on didn't arrive from Florida until half an hour after it had been scheduled. While we were wait­ing, I finished reading the second of the three books in the Lord of the Rings. I had started rereading the trilogy when our trip began. (Once before, during my freshman year, back before my mission, I had read the tales of Hobbits and the other creatures from Middle Earth and the mighty struggle between the forces of good and evil.)

After we were finally on the plane and had pulled away from the gate, the pilot came on the intercom to tell us that there were 12 planes in front of us waiting to take off and that we'd be delayed at least 15 min­utes if not more. Not many minutes later he came back on to say that all flights going west from Chicago were grounded be­cause of severe weather and that we would just sit on the run­way until further notice.

The lady in the seat next to me was from New York State and was going home to Bountiful to visit her father. She had grown up in Bountiful in the same ward that Marv Gardner and Phil and Dorothy Johnson live in. She loved to talk, and I felt like I had known her all my life by the time we were even in the air.

Finally, we were cleared for take off and, as we flew west across the mid section of the country, had some of the worst turbulence I ever remember. We touched down in Salt Lake about two hours late, and the girls had made Talmage agree to be the last one off the plane (so they could take his picture). It was a joyful reunion and, even though we had had a marvelous trip, we were all glad to be home.

During the 17 days we were gone to Brazil, the girls and I rode on 12 separate airplanes (pretty good for young travelers who were fly­ing for the first time) as we visited five different regions of that vast country. Other forms of transportation included cars, a school bus, a boat, taxis, buses, and trains. And a lot of walking.

Camilla, who was noticeably sick during the final days of our trip, went to the doctor a few hours after return­ing home and found out she did have a strep infection. No one suffered any ill effects from strange food or water.

All of the family gathered to greet the returning hero, Talmage, who was meeting two nieces (Meghan and Miriam) and a nephew (Caleb) for the first time. We all re­turned from the airport to our house, where we had six-foot subway sandwiches and drinks and opened the gifts we had pur­chased on the trip.

Talmage was officially released from his mission at 6:30 Thursday evening by President Larry Veigel. He went to the temple for the first time on Saturday morn­ing, reported to the high council Sunday morning, and spoke to the ward Sunday afternoon. His fluency in English steadily returned each day he was home.