Breakfast with Stael

Mike had a good friend from Brazil come to the United States. She has been here for awhile, but every time she is in Sandy, we have been at the cabin. Stael was in Provo but leaving back to Brazil on Monday. Mike and I had the opportunity to take her out to breakfast today. It was really cool. She only speaks Portuguese, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time. Mike translated for me a lot though. I thought I videoed a bit of Mike talking to Stael, but it looks like I didn't push the button. Whoops. Mike lived in the same house as Stael for six months. He saw her and her husband every day. Stael was a mom to the missionaries. Stael's husband was the branch president when Mike was down there. His name was Angelo. He was killed last year. Hit by a car. Mike brought some pictures from his mission to give to Stael. A few of them had Angelo in it. She was in tears. She loved them.

Stael

 Stephanie, Mike, Stael

 Stael & Mike

 Mike, Stephanie, Stael

Mike has also been in contact with Janaisa. He baptized her family. He gave Stael his missionary tag to give to her. Janaisa wrote Mike about how much she loved it. That was cool.

 Mike with the guitar. Janaisa is in the middle. She is there with her mom and sisters.

 Stael, Marlene, Mike, Scoop

Marlene's husband Guillermo. Guillermo was with Angelo when he died. That was hard on him.

We went inside to meet the people Stael was staying at when we dropped her off. We stayed there for awhile talking to them. The dad was from India and the mom was from Paraguay, I think. They live part time in Brazil now. Crazy how many languages they speak.

Maysen and Jorja went on an adventure while we were gone. They bought some things for Stockton's farewell. Jorja also gave up on the succulent Conner gave her. It was dead. She had new ones planted in the pot, so hopefully they will survive our non-greenthumb household.

 RIP Conner's plant

I met the girls at Zuppas while Mike and Stockton headed to the temple. Today was Stockton's first time going through. Mike and Stockton had to be there pretty early. Once we got home, Maysen and I hurried and headed over there. We were over an hour early and barely got a card for the session. It was packed! My dad also came. They saved a card for him up front. It was awesome being in the celestial room with two of my kids. I hope and pray that they will always want to live worthy and we can have experiences like that throughout their life.

Stockton at the Draper Temple

 Maysen & Stockton

 Maysen, Stockton, Mike, Stephanie

 Mike, Stockton, Stephanie

We hurried home and picked up Preston. Next stop was the stake patriarch's house to pick up his patriarchal blessing. Then it was to Black Bear Diner. Stockton's choice. Jorja was at work. I wonder if Jorja still hates it. Bad memories. Hopefully she is over them now. She is doing much better emotionally.

Janaisa

I finally got around to sending pictures in for Stockton's yearbook. These pictures were taken back in December. Stockton's English teacher is in charge of the yearbook and asked him about them yesterday. He said he thought they had been sent in. Whoops. I hadn't even looked at them on my computer yet. I did get them sent in before school started. I hope they work out okay.

Gavin and Stockton

 Stockton & Gavin

I have a lot more diving pictures I'm going to put on here one day. Maybe. We'll see. I decided to do a mini-birthday celebration for Stockton today. Super mini. I am in another no-sugar contest which starts tomorrow. That means I won't get to have any of Stockton's super delicious birthday cake. I stopped and picked up these Cold Stone cupcakes. We waited until Preston came home from school before we sang 'Happy birthday' and dug in.

 Stockton

Jorja's hiding in the background because I told her to stop dabbing in the picture. I hurried Jorja and Preston in the car as soon as we finished. I took them to diving today. I stressed over and over to Jorja how we needed to leave as quickly so I could get back in time for splits with the missionaries. We made it just fine. Jorja and Stockton were able to go to their combined activity, which was serving at DI. Mike and I couldn't get ahold of the sister missionaries. They were supposed to contact us. Mike called Brother Brown about fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be there. He was surprised we hadn't been contacted. I tried to convince Mike that we should go to the church and find them there. Mike did not want to do that. Partly because he wasn't sure where we would meet them and mostly because he was feeling awful. Brother Brown called us back about five minutes after we were supposed to meet with the missionaries. They had gone on splits with another couple in the ward. All that unneeded stress. It was nice to go to bed early tonight. We didn't want to fall asleep until the kids were home, so we just watched tv. That's a lot easier than going on splits!

Mike did have a cool missionary story he would have been able to share. One of his favorite people he baptized on his mission contacted him through Facebook today. Her name is Janaisa. She was a very smart 17 year old when he baptized her, and was one of the first people that he worked with after becoming the more senior companion in Foz do Iguacu. They had exchanged letters once about 15 years ago when she married a guy she reactivated into the church. He had been trying to find her on Facebook for several years unsuccessfully. She is doing very well, still very active in the church and is totally grateful to Mike for serving a mission and totally changing her life for the better. Anyway, he was excited that she found him and they chatted online in Portuguese for awhile about some of the other people he worked with in that area. It's crazy that the people he taught are married with kids of their own now. I guess that was over twenty years ago. Mike was pretty happy after that conversation.