Curitiba--Day 1

One of my greatest pleasures in life is hanging out with amazing people who have amazing stories to share. Usually the moments seem to short and there is not enough time to discuss everything. But this trip to Curitiba has been different as we had three full days to hang out with three of Jason~s best mission companions, one wife and a mother of the other one. We have laughed, talked and philosphied about life nonstop. These guys are all amazing and I~m so glad Jason has kept in touch with them over the years because I know all three of them pretty well.

After we checked into our hotel on Thursday morning we got on a bus and headed straight to the temple. We took the bus everywhere. It is cheap and so convenient. Every bus stop has a tube system that makes getting off and on the bus fast and easy. It was usually standing room only and we had a great time surfing on the bus.

The temple is beyond amazing. Every detail is spectacular. The landscaping is breathtaking. We hung out with some Brazilian members of the church who were working in the office and they were so hospitable feeding us some yummy snacks and juice. We secured our tickets for the 11:30 am dedicatory session on Sunday and then proceeded to give ourselves a self-guided tour of the temple. There were some people inside cleaning and we just pretended that we belonged there. It was convenient that several church employees were on our flight earlier so I think we just blended in with them. Every room took my breath away. My favorite room has murals of Curitiba landmarks such as Iguasu Falls and the unique aracaria tree that only grows in Brazil. There were also lots of paintings by Frank Magleby who we love. We spent a lot of time just enjoying the temple.

On Thursday night we all headed to dinner at a churrascarria restaurant. They cook all different kinds of meat and bring it around to your table on a big skewer. I had the best black beans and the most tender filet mignon. Anything we requested our cute waiter brought back to our table within minutes. After dinner we headed out of the restaurant and stumbled into a gang of transvestites. We were all laughing our heads off but inside I was terrified. These were big, angry men--Amazon size! We scurried out of there as fast as we could but for a square block they were everywhere. Jason swears he never saw anything like that on his mission. We were in a nice area of town too and it was only 9:00 at night.