Revisiting a Ward in Sao Paulo

Another week of travel another visit to another church in a foreign land. This time I had the
opportunity to attend church in a ward I visited just under two years ago in Sao Paulo. (Indianapolis Ward). The ward has grown quite a bit and there were some people that actually remembered me. It was fun to see how the ward has changed and to talk to people that remembered me.

Like every time I visit I noticed that everything is very much the same and different. First it was great to hear the hymns in Portuguese again. Brought back memories of my mission and how I played the piano (not very well) in many of my areas because no one else could play. When the sacrament meeting started about 1/3 of the seats were filled. By the end of Sacrament meeting it was filled. This brought back memories as well. :) Another thing I noticed was I was the
only one with white hair. (insert old man jokes here.) This reminded me of toward the end of my mission when my parents came to pick me up I was surprise at how fair skinned they were and my mom's blond hair really stood out. I guess I had not looked in a mirror for two years.

This trip has more meaning this year because my son was just called to serve his mission in this part of the world. This ward is in his mission (a geographical area that missionaries serve). I talked to some of the other missionaries that are here and got a feel for the area. Tips of the trade to pass on to Jacob.

After Church I headed over to the Sao Paulo Interlagos Mission Home. This is the central office for the mission and I took some pictures and a couple of videos to share with my son Jacob. I ran into a couple more people that work in the mission office. Brother and Sister Loveless. They work in the office a handle logistics and care and feeding of the missionaries. They knew that Jacob was coming and even told me the date that he was going to arrive Aug 8th, after spending 6 weeks in the Mission Training Center in a different part of Sao Paulo (about 45 minutes away).

There is a Stake building next to the mission office so I went inside to see what it was like and talk to more missionaries. When I walked in I could hear the primary children singing. It was a beautiful sound and reminded me of my primary class I team teach with my wife every Sunday. I miss those kids this week. I also found a bulleten board that listed the missionaries from the stake. They had missionaries serving all over the world. Including the US, Europe, Central and South America. I sometimes forget that other parents in other countries are missing their children as they serve in other countries as well.

I look forward to hearing weekly from Jacob when he is on his mission and to see the pictures of this beautiful place.

DWP

Check out my videos from Sao Paulo Here

Church in Andorra Branch in Spain

When I travel I always try to go to church on Sundays. I have always found interesting people in all of my travels. It is also fun to see how this global church is so much the same no matter where I travel with some of the small differences. In my latest travels I got to attend church in Andorra. Andorra is a small country in the middle of the Pyrenees. The Andorran Branch was very unique in its own special way. This time I got to experience this with my wife and one of my sons, Dallin, that just got home from his Mission to Denver Colorado.

First the Andorra Branch is not in the country of Andorra but in Spain, specifically in a little town, Lleida. The Branch actually covers all of Andorra and several small towns and villages in the Northern part of Spain. We met the Branch President and his Wife, President and Sister Fower and two young men missionaries (Elders). The missionary couple are from Utah and this is their second mission. Their previous mission was to South Africa.  They have been out in this mission for 3 months. They have been called to help revitalize this little branch in the Lord's vineyard. The Branch has about 25-30 active members and would have more coming except for the long distances some people have to travel to come to church.. The Branch used to meet in Andorra but many of the Spanish members did not have passports to get across the border to Andorra each Sunday. So they switched the meeting place to Spain. According to President Fower, the plan is to strengthen this Branch and then get things happening in Andorra as well.

President and Sister Fower are doing great work for this fledgling branch. They actually live in a small farm house that the branch members come and help with gardening and take care of chickens. The Fowers bought the farm to help teach the members to be more self sufficient.  You can tell that the members absolutely enjoy working with the Fowers.

Sacrament meeting was great and we could really feel the spirit. Even though we don't speak spanish we could understand most of what was being said.  It is great to hear the saints sing the hymns as well. We did our best to sing in spanish and I am sure we helped contribute to this small branches music that day. At the beginning of the meeting, the branch president announced the program and over the pulpit asked Dallin, in Spanish, if he would get up and bare his testimony as one of the talks. For some reason we could understand everything and Dallin agreed. Dallin did a great job.

Overall, another great Sunday in a foreign land. As always the familiarity of Church always brings comfort and new friends.

DWP

Church in Taipei Taiwan

In my travels I have the opportunity to see lots of different things. One of my favorite things is to

attend church on Sundays in the countries I travel. This last week I was in Taipei Taiwan. I do my best to find an English speaking ward so I can at least understand what is being said. And that is typically fairly easy in large cities through out the world. And Taipei was no different. The Taipei Ward is an English speaking ward and right next the the Taipei temple. So I hopped in a taxi and went to church.

One common thing I find in these expat wards is typically a little bit older ward with diplomats and expat executives attending the ward. This ward was very similar, but I did find a large youth program, larger than I have seen in most expat wards. I especially found a large number of young women in this ward compared to young men. I thought, wouldn't be nice if I had some of my boys with me on this trip. :)

One thing I found in this ward was that it was very reverent. Which is a nice change from my ward which is very loud during sacrament meeting (we have a large primary and 2 nurseries, :) ) I also noticed that much like my ward they loved to sing. I always enjoy wards that love to sing. It brings a nice spirit into the meetings.

Being Mother's day the meeting talks were all about Mothers and their roles in society. A family spoke as this was their last week in the ward before they moved back to the States. All of the talks were very good and reminded me how important a good mother (which I am privileged to have) to society. One of the best phrases in the talks was given by the 16 year old daughter that spoke. "If at first you don't succeed, do what you mother told you." I had to right that down it was so funny and os true. Look for something from Daisy Blossom about that in the future.



I then spent sometime after church walking around the temple grounds and took some video and pictures for Austin (my nephew) and Daniel (my brother) who both served in Taipei on their missions.

One of the best things about Mother's day for Mormon families is we get to talk to our kids that are missions on Mother's day. So, even though it was on Monday morning in Taipei I got to talk to Dallin via Skype on Mother's day. Something I always look forward to no matter where I am in the world.

DWP

Attending Church on Vacation: Aruba

Everyone needs a vacation! We all need a break from the busy lives that we lead. A chance to rejuvenate. Get away from all of our responsibilities. Pretend if only for a moment that there aren't science fair projects to get done, bills to pay, kids to run from music lessons to sport practices, deadlines at work.... My wife and I actually do a really good job disconnecting from the "Normal" world that we live in when we are on vacation. One of the things we don't take a vacation from is our religion.

Benefits of Church on Vacation

Okay, I know you are thinking this is going to be preachy, but many that know us know that our religion is part of who we are. So one of the things we always do is go to church on Sunday. Not only do we get a spiritual booster shot, we get to enjoy the company of people in the place we are visiting. Because we have something in common with these people, our belief in Jesus Christ and his Gospel, we quickly make friends and have something to share. We have never had a bad experience doing this. Just the opposite. Many times we have found some connection, albeit sometimes a very distant connection with someone there.

Finding the Church in Aruba

There are great resources on LDS tools, the meeting house locator (https://www.lds.org/maps/meetinghouses/)  to find where churches are and when they hold church. So if you have a smart phone or even a computer, you can quickly find out where and when church is held. You can also find out what language the meetings are held in. This was very handy in Aruba because they speak 4 languages on the small island. Papiamento, Dutch, English, and Spanish.  We had two choices. A branch in Oranjestad (Spanish/Papiamento) or in San Nicolas (English). We chose the English speaking branch in the town of San Nicolas. It was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel in Oranjestad. 

Strange looks from the tourist

We got dressed in our Sunday best and headed down from our hotel room through the lobby. A lobby filled with vacationers in their swimsuits and beach gear ready for another sunny day on the beach. To say we had strange looks from people is an understatement. We had several questions from people on where we were going. Many people asked us where the wedding was being held. We just mentioned that we where headed to Church. You should have seen their looks. Some were  "good for you", others gave a look of confusion. Anyway, we used it as a small missionary moment. We hopped in the car and headed south on the 10 mile drive to the other side of the island. It was another beautiful day in Aruba.

Every Branch has its own Culture

Every time we have gone to church on vacation we always find something unique and special about the wards or branches that we go to. The San Nicolas Aruba branch was no different. We walked into a branch building which we quickly learned used to be a house at one time. It is a cute building that you could tell had several great branch activities and you could feel a closeness of the members of the branch. We looked at pictures on the the wall of their branch activities, baptisms and a missionary plaque of a missionary recently sent out from the branch to the Paris France mission.  We took our seats in the makeshift chapel which was mostly just chairs (enough for 40 people) in what used to be a family room in the house.

Before the Sacrament meeting started, we were greeted by the branch president, several other members of the branch and the missionaries. Of course we have a soft spot for the missionaries because Dallin is out on his mission. They were a very friendly congregation and we felt right at home. We also met another couple that were there on vacation as well. They where from Utah and were there on a get away from life just like us. (Great minds think alike).

Bi-lingual Church

The San Nicolas Aruba Branch is an interesting branch because their meetings are in English and Spanish. We found this out from talking to the missionaries. They told us that Sacrament meeting would be in English and Spanish. All of the announcements would be given in both languages and then there would be a Spanish talk and an English talk. The Elders and some members of the ward would translate to people that only spoke one or the other languages. Most people in Aruba speak 3 or more languages so the only translating I saw being down was to us on the other couple there from Utah.

Music Loud and Reverent

Anytime you go to another ward or branch you always find a big difference in the musicality of the congregation. We have been in some wards that sang so quietly you could only hear the organ, others you could not hear the organ at all. As we started the first hymn we were shocked at how loud this small branch of 30 people sang. It was awe-inspiring. When they sang the hymns you felt they really meant what they sang. It was loud yet reverent at the same time. You could really feel the closeness and spirituality of the branch. What would it be like if all of the wards/branches in the Church sang like this small branch in Aruba, with conviction, reverence and volume.

The music was also sung in both English and Spanish at the same time. So they always annouced the hymns numbers in Spanish and English. It was very interesting hearing the hymns sung in two languages at the same time.

Surprise connection

With every trip Paige and I take we always find some kind of connection. This of course is even
more prevalent at church. Well we found that there is an Elder Sheppard (Paige's maiden name) in Aruba. It is such a small name in the Church so they started looking at how they are related. They did not find a connection but of course being true Sheppards they hit it off great.

What a great trip and a great experience. I can't wait for our next trip and to find new people to talk to and learn more about how the Gospel is influencing their lives.

DWP

PS.
This trip inspired Paige to create a new product for her shop. Daisy Blossom Creations.