south america trip

-We leave the U.S.A. and fly from Phoenix to LA. We then get on a plane and fly from LA to Lima. Plane stops in Lima, we wait on plane, then we fly to Santiago, Chile, which is way too far south of our ultimate destination Rio de Janeiro. We land in Santiago, Chile. We change planes, we wait, then we fly to Sau Paulo, Brazil. We land in Sau Paulo, Brazil, we wait on the plane then eventually take off to Rio de Janeiro. We land in Rio. Assigned taxi driver waiting for us refuses to take us because we have 6 bags. We wait on the curb at the airport for an hour while she argues on the phone in Portuguese. She finally takes us to our hotel. 27 hours later, we arrive at our hotel in Rio. Poor little Oscar did amazing, barely even cried.

-Rio was super cool, we were alone just us 3. Oscar spent his 1st birthday in Rio being sung to by complete strangers in Portuguese on the tram down from the Cristo. We saw Christo Redentor, Pao de Azucar, and Ipanema beach. We were there for 3 nights.









-We fly from Rio to Porto Alegre, Nate's Mission. Only a 3 hour flight. We arrive and his friends (a family that took great care of him) Gu and Elisandra pick us up and we spend lots of time with them. They don't have kids yet so they were IN HEAVEN with Oscar. I don't think I held him once while we were with them. They held the little 27 pounder in their arms at all times, saying "que lindo!!!"

-We rented a car and drove around visiting people from 3 of Nate's areas. We stayed the night in each area and I LOVED everyone I met. All his loved ones I met, I now consider my friends and loved ones. Everyone that was special to him is now so special to me. Every area's landscape was super different too, Brazil is so cool. We were in Porto Alegre for 6 days. Nate turned 24 in Porto Alegre and we had a cake for him and spent the day (Sunday) with friends at Gu and Elisandra's house. We're so sad because we don't have any pictures of Michaelangelo and Lillian. Nate got to teach Lillian and she was baptized by him too. Her and her husband have since been married in the temple and had a little girl. The pictures of them were on our camera that was stolen so all we have are pictures of their daughter Julia and Oscar playing together so happily.




Gu and Elisandra. They are like family to me now.




That's Lilian holding Oscar. She's the coolest convert. She's a biker chick with a tattoo and she loves hard metal and progressive rock. She seriously used to work at a motorcycle shop. Now she loves teaching Julia about Jesus and she loves church, but don't worry she still loves her heavy metal.




-We leave Porto Alegre, sadly, and fly back to Rio in order to catch a plane to Iguazu falls. Only a 2 hr flight, at this point anything under 27 hrs is cake to us.

- We spent 2 days and 3 nights at Iguazu falls. We saw both the Brazilian side and the Argentine side. It was INCREDIBLE.











-We fly from Iguazu falls to Buenos Aires, maybe like a 2 hr flight. We stay in Buenos Aires for 4 days doing the tourist thing and getting our camera stolen by a professional pick pocketing woman. I still get emotional thinking about it. It's the most frustrating experience to be intentionally confused by someone so that they can distract you and take your bag from you without you even realizing. So basically we don't have any good pictures of Argentina. I mean we have some, but they're from my cell phone and I was just sulking too much about the stolen camera to get motivated to take a picture with my cell phone.

-Day 4 in Argentina we rent a car to drive up to my mission, Rosario. There was a huge rental car fiasco, but long story short, the fiasco put us behind schedule by 6 hours. So we had so much less time to do visits then we had thought. We went to 3 of my areas and 2 of my companions from Argentina came with us. I LOVED seeing everyone and getting to spend more than 20 min with them. I wish I could have visited more people, but I guess there's always skype. It was such a cool experience to see everyone's progress, whether they were friends, companions, or converts, everyone was such an inspiration.







-Drive back to Buenos Aires and spend time with my companion and her family before leaving. Here's Oscar being taught to be "despacito" with their super old and blind dog that he had just man handled and lifted 2 ft. into the air.




-Fly back to U.S., only a 14 hour flight thank goodness.


We had an amazing time. Wish I could tell everything but no one has the patience for that. But it was so worth everything and we're so happy we did it. Oscar was such a good boy and we couldn't have asked for a better little trooper. I truly only remember him actually crying twice on the whole trip from being tired. Other than that he was as happy as can be, dancing as much as he possibly could. I'll blog about Oscar soon, he's changing so much. We're glad to be home.

P.S. sorry about the confusing mixed present and past tenses. i'm too lazy to go back and fix them now.