Hoe to the End of the Row

The title might make you think I am missing our garden and I am. Not that I really miss hoeing, but I do miss the great tasting veggies that are usually abundant this time of year. BUT that is not what this post is about.

It's about two of our missionaries that will be heading home in two days. They have been excellent missionaries: hard workers, obedient, got along with their companions, not obsessed with leadership positions, fun and friendly. The list could go on and on.

Tonight we attended a baptismal service for 2 families they have been working with the past little while. One couple has 4 children. The other family is a young couple without children. It was a very happy event. I was not only thrilled for the families, but proud of those two missionaries for working hard right up to the end of their missions. They knew how to hoe to the end of the row. If anybody out there is raising a prospective missionary, and I hope there are many that are, do him/her a favor and teach them that many times, the best harvests are at the end of the row, after you are already tired and tempted to quit. I hope I remember this myself.

One more picture: Two little cuties that were my BFsF after they found out about the Passion Fruit Tic Tacs I had in my purse. Aren't they darling?

Shopped 'til We Dropped

How did we end up buying all these shoes and flip flops when all we were really looking for was a brown blouse and some cream colored shoes for me and a pair of sandals for Rebecca? We really aren't sure. Things like that just happen sometimes.

Just for the record, they weren't all for us. Some were gifts and some were "orders" Rebecca had taken. Really, that is the truth.

We had made plans to go shopping with Claudia, the lady sitting by her son, Jared. When we got to her place to pick her up, we found out 2 more sisters and Jared had joined the party. We did some crazy driving out to a nearby town, Maraponga, where they have a fashion market. Because of the lack of sleeves or backs in blouses, and an abundance of plunging necklines we didn't buy much, but it was fun anyway. Claudia is a crazy shopper, always excited for a sign that says LIQIDACAO or PROMOCAO.

We found the displays and mannequins pretty interesting. This bright yellow one with a bikini on certainly made us take a second look.

This extra tall dude with white hair and a goatee was worthy of a snapshot or two we thought.
And our favorites were the "man"niquins, as Rebecca called them, that we saw. They were so broad and the heads looked way too small for the bodies. The store wasn't for cross-dressers or even for plus sizes that we could tell. They just liked big mannequins. We saw quite few in other stores too.

The day before Becca left, she made me go to one more store and try to find the brown blouse I needed to go with this cute skirt she brought for me. I really liked the skirt and didn't want to send it back with her, so I was glad she didn't let me give up. I finally found one that had a back, some sleeves, and no plunging neckline and it was even on PROMOCAO!