Curitiba to Canuihas

The three day General Conference weekend gave us an opportunity to take a little road trip. The Browns served down in Canoinhas when they were last in Brazil. It's about 180 km southwest of Curitiba - about three hours away. It's small compared to Curitiba with around 53,000 people who are mostly German-Brazilians. Lots of agriculture and logging. Because of that fact, you have to pass a lot of slow moving vehicles on the mostly two-lane roads going and coming into the city. 

I can't begin to tell you how cool we felt driving our very own car!! It sure beats the ônibus.

This is the city entrance. All little towns/cities seem to have something like this to welcome the weary travelers.

We stayed in the lovely Petry Plaza Hotel. You can see how highly decorated it is. But it was clean and had hot water so we couldn't complain. (They also had a very nice breakfast.)

Before Conference on Sunday we "attended" the Catholic Church in town. They were very friendly. One guy even came up and told us that his wife and son would be meeting with our missionaries later that day. 

We watched conference in the little branch. The members were  wonderful. They welcomed us into their homes and hearts. They were so happy to see the Browns again. They fed us. We even had popcorn in between sessions. You can't beat that!

Don and I apparently look just like the drawing on the left. As you can see, we have both lost a lot of weight and grown taller since being down here!

You can only imagine how getting another temple in Brazil was received!!

On our way to lunch on Monday we ran into Elders Goés and Morales. We invited them to lunch and they readily accepted. 

Unfortunately, Elders Segalla and Nasciento and Sisters Kehr and Ferreira didn't show up until after. Rats! These three sets of missionaries are all serving in Canuihas.

Before returning home on Monday we paid a visit to Mauro. He does wood marchetaria (wood inlay). We visited his workshop and couldn't resist buying a few pieces. The picture in the upper left hand corner shows him holding the dry hardwood knot from a fallen pinheiro pine which he then makes into the beautiful balls you see at the bottom.

I love these trees!

Our trip home was uneventful. After a good night's sleep, we were ready to begin another week at the temple. 

P.S. I bet you can't wait to see where our next road trip takes us!