Couples Night

One of the great (and sometimes confusing) things about being a missionary in a foreign country is the holiday schedule. While we cannot celebrate them all (we would never get any work done) it can work to our advantage.

Some of the holidays are the same (Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day). Some are close. For example our state celebrates both the national independence day and its own independence from Portugal. The state independence day is on July 2, close to both Canadian and the US independence days (July 1 & 4). Of course there are some holidays new to us because we are living in Brazil now (i.e. Tira Dentes – literally “to pull teeth” celebrating a dentist important in Brazil’s independence) and some that we miss all together (I totally missed Memorial day this year). But every now and then we get to celebrate some holidays twice. Such was the case last night.

Because we were on furlough this year Jennifer and I got to celebrate Valentine’s Day like most of you in February, and because our furlough ended before June, we also got to celebrate it in Brazil too. To celebrate we invited all the couples we have at church over to the house for a night of burgers and a movie. In the end we had 8 couples, including one of Travis and Alicia’s neighbors.

It was a great night. I made “American Hamburgers,” which simply means I made the hamburger patties by hand and cooked them on a grill (most hamburgers here are bought pre-made and are cooked on a griddle). Jennifer made her wonderful potato salad and we ate to our hearts content. We watched Baz’s new movie Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.

Here are a few of the pictures from the night.