Foz de Iguaçu, YM Camp, and Aunt Ann's Funeral (Via letters to Christian)

Christian!

We are finally at home! Our trip to Brazil and Foz de Iguaçu was amazing! The hotel we stayed at was so fancy. They had breakfast and dinner buffets every day that had so so much good food. I’m sure we all gained 5 pounds in 5 days. The desserts were particularly delicious and had their own buffet! It also had 3 pools, a game room, a rock wall, volleyball, etc. Such a fun place to stay!

On the first day, we went to the Brazil side of the falls. That side is known for Panoramic views where you can see falls for miles. First, we took a speedboat down the river to see the main waterfall. It was so fun to speed down the river with incredible sights on all sides. When we got close to the main falls, the boat went straight into them. We were wearing ponchos, but we still got soaked. We were all screaming and laughing. It was really one of the coolest things we have ever done… think Amazon River Boat and Niagara Falls all in one! There were tons of waterfalls, and we got to walk down a path to see all of them. It was truly a remarkable place that I wish everyone could experience. Words definitely don't do Iguaçu Falls justice!

After we finished with the falls, we went to Parque das Aves where we saw so many cool birds. The enclosed aviaries were gigantic, and it was cooler than I expected. The Macaws were definitely the coolest birds there.

The next day, we went to the Argentina side of the falls. We had to get up really early because the border crossing gets busy if you wait until later in the morning. On that side, you are directly above the falls, so it is a very different view. Both sides were cool, but if I had to choose one, I would definitely do the Brazil side. After that we went to a fancy Argentinian restaurant where we had barbecue. They brought us the steak and chicken on a charcoal grill that they left at the table. It was delicious and pretty legit. Our last stop in Argentina was Tres Fronteiras, the border of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. There was a monument there, and we bought a magnet for our travel board. We were so tired after that, so we went back to the hotel and took a nap and hung out for the rest of the day. 

 

On Saturday, we toured the largest hydroelectric dam in South America and second largest in the world. Then we crossed the border into Paraguay. It was insane. There were tons of people, cars, and motorcycles. It took quite a while to get through the traffic. When we finally got into Paraguay, we went to two malls. That city, Ciudad del Este, is famous for its duty-free shopping. They were selling all the fancy American brands at discounted prices for other countries. We ate some empanadas in Paraguay so that we could count it toward our country count. To be honest, Paraguay was completely overwhelming to me with all the people and traffic. I was ready to get out of there as soon as lunch was over. We spent the rest of the day swimming and hot tubbing before eating more food at the dinner buffet. Haha!

On Sunday, we had to check out of our rooms at noon, so we watched our Sacrament meeting over zoom, played some games, and hung out in the lobby until we went to the airport for our flight. Everything went smoothly for our flights, but it still took 25+ hours to get home. We were so happy to be home, sleep in our own beds, and wash our clothes. Marshy greeted us at the door and was so happy. He came right up to us without hesitation. He was much better this time compared to when we were gone for 3 months. Max Hammon must have done a good job taking care of him. 

We got one day to clean and repack the clothes before Hyrum and Andrew left for YM camp, and then 24 hours more before Dad and I left for Idaho to attend Aunt Ann’s funeral. We were super tired, but it was so good that we went. Judy was so happy when she saw me and thanked me time and time again for helping with Aunt Ann’s book. Aunt Ann collected tea cups, and they were used to decorate all of the tables at the funeral before they were given to her grandkids. Judy told me to pick one out to take home first. I was honored to receive that special memento. I was glad that we made the effort to be there. The funeral was like a big family reunion, and I loved seeing all of my cousins and aunts and uncles. 

Our trip was pretty short, but it was nice to spend some time with my Mom and Dad. Grandpa’s hip replacement is healing, but he was still using a walker. I tried to spend a lot of time entertaining him with games or crosswords or movies. I think he has 2 more weeks with the walker and then several months before he is healed. We came home last night. Everything went well, but we are exhausted and ready for a break. We have two days before school starts, so I hope we can get well rested by then.

Christian, I hope your week has been a good one. I am excited to hear about your life in Sao Lorenço. Keep working hard and doing your best. We are praying for you every day. You can call us any time tomorrow after about 8:30 am our time. Love you lots!

MOM

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Hi Christian, how’s it going? We went to young men’s camp this week right after getting home, and it was so fun. On the first day, we went to the temple, played capture the flag, and played on a big blow up obstacle course with a slide. My swimsuit got stained because some people were so intense that they were bleeding on the slide. We also did some real-life angry birds, and Andrew was a pig. After, we had games for the deacons. The first one was a game where you have pool noodles and you stand on a bucket and push people off. The second one was a game where you fill you mouth with water and slap each other with a tortilla. But the person I was against cheated by dodging. The third game, which I won, was a pie eating contest. I think Andrew will send that video on messenger tomorrow. Then we went to bed. The next day was the hike, which was like the Y, I think. After that Noah dared me to take an ice bath in one of the igloo coolers and it became a meme after that. The next day we went to a park and played basketball, soccer, etc. Then we used our rafts that we made the day before and raced at the lake in Hyrum State Park. And we got second/third. Than we got back and did a testimony meeting and ate s’mores. The next morning we woke up, packed up, and left. That’s basically it. I hope you are having a good time and are successful. luv ya. (:

Hyrum

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What is up my brother from the same mother?

That was a stupid one liner, I know. This week has maybe been the most tiring week of my entire life. We went to the airport to go home at 5 PM. After a 2 hour flight, we arrived in São Paulo, where we had to run to the terminal and just barely made it to our boarding group. Then we went on a 9 and a half hour flight to New York where we didn’t sleep that much. And then, we flew 5-ish hours to Salt Lake before traveling home. We had 24 hours on Tuesday to settle in and pack for Young Mens Camp, then we left at 9:45 on Wednesday. We went to the Syracuse temple beforehand. It was the fastest temple trip I’ve ever done. We walked in and were immediately put in the font and then immediately confirmed. It was Brother Vigue, Brother Morris, Hyrum, Cole, Max, Noah, James, and I were the youth to go. The Buskers were out of town, Henry randomly bailed, and McCoy was in Montana, so James and I spent most of the camp together, being the oldest. It was really fun. We had plenty of pranks and goofs just like always when you get a lot of young men together in a small space. We stuck people in coolers, played real life angry birds like we did when we were kids, and went on a 4.2 mile hike that Hyrum somehow made. God must’ve been carrying him up that hill :). We had awesome food the whole time, prepared by some w people, and constant gatorade. And yet, we were still dehydrated. They set up a bounce house, we built and raced rafts in a reservoir, and went to a park and played sports and lawn games. When we weren’t goofing around, we were playing card games or chilling under the awning. The stars and moon were awesome, and we had a great testimony meeting on Friday night. We came home Saturday, and I unpacked, watched a movie, then cleaned the kitchen and made dinner for mom and dad when they came home. On Sunday, I had to teach the lesson and go to the beehive home. Apparently they really missed me because I have to give a talk in two weeks. I took a FAT nap after that and woke up just in time for Grandmas house.

Young Men's camp really helped me see the love of Christ in all people, and I think it’s really amazing to help people and serve them on your mission, even if it’s not going how you thought. I’m really proud to have such a stalwart follower of Christ as my older brother. Love you!

Andrew

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Hi Christian,

Well, we got to sleep in our own beds a couple of nights this week. The trip home went smoothly, but it was still long. We came home and basically collapsed. Then, the next day, the boys headed to camp, and the day after that, Mom and I woke up at 5 am (which wasn’t that hard since we hadn’t adapted to the time zone yet) and drove to Idaho. Mom was nervous about driving completely alone, given how tired she was, and I was overwhelmed with the backlog at work, so we compromised. I drove her up, but I took a full computer setup and worked while I was there. It worked out well. Grandpa Christensen was recovering from hip surgery, so Mom mostly sat and talked with him. I worked during the day, and then we played games, etc., at night. I also didn’t get interrupted by students or other employees, so I was able to complete some important analyses. We can now tell vaccine manufacturers a whole bunch about their mRNA samples. Aunt Ann’s funeral on Saturday was wonderful and had a lot of family that we hadn’t seen in a long time. 

The boys also showed me how to track my streaks on the gospel library app, so now I am ready to leave all of your Duolingo streaks in the dust with my scripture streaks! I was happy to read that your area is excited about missionary work. Working in a branch trying to become a ward can be tough, since opposition seems to increase, but it can be rewarding, too. Best of luck as you seek the Lord’s guidance on how to move the work forward. 

Love you,
Dad

Emilio's Visit from Brazil

While Jonathon was at UFBA in Salvador doing research for his Fulbright Scholarship, Emilio Lanna was his host. Emilio and his wife, Fernanda, made Jonathon feel so welcome in their lab, took our family out to dinner a couple of times, took Jonathon scuba diving, and just made the whole experience very rewarding. 

Fast forward to this October... Emilio got to come to BYU to work in Jonathon's lab for 2 weeks. After all their work on sequencing the genome of the fire sponge last summer, they were hoping to take what they learned and sequence two more species. 

Since the plane ticket to the U.S. was expensive, and money was tight, we decided to host Emilio at our house so that he wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. To be perfectly honest, I was very nervous about having him here for 2 weeks. I didn't know him very well, and I didn't know what to expect. I had all the typical questions when hosting someone... What does he like to eat? How do we entertain him for 2 weeks? Are our kids going to drive him crazy?

I needn't have worried, however. Emilio was the perfect guest. He was friendly, kind, helpful, and fun to have around. He willingly ate whatever I fixed, helped clean up after meals, joined in our conversations, and played games and went to activities with our family. 

Jonathon and Emilio took Hyrum to choir or band every morning on their way to work, and then they would work all day and get back home around 6:00 for dinner. After dinner, we would play a game, watch football, read a book. We tried to do some fun things on the weekends, but I wasn't stressed about making sure he had something to do at all times because he seemed totally happy to just hang out with our family.

The experiments in the lab went extremely well, and everything worked the first time. That never happens in science, so we were thrilled! Jonathon and Emilio were able to get lots of good data for both of the sponge species and will be able to complete the work remotely to publish the genome. Emilio also gave a guest lecture, and then he and Jonathon made a short video about their collaboration for the department presentation. I'm hoping to see it when it finally comes out. When Jonathon was busy with meetings, Emilio would walk around BYU campus and learn everything he could. He came home telling us about random things he had found (ex: the BYU sports hall of fame and special animated films that celebrated the awesome animation department). I thought it was hilarious that in some ways he knew more about campus than I did. It was two full weeks of work for them, but it all came together nicely, and all their goals were accomplished.

When they weren't working, we tried to give Emilio a taste of life in Provo. During the fall, that means lots of BYU football! Our team is having an amazing season this year, so football is the talk of the town. We had tickets to both home games while he was here, so he got the chance to see two awesome games. I happily gave up my ticket so that he could experience some fun college football. The games he went to just happened to both be extremely close and extremely exciting. In fact, BYU vs Oklahoma State ended up coming down to the last drive where BYU scored with about 10 seconds to go. Jonathon said that Emilio was screaming and cheering for BYU just like any other crazy fan in the stadium. He even bought a BYU shirt and two hats so he could wear them to the games. When the boys got home, we analyzed all the plays and talked about the games for the rest of the week. It's funny that Emilio is into football, but apparently he gave up on soccer years ago and started watching American football on ESPN. He knew all the rules and didn't seem too annoyed that we talked about it incessantly. I think they all had a great time at the games!

The second Saturday that he was here, Jonathon and some other members of his lab took Emilio down to Moab to see Arches National Park. The weather didn't look very good that morning, so I passed on going, but it ended up being a perfect trip. Jonathon said the weather was great for hiking, and the crowds were lower than usual. They got to hike to see dinosaur footprints, some petroglyphs, and a couple of arches, including delicate arch. The pictures were spectacular. I'm glad that they got to go see that because it is such a unique place to visit. 

During his stay, we taught Emilio a couple of card games, including Skull King and Reign of Dragoness. Our whole family played together, and Emilio joined right in. The boys bickered occasionally, and definitely used a lot of their funny teenage slang, but Emilio didn't seem to mind. He even started using some of their words, which was hilarious. He commented on Hyrum's attempts to look "rizzy" and said that BYU was "cooking" during their football game. 

The other thing I was a little nervous about was how to handle church, prayers, etc. I knew that we would go about our lives as usual in that regard, but I hoped that it wouldn't bother Emilio. He isn't very religious, so I just didn't know what to expect. We said lots of prayers on the food, and he always bowed his head and participated. He didn't go to church with us on Sundays, but when we arrived home, we found him raking our leaves. It just goes to show that there is so much good in people of all religions and all walks of life. We were very grateful for the service he did for our family. During his stay, Jonathon and the boys also helped someone in the ward move, and Emilio volunteered to go and was there to lift furniture and help clean out their house. 

On Emilio's last night in the U.S. we all went bowling at BYU. We had terrible scores, but we had a great time and shared lots of laughs. It was a lovely way to end his trip. That night he gave us all gifts... BYU shirts for the boys and flowers for me. Those were in addition to the gifts that he brought at the beginning of his trip from Brazil (doce de leite for Jonathon, goibada cascão for me, seite bello for Hyrum, paçoca for Andrew, and bom boms for all of us). We definitely felt spoiled. I am grateful that we all got a chance to know Emilio better and am grateful that our paths intersected through many small miracles (a member of Jonathon's lab at Columbia went to a conference with Emilio and recommended him on a Facebook post when Jonathon was looking for a possible opportunity in Brazil.) We look forward to spending more time with Emilio and Fernanda next Summer back in Brazil.

After Emilio left, we received this text that was so touching:

"Dear Sarah, Hyrum, Andrew, and Jonathon,

I have no words to express my gratitude with your hospitality in the last two weeks. I had a wonderful time. I had a real life experience. I can tell everyone now that I was an American for a couple of weeks. I could see how you live. 

I already had a deep respect for Jonathon. Now I have for his family. I loved to share the hours around the table, eating delicious foods, playing wonderful games and analyzing every bit of the last and next football games. Cleaning the leaves, playing football with the boys, helping Sarah in the kitchen! These were great experiences! Please, be sure that I will remember every second of these weeks. 

I’m sorry if I misbehaved at some point. It was not my intention. Sorry for spending so much of your time, for being around every time. I just felt that it was a worse behavior to be locked in the bedroom. I hope I was not so annoying. 

I’m not the most religious person of the world, but it was great to pray with you before we eat. I appreciate even more your way of life, serving the community and getting together whenever possible. I was not brave enough to ask to say the prayings around the table, but I prayed with you every time! 

Last, but not least, thanks for letting me be part of your family during these days. I felt like I was a not-so-distant relative, maybe even the older son. I really appreciated how you guys are always doing things together and supporting each other!

Muito obrigado por todos esses dias! I wait for you in Salvador with lots of expectations. I hope I can return at least 10% of all you gave me all these days! Thank you so much!"