Arena Pantenal in Cuiabá Brazil

Greetings from Lou Ellen and Randy Romrell in Salt Lake City, where we are still busily preparing for our mission.  When our visas arrive, we hope to be 100% ready to go.  

Below, center, Natalie and Scott exit the Draper, Utah, LDS temple after their wedding ceremony.  Click on the link below to watch their wedding day video.  

https://vimeo.com

We will keep you posted on our visas.  We were told last week that all 10 Brazilian consulates in the US are each still processing between 3,000 to 5,000 visas for World Cup travelers, and that volunteer visas.  If that is the case, it may still be awhile before we receive our visas.

Have a nice day.

Photos taken at Thanksgiving Point on May 2, 2014 during Natalie and Scott's wedding reception.

Greetings from 2523 Arnette Drive, where we are enjoying beautiful spring/summer weather.  Every day that passes gets us closer to receiving our Brazilian visas and leaving for Cuiabá.  Our new Provo MTC date is the week of June 30.  We are tentatively scheduled to speak in Sacrament Meeting on June 29, assuming we have our visas then.  Fortunately, our friends and family have continued to be very supportive of our determination to go to the land of our mission call.

This Sunday, Haylee and Craig will be blessing Anna Kate in our Sacrament Meeting.  We are grateful to be here to attend that event, and to enjoy friends and family who come.

Here are a couple of photos taken by our good friends, David and Sue Ross, on May 2, 2014 at Thanksgiving Point Gardens, before and during Natalie and Scott's wedding reception there.

We are now expecting our visas sometime between May 17 and June 17.  In the meantime, we were able to attend our son's commencement last Thursday, where he received his Masters in Real Estate Development.  On Friday we attended our daughter's wedding to Scott Jennings in the Draper Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was followed by a reception that night at the Thanksgiving Point Visitor's Center Garden Room, which has a grand overlook of the tulip fields, at the height of their glory.  Here are a few photos of these two events:

Here is a photo of Natalie with her fiancé, Scott Jennings.

April 16, 2014 Update:

Dear friends and family,

Thank you so much for your continuing interest and support.  

We are still here is Salt Lake, waiting for our visas, but staying very busy helping Natalie with May 2nd wedding preparations, refining our packing lists, working daily with our language specialist, our tutor, our study buddies--via Sky, personal language study time, purchasing things we will need in Brazil, getting our home and affairs in order, etc.  

Farewell Talks in Church:

For those of you who are geographically close and are planning to attend our farewell talks in church, we will not be speaking on April 27 as originally planned.  We will update this blog as soon as we have our visas in hand and have a new speaking date.   Anyone who is interested is welcome to attend.   

New baby:

In the meantime, it is lots of fun having a new 4 week old baby (today) in the house, with her parents, of course.  Here is a photo of Anna Kate Romrell with her mother, Haylee taken yesterday.    

Wedding:

And, here are a couple of photos of the beautiful bride to be:

We wish  you all a very pleasant Easter Weekend.  Here is a link to a special Easter video we hope you enjoy.  http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

May the richest blessings of Heaven be yours.

All the best,

The Romrells

Cut and past this link into your browser to learn more about Cuiaba:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g488170-Cuiaba_State_of_Mato_Grosso-Vacations.html