Easter Dinner - Tanner Mission

My son Tanner received his mission call to serve in the Brazil Porto Allegro South Mission on February 22, 2013. He served from July 10, 2013, to June 10, 2015. 

To tell you this story, I have to tell you another story...so, here goes. 

At the beginning of 2014, I was asked by my boss at Texas A&M University to chair a faculty search committee because we needed to hire a new faculty member in my department. We received a number of applications for our open position. Our committee met to review the applications and selected our "shortlist" of candidates to interview. One of the individuals on the shortlist was André Araujo. 

André completed his Ph.D. degree at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He was a Ph.D. student at OU during the time I was on the faculty at OU. Thus, I knew him from his time as a Ph.D. candidate. Andre is Brazilian. At the time (2014), he was living and working in Brazil. I called him to invite him to interview for our position. 

After we addressed the formalities regarding the job and invitation to interview, Andre and I chatted briefly to catch up. I told Andre that one of my children was in Brazil as a missionary. Tanner was serving in São Leopoldo. It turns out that São Leopoldo is only about 90km away from Bento Gonçalves (the city where Andre lived). 

After we interviewed André via Skype, our committee agreed to invite André for a campus visit. André volunteered to meet up with Tanner on his way to Texas for his campus visit if Tanner had anything he wanted to send home to us. I do not remember for sure what Tanner sent home. Similarly, André took a package from us back to Brazil with him to give to Tanner. All of this occurred in February 2014. 

Now, I can go back to the story about Tanner's missionary experiences...

In March 2014, Tanner was transferred to a new city in his mission. The new city where he was assigned to serve was Bento Gonçalves. After Tanner arrived in Bento, he contacted André and visited him in his home. Tanner and his companion visited with André several times during the next few weeks. 

April 20, 2014, was Tanner's first Easter away from home. Tanner ate Easter dinner with André and his family. 

Tanner was only in Bento for one transfer.