Sao Paulo Leste Mission Olympics

Curtis and his fellow missionaries participated in the Sao Paulo Leste Mission Olympics in Sao Jose dos Campos. They competed in basketball, soccer, leg wrestling, and stick pulling. They also had a trivia contest.

"All in all it was a good time."

Brazilian Soccer

Soccer is Brazil’s national sport. It was first brought to Brazil by a man named Charles Miller who was born in Brazil in 1874. He was educated in England and brought the first soccer ball and related equipment back to Brazil when he returned in 1894. That same year, the first official soccer match was played in São Paulo at the Várzea do Carmo, and was an immediate success.

Brazil has won more World Cups than any other country. Its first World Cup title was in Sweden in 1958; followed by titles in Chile, in 1962; in Mexico, in 1970; in the United States, in 1994, and most recently in South Korea and Japan, in 2002. Although Brazil’s national soccer team is very popular, there is also a great importance put on the local soccer clubs. Among the most famous soccer clubs are Flamengo, São Paulo, Corinthians and Fluminense, located in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Joseph Smith and Stick Pulling

Stick-pulling is a game in which the two contestants sit with their feet together and their hands grasping a stick suspended between them. The one who is able to pull the other up by pulling on the stick is the champion. Being large in stature as well as skillfully coordinated, Joseph seldom lost in this or in wrestling.


Missionary Trivia

1. What's the 11th book in the Old Testament?
2. Exactly how many Stripling Warriors were in Helaman's Army?