Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Christmas was wonderful for us this year! We were invited to our stake president’s home
on Christmas Eve and literally had a grand feast-more food than you can imagine
for 17 people. We ate about 9:00 PM and
then sang and two young girls read the Christmas story from the Bible. They sent us home with more food and some
small gifts. It was an enjoyable
evening. They stay up until midnight and
then open all their gifts. We were also
able to talk to Erick and Gregg and their families on Skype that day.
Christmas day we went to Elder and Sister Johnson’s large
apartment where we had a wonderful meal again with all of the senior couples in
our mission, Pres. and Sister Fluckiger, and the office missionaries. I took zucchini bread, cinnamon rolls and my Rocky Road
candy that I always like to make at this time of the year. We went early to help out and Elder Henry,
along with some of the young Elders, washed the dishes after we ate. We enjoyed our time with this group. Then we returned home and were able to talk
on Skype with the rest of our children and grandchildren. What a blessing Skype is for all senior
missionary couples!
We only had two days in the office this week, because of
Christmas and a missionary conference on Thursday with Elder and Sister
Teixeira. It was a great conference. Elder and Sister Teixeira had presided over
the Brazil Sao Paulo South Mission during the time we served in Florianopolis,
and now he is our Area President. He and
his wife are from Portugal and speak quite a few languages. We really enjoyed their training and being
able to visit with them. Since I sat
next to her for pictures, I was able to enjoy a nice conversation with
her. They live in Germany at the present
time.
On Saturday Elders Staples and Fausett asked us to take them
to Costa de Caparica along with their supplies, stop at the church to borrow a
table and some chairs, and then to take them to the center of town where there
are usually many booths on Saturday. We
did this, and since it had rained some in the morning, there were no other
booths that day and they didn’t have a lot of success. But they did get a contact they thought had
some promise. There is also a very sharp
young couple from France who are planning to get married soon and then
baptized. They have been to church and
we like them very much. His name is
Helder—pronounced “Elder” in Portuguese.
Tomorrow will probably be a quiet day at the office because many
of the Church employees have been out for the holidays. There was actually a temple excursion which
started from here on Christmas day in the afternoon. It is my turn again to give a spiritual
thought at our devotional tomorrow. I am
going to talk about gratitude this time.
We are excited for the start of a New Year, with new goals
and new opportunities to improve. May the new year bring blessings of health,
happiness and desires to serve the Lord to our many friends and family. WE LOVE YOU!
Abracos!
At Costa de Caparica Beach |
Elders Staples and Fausett |
Nativity at the Catholic Church |
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Christmas season is upon us and the excitement comes to
a peak in many homes throughout the world.
We have learned that in Portugal it is traditional to stay up late on
Christmas Eve, eat a very late meal which usually includes Bacalau (Codfish),
and then at midnight they open their presents.
I wonder how they get their children to go to bed after so much
excitement. I like our tradition of
having the children go to bed early so Santa can make his appearance. We are invited to the Stake President’s home
on Christmas Eve, so we will get to experience some of their traditions first-hand. We are not planning on staying up until
midnight, however. He is connected to a
very large family and there should be quite a group of people there.
Our friends, Elder and Sister Johnson, have invited us for a
brunch on Christmas Day and then we plan to spend some time talking with our
family on Skype. It should be an
enjoyable day.
Yesterday we had a community Christmas program just down the
street from our apartment. It lasted
three hours and our church group was one of the last to perform. They were by far the best of the show, and it
was very sad because by the time they performed much of the audience had gone home.
It was a nice event, but poorly
organized.
We had a day of cleaning at the office on Tuesday. Families
of the Church employees were invited to come and help. Elder Henry and I cleaned out lots of binders
and storage boxes full of old records.
Elder also cleaned up the supplies closet while I worked on my talk for
today. For lunch that day, we all ate
pizza together. I took some cookies.
Elder Henry worked many hours last week conducting an area
audit for PEF performance and he still has more to do on it this week. I
worked on finishing up my contacts, trying to make sure no one was
forgotten. This will be a short work
week with Christmas and a meeting with Elder Texeira (our Area President) on
Thursday, as he is visiting our mission.
We received news from our friends Claudir and Marilene in
Brazil that their son, Davi, was born
early yesterday morning. We are so
excited for them and know they will be wonderful parents. They had decided not to have children—but
their thinking changed after they joined the Church. He was just made branch president earlier
this month.
I, Elder Henry, will add this paragraph since Sister Henry
wouldn’t say what a beautiful talk she gave today. Both of us were asked to talk today. Sister Henry talked about “Giving gifts from
the Heart.” It was very well prepared
and excellently delivered. She
emphasized the importance of giving gifts that show your love for the
person. She gave some good examples of
things you can do that do not cost very much or nothing at all, except love and
effort. Her Portuguese was excellent and
the talk was really well received. She
had also made some of her crocheted snow flakes, tied them with a red ribbon
and handed them out to all of the Relief Society women after church ended. They were really well received also. We also handed out some chocolate balls to
everyone.
I spoke about how to “Rediscover the Spirit of Christmas,”
and used citations from President Monson’s First Presidency Christmas message
for the last two years. He has some
wonderful thoughts in both of these messages.
The two talks worked well together.
I used Sister Henry’s gifts as an illustration of how we can use the
traditions of Christmas to teach the true meaning of Christmas. My main point was that it is not bad
to participate in the traditions of Christmas, but it is better to
develop family traditions which teach the true meaning of our Christmas
celebrations.
We wish all our friends and family a wonderful
Christmas. May you feel God’s love and
know of His importance in your life.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
How grateful we are to know of His birth, His life, His Atonement for
our sins, His Resurrection, His teachings, and His great love for each of us. We send our love to each of you!
Local Nativity --Many are very simple here. |
Our Christmas Decor |
Sunday, December 16, 2012
December 16, 2012
This has been a week of celebrations and probably a few
extra pounds. We were able to get some
work done, but we also participated in three different Christmas parties.
On Tuesday we had a Mission Conference/Christmas Celebration
which was very enjoyable. We met at the
stake building in Oeiras with all of the missionaries in the Portugal Lisbon
Mission except those serving in the Azores and Madeira islands. It was just too far and too expensive for
them to come. We had a wonderful meeting
full of music, testimonies and speeches by two stake presidents and our area
seventy and his wife. Then we had a
wonderful lunch of turkey, dressing, and all that goes with it and a huge table
of desserts. The missionaries had a fun “White
Elephant” gift exchange and then we had a final meeting with more music,
testimonies and talks by our Mission President Fluckiger and his wife. It was a very uplifting day. We were able to see missionaries who had
served with us and then been transferred.
Carolyn Hoer had told me about a sister missionary from her ward in
Grass Valley so I looked for her; she was the third young lady that I asked,
and we had a nice visit. The
missionaries were each given a little bag of goodies to which I contributed 13
dozen Snickerdoodles.
During the week our computers were down for part of two days,
so we had a little free time, but they finally were ready to go again and we
were able to accomplish a portion of our work.
We will have to make up for it this coming week, but we should be fine.
Our office Christmas party was on Friday. We also had a very nice devotional with
speakers, videos, and musical presentations.
Then we had a wonderful luncheon.
Everyone who came contributed something for it and we had way too much
food. I made two pans of cinnamon rolls.
President and Sister Fluckiger and Elder and Sister Rose were also there so we
enjoyed our visit with them.
We had planned to set up a booth in a downtown plaza with
our elders from Caparica on Saturday, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we
will do that another time. On Saturday
evening we had a ward Christmas party there.
Other than being an hour late starting, it was a very fun occasion. We had musical presentations, dancing, a
poem, and two delightful skits, along with a spiritual message by our
bishop. Many from the ward were involved
in the program. One of the young men
dressed up as Papai Noel (Santa) and besides being in a cute skit, passed out
gifts to the young children at the end of the program. We then had refreshments again. I took chocolate covered peanut butter balls
and caramel popcorn.
Elder Henry and I have been asked to speak in Sacrament
Meeting next Sunday, so we need to get busy working on our talks. I also have the spiritual thought in our
office devotional the next day, so we shouldn’t wonder what to do with our time
this week.
We send our love to all of our friends and family at this
special time of the year. How blessed we
are to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and to know of our Savior’s
great love for each of us.
Dessert table at Missionary Celebration |
A group of hungry missionaries. |
Office party feast. Yummy! |
Dance at Caparica party. |
This young man was adorable in a skit by the Primary. He was helping everyone with their speaking parts. |
Sunday, December 9, 2012
December 9, 2012
Our week at the office was good and we had a good start to
our month. We have both made a fair
number of contacts already and Mike has been working on an audit connected with
our PEF participants and priesthood leaders.
It is meant to check on how well the processes are working.
We had some heavy rain this week, but also some beautiful
days. We find that we don’t hear the
rain in our apartment unless it is really coming down hard because we are on
the 6th of 10 floors.
We put together a Christmas package for an elder from Cape
Verde. Sister Fluckiger wants to make
sure that no one is forgotten. I think
her family is helping with some of the other elders from that country.
On Friday night and Saturday I made about 16 dozen cookies
(13 dozen for the missionaries). I really
appreciated having an oven that cooks everything much more rapidly than I am
accustomed to because it actually went pretty fast. By the time I had one pan ready to take out
of the oven, I had another ready to go in.
This week is a week of celebrations. On Tuesday we have our missionary meeting and
celebration, on Friday we will have a devotional and lots of food, and Saturday
the Costa de Caparica Ward is having their Festa de Natal. We will go on Monday afternoon to help put
together the goodie bags for the missionaries and to help decorate for Tuesday’s
get-together.
We find it impossible to believe that a third of our mission
will be completed on Tuesday of this week.
Time seems to fly by when you are busy doing the Lord’s work.
We are so grateful for family and friends. Remember the reason for this wonderful season
of the year. We are so thankful to know
of our Heavenly Father’s plan for us and to know of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
his atonement, his example and his teachings, which bless our lives each and
every day.
Triumphal Arch at Plaza Comercio |
We see many tiled buildings in Portugal. |
Picture from St. Jorge Castle |
Another Castle picture(w/Elder Henry and a peacock.) |
Inside Jeronimo's Cathedral |
Monument to Afonso Henrique-King who drove out the Moors in 1147. |
Close-up of the Triumphal Arch |
Sunday, December 2, 2012
December 2, 2012
We have had a great week.
Monday was especially gratifying for me.
I had emailed Edward (originally from Africa, but living now in the
United Kingdom) several times to ask for his phone number so we could contact
him. He never replied, so I contacted his
bishop, and ultimately, his stake president.
I received a phone number for him on Monday and called him. We had a very nice visit, he asked for
information on how to pay and told me that his email address was changed. I forwarded the info to him and the next
thing I knew he emailed back saying that he had made a payment. Mike made lots of phone calls this month and
also had some success getting contact information from leaders. By the end of the day Friday we had 94.5% of our high-priority contacts completed
in place of 78.1% last month. We made
contact with most of the other 300 or so participants through emails or texts. There are some that we will probably never
find because we have no leads.
We had a very fun day on Tuesday with the small tour group
of returned Brazilian missionaries and their spouses. We met them as they disembarked
their cruise ship and rode in taxis, cable cars, and buses to visit various places
in old Lisbon. We ate lunch at the
Pasteis of Belem, which is always great, visited the Castle of St. Jorge,
Jeronimos Cathedral, and various other sites.
Elder and Sister Johnson also joined us and our tour guide was great. She said she would lead the tour for the price
of lunch and passages, but we gave her a nice tip also.
This weekend was our first stake conference here in
Portugal. For the Saturday night meeting
we watched the meeting via satellite at the Miratejo church. Today we went to a university between here
and Costa de Caparica for our meeting.
Both sessions were really good.
Today we had a wonderful youth choir; we were really impressed with
them. Also a group of 5 former and
present missionaries sang a couple of Christmas carols and were really
great. We complimented one of them and
found him to be a missionary who served with Gregg in the Sao Paulo South
Mission years ago. It continues to be a
small world.
Our Stake President Graca and his wife invited us and
President and Sister Fluckiger to their home for lunch. They fed us so much—enough for lunch and
dinner and then sent us home with some of the leftovers. Their daughter Sara, 7, wanted us to play a
board game with her and we enjoyed that very much. They have invited us to come back on
Christmas Eve if we are able.
Sometime this coming week I need to make 13 dozen cookies
for the missionaries’ Christmas party to be held on December 11th. I think this may be a 2-3 day project,
depending on our schedule. All of the
senior couples are helping with this project.
We are also putting together a package for an Elder from Cape Verde, as
his parents cannot afford to send him anything.
How grateful we are to be representatives of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, as we celebrate his birth and contemplate what his life and his
atonement means to each of us as we strive to live His teachings and qualify to
return to His presence.
Entrance to St. Jorge Castle |
Our tour guide, Elisa, with us and the Johnsons |
Inside Jeronimo's Cathedral |
Elder Silva from Gregg's mission |
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
We are hoping that all of our friends and family had a
wonderful week. For us it was a week to
reflect on the blessings of family, health, our wonderful country, and the
gospel of Jesus Christ. How blessed we
are in so many ways.
We had some rain again this week, but Thanksgiving Day was
absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed our
dinner and visit at President and Sister Fluckiger’s very much. The mission home was decorated for Christmas and
was very beautiful. Our meal was
absolutely wonderful with turkey and all the trimmings. The office Elders were sent off on an errand
to find a turkey the day before and came back with a large one, but it had a
long neck and some feathers. I got to
bring the carcass home and made a delicious turkey soup yesterday. There were 18 of us who enjoyed the time
together. For some (from Portugal and
Brazil) it was their first time to celebrate Thanksgiving. I made orange rolls (not my best ones ever)
and some toffee.
We had an interesting email on Friday. We heard from a member of the Church in
Londrina, Brazil, named Samuel Temperbra who had come in contact with Pedro and
Irma Reis, who we taught in Chapeco, Brazil.
We were sad when we returned for our visit two years ago to find that
Pedro and Irma had moved away.No one knew to where. Anyway,
Samuel told about meeting Pedro and when Pedro found out Samuel was a member of
the Church Pedro told him about us and wants to make contact with us. Pedro, we believe, had a testimony of the
gospel but never joined because Irma belonged to the 7th Day
Adventist Church and didn't want to break the covenants she had made with that
church. Pedro attended many of our
integration night activities, some baptisms, several General Conference
sessions and a few Sacrament Meetings.
He came to our apartment a few times to visit with us and we taught him
and Irma many times in their home. Irma
was always kind to us and listened to our lessons, but didn't want to change. We cared a lot about them. We were excited to hear that he wants to make
contact with us. He is a man just a bit
older than us.
This coming Tuesday should be an interesting day. There is a small group (11 people) of
returned missionaries and wives from Brazil 65+ years old who are coming to Lisbon on a
cruise ship and will be here for the day.
Elder Henry has been in contact with an LDS tour guide and the leader of
the tour group and we are going to meet up with them at the dock early in the morning for a day of sightseeing and reminiscing about Brazil. It is supposed to be a nice day, so we are
keeping our fingers crossed. We plan to
ride the cable car and a newer version of a trolley and see how much we can
experience during the time they have.
The tour group leader is Alfred Gunn, who has been keeping many
Brazilian missionaries connected over the years with his monthly newsletters called
the Brauzilista. It will be fun to
finally meet him.
Next weekend will be our first stake conference here in
Portugal. The Saturday evening session
will be broadcast over the satellite, and we will go to a university for the
session on Sunday.
President Fluckiger carving the turkey. |
Our Thanksgiving Day group. |
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
We were thrilled this week with some great responses to our inquiries for contact information. Last Monday I received three responses from Bishops and two from participants. Mike also had some success by contacting leaders and we were able to make some contacts for the first time with some of our participants. I spent much time this week sending text messages by means of Clickatell, a computer program, and received a number of positive responses. This is the quote that I used this month:
—Thomas S. Monson,
Brett was released as 1st counselor to Bishop Gary Mitchell of the Corning Ward after almost 4 years and was called to be the Executive Secretary. This will be a nice change for the family, as he will be able to sit with them in church.
We had lots of rain the last part of this week. We continued to walk to the office most of the time, but one day we had so much rain at lunchtime that we weren’t brave enough to walk home. We waited for a slight let-up and walked across the street and grabbed a bite to eat. On other days we were lucky enough to be able to walk back and forth without getting caught in a deluge. Today was sunny and windy, a nice change.
We had anticipated Thanksgiving as just another day of missionary work. But President and Sister Fluckiger invited us to their home for a nice turkey dinner. She said to choose a favorite something we would like to bring, so I chose orange rolls. We will work part of the day at the office and then come home to finish the rolls and prepare for our dinner.
We located the Liberty American Store in Lisbon on Saturday and bought a few hard-to-find items. My purchases included a can of shortening, chocolate chips, marshmallows, canned soup (although I have found some here), garlic salt, and a few other things. They are a little pricey, but nice to be able to find a few things we miss here. After we shopped we drove out to the Vasco da Gama Bridge and crossed it for the first time. It is the longest bridge in Europe at 10.7 miles. It is a beautiful bridge and much nicer than the 25th of Abril Bridge which we cross often. Unfortunately it was raining hard when we drove over it, so my pictures didn’t turn out so well. We went on to Montijo to another huge mall where we ate lunch and shopped a little. I can’t believe how many huge (3-story) malls they have here in Portugal. They make the Chico Mall seem very insignificant.
"Righteous character is more valuable than any material object you own, any knowledge you have gained through study, or any goals you have attained no matter how well lauded by mankind. In the next life your righteous character will be evaluated to assess how well you used the privilege of mortality."
—Richard G. Scott,
Our American Store |
Vasco da Gama Bridge |
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
We started our contacts and interviews for this month. Mike is getting more and more comfortable
doing the Spanish interviews for new students in Spain. It is a bit of a challenge going back and
forth between the two languages. But he
is doing very well. Today he gave a
great lesson in the Gospel Essentials class in Caparica.
After all the research I have done and requests I have made
to update our records, we still have almost 40 participants with no current
phone number. Some of them do have
emails, but not all. I am writing to
Bishops in some cases. There are about half a dozen with absolutely no way to
contact them. I was very happy this
week to have one young lady respond with her number and had a very nice visit
with her. We couldn’t contact her last
month because we had an incorrect number.
Sometimes we get responses that are very disheartening. I emailed a lady this week who was married in
the Madrid Temple in August to see how she was doing and whether she and her
husband had moved to Canada yet. She
wrote me back saying that her marriage is over, her husband was abusive and she
has moved back to Spain. She is trying
so hard to do what is right. Her email
really caused me pain. Pray for Marta
that she will find a great job and find happiness in her life. (She has a
Masters and is a very talented lady who speaks several languages.)
On a happier note, we went to another baptism yesterday in
Caparica. Rui Miguel was baptized. He has been attending the ward for several
months and is getting married soon to Ana who is already a member. She gave a wonderful talk and in it told
about how she had always wanted to marry a returned missionary. She had, in fact, sent one young man off on a
mission, but received an answer to prayer that he was not the one she should
marry. Later she dated another fellow
that she liked very much, but received the same answer. When she met Rui, even though he was not a
member, she received a confirmation that he would someday be a strong member of
the church and a good husband and father and that he was the one she should
marry.
We visited Mario, Solange and Pedro Brandao again this week
with Geraldo. They came out to an
activity at the ward last week, and we are hoping to get them to come back to
church soon.
I came across this quote from Barbara Bush this week: “Whatever the era, whatever the times, one
thing will never change: Fathers and
mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must
hug your children and you must love your children. YOUR SUCCESS AS A FAMILY, OUR SUCCESS AS A
SOCIETY, DEPENDS NOT ON WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, BUT ON WHAT HAPPENS
INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.” We were
disappointed with the outcome of the election, but now we need to pray more
than ever for our president and the other leaders of our wonderful
country. Also we need to do our part as
individuals to lead righteous lives so we can call upon God to bless our
nation.
Have a wonderful week.
Keep warm, say your prayers, read your scriptures and be an excellent
example to all those you encounter. Let
your light shine!
Sara Graca (daughter of Stake Pres.) and Bishop's daughter ( a real character) |
Rui Miguel and AnaMarques at his baptism. |
See the crowd! This is why we will visit this cathedral at a later date. |
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
The first three days of last week were very busy as we were
completing our contacts for the month.
We have a certain number of high-priority contacts which the leaders
want us to make, and then we feel that everyone needs to be contacted in some
manner. So the last couple of days I
sent lots of text messages to those who hadn’t had another type of
contact. Our two ladies in Spain are a
huge help. We received a very nice email
from Susie saying how much she loved making the contacts and how grateful she
is for this wonderful program. She
actually knows some of the participants because of the callings she has had
with the Young Adults. She is a great
blessing to us.
We have had quite a few days with some rain this week, but
the forecasts for the coming week look like we will have lots of sun. It will be a nice change, but the rain has
been great.
On Thursday it was a holiday here, so we took advantage of
the day to do something fun. We drove to
Porto Brandao and took the ferry across the river to Belem. It only cost 5,60 euros for both of us to go
across and return. What a bargain! While in Belem we wanted to visit an old
cathedral there, but it was so crowded, we will try again later. We did have lunch at the Pasteis de Belem and
then had some of their delicious pastries for which they are famous. Yummy!
We enjoyed our time there and spent some time just relaxing in their
beautiful park and watching people. After our return trip on the ferry, we drove
to some areas we hadn’t seen before. It
was an enjoyable day.
During the week Elder Twede (from SLC) and Elder Erikkson
(from Sweden) and serving in the Miratejo area came and helped us to get our computer
printer to work. So on Saturday we took
them to get a new shower hose for their apartment. Then later we drove to Caparica for their
first baptism since the first part of June.
Annica Rosa (21) was baptized.
She has been attending for a while and is very nice. She was confirmed today in our Fast &
Testimony meeting. Elder Henry was asked
to teach the Gospel Essentials class until they find someone else. We have a great Sunday School teacher who is
from Brazil, so he will have to miss her class now, but he will enjoy the
challenge.
“Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and
immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God omnipotent,
may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting
salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and
mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above
all. Amen” Mosiah 5:15
Love and best wishes to our family and friends.
The ferry we took to Belem and back. |
We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guard at the President's palace. |
One of many sailboats we saw. |
Elder Staples, Annica Rosa and Elder Wilson |
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday October 28, 2012
Our week began with the exciting news that Gregg and Crystal
are expecting a baby at the end of May.
We also received the news that Jared was offered and accepted a job with
Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas. He
will work in their communications systems division. We are happy with both of these
announcements.
Our week was very busy with contacts of the PEF
participants. We also had a meeting with
two of our sisters from the Church. One
is the president of a university here and the other is in charge of loans for
the students. Elder and Sister Johnson
and Miguel Adriano, our supervisor, also attended this meeting. We are looking for information to help the
young people pursue their educational goals.
On Wednesday Elder and Sister Rose came to the office to get
trained in doing audits and we went to lunch with them and also had a chance to
visit with them after their training.
They just arrived in our mission in August and are working about two
hours away from here. Elder and Sister
Johnson flew home for 10 days as one of their sons is getting married.
Sister Rodriguez and Sister Torres in Spain are doing well
with their contacts and this is a huge help.
We feel like we are making some progress with the PEF participants. We have received some good feedback from
phone calls, emails and text messages.
We have had a fair amount of rain this week, but fortunately
much of it has come while we were inside the office or during the night. The temperatures have been quite agreeable,
but we did buy a small heater, so we are prepared for cooler weather now.
Today we had our first invitation for lunch with a Portuguese
family. It was a very nice meal, which
started with a soup made of carrots, a little bit of potato puree and something
like a cucumber. It was very tasty. We also had meat, potatoes, and carrots, and
codfish fixed with potatoes and cream.
It was much more delicious than we had expected. The Portuguese eat codfish prepared in many
different ways. When you see it in the
stores, it looks horrible and is dry and smelly. They have to soak it for two days to take the
salt out of it and then prepare it for consumption.
I finally broke down and bought some Portuguese green beans. They looked too large for my liking, but I
was told that they were good, so I gave them a try. They were actually about the same as our
fresh green beans from the garden.
We received our absentee voting ballots this week, filled
them out right then and Elder Henry took them to the Post Office. We hope that they arrive in time to be
counted. Don’t forget to vote!
If you are
experiencing difficult times and wonder where God is, remember that the teacher
is always quiet during a test.
We send our love and best wishes to all our family and
friends.
Luiz & Sofia Silva, who invited us to lunch today with their 4 children. |
In Portugal many people park on the sidewalks. |
This is a large plate--these beans are huge! |
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
We focused
this week on making lots of “High-Priority” voice contacts, which is one of the
things that we have been asked to do in our calling. We still have more to do this week. It will help that we have our new couple in
Spain and since we have such a large group of participants there, Paco has
asked his wife to help out starting tomorrow.
Mike has to do the large majority of our contacting because many are in
Spanish and the Portuguese here is still a little difficult for me to
understand. I do okay when I am speaking
to someone in person, but it is more difficult on the phone. I have been working hard trying to get our
records updated because we have had many incorrect addresses and phone numbers. All of our students have moved here from
another country except for some in Spain and those in Cape Verde. But now I am finding that some are moving
countries in Europe, so I have to be on the alert for those moves.
On Tuesday
we had an appointment to get our Visas renewed.
Our initial visas were only travelers’ visas and were good for 120
days. With our renewal, we are
considered temporary residents and are good for the next year. We will have to renew again for our final two
months. We were fortunate to have the
mission Elders to help us with the paperwork and Elder James drove us to the
renewal location and knew just what to do.
It only took about half an hour.
We love those young Elders and Sisters.
On Friday we
had another video conference with the leaders in SLC and many groups from
around the world who were available to meet in that time frame. The new head of PEF is Robert Gay, who spoke
at the last General Conference two weeks ago.
There is a whole new focus with PEF and in the coming year many changes
will occur. Standards have been raised
in order for students to receive help.
They need to be returned missionaries, temple worthy, actively serving
in a Church calling and also have a great desire to better themselves. The focus will no longer be on the loan
itself, but on building “Self Reliance” in the participants and to help them
become contributors in society and in the Church. The Employment Resources and Perpetual
Education will combine and the Seminary and Institute people , who currently
have had a big part in training about the program and starting the process,
will have much less responsibility with the PEF. The First Presidency is very concerned about
our people learning “self reliance.”
They are forming a new department that will report directly to them that
will separate the current Welfare department into two departments. PEF and Employment Resources will be split
off of that department and form the “Self Reliance Department.” There are many
ideas that need to be implemented, but we like what we have heard so far. There will also be more of a focus on
vocational learning and less on a 4-year university education. The idea is to help these people, in a short
period of time, get training or mentoring which will get them into the work force
and into the jobs that are available.
There will also be service opportunities to work off some of their loan
costs. We are excited about this because
we have seen students with big loan debts and unable to get jobs because they
trained in areas not currently in demand.
We had our
first big rain of the season and it has turned a little cooler, but still quite
pleasant. We haven’t had to get out our
comforters yet. We have noticed that it
is taking longer for our clothes to dry, however. This could be a problem once it gets colder
and damper.
Two Cuties from Miratejo. |
An investigator and her cute son. (I gave him a sucker.) |
There are lots of darling children in Portugal. |
We love the
gospel of Jesus Christ and we are enjoying our chance to serve here in
Portugal. We miss our friends and family
and we love you all very much. Have a
great week!
YM President & RS President from Costa de Caparica. They are engaged . |
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
On Tuesday we worked part of the day in the office and then packed and prepared for our trip to
Spain. Our flight left around 4:30 PM and it was very smooth and arrived on time. Paco met us at the airport and took us to meet Elder and Sister Rodriguez, a senior couple from Cadiz who are serving a 6-month mission in Madrid and will be helping us with the PEF contacts there. They are staying in an ApartHotel. This is a building of apartments which can be rented for one or two nights, six months, or whatever length of time is desired. Paco got us an apartment there for our two nights in Madrid. This made it much more convenient for him to pick both couples up and return us in the evening. After we visited and got acquainted, we went to VIPS for wonderful salads.
The next day the Rodriguezs invited us for breakfast. Then we had a day of training. This couple has never used the computer much, so we had to be quite simple in our training. Paco will be around to help them if they have questions, or they can email or call us also. They speak only Spanish, so it was a little challenging for me, but I was able to communicate some and Paco helped when it was needed. We broke for lunch and Paco took us to another VIPS because Sister Rodriguez doesn’t like Oriental food.
We finished up about 5:00 PM and then went to the old downtown Madrid again. I took quite a few photos, as there are so many beautiful buildings there. Many are so large it is impossible to get the whole building in the picture. Paco was disappointed as the place he wanted to buy us dinner was no longer in business, but we found another place and had some interesting sandwiches.
We had an early flight out in the morning and told Paco we would call a taxi. He insisted on picking us up, but when he was half an hour late because he was caught in traffic, we ended up getting a taxi and got to our gate just in time to board. There’s nothing like a little excitement to get the heart pumping! Needless to say, our week passed by rapidly.
Last evening we went to a nice production put on by the EFY attendees from Portugal. It lasted over two hours, with lots of music by the young people and video presentations and remarks by the leaders. We really enjoyed it. When we tried to start our car afterward, we got nary a sound. We stopped Elder and Sister Johnson and with their help and cables from another family, we got the car started. But now we had another problem, the brake wouldn’t release so we could go forward. It was finally decided to abandon the car there in the parking lot of a school. The Johnsons gave us a ride home. We were unable to attend church in Caparica again today, but we enjoyed visiting the Miratejo Ward. It is continuing to grow and the chapel was quite full today.
We were saddened to learn that Fletch, our dog for the last 14 years, had died. A big thank you to Brett for taking care of his burial. We have many fond memories of Fletch—his rebounding of the basketball, his leaping and twirling when anyone was swimming, and just being a great dog. We will miss him.
I will include some pictures from our trip to Madrid, including a photo of Elder & Sister Rodriguez. The gospel is true and we are so grateful to have it to guide our lives and find happiness. Love to all!
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Elder Henry was quite busy this week with interviews for new
participants in Spain. He also prepared
an agenda for the training we will be giving this week when we travel to Madrid
to train Elder and Sister Rodriguez who will be helping us with the PEF contacting
in Spain. We will be leaving on Tuesday
afternoon and returning on Thursday morning.
Besides the training, Paco has plans to take us to some kind of a community
cultural festival there. So we should
have an interesting time.
We took the day on Thursday to visit Sintra. We met up with Elder and Sister Johnson at
their apartment where she had fixed a nice brunch for us. We then traveled to Sintra which is not very
far from here. We toured the National
Palace (where many kings lived and the center of the ancient ruling class) , then took a bus which meandered way up a winding, steep road where we visited the Pena
Palace. It is too big to get a great picture (and they didn’t allow pictures
inside) but it was very nice. The queen
had about six rooms designated for
various activities or servants, including a beautiful bedroom. Both palaces are really spectacular. Pena is almost Disneyland-like except much larger and completely furnished. We then walked a short distance downhill to the
Castle of the Moors. It was originally built by the Moors when they ruled the Iberian Peninsula during the 12th Century. There is quite a
lot of restoration going on there, but it was also interesting. We then took the bus back down to town. We found a place to eat, then visited the
Praia de Macas (Beach of Apples) and Cabo do Roca (the western most point in Europe) before returning home. We really enjoyed this day of sightseeing and
visiting with the Johnsons.
Friday was another holiday here, but we went in to the
office for a while since we had played the day before. We didn’t want to visit Sintra on a holiday
because the crowds would have been much bigger.
I did a lot of texting this week to remind the participants
of General Conference. With the
difference in time zones, we watched the two Saturday sessions on our computer
at 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM and of course, we really enjoyed them. Dad went to the church today to watch the
priesthood session, but we will watch the Sunday sessions in our apartment. I am always reminded of ways that I can
improve when I listen to conference.
Now, to be able to follow through with those impressions—that is the
more difficult part. Hope you all
enjoyed conference and that you have a great week. We love you!
Elder and Sister Henry at Sintra |
Inside the National Palace |
Partial view of the Pena Palace |
Entrance into Pena Palace |
Greeting over a door of the Pena Palace |
At Castle of the Moors |
Taken at Praia de Macas |
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