Sunday, August 26 ,2012

On Monday morning it was my turn to give a spiritual thought in our devotional.  I was pretty nervous when I realized that our Area Seventy, the recently released mission president and many of our office colleagues were all there.  The week before hardly anyone was in attendance because of vacations.  But I made it through and now I won’t have to worry about that for a couple of months.  Tomorrow is Mike’s turn and I know he will do well.

Our supervisor is back from his two-week break so we had a long meeting with him on Monday also.  There is still so much to learn to be able to accomplish all that we are expected to do.  But we are hammering away at it as best we can.

On Tuesday we left the office early so we could make a visit in Costa de Caparica.   Geraldo Viveiros met us at the church and we went out to find the family we were supposed to visit.  They weren’t there, so we went to visit Paula again and give her some support.  Unfortunately it wasn’t a good day for her and the visit didn’t go too well.  She only wanted to argue and was in an entirely different state of mind than on our prior visit. 

Today after church we waited for a couple of hours for President Graca and then went to try to visit at five different homes.  Not one person was there to visit with us. But we enjoyed visiting with President Graca, who is always upbeat and positive, and we got a little more acquainted with the area and where people live.  We returned home just in time to attend a fireside at which Joaquim Moreira spoke. He is the recently returned mission president from Brazil who has an office next to us.  It was mainly for Young Single Adults, but everyone was invited.

We received an e-mail from Talita Bejarano, our language tutor from the MTC, telling us that Marie Richardson, Kristin and Ed’s daughter, married her brother-in-law.  What a small world!  She enjoyed meeting Richard and some of the other family members who were present for this special occasion.

For those who don’t know, Jared and Lisa moved to another apartment and will start their last semester tomorrow.  Lisa will be teaching 4^th grade in South Jordan and Jared will be finishing up his classes.  Their new address is 4000 S Redwood Road, Apt 2097k, Salt Lake City, UT 84123.  His phone # is the same.

We are healthy and happy and send our love to all.  We love the gospel and the blessings that have come to us throughout our lives.  We would love to hear from family and friends.
This is our apartment building.  We live on the 6th floor:

We really enjoy the pigeons here.  One day we threw out some old bread and they swooped down out of the tree and devoured the bread.

This is Elder Henry with our Stake President Graca:

Sunday, August 19, 2012

On Monday we talked with Elder Fernando Rocha, the Area Seventy who has an office in our building, and he asked if we would be willing to visit the Costa de Caparica Ward on Sundays and to help strengthen this small ward.  We were excited for this opportunity, as we have been missing those “missionary opportunities” we so enjoyed in Brazil.  We just returned from a long day there (left home at 8:45AM and returned at 7:45PM.  We attended our meetings and were greeted warmly by the members of the ward.  Elder Rocha held a training meeting with us and all those involved in missionary work during Sunday School.  After the meetings we attended a correlation meeting and then later met President Graca who took us to visit two families.  The first was Mario and his mother-in-law Katarina.  The wife was at work.  Katarina is 85 and confined to bed and seemed happy to see us.  We had a short meeting with her and blessed and gave her the sacrament.  Then we had a long discussion with Mario about his problems.  After that we visited with Paula and Pedro.  Paula has problems with alcohol and President Graca was very sympathetic and offered to get her the help she needs.  Her son, Pedro, is a delightful young man who seems very dedicated to helping his mom recover from her addiction.  President Graca was a great example of how to minister to those with problems; he was so nonjudgmental and caring.

On Tuesday we plan to go back to visit another family with Geraldo Viveiros, a member of the ward.  We tried to visit the other family today, but they were out of town.

Wednesday we had planned to visit Sintra where there are many interesting things to see, but it rained during the night and appeared that it would continue during the day, so we decided to go to the office.  When we arrived, the doors were locked and nobody was around.  There happened to be some men in the chapel next door and they told us it was a holiday.  So we went to the 3-story mall in Almada and bought a few things, had a nice lunch, and shopped at their huge Jumbo grocery store.

This week our supervisor will be back in the office and work should pick up for us again.  Mike has been busy preparing ideas for the Perpetual Education Fund in the European area and I have been working up an address list from which I will be sending reports to priesthood leaders.  When you send to every Bishop, Branch President, and Stake President it involves many people.  I think I have 50 pages of contact information.

I have been asked to give the spiritual thought in our devotional tomorrow morning.  This is a little intimidating, but I am going to talk about humility.  I found many great scriptures.  One of them is:  D&C 112:10  “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.”  Mike will be giving the thought next week.

To our dear family and friends, we love you, miss you, and would love to hear from you.

This is the Chapel in Costa de Caparica--A large home remodeled into a very nice meeting place:

We just returned from a nice dinner with President and Sister Fluckiger.  It was wonderful to visit with them, just the four of us, and talk about what we are doing with the Perpetual Education Fund and our possible service as missionaries in other ways.  We are hoping that we will be able to help out in other ways as time goes on.

                On Friday night we had Elder and Sister Lund over for dinner and visiting.  They are leaving on August 20^th to return home to Utah.  We will really miss them.  There is another couple, the Roses, coming when they receive their visas and the Johnsons are being brought back from Porto to live here also.  They will probably live together in the large apartment which the Church owns in Lisbon.  It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and has had two couples there in the past.  We are glad to be on the other side of the river because that is where our office is located.  It is much more convenient for us.
                  This is the back entrance to our office building/chapel:

Tower of Belem in Lisbon:

Our mission president's home (Very lovely):

I meant for these pictures to be at the end of my letter, but this is where they landed, so read on if you have a mind to.

                The Lunds brought us five live plants and a computer table,  so our apartment seems more homey and we are pretty well set.  We had considered buying or make-shifting a computer table.  Sister Lund has been cleaning out her apartment and also gave us some spices, so I was very happy to have them.  Some spices require much searching to find them.  Thank you for the recipe, Crystal.  I made Hawaiian Chicken for the Lunds.  It was a hit; they wanted the recipe.

                This week we were busy getting ready to send out reports to priesthood leaders in all the European countries where we have PEF participants.   I couldn’t believe how many names and addresses this would involve.

                It has been a little warmer here this week, but still way cooler than home.  I’m glad that we will enjoy two summers here.  It is a very agreeable climate.

The young missionaries are continuing to baptize in our area.  I think there has only been one week when we didn’t have a baptism. Yesterday there was a mother and daughter baptized and today a man.   Today we met a Sister from Riverton, Utah and our new Sister serving in our area is from Taylorsville, Utah.

Congratulations to Gregg who was (or maybe its will be) sustained as the first counselor in their bishopric today!
We also heard from our friends Marilene and Claudir in Chapeco that they are expecting a baby and we are so excited for them.  They have been waiting several years for this great blessing.
The gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the most happiness and peace in this life and I am so grateful that it is a part of our lives.  I pray for the Lord's blessings to be with all of our friends and family.  We send our love to each of you.

August 5, 2012

We have had a good week of working in the PEF office.  There have been some great responses to our emails and contacts.  We are working to be a support system for the participants and also to update their records.  Many are struggling with unemployment issues and are unable to pay on their loans at the present time.  My heart breaks when I hear of some of their struggles and I rejoice when I see them succeeding and paying off their loans.

Our supervisor was away for 2 weeks soon after we arrived and now he is leaving for two more weeks of vacation.  We are still have much to learn, but we will do the best we can in his absence.

We are happy that David and Kara enjoyed their experience of taking part in the production of “My Fair Lady”.  Would love to have been there, but we were happy to see pictures and feel like we were there in spirit.

This week we were able enjoy some of the special pastries that the Portuguese people enjoy.  We found that we really liked them.  If we eat them too often, our weight will really balloon.

Two of the young missionaries we had in our ward boundaries were transferred this week—Elder Whitaker and Sister de Sousa (from Sao Paulo, Brazil).  We were sad to see them leave, but now we have two new missionaries to enjoy. 

On September 8 there is going to be a meeting here for a select few of the priesthood leaders with Elder Nelson, Presiding Bishop Rasband, Elder Rocha and Elder Teixeira.  On that morning there is going to be a meeting for the RS Sisters with Sisters Nelson, Rasband, Rocha and Teixeira.  I am excited about the possibility of attending this meeting.  It should be wonderful.

Mike and I did some of our chores on Friday night so we could take a little trip on Saturday, our Preparation Day.  We visited an old castle (pictures to follow),  Cabo Espichel where there was an old covent and chapel (picture below), stopped at a little paderia and pasteleria for lunch, drove through some mountain passes along the coast, visited the city of Setubol and then returned home.    We were gone about seven hours and really enjoyed the day.  We have heard that there are many more interesting sites to explore here in Portugal, and we are looking forward to doing just that.  Deanna brought us these goodies:

 Chapel on Castle grounds-

Chapel at Cabo Espichel-

We trust that all is going well with all of our loved ones.  We pray for you daily.