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:
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