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 7^th 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

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:

 "A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude."
—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

How grateful we are for all of our blessings.  We count family, friends, and the gospel of Jesus Christ as our most treasured blessings.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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

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