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.