Picture from Our Last Conference

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

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

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.

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 6^th 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

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 11^th.  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