From Portugal With Love: February 17, 2013

It has been a great week! The best part was that we had a wonderful opportunity. On Tuesday it was a holiday here, so we decided to take a drive to Setubal, a city about 30 minutes from here. We drove around seeing the sights and located our two church meetinghouses there. Then when it was lunchtime, we stopped at a Pingo Doce (a grocery market chain here) and looked around, but then went next door to an inside marketplace where many vendors had fruits, vegetables, pastries, etc. to sell. We bought a few items, but decided (or should I say, were prompted by the Spirit) to go back into Pingo Doce to buy something to eat for lunch. Elder Henry stayed outside with our sacks from the marketplace while I went inside. I met up with Paula Castro, who asked me a question about something on the shelf. We started talking and I discovered she was from Brazil and is a nurse here on a scholarship taking a 6-month course. I mentioned that we had served a mission in Brazil and were serving another here in Portugal. She expressed interest in going to our church, so I got her phone number, email address and the address where she is living. Meanwhile, Mike is outside wondering what is taking me so long. After I checked out, I met up with Mike, got the address of a church nearby and returned to talk with her again. In the next few days we gave the reference to the missionaries, made several phone calls and emails to Paula, spoke with both sets of Elders in Setubal, and on Saturday we returned to take her to the nearest church to meet up with the missionaries and have her first discussion. She was planning on walking to church today (quite a distance) and also is scheduled to have her second discussion on Tuesday. We wish that we lived closer, so we could do more with Paula, but we will have to rely on the saints in that area. This been so exciting because our mission this time has a completely different focus and we have missed those special opportunities to spread the gospel.

The holiday on Tuesday was for Carnaval. The only thing we noticed was that young children were dressed in Halloween-type costumes. We saw several as we drove around town or shopped.

We also had a good week at the office making our contacts with PEF participants. We feel it is an inspired program which we have the opportunity to work with and we can see that it is blessing the lives of many young people.

We had our second class on Wednesday night studying the Pearl of Great Price. It has been very interesting to study about the symbolism involved in the account of the creation. I have so much to learn.

After church today we took our two young Elders Staples and Oliveira to visit and give the Sacrament at two different homes. This was a very nice experience. One lady, Rosa, has no legs and comes to church occasionally when her husband is able to bring her. The other lady is wheelchair-bound and only leaves the house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the family. She is a grandmother to our bishop.

We hope that all of our friends and family know how much we love you and miss you. Hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.