We had a
nice week here in Portugal. Of course,
it’s always a nice week when you are serving the Lord. We passed the half-way mark of our mission
and the time is going rapidly. Today in
Sunday School our teacher, who is a wonderful young lady from Brazil, played a
DVD about missionary work . It caused me
to reflect on the missions our sons served, along with all of the young men and
women who serve the Lord on missions. I
relived the emotions of sending a son out on a mission and the joy in having
him return home after having served an honorable mission. Also it reminded me of how difficult it was
to leave our beloved friends in Brazil when we returned home from our mission
almost four years ago. I started
thinking about leaving the friends we have made in Portugal and I shed a few
tears. It’s amazing how you can feel so
much love for the people you meet on a mission.
The people
here in Portugal have been a little more reserved at showing friendship, but
they are wonderful nonetheless. We try
to smile and speak to people on the street; some are very nice and respond, but
from others we sometimes get only a scowl.
Yesterday when we parked our car and got out there was an 83-year-old
lady who was having trouble walking and stopped to rest. I took a minute to speak to her and she
commented that I must not be from Portugal because the people here aren’t that
nice.
Our internet
went down at the office on Friday, so we left for a while and did the shopping
that we had planned to do after our work was completed. We went back later in the afternoon when we
found out it was finally available. It’s
amazing how much we rely on the internet to accomplish our work. It certainly makes it easier to keep in touch
with all of our wonderful friends and family, for which we are very grateful.
We had an
outing yesterday with Elder and Sister Johnson.
We drove to Cascais and visited Boca do Inferno and did some shopping at
the booths which they have nearby. It
reminded me of the time we were in Ensinada, Mexico, because the merchants were
all coaxing us to look at their goods and trying to get our business. We were able to bargain with them a little
and buy a few souvenirs to take home.
Because of rain, we didn’t get out of the car very much, but did stop at
the Tower of Belem and also found a tiny little restaurant and had a wonderful
meal of grilled salmon.
Elder
Staples is still having a few health problems, so we have been keeping pretty
close contact with him. We will be sad
when he is transferred, as we always are after serving with these wonderful
young missionaries. Some you get more
attached to than others; he and Elder Oliveira are some of those.
I need to
get down to business and prepare my talk for next Sunday. We have come to expect a talk assignment
every three months. Because the ward is
small, we all get lots of opportunities to participate.
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| At Boca do Inferno |
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At Boca do Inferno |
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| Merchant Booths near Boca do Inferno |
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| Tower of Belem |
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