April 28, 2It was a beautiful spring week in Portugal until Saturday when the wind blew with a passion. It gusted and howled the entire day. It’s much nicer today.  Lara, a 10-year-old daughter in a less-active family was baptized today. Her mom and younger brother have come to church several times with her and we hope that they will continue to attend. Brother and Sister Lima, who moved into our ward and came for the first time last week, have a son who is a wonderful pianist. He played for our Sacrament Meeting today and brought a sweet spirit into the meeting. Elder Oliveira also plays quite well, so for the time being we are enjoying this wonderful blessing of good accompaniment for our meetings. In the past we have sometimes sung a cappella. We always sing a cappella in Relief Society, sometimes with me as the chorister wondering what hymn we are singing because the titles are quite different in Portuguese. It was very quiet at our office this week because the two people who make the most noise were gone to Germany to find housing. They will both be moving there this summer. There was also a holiday on Thursday, so some of the employees took days before or after off to have a longer break. There was a churro stand set up for the holiday so Mike bought churros filled with white chocolate. (very yummy!) We have another holiday this week—May 1st is their Labor Day. We went to Cascais one day and did some apartment checking for new missionary residences in two different areas on another day. There is a large group of new missionaries coming in a couple of weeks and I am sure it is a huge challenge to be ready for all of them. I started Family Search indexing recently and have really enjoyed it. I am almost at 1,000 entries. I feel it is a positive use of my time. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.013

It was a beautiful spring week in Portugal until Saturday when the wind blew with a passion.  It gusted and howled the entire day.  It’s much nicer today. J

Lara, a 10-year-old daughter in a less-active family was baptized today.  Her mom and younger brother have come to church several times with her and we hope that they will continue to attend. 

Brother and Sister Lima, who moved into our ward and came for the first time last week, have a son who is a wonderful pianist.  He played for our Sacrament Meeting today and brought a sweet spirit into the meeting.  Elder Oliveira also plays quite well, so for the time being we are enjoying this wonderful blessing of good accompaniment for our meetings.  In the past we have sometimes sung a cappella.  We always sing a cappella in Relief Society, sometimes with me as the chorister wondering what hymn we are singing because the titles are quite different in Portuguese.

It was very quiet at our office this week because the two people who make the most noise were gone to Germany to find housing.  They will both be moving there this summer.  There was also a holiday on Thursday, so some of the employees took days before or after off to have a longer break. There was a churro stand set up for the holiday so Mike bought churros filled with white chocolate.  (very yummy!) We have another holiday this week—May 1^st is their Labor Day.

We went to Cascais one day and did some apartment checking for new missionary residences in two different areas on another day.  There is a large group of new missionaries coming in a couple of weeks and I am sure it is a huge challenge to be ready for all of them.

I started Family Search indexing recently and have really enjoyed it.  I am almost at 1,000 entries.   I feel it is a positive use of my time. 

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Remember faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

Lara Victoria (center) who was baptized today.

Elder Oliveira (of Brazil) and Elder Oliveira (of Portugal)
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Pretty tree near our office (Love the trunk)

Statue in honor of David's role in Pirates of Penzance (seen in Cascais).

April 21, 2013

This week was a little slower at the office because we have made most of our contacts for the month.  Elder Henry was given a special assignment which came from the Area Presidency.  He had a number of bishops and branch presidents to contact in Cape Verde regarding participants from there who are more than 150 days behind in their loan repayments.  Part of the reason to contact them is to know what challenges they are facing and to see if there is some way that we can be of assistance to them. 

The weather here has been gorgeous this past week.  Temperatures have been in the seventies and we are loving it.  Occasionally we do have some wind, which is not my favorite, but it is a nice time of the year.  We hope that summer takes its time arriving, although last summer was fairly nice.

I really liked an article that came in this month’s Liahona which talked about how to tell if we are converted .

1.       When you are converted, you want to do what is right.

2.       You have no desire to do wrong.

3.       You worry more about what God thinks of you than what others think of you.

4.       You give your best to always live the Gospel.

5.       You have more compassion for others.

6.       You have more desire to pray to God.

7.       You are excited for Sunday because it is the Lord’s Day.

8.       You keep the commandments and don’t look for excuses or justify your behavior.

9.       You are happy to pay your tithing.

10.   When you are converted, you have a strong desire to help others know the truth and happiness that you have found.

We were invited out to dinner with Miguel and Deanna Adriano and their daughters Claudia and Catarina on Friday night.  We ate at a wonderful churrascuria which was similar to what you find at  Toscanos in Provo.  They had a very nice salad bar with lots of choices and then came to the table with all the meat you could eat.  We had a wonderful dinner and ate way more than was good for us.

Our meetings were very enjoyable today.  We were delighted that a new couple has moved into our ward from Lisbon—the Limas.  They are originally from Brazil, but have lived here 13 years.  Their youngest son is currently serving a mission in the northern part of Portugal.

At dinner with the Adriano family.

Vendors at the Plaza de Commercio, Lisbon

They have lots of shops selling tourist items in Lisbon.

Mime  in Lisbon

April 14, 2013

This week we celebrated our 48^th wedding anniversary.  I’m so grateful for our marriage and for temple covenants which give us the opportunity to be a family for all eternity if we do all that is required of us.  We appreciate all the nice messages that we received from family and friends.    We spent time at the office and with recommendations from Miguel and his wife, we ate dinner on the boardwalk at Costa de Caparica.  It was very enjoyable to enjoy a wonderful fish dinner and relax with a wonderful view of the ocean.  The restaurant was very peaceful because we ate around 6:00 PM and most people here eat dinner much later.  There were only a few other diners in the restaurant.  One thing we learned early in Portugal is that when you eat out they bring little plates of extra food items while you wait for your order.  For each one you eat you pay extra.  So we have learned to be a little selective with what we consume. 

We heard from our friends in Chapeco  (Claudir, Cesar, Valmor and Clovis)that they will finally become a stake on the weekend of May 18-19^th.  This is a long-awaited event for the members of the Church in the area and they are extremely excited, as are we.

On Wednesday, after working at the office, we stopped to meet Maria Cidalia—a new member of the Miratejo Ward who lives in our building.  She sells sweet breads from the back of her van and we were told about her by Fatima, who works in our office building and is the RS President in Miratejo Ward.  She is a very sweet lady; we are hoping to get better acquainted with her soon.

I think we mentioned that Joaquim Morreira, from our office, was called to be an Area Seventy.  We missed the fact that Fernando Rocha, also from our office, was released as an Area Seventy.  There were lots of names read off in a hurry, so that’s our excuse.  They are both wonderful men.

We have a new Elder serving in the Caparica Ward.  He is Elder de Oliveira from Forteleza, Brazil.  So now we have two Elder Oliveiras serving in the same ward.   He plays the piano beautifully; what a blessing for our little ward.  All of you grandchildren—KEEP PRACTICING because your talents are a great blessing wherever you serve on your missions or in the Church.  I was so happy to hear the beautiful prelude music and accompaniment as we sang today.

The messages of conference were so wonderful.  It will be nice to receive them in written form so we can study them further.  How blessed we are to have a living prophet on the earth, Thomas S. Monson, to guide us in these latter days.  When I read or hear of his experiences, so many of which are involved with serving others, it always inspires me to want to do better.

View from the restaurant-O Barbas

Another view from O Barbas

A view from our apartment.

A Market where many vendors sell their fresh produce.  

April 7, 2013

This has been a week of varied experiences.  We have, of course, begun a new month of contacts with our PEF participants.  We have also made trips to Caparica and Barreiro to check out possible new living arrangements for the missionaries.  We found some good possibilities in both places.  With the addition of many more new missionaries, we are looking for larger apartments to accommodate two sets of Elders in place of one.

Tuesday we spent the day with Paula Castro, our wonderful friend from Riberão Preto, Brazil.  We drove to Setúbal to meet her and then went to Belém to walk through the streets and see the sights, ride a streetcar, visit the Castle of São Jorge, eat lunch at Pasteis de Belém, visit the Monastery of Jerónimos, pass by the Monument of the Discoveries, and visit the Cristo Rei site.  Paula and I almost got locked in at the top of the tower.  A lady came to tell us that they were closing and we had a difficult time finding the door out. (It’s not easily visible.) I was getting a little panicky when Paula jumped a gate and pounded on the door.  A lady finally came out and showed us where to go.  It made for a little excitement.  It was a fun day and we enjoyed getting better acquainted with Paula.  We took lots of pictures and now I am trying to get many of them sent to her.  She wanted me to set up a dropbox, which I did, but I haven’t had success using it yet.  My next step is to try to send them with zip files, which was my first intention.

We have had some beautiful weather some of the week, but on Thursday the wind blew extremely hard, so much so that a large tree blew down in front of our apartment building.  It blew across the stairs that we normally use coming and going to the office when we walk.  I am just grateful that we weren’t passing by at the time the tree fell.  We took our car in the afternoon because of the strong wind and the fact that we were going to shop for groceries after we finished at the office.

We have enjoyed very much the General Conference sessions so far.  We watched them on our computer yesterday at 5:00PM and 9:00PM and Elder Henry was able to get the priesthood session this morning also.  We were excited to hear that Joaquim Morriera, who was released as a mission president in Brazil this last summer and works next to us in the office, was called as an Area Seventy.  Now we will have two of them in our office.  They are both wonderful men.  We have really enjoyed the class that Brother Morreira has been teaching on the Pearl of Great Price.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading rapidly throughout the world with the great influx of missionaries who are responding to the call to serve.  We feel so blessed to be a small part of this great work. 

At the entrance to São Jorge Castle

Peacock on the castle grounds.

This peacock put on quite a show and I got lots of pictures.