From Portugal With Love: 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.