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.