May 26, 2013

Happy First Anniversary today to Brad and Suzie Henry, who were sealed in the Draper Temple one year ago today.  We wish you many more years of happiness together.  We are very excited that Gregg and Crystal’s baby will be induced on Tuesday, if she does not choose to arrive earlier.  We can’t wait to get acquainted with her, but pictures will have to do until December.

We had a very busy, but wonderful week.  After working at the office on Monday, we received a call from Elder Almeida and Elder Shumway that Paula’s husband had left her and could we take them to visit her in Caparica.  She was an investigator with a baptism scheduled for Sunday.  We took them and had a very nice visit with her.  It was a difficult time for her, but she is converted and was baptized today, on her birthday.  The ward really rallied behind her and we had a nice luncheon after the baptism. (I made Chocolate Crinkles on Tuesday night since we were going to return home from Spain on Saturday evening.)  She is thrilled to be a member of the Church.  She has daughters 10 and 13 who are being taught and were there today along with a 12 year old friend.  We also met her mother, who is my age and a real spitfire.  I really enjoyed her.  She isn’t interested in religion right now because of the predicted end of the world which didn’t happen.

We flew to Madrid on Wednesday afternoon.  Paco met us at the airport, took us to check in at our hotel, and then to his home to eat a wonderful Mexican dinner prepared by his wife, Susie, for their youngest son’s 20^th birthday.  We enjoyed the evening with them.  They are very gracious.

Thursday we met our new missionary couple, Elder and Sister Riggs from Concord, CA.  We did some training and answered their questions regarding the PEF program.  Elder Riggs served his mission in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Northern Chile, so he speaks Spanish quite well.  He also worked in the USAF as a linguist in Spanish.  He is very willing to do whatever he can to help with the work.  She doesn’t speak much of the language yet, but is translating some documents for Paco at present.  We enjoyed getting acquainted with them.  Paco and Susie took us to a wonderful Chinese restaurant for lunch.  Later we went downtown and walked past El Prado and viewed some of the downtown area, then enjoyed some great salads at VIPS. 

On Friday we took a taxi to the temple and attended a Portuguese session.  It was our first time in the Madrid Temple and it had been almost a year since we had been inside the temple, so it was a special treat for us.  We also did another session on Saturday, but this time in Spanish.  It is a large temple and very beautiful.  We felt very blessed to have this opportunity.

Friday afternoon we were able to travel to Toledo with the Riggs and Paco and Susie.  It is a very old city where Paco tells us that the Jews, Muslims, and Christians live together in peace and harmony.  We had a wonderful time wandering through the narrow cobblestone streets, visiting a tapestry shop, a museum of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions which were constructed from his drawings, eating ice cream, and enjoying the view from a spot high above the city.  There were statues and memorabilia of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza everywhere we went.  Toledo is in his homeland of La Mancha.

 On our flight home we sat next to Rolando from Mazatlan, Mexico.  He had been in Portugal to participate in a mountain bike race of almost two weeks.  He said it was really difficult, but he had enjoyed it immensely, had finished the race,  had seen some beautiful sights, and made new friends.  We had some good discussion on the importance of Jesus Christ and family with this wonderful Catholic man.  We shared emails and he invited us, as did we him, to visit his country and he would be our host.  He has a wife and four sons and is involved in the franchising of Burger King establishments in Mexico and the US.  On our flight to Madrid, I sat next to a beautiful Brazilian lady who has lived in Spain for 18 years and flies to Portugal every week because of her employment.  It is great fun to meet people from many countries.

We are so grateful for the opportunity and blessings of serving a mission.  The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives and it’s a privilege to witness the growth we see in the lives of new converts.  Living the gospel is worth the effort!

El Prado in Madrid, Spain

Elder & Sister Henry in front of El Prado.

The entry to Toledo

The Riggs, The Henrys, Susie and Paco

Elder Shumway, Paula, Elder Almeida

I will post more pictures of our visit to Spain on Facebook.

May 19, 2013

It felt more like fall this week than spring.  The temperatures were some cooler, we had some rain and wind.  Mike has suffered a little with allergies; you would think we were in Corning with the olives blooming.

Our best news this week was that Brett was offered a teaching position at Corning High School.  He will be teaching Spanish and English Language Development for foreign speaking students.  We are very happy for him and for us because this means he and his family will continue to live close to us.  Our fasting and prayers were answered, and we are so thankful for this blessings.

We also had some sad news this week.  Suzie (Brad’s wife) had a nephew born to her sister Lorianne in an emergency C-section because his heart rate fell suddenly. He didn’t survive and was buried on Friday.  It was a difficult week for the family.  We were also saddened to hear of the passing of our beloved prophet’s wife, Sister Frances Monson.  Our love and prayers go out to their families.

We were able to make lots of contacts with our PEF participants this week and one participant paid off his loan.  It’s great when we get positive responses to the messages that we send out or from a phone call that is made.  Miguel’s son, who recently returned from a mission to Florida, comes to the office to help out several days a week.  He is such a nice young man; we really enjoy him.

We attended a 2-hour concert last night given by Gerson Santos.  We have been told that he was the runner-up in a Portuguese Idol contest.  He has a wonderful voice, is accomplished on the piano and guitar, and writes much of his own music.  He recently accepted a call to serve in the Brazil Sao Paulo South Mission.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

We received a large group of new missionaries in our mission this last week and we now have two sets of Elders to work in the area of our Costa de Caparica Ward.  We have 2 missionaries from Brazil –Elder Oliveira and Elder Almeida (who is from Florianopolis), Elder Lima from Cape Verde and Elder Shumway from Arizona.  The three new Elders which came in this week bore their testimonies in Sacrament Meeting today.  I feel we have a good group of Elders which can make things happen in our small ward.  They have already scheduled a baptism for Paula next Sunday.  It is also Paula’s birthday, so we are having a luncheon after the baptism in her honor.

We will be flying to Spain on Wednesday afternoon and staying until Saturday afternoon.  This will give us a chance to meet our new PEF missionary couple(the Riggs), go to the temple, and probably see a few new sights with Paco and Susie.  It may be our last trip to Spain, so we will enjoy the opportunity while we have it.

We are anxiously awaiting the news of the arrival of Gregg and Crystal’s new baby girl.  What an exciting time for our family!  How blessed we are to know that our family relationships can last beyond the grave.  It makes us try even harder to have a good relationship with all of our family members.  May we all be blessed in our efforts to have peace, harmony, and a spirit of love in our homes.

Poster advertising last night's concert.

Park across from our apartment where we walk in the mornings.

Another picture of our park.

We bought yummy churros with white chocolate and strawberry fillings.

May 12, 2013 Happy Mothers Day in the US

Happy Mother’s Day  to all my friends and family who are called by the name Mom, Mommy, Ma, Mama, Mother, Nanna, Grandma, Bugga, or whatever other name the little ones choose to call you.  What a blessing it is to be a mother and grandmother and to feel the great love we do for our children and grandchildren.  How grateful I am today for my own mother, for Mike’s mother(s) and for all the mothers who have blessed my life through their goodness and example.  How we appreciate our wonderful daughter and daughters-in-law for their selfless service to their husbands and children.  Our love goes out to each of you.  This week David and Alexis had birthdays, and Amy turned 12 on May 2 and entered the Young Women’s program of the Church.  Happy Birthday to All.

This week we had the great blessing of inspecting missionary apartments.  We visited two apartments on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and one on Friday.  This was a wonderful opportunity to become better acquainted with six sets of missionaries.  We always enjoy our association with these young people who are dedicating their lives to the Lord’s service.  They had done a pretty good job of cleaning and being prepared for us.  On these days we spent a part of the day in the office also.

We have a new couple in Spain to help with the PEF contacts there.  We will be going to Spain again to help train them and visit the temple on May 22 and return on May 25^th.  We always enjoy our trips and appreciate the people in Spain who are so helpful to us.

We had Fast and Testimony Meeting today because of our Stake Conference last weekend.  The meetings were most enjoyable.  We love being with the saints in Costa de Caparica.   Today a young baby was blessed by the name of Mandelson.  We didn’t have babies in our ward, just a couple of rowdy 2-year-olds.  Mike stood in on the blessing.  We both had the opportunity to bear our testimonies.  It is so wonderful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and to know from whom our blessings come.

We pray for the Lord’s choicest blessings to be with our friends and family.

Another view from Castle in Alcácer do Sal

So many beautiful yellow blooms!

Castle in Santiago de Cacém

Statue in Sines

I love this Smart Car.

May 5 - Happy Mothers Day in Portugal

At the beginning of the week we finished off our PEF contacts for the month and were able to get 100 percent of the high-priority contacts made.  It seems that we get better results when we are able to make a voice contact by phone, but we do get some nice responses from emails and texts also.

We had another Portuguese holiday on Wednesday, May 1^st—It was their Labor Day.  Since our office was closed that day, we decided to take a drive and see some new sights.  We had a most wonderful day traveling south through many small towns, viewing two castles, and lots of blooming wildflowers. We didn’t have an exact destination, but just decided as we went along.   It was very enjoyable.

Our Stake Conference was this weekend.  Our visitor was Elder Reina, an Area Seventy from Spain.  He spoke in English and had a wonderful translator who repeated his words in Portuguese. He is a large man, very delightful and funny.  He said that he encountered the missionaries at age 20 when he was playing his guitar in the park with friends and he had very long hair and a beard.  We especially enjoyed the Saturday meetings.  The choir was very good both days and all the current missionaries were invited onstage to sing the final song with the choir—“Called to Serve”.  We didn’t know about it beforehand.  We were able to speak with former missionaries from Gregg’s and Jared’s missions at the conference.  There is a young man from Seixal who is very talented musically (piano and voice) who was a runner-up on their version of American Idol.  He has received a mission call to the Sao Paulo South Mission and spoke this morning in the conference.  He will be performing, along with others, in a musical program in Setubal on the 18^th.  It should be really good!

This week we have scheduled apartment checks with six different sets of missionaries.  This will be our first time to do these inspections here.  We had this assignment for a time at home and enjoyed it.  I guess I will be making lots of cookies this week.  We gave the Seixal Elders a ride home from conference today so we would know how to find them later this week.

We feel so blessed to be here in Portugal at this time in our lives.  We send our love to all.

Typical old buildings in Portugal.

Part of Castle in Santiago de Cacem (Quite large)

We figure the castle wall is about 24 feet tall.

One of many beautiful views from the castle.

Castle in Alcacer de Sal  (Not nearly as impressive.)

Cathedral in Alcacer de Sal