August 25, 2013

It was great to have some of our co-workers back from their vacations last week.  We had been feeling a somewhat lonely with so few people in the office with us.  Elder Henry and I have finished our part of the high-priority contacts for August and are now waiting on our helpers in Cape Verde and Spain to complete their assignments.  Spain just has a couple to do, but the people in Cape Verde usually wait until the last few days.  It always makes us a little nervous, but they usually get done.  I have more of our participants on facebook this week.  It is fun to be able to put a face to the young people we have come to know through emails, texts and phone calls.  It also gives us a feel for how they are doing spiritually, which is our greatest concern.

On Wednesday we did our final apartment inspection for this round.  The Elders in Seixal had a clean, though somewhat disorganized, apartment.  Their bathroom was without light, as the light bulbs had burned out and they could not find any replacement bulbs.  Elder Henry made a trip back to get the bulb and look for a replacement.  He was told that this particular bulb is no longer available.  Elder Hernandez from our office was contacted and the Elders now have light in their bathroom.  Hooray!

There is an older lady in our building, Maria Cidalia, who joined the Church a few months ago and attends the Miratejo Ward.  Recently she gave us some frozen fish and some vegetables.  This week I tried the first of the fish and cooked some sardines.  They tasted pretty good, but we found it to be quite a lot of work for a small amount of food.  I was a little braver about cooking these whole fish after observing our friends, Reginaldo and Ana prepare some for us last weekend.  Being close to the ocean, fish is one of the main foods eaten in Portugal.  Maria gave us enough for five or six more meals.

We have continued to pick up the garbage we see littering the park across the street as we walk in the mornings.  We are trying to establish the habit of taking a shorter stroll in the evenings when we have the chance.  The other night I was busy and Elder Henry went for a stroll by himself.  He was approached by a gentlemen who had seen us before.  He asked where we were from and told Elder Henry what a good example we were for the people in our area.  Elder Henry told him that we enjoy the park and that this is a small way we can do our part.  For me it is a much more enjoyable walk when the litter is missing.  It’s such a beautiful little park and we feel blessed to have it across the street.

I like this quote from Elder Richard G Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:  “Be certain that every decision you make, whether temporal or spiritual, is conditioned on what the Savior would have you do.  When He is the center of your home, there is peace and serenity.  There is a spirit of assurance that pervades the home, and it is felt by all who dwell there.”   Also, “One of the greatest blessings we can offer to the world is the power of a Christ-centered home where the gospel is taught, covenants are kept, and love abounds.”  This is our prayer for our beloved family and friends.   “Remember:  little things lead to big things.  Seemingly insignificant indiscretions or neglect can lead to big problems.  More importantly, simple, consistent, good habits lead to a life full of bountiful blessings.” 

We see lots of similar gates in Portugal.

We had vines like this at the back of our old home when I was growing up.  We called it Trumpet Vine.

View of the bay of the Tejo River seen yesterday on our drive.

So many old buildings in Portugal.

This African lady is following the prophet's counsel to grow a garden, even if it's in a small square near your apartment building.  I love this!  The people in our building just plant flowers.

August 19, 2013

We had a very interesting week.  We started by making lots of contacts with our PEF participants and doing 4 different apartment inspections.  Most of the missionaries had their apartments looking pretty nice, but we felt that one apartment could have used a little more care.  We have one more inspection to make this week in Seixal.

The weather turned a little warmer again, and then cooled off some.  This week is supposed to be in the mid to high nineties, so we may be looking for the shade and any cooling breezes.  Last night was pretty comfortable, but there was lots of noise and later fireworks, so it took me a while to get to sleep.

Thursday was a holiday here, with our office closed, so we left for Porto and other cities in the north.  After a drive of one hour, we arrived at Santarem and met Elder and Sister Rose, who traveled with us to Coimbra, a university town, and then on to Porto.  We went to our hotel and then drove over to Ana and Reginaldo Cruz’s home.  We worked with Reginaldo in our office until he was transferred with a better position in the late fall of last year.  He and Ana are in their thirties and just the nicest people.  Since their children were visiting grandparents, they called us their children for the weekend.  They even offered that we stay with them and sleep in their children’s beds, but we thought it would be better to stay in a hotel.  They live in Gaia, which is across the river from Porto.

Ana was willing to feed us all of our meals, but we ate out a few times and bought their lunch and dinner.   She did fix us three lovely meals, though, and we were especially grateful that they fed us on Sunday so we didn’t have to stop and buy food on the Sabbath.  They have a darling place that they are renting and we felt really comfortable with them.  What a delightful and fun couple!

We were able to visit some very interesting places in Porto, Guimarães, Braga, and Gaia.  We saw several old churches, a castle, a museum, several of our churches, and we loved seeing their bridges.  One night we actually walked across the Dom Luis Bridge on top (it was cold and windy up there) to go have dinner near the Douro River and then returned later on the bottom level.  It is a gorgeous area that gives you an old-world feel.  It was fun to walk around the area and see all the restaurants and narrow rock streets and tall buildings.  There were lots of people, but we did find a nice restaurant where we had the entire bottom floor to ourselves.  Many of the people eat outside, but this time it was a little chilly and we decided to eat inside.

We attended Reginaldo and Ana’s ward on Sunday and really enjoyed it.  It felt the most like a home ward of any we have visited thus far.  Sister Rose said that it made her a little homesick.  They still have almost 11 months to go on their mission. 

The University at Coimbra

Dom Luis Bridge (The one we walked over on top and back on the bottom.)

Our wonderful hosts--Reginaldo and Ana Cruz

Castle in Guimarães

Cathedral de Bom Jesus at Braga

Night-time on the Douro Riverfront

Having lunch at the riverfront.

August 11, 2013

It was another very quiet week at the office as some days there were only three or four of us working.  But we were able to accomplish quite a few good contacts.  Our high-priority list is a little longer this month, so that is a good thing.  We have found that quite often if we send a text or leave a message when we make a phone call, the participants will call back and need help with making a payment on their loan or have some other concern for us to resolve.

This week we will start on our apartment inspections as we do them every three months.  I guess I need to get busy making cookies.  The missionaries enjoy receiving a treat.  I suppose it helps them to be a little happier about our visit to check up on their housekeeping skills.

Last week was transfer week, so we have two new missionaries serving in our ward.  One of each set stayed.  We lost our wonderful pianist, Elder Oliveira, a great Elder who always had a great big smile.  Today we were fortunate because Jer Lima was there visiting his parents.  He and Elder Oliveira both have exceptional talent on the piano; they are self-taught and play with great ease and extra little flourishes (I don’t know if that is the correct word).  I love to listen to them play.  I think when you don’t have a pianist for a time, you appreciate it much more when you do, especially when they play so well.

We had to say “Tchau” to several wonderful members of our ward today.  Tabitha, our Young Women’s President, and her two sons are headed for Utah.  She will marry a fellow from Vernal and live there.  Her roommate and good friend, Maria, is also going to Utah for the wedding and then will be returning to her home country of Brazil.  She has been Tabitha’s assistant with the Young Women and also an outstanding Gospel Doctrine teacher.  It is very sad to see them leave.

Elder Henry gave another exceptional talk in Sacrament Meeting today.  He talked about the Law of Tithes and Offerings and how they have blessed our lives. He also mentioned the importance of work, of being careful with the money we have at our disposal, and the importance of saving a little each month. We can truly testify that the windows of heaven have showered blessings upon us for obeying this law.  Our Father in Heaven has blessed us with so much, it is a small amount to give in return.

Our weather finally turned warm again for the first time since early in July.  We are hoping it is a short time until our more agreeable temperatures return.  It has actually been hotter here this week than in Corning, but It looks like that will change in the middle of the week.  We hope so.

Last Sunday was Erick and Camille’s anniversary and today is Russ and Laura’s.  We send both couples our love and best wishes.

Elder Shumway and Elder Baker (the greenie)

Elder Lima and Elder Bascom

Tabitha, Gabriel, Lorenzo and Maria

Roundabout near the church in Costa de Caparica

August 4, 2013

We were few in numbers at the office this week.  Besides losing a couple of employees to Germany the rest of the employees are taking three-week vacations sometime this month.  Our supervisor, Miguel, was there this week, but will be on vacation the next two weeks.  Several others are gone for two or three weeks, so it has really been quiet.  At least we should be able to get lots of work done.  We were able to contact almost all of our participants one way or another and to reach 100 percent of the high-priority contacts in July.

On Monday afternoon we went to the mission office to take care of our car rental, return a housing contract and pick up some fire extinguishers and fire blankets for the missionaries’ apartments.  We met  Elder Curfew, who is the brother to Elder Curfew who served in the California Roseville Mission and was in the Corning Ward for a while.  He was excited when he found out that we were acquainted with his brother.

The little Padaria-Pastelaria near our apartment will be closed for the entire month of August, as it also was last year.  So, this week we had to enjoy some of our favorite treats from there.  Just like in Brazil, some businesses shut down for a month or two and go on vacation.  Many people here go to a beach.  There are many popular beaches in Portugal, one of which is Costa de Caparica.  We have to leave a little earlier for church during the summer because of the traffic heading for the beach.

As we walk back and forth to the office during the week we like to greet people with a smile and “Bom Dia!”  This week I got the best reaction that we have received so far.  A sweet little older lady just kept thanking me over and over for speaking to her and carried on quite an animated conversation for a few minutes.  It made my day.

Our pool liner gave out in May and Brett and April and family went through some of the hottest part of the summer without being able to swim.  We are sorry that they went about two months without it, but the pool is finally usable again.  We miss being there for the almond harvest and to enjoy the fruit from our trees.  Hopefully next year the trees will all produce again.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of using our Preparation Day to enjoy a visit to two more sites in Portugal.  We picked up Elder and Sister Johnson and drove to Sintra, where we visited the Park and Palace of Monserrate.  I have included pictures on my facebook site and will also include a couple here.  We enjoyed a nice lunch in an outside area in Belem, and then visited an Oriental Museum there.  There is so much to see here in Portugal, and our time is getting short.

Our spiritual thought in the office this week was on the Book of Mormon.  How I love this wonderful book of scripture which we have to add to our study of the Bible and our other scriptures.  I know it is the word of God whose pages were given to and translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Even though I have read, studied and had many lessons from it, I still have so very much to learn and understand.   

A very happy birthday to Laura Henry and Rylee Henry on August 6th.  We love you!

Palace of Monserrate

Elder & Sister Henry inside the palace.

The beautiful trail at Monserrate.

Baby bed at the Oriental Museum

Love this monkey riding horseback.

Buddha