June 30, 2013

Summer has arrived in Portugal, but it’s still cooler than California or Utah.  We have used our fan for the last two days.  Today is the hottest so far at 95 degrees, but it is supposed to be cooler tomorrow.  It didn’t get this hot very often last summer, so we are hopeful.    The nights cool off quite well and we often get a breeze if we open our windows.  Last night there was a lot of noise by children screaming and playing until all hours of the night.  The night before there had been a noisy gathering at the park across the street.   Sometimes they have demonstrations.  That’s the negative to living so close to a park; but otherwise we really enjoy having it so close.

Last weekend Mike had a stomach bug, so our holiday on Monday was spent  just relaxing in our apartment instead of visiting some sites.  I worked quite a bit on Family Search Indexing, which I am really enjoying. 

Sister Fluckiger (our mission president’s wife) came home from the hospital on Wednesday and when I called her on Thursday, she said she was doing quite well.  Speaking of operations, we heard from Erick yesterday that Tristen had to come home from girls camp early with appendicitis and had surgery on Wednesday.  We wish her a speedy recovery.  It hasn’t been that long since Camille had her surgery for the same thing.  We hope it doesn’t become a family tradition.

Since it was the final week of June, we worked hard to complete our contacts.  The most difficult thing is that we depend on a few other people in Spain and Cape Verde to help us, and when they haven’t made contact with everyone, we have to fill in the gaps at the last moment.  Mike went to the office today after lunch to contact 4 people who had been missed.

When we walked on Thursday morning, there was a huge group of Scouts gathered in front of the Catholic church which is a few blocks away.  There were boy and girl scouts and leaders with backpacks waiting to board a very nice tour bus to take them wherever they were headed.  The interesting thing to us besides having a mixed group was that they seemed to be anywhere from 8 years old to teenagers.

Our beloved family is gathering in Utah this week to have a family reunion.  We won’t be there in person, but we will be there in spirit.  All of our reunions have been so enjoyable for us, that it is a little difficult to miss this one.  It is so great to watch our children and grandchildren interact with one another and to be a part of this interesting group that we call FAMILY.  We love you and miss you so much.  Have a great time!

A picture from Sintra

I am having trouble sharing the pictures I wanted to put on this week.

June 23, 2013

Elder Henry and I spoke again today in Sacrament Meeting.  I spoke on “Families can be Forever” and he spoke on “Come to the Temple”.  I am always relieved when the talk is given and I won’t have to speak for another three months.  I know it is good for me, but always a little frightening.  After our meetings today we had the baptism of Alice Silva and then a small luncheon.  The Elders are keeping busy finding, teaching, and baptizing.

We heard that our dear mission president’s wife is in intensive care in the hospital.  She apparently had a colonoscopy, something didn’t go well, and she had to have her spleen removed.  We are praying for a quick recovery for her.  Her name is Dorothy Fluckiger and she is a very sweet lady.  Prayers in her behalf would be appreciated. 

Yesterday Paula (our friend from Brazil) came from Setubal to visit with us.  We met her at the train station, and on the second try she arrived.  We expected her at 10:30 AM but her bus didn’t show up on time,, so she missed the first train and came an hour later.  We showed her our office and then brought her to our apartment.  We visited, fed her lunch, and then showed her pictures of our family and some of the beautiful spots we have visited in Portugal.   We enjoyed the day with her and then drove her back to Setubal.   We hope to see her again before she returns to Brazil in early August.

This week Evan Poff has his 17^th birthday on June 25 and Ashlyn turns 15 on June 28.  We wish them both a very happy birthday and we send our love.  Gregg and Crystal also celebrate their (16^th?) wedding anniversary on the 27^th.  How we love each and every one in our family.  We miss you all!  Our children will be holding a family reunion without us this year and our hearts will definitely be there with them.  We are expecting to see lots of pictures.

There is another holiday here tomorrow so our office will be closed again.  We may have to find somewhere to visit.  It is close to the end of the month, so we have made most of our contacts already and just have a few loose ends to wrap up. 

We have been very blessed with cool weather to this point, but are expecting a couple of days in the low 90s this week.  We hope all of our friends and family are not suffering too much with the heat.  Stay cool and remember how much you are loved by God and by us.

Aneth and her mother, Camila  Aneth is getting married next month and her mother came to help with preparations.

Baptism of Alice Silva with Elder Almeida and Elder Shumway.

Love this driveway near our apartment.

So many beautiful blooms in Portugal!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Since today is Father’s Day, I would like to say how grateful I am for a wonderful father, father-in-law and husband.  What a wonderful influence they have all been in my life.  What more can we ask for than righteous husbands and fathers who honor the priesthood of God and bless the lives of their families.  It is also a great blessing to watch our sons and son-in-law with their children and we appreciate the example they are setting for future generations.   Hope all of you fathers have a special day!  We love you!

Today is also Natalie Poff’s 15^th birthday and we hope that she has a wonderful day.

We did as much work as we could the early part of the week because we had a meeting in Portimao in the southern part of Portugal on Thursday.  Mike met Paco Serrano (from Spain) at the airport, returned home to fetch me and we were off to our meeting.  It is about 2-1/2 hours away.  The freeway is very nice and the drive was easy.  We had a wonderful lunch of salad, bread, barbequed chicken and French fries (almost every restaurant serves French fries here) and dessert with Paco, the two young interns from BYU, the Johnsons and a family of four from Lisbon.   Our meeting was a workshop for those without jobs or seeking to find better employment.  We were not officially involved with the meeting, but since it closely coordinates with what we do and Paco needed a ride, it was a good experience for us.

We spent the night in Albufeira at a very nice hotel.  It only cost 45 euros and also included a nice breakfast.  The Johnsons and Paco also stayed there.  In the morning we took Paco to the bus station as he had another meeting and he didn’t want us to have to leave early.

The Sommers (who serve in a branch about an hour away) met us and we traveled to Lagos, where we were able to visit Ponta de Piedade.  I have included a group of pictures on my facebook site for those who are interested.  This was a gorgeous site and the ocean was extremely blue.  When we went back to our cars, the Johnson’s battery was dead.  We found someone with a cable and got it started, then headed for Lagos.  The battery died again and another person actually took the battery out of his own car to get the car going.  This time we headed straight for a motor parts store, where Elder Johnson purchased a new battery.  In the meantime, the Johnsons ate at a nearby restaurant waiting for the shop to reopen after lunch.  The Sommers were with us and we went downtown and ate at a wonderful restaurant, enjoyed some great ice cream, and walked around the quaint little city. It was fun to get acquainted with Elder and Sister Sommer, as we had only met them once before. 

Today the three young girls who were baptized last week were confirmed.  We also had two ladies at church who are being taught by the missionaries.  It is good to see them having some success in this area.  The gospel is such a blessing in our lives; we wish that everyone could enjoy the same blessings.

LDS Church in Portimao

Carson and Andy--BYU interns

At Ponta da Piedade

Elder & Sister Henry at Ponta da Piedade

The exhausting steps at Ponta da Piedade

Another shot of Ponta da Piedade

Green tile building in Lagos

Enjoying downtown Lagos

Elder & Sister Sommer

Henrys and Johnsons with Elder Staples

Castle in Lagos (We only saw it in passing.)

June 9, 2013

A year ago today we were in the Oakland Temple with all of our children and their spouses for the marriage of Jared and Lisa.  What a wonderful day it was for us to be with them in this sacred house of the Lord on this special occasion.  We wish Jared and Lisa a very happy first anniversary today.

We had a good week making contacts with our PEF participants.  At times we have requests to be their friends on Facebook.  This is great because then we can put a face to the people we correspond with or talk to on the phone.  I am even starting to recognize some of them by their loan numbers.

We went out for ice cream on Wednesday evening with Paco and Susi who brought two young interns from Spain to spend some time in Portugal giving training on the new employment program of the Church.  They are students from BYU.  After visiting with them, we discovered that one of them served in Rio and knows Nicole Prins, who was a sister missionary with us in Chapeco.  The other young man served in Porto Alegre with her brother.

We had a wonderful day yesterday!  Three senior couples met at President and Sister Fluckiger’s  and traveled to Sintra to enjoy some of the great scenery and palaces there.  The Roses and Fluckigers went to the Pena Palace and National Palace (which we had already seen) and we went with the Johnsons to the Quinta de Regaleira Palace and grounds, which we found absolutely wonderful.  I took lots of photos, so will post a bunch on Facebook and just a few here.  We met later for lunch together at a nice restaurant.  We continue to be amazed at the history and the many wonderful places for a tourist to visit in Portugal.  I had never imagined it to be so interesting.

Today after our Church meetings we had the baptisms of three young ladies.  Two are the daughters of Paula, who was baptized two weeks ago and the third is a good friend and neighbor.  I took Chocolate Crinkles because the girls had really enjoyed them at Paula’s baptism.    We gave Zumera a ride to her work after she had attended Church and the baptism of her daughter.  Paula was called as a ward missionary today. 

Tomorrow is a holiday here and we won’t be going to the office, as it will be closed.   We will probably need to catch up on our cleaning and find something else to do.  Maybe we should prepare our talks for later this month.  My subject is “Families can be Forever” And Elder Henry’s is “Come to the Temple”.   Let us all work together to have our families with us for eternity is our prayer.  MUCH LOVE TO ALL!

At Quinta da Regaleira

The Palace at Regaleira

The Henrys with Palace in background.

Beautiful scenery

We had a nice lunch together!

Baptism of Erica, Liliana and Micaela.

June 2, 2013

It has been a wonderful week for us.  The most exciting news is that we welcomed a new granddaughter into our family—Lacy Jane Henry was born on May 28^th to Crystal and Gregg Henry.  She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and was 19-1/2 inches long.  We will include a picture.  It was fun to talk with the family on SKYPE yesterday and to see her and even to hear her cry.  We are so blessed to have 23 grandchildren and oh, how we love each one of them.  We are so grateful for children who are raising their little (and not-so-little) ones in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We also acknowledge the birthday of Aubriana this week.  She is now 6 years old and we hope that she had a great birthday.

We had a good week with our PEF participants.  We were able to complete 100 percent of our High-Priority Contacts and to touch bases with almost all 360 participants in various countries in Europe and Cape Verde.  We had a few new ones move in and also a few who returned to their homelands.  The job situation is very difficult now and many of them are discouraged.

The weather has been very pleasant here except for a few times when the wind is a little too gusty.  But, overall we are very happy with the conditions here.  A guy on the elevator told Elder Henry that we weren’t going to experience summer until September this year.  We’ll see if he is right.

We had two confirmations in our meeting today-- the 9-year-old girl who was baptized a few weeks ago and Paula Tavares, who was baptized last Sunday.  Paula even bore her testimony today. She is very thrilled to be a member of the Church.  Her two daughters and their friend are scheduled to be baptized next Sunday.  The girls really liked my Chocolate Crinkles, so I promised to bring some next week.

We took a drive yesterday since it was our Preparation Day.  At lunchtime we stopped by a large mall in Montijo.  It was the Day of the Child/Day of the Flowers.  There were so many gorgeous flower arrangements at the mall.  I took quite a few pictures, so will probably post some on Facebook for those who are interested.  They passed out flowers to all the children.

We were asked today to speak in Sacrament Meeting on June 23rd.  We were expecting it because in our small ward we seem to get a turn every three months.  I am glad that we usually have plenty of time to prepare.

We are so grateful for supportive friends and family, for good health, and to have the true gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. 

Lexie and Kade admiring their new sister.

Girls passing out flowers to the children.  The girl in black is writing "Dia  Da Crianca" with flowers, which means Day of the Child.

Round-A-Bout at Montijo

Typical old buildings found many places in Portugal.

Cathedral in Atalaia

Lacy Jane Henry on the way home from the hospital.

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.