Sunday, September 30, 2012

Our week at the office was very busy, with lots of contacting of PEF participants and Mike was also doing the final interview for new loans in Spain.  Our week ended on a really high note because three of our students paid their loans off and all of them were significant amounts.  All of them have moved to Europe from other countries and when they arrive they have no idea how to continue paying on their loans, so they do not pay at all.  As we contact them (without mentioning that they need to pay) many of them ask how they can pay in France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia, etc.  This week we had the opportunity to communicate with these three students with details for them and they responded by paying off their loans.  This made us so happy because now they are eligible for the blessings promised them by President Gordon B. Hinckley when he announced the beginning of this program to help young people rise from the depths of poverty, gain an education and be better prepared to care for their families and serve in the Church.  We were so thrilled for these young people because we know that freedom from debt brings a wonderful feeling.   We have experienced this at various times in our lives and especially when we paid off our mortgage last year.

We had the opportunity to make a visit on Thursday night in Costa de Caparica with Geraldo.  We visited again with Mario Brandao.  His wife had gone to bed early because she has to get up early to go to work.  He is not working right now because he had knee surgery and is undergoing rehabilitation now. 

We had a wonderfully cool week with rain several times, but never got caught in the rain on our walks to and from the office.  We are wondering how we will get along without a heater in our apartment when it gets a little colder, but we will be okay.  We survived in Brazil without one.  We were supplied with some nice warm comforters for the bed which we haven’t needed yet.

While Elder Henry was studying our family history he found a great book called “Stand by my Servant Joseph”.  The statement was a quote from Joseph Smith about Joseph Knight, his friend.  It tells the story of the Knight family from before Joseph was given the plates near Emma’s home in Colesville through the early history of the Church in New York, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and on to Utah.  It includes the story of how the Harris family(our relatives) joined the Church on their travels to Oregon when he was healed by Joseph Knight and were then converted by him and decided to go to Nauvoo instead of Oregon.  They were baptized in the Mississippi River at Nauvoo and attended the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple.  Then they traveled with the saints to Utah.

I came across a wonderful quote this week which was from a July 1953 Improvement Era.  “I define home as being a divinely appointed institution in which a servant and handmaiden of the Lord prepare themselves in righteousness to receive chosen spirits coming from our Eternal Father and give them bodies in the flesh for mortal probation and then undertake with all the power at their command to lead those spirit children entrusted to their care back into the presence of God from whence they came.”  This was by President Richards.

We send our love to family and friends.  Hope you have a wonderful week.

This is Hanah and Reginaldo Cruz.  We like him so much, but he got promoted and is leaving us.

Many walls and buildings here are painted this way.  This one is in our neighborhood.

In the background is the Cristo Rei statue.