From Portugal With Love: Sunday, October 7, 2012

Elder Henry was quite busy this week with interviews for new participants in Spain. He also prepared an agenda for the training we will be giving this week when we travel to Madrid to train Elder and Sister Rodriguez who will be helping us with the PEF contacting in Spain. We will be leaving on Tuesday afternoon and returning on Thursday morning. Besides the training, Paco has plans to take us to some kind of a community cultural festival there. So we should have an interesting time.

We took the day on Thursday to visit Sintra. We met up with Elder and Sister Johnson at their apartment where she had fixed a nice brunch for us. We then traveled to Sintra which is not very far from here. We toured the National Palace (where many kings lived and the center of the ancient ruling class) , then took a bus which meandered way up a winding, steep road where we visited the Pena Palace. It is too big to get a great picture (and they didn’t allow pictures inside) but it was very nice. The queen had about six rooms designated for various activities or servants, including a beautiful bedroom. Both palaces are really spectacular. Pena is almost Disneyland-like except much larger and completely furnished. We then walked a short distance downhill to the Castle of the Moors. It was originally built by the Moors when they ruled the Iberian Peninsula during the 12th Century. There is quite a lot of restoration going on there, but it was also interesting. We then took the bus back down to town. We found a place to eat, then visited the Praia de Macas (Beach of Apples) and Cabo do Roca (the western most point in Europe) before returning home. We really enjoyed this day of sightseeing and visiting with the Johnsons.

Friday was another holiday here, but we went in to the office for a while since we had played the day before. We didn’t want to visit Sintra on a holiday because the crowds would have been much bigger.

I did a lot of texting this week to remind the participants of General Conference. With the difference in time zones, we watched the two Saturday sessions on our computer at 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM and of course, we really enjoyed them. Dad went to the church today to watch the priesthood session, but we will watch the Sunday sessions in our apartment. I am always reminded of ways that I can improve when I listen to conference. Now, to be able to follow through with those impressions—that is the more difficult part. Hope you all enjoyed conference and that you have a great week. We love you!