March 10, 2013

WET and windy describes this past week.  We have had rain every day and it looks like we will continue to have rain until about Wednesday of this week.  At times it is sunny and dry; but we have had some rain every day and heavy rain at times.  I am looking forward to more sunshine.  The clouds today were magnificent, and I will include some pictures.

We started on our contacts for the month and were able to help the young elders with their languages.  We were scheduled to help again later in the week, but they had some important visits scheduled, so we didn’t go the second time.  Elder Staples is sick and he and Elder Oliveira were not able to come to Church today to see their Domingas confirmed.  In fact, Mike may take him to the hospital later today if we can figure out where he should go and what procedure to follow.  We’re not sure yet.  (We just found out that the office elders took Elder Staples to the hospital.)

Mike gave a wonderful talk in Sacrament Meeting today.  He related the story of the first members of our Church in Brazil and their conversion stories.  It fit right in with the topic he was given of Conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is quite an interesting story and I always enjoy hearing it, even though I have heard it many times.  The father of this family moved them to Brazil to get away from the Church, but the wife was persistent and strong in her testimony.   Eventually she died and the husband, after many years, had such poor health that he spent much time seated and reading.  The daughter who cared for him placed a Book of Mormon near his chair and when no one was around, he would read.  Eventually he had a desire to be baptized and his life of smoking, drinking and wanting nothing to do with the Church were behind him.  The final years of his life were much happier for him after his conversion.  I have been assigned to speak in two weeks on Testimony of the Gospel.

We were invited to Bruno and Tina Silva’s on Friday night for dinner.  They have a 12-year-old daughter, Sueli.  Bruno is a Church employee in our office and Tina is the president of an international institute in Mount de Caparica.  We really enjoyed our meal and our visit with them.  We have noted that all of the Portuguese people who have invited us to dinner start with a soup.

We feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be here in Portugal on our mission.  We encourage any who have ever considered a mission to submit their papers and have the experience of a lifetime.  We send our love to all!

A view from our apartment.

Tina, Sueli and Bruno Silva who invited us to dinner.

Fabulous clouds!

Park across from our apartment.