From Portugal With Love: 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.