Sunday, November 25, 2012

   We are hoping that all of our friends and family had a wonderful week.  For us it was a week to reflect on the blessings of family, health, our wonderful country, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  How blessed we are in so many ways.

   We had some rain again this week, but Thanksgiving Day was absolutely beautiful.  We enjoyed our dinner and visit at President and Sister Fluckiger’s very much.  The mission home was decorated for Christmas and was very beautiful.  Our meal was absolutely wonderful with turkey and all the trimmings.  The office Elders were sent off on an errand to find a turkey the day before and came back with a large one, but it had a long neck and some feathers.  I got to bring the carcass home and made a delicious turkey soup yesterday.  There were 18 of us who enjoyed the time together.  For some (from Portugal and Brazil) it was their first time to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I made orange rolls (not my best ones ever) and some toffee. 

  We had an interesting email on Friday.  We heard from a member of the Church in Londrina, Brazil, named Samuel Temperbra who had come in contact with Pedro and Irma Reis, who we taught in Chapeco, Brazil.   We were sad when we returned for our visit two years ago to find that Pedro and Irma had moved away.No one knew to where.  Anyway, Samuel told about meeting Pedro and when Pedro found out Samuel was a member of the Church Pedro told him about us and wants to make contact with us.  Pedro, we believe, had a testimony of the gospel but never joined because Irma belonged to the 7^th Day Adventist Church and didn't want to break the covenants she had made with that church.  Pedro attended many of our integration night activities, some baptisms, several General Conference sessions and a few Sacrament Meetings.  He came to our apartment a few times to visit with us and we taught him and Irma many times in their home.  Irma was always kind to us and listened to our lessons, but didn't want to change. We cared a lot about them. We were excited to hear that he wants to make contact with us.  He is a man just a bit older than us.

     This coming Tuesday should be an interesting day.  There is a small group (11 people) of returned missionaries and wives from Brazil 65+ years old who are coming to Lisbon on a cruise ship and will be here for the day.  Elder Henry has been in contact with an LDS tour guide and the leader of the tour group and we are going to meet up with them at the dock early in the morning for a day of sightseeing and reminiscing about Brazil.  It is supposed to be a nice day, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.  We plan to ride the cable car and a newer version of a trolley and see how much we can experience during the time they have.  The tour group leader is Alfred Gunn, who has been keeping many Brazilian missionaries connected over the years with his monthly newsletters called the Brauzilista.  It will be fun to finally meet him.

     Next weekend will be our first stake conference here in Portugal.  The Saturday evening session will be broadcast over the satellite, and we will go to a university for the session on Sunday.

President Fluckiger carving the turkey.

Our Thanksgiving Day group.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

We were thrilled this week with some great responses to our inquiries for contact information.  Last Monday I received three responses from Bishops and two from participants.  Mike also had some success by contacting leaders and we were able to make some contacts for the first time with some of our participants.  I spent much time this week sending text messages by means of Clickatell, a computer program, and received a number of positive responses.  This is the quote that I used this month:

 "A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude."
—Thomas S. Monson,
Brett was released as 1st counselor to Bishop Gary Mitchell of the Corning Ward after almost 4 years and was called to be the Executive Secretary.  This will be a nice change for the family, as he will be able to sit with them in church.
We had lots of rain the last part of this week.  We continued to walk to the office most of the time, but one day we had so much rain at lunchtime that we weren’t brave enough to walk home.  We waited for a slight let-up and walked across the street and grabbed a bite to eat.  On other days we were lucky enough to be able to walk back and forth without getting caught in a deluge.  Today was sunny and windy, a nice change.
We had anticipated Thanksgiving as just another day of missionary work.  But President and Sister Fluckiger invited us to their home for a nice turkey dinner.  She said to choose a favorite something we  would like to bring, so I chose orange rolls.  We will work part of the day at the office and then come home to finish the rolls and prepare for our dinner.
We located the Liberty American Store in Lisbon on Saturday and bought a few hard-to-find items.  My purchases included a can of shortening, chocolate chips, marshmallows, canned soup (although I have found some here), garlic salt, and a few other things.  They are a little pricey, but nice to be able to find a few things we miss here.  After we shopped we drove out to  the Vasco da Gama Bridge and crossed it for the first time.  It is the longest bridge in Europe at 10.7 miles.  It is a beautiful bridge and much nicer than the 25th of Abril Bridge which we cross often.  Unfortunately it was raining hard when we drove over it, so my pictures didn’t turn out so well.  We went on to Montijo to another huge mall where we ate lunch and shopped a little.  I can’t believe how many huge (3-story) malls they have here in Portugal.  They make the Chico Mall seem very insignificant.
 "Righteous character is more valuable than any material object you own, any knowledge you have gained through study, or any goals you have attained no matter how well lauded by mankind. In the next life your righteous character will be evaluated to assess how well you used the privilege of mortality."
—Richard G. Scott,

Our American Store

Vasco da Gama Bridge

How grateful we are for all of our blessings.  We count family, friends, and the gospel of Jesus Christ as our most treasured blessings.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

We started our contacts and interviews for this month.  Mike is getting more and more comfortable doing the Spanish interviews for new students in Spain.  It is a bit of a challenge going back and forth between the two languages.  But he is doing very well.  Today he gave a great lesson in the Gospel Essentials class in Caparica.

After all the research I have done and requests I have made to update our records, we still have almost 40 participants with no current phone number.  Some of them do have emails, but not all.  I am writing to Bishops in some cases. There are about half a dozen with absolutely no way to contact them.   I was very happy this week to have one young lady respond with her number and had a very nice visit with her.  We couldn’t contact her last month because we had an incorrect number.  Sometimes we get responses that are very disheartening.  I emailed a lady this week who was married in the Madrid Temple in August to see how she was doing and whether she and her husband had moved to Canada yet.  She wrote me back saying that her marriage is over, her husband was abusive and she has moved back to Spain.  She is trying so hard to do what is right.  Her email really caused me pain.  Pray for Marta that she will find a great job and find happiness in her life. (She has a Masters and is a very talented lady who speaks several languages.) 

On a happier note, we went to another baptism yesterday in Caparica.  Rui Miguel was baptized.  He has been attending the ward for several months and is getting married soon to Ana who is already a member.  She gave a wonderful talk and in it told about how she had always wanted to marry a returned missionary.  She had, in fact, sent one young man off on a mission, but received an answer to prayer that he was not the one she should marry.  Later she dated another fellow that she liked very much, but received the same answer.  When she met Rui, even though he was not a member, she received a confirmation that he would someday be a strong member of the church and a good husband and father and that he was the one she should marry.

We visited Mario, Solange and Pedro Brandao again this week with Geraldo.  They came out to an activity at the ward last week, and we are hoping to get them to come back to church soon.

I came across this quote from Barbara Bush this week:  “Whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change:   Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first.  You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children.  YOUR SUCCESS AS A FAMILY, OUR SUCCESS AS A SOCIETY, DEPENDS NOT ON WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, BUT ON WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.”   We were disappointed with the outcome of the election, but now we need to pray more than ever for our president and the other leaders of our wonderful country.  Also we need to do our part as individuals to lead righteous lives so we can call upon God to bless our nation.

Have a wonderful week.  Keep warm, say your prayers, read your scriptures and be an excellent example to all those you encounter.  Let your light shine!

Sara Graca (daughter of Stake Pres.)  and Bishop's daughter ( a real character)

Rui Miguel and AnaMarques at his baptism.

See the crowd!  This is why we will visit this cathedral at a later date.  

Sunday, November 4, 2012

The first three days of last week were very busy as we were completing our contacts for the month.  We have a certain number of high-priority contacts which the leaders want us to make, and then we feel that everyone needs to be contacted in some manner.  So the last couple of days I sent lots of text messages to those who hadn’t had another type of contact.  Our two ladies in Spain are a huge help.  We received a very nice email from Susie saying how much she loved making the contacts and how grateful she is for this wonderful program.  She actually knows some of the participants because of the callings she has had with the Young Adults.  She is a great blessing to us.

We have had quite a few days with some rain this week, but the forecasts for the coming week look like we will have lots of sun.  It will be a nice change, but the rain has been great.

On Thursday it was a holiday here, so we took advantage of the day to do something fun.  We drove to Porto Brandao and took the ferry across the river to Belem.  It only cost 5,60 euros for both of us to go across and return.  What a bargain!  While in Belem we wanted to visit an old cathedral there, but it was so crowded, we will try again later.  We did have lunch at the Pasteis de Belem and then had some of their delicious pastries for which they are famous.  Yummy!  We enjoyed our time there and spent some time just relaxing in their beautiful park and watching people.  After our return trip on the ferry, we drove to some areas we hadn’t seen before.  It was an enjoyable day.

During the week Elder Twede (from SLC) and Elder Erikkson (from Sweden) and serving in the Miratejo area came and helped us to get our computer printer to work.  So on Saturday we took them to get a new shower hose for their apartment.  Then later we drove to Caparica for their first baptism since the first part of June.  Annica Rosa (21) was baptized.  She has been attending for a while and is very nice.  She was confirmed today in our Fast & Testimony meeting.  Elder Henry was asked to teach the Gospel Essentials class until they find someone else.  We have a great Sunday School teacher who is from Brazil, so he will have to miss her class now, but he will enjoy the challenge.

“Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen”  Mosiah 5:15

Love and best wishes to our family and friends.

The ferry we took to Belem and back.

We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guard at the President's palace.

One of many sailboats we saw.

Elder Staples, Annica Rosa and Elder Wilson

Sunday October 28, 2012

Our week began with the exciting news that Gregg and Crystal are expecting a baby at the end of May.  We also received the news that Jared was offered and accepted a job with Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas.  He will work in their communications systems division.   We are happy with both of these announcements.

Our week was very busy with contacts of the PEF participants.  We also had a meeting with two of our sisters from the Church.  One is the president of a university here and the other is in charge of loans for the students.  Elder and Sister Johnson and Miguel Adriano, our supervisor, also attended this meeting.  We are looking for information to help the young people pursue their educational goals.

On Wednesday Elder and Sister Rose came to the office to get trained in doing audits and we went to lunch with them and also had a chance to visit with them after their training.  They just arrived in our mission in August and are working about two hours away from here.  Elder and Sister Johnson flew home for 10 days as one of their sons is getting married.

Sister Rodriguez and Sister Torres in Spain are doing well with their contacts and this is a huge help.  We feel like we are making some progress with the PEF participants.  We have received some good feedback from phone calls, emails and text messages.

We have had a fair amount of rain this week, but fortunately much of it has come while we were inside the office or during the night.  The temperatures have been quite agreeable, but we did buy a small heater, so we are prepared for cooler weather now.

Today we had our first invitation for lunch with a Portuguese family.  It was a very nice meal, which started with a soup made of carrots, a little bit of potato puree and something like a cucumber.  It was very tasty.  We also had meat, potatoes, and carrots, and codfish fixed with potatoes and cream.  It was much more delicious than we had expected.  The Portuguese eat codfish prepared in many different ways.  When you see it in the stores, it looks horrible and is dry and smelly.  They have to soak it for two days to take the salt out of it and then prepare it for consumption.

I finally broke down and bought some Portuguese green beans.  They looked too large for my liking, but I was told that they were good, so I gave them a try.  They were actually about the same as our fresh green beans from the garden. 

We received our absentee voting ballots this week, filled them out right then and Elder Henry took them to the Post Office.  We hope that they arrive in time to be counted.  Don’t forget to vote!

 If you are experiencing difficult times and wonder where God is, remember that the teacher is always quiet during a test.

We send our love and best wishes to all our family and friends.

Luiz & Sofia Silva, who invited us to lunch today with their 4 children. 

In Portugal many people park on the sidewalks.

This is a large plate--these beans are huge!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

We focused this week on making lots of “High-Priority” voice contacts, which is one of the things that we have been asked to do in our calling.  We still have more to do this week.  It will help that we have our new couple in Spain and since we have such a large group of participants there, Paco has asked his wife to help out starting tomorrow.  Mike has to do the large majority of our contacting because many are in Spanish and the Portuguese here is still a little difficult for me to understand.  I do okay when I am speaking to someone in person, but it is more difficult on the phone.  I have been working hard trying to get our records updated because we have had many incorrect addresses and phone numbers.  All of our students have moved here from another country except for some in Spain and those in Cape Verde.  But now I am finding that some are moving countries in Europe, so I have to be on the alert for those moves.

On Tuesday we had an appointment to get our Visas renewed.  Our initial visas were only travelers’ visas and were good for 120 days.  With our renewal, we are considered temporary residents and are good for the next year.  We will have to renew again for our final two months.  We were fortunate to have the mission Elders to help us with the paperwork and Elder James drove us to the renewal location and knew just what to do.  It only took about half an hour.  We love those young Elders and Sisters.

On Friday we had another video conference with the leaders in SLC and many groups from around the world who were available to meet in that time frame.  The new head of PEF is Robert Gay, who spoke at the last General Conference two weeks ago.  There is a whole new focus with PEF and in the coming year many changes will occur.  Standards have been raised in order for students to receive help.  They need to be returned missionaries, temple worthy, actively serving in a Church calling and also have a great desire to better themselves.  The focus will no longer be on the loan itself, but on building “Self Reliance” in the participants and to help them become contributors in society and in the Church.  The Employment Resources and Perpetual Education will combine and the Seminary and Institute people , who currently have had a big part in training about the program and starting the process, will have much less responsibility with the PEF.  The First Presidency is very concerned about our people learning “self reliance.”  They are forming a new department that will report directly to them that will separate the current Welfare department into two departments.  PEF and Employment Resources will be split off of that department and form the “Self Reliance Department.” There are many ideas that need to be implemented, but we like what we have heard so far.  There will also be more of a focus on vocational learning and less on a 4-year university education.  The idea is to help these people, in a short period of time, get training or mentoring which will get them into the work force and into the jobs that are available.  There will also be service opportunities to work off some of their loan costs.  We are excited about this because we have seen students with big loan debts and unable to get jobs because they trained in areas not currently in demand.

We had our first big rain of the season and it has turned a little cooler, but still quite pleasant.   We haven’t had to get out our comforters yet.  We have noticed that it is taking longer for our clothes to dry, however.  This could be a problem once it gets colder and damper. 

Two Cuties from Miratejo.

An investigator and her cute son.  (I gave him a sucker.)

There are lots of darling children in Portugal.

We love the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are enjoying our chance to serve here in Portugal.  We miss our friends and family and we love you all very much.  Have a great week!

YM President & RS President from Costa de Caparica.  They are engaged .

Sunday, October 14, 2012

On Tuesday we worked part of the day in the office and then packed and prepared for our trip to
Spain.  Our flight left around 4:30 PM and it was very smooth and arrived on time.  Paco met us at the airport and took us to meet Elder and Sister Rodriguez, a senior couple from Cadiz who are serving a 6-month mission in Madrid and will be helping us with the PEF contacts there.  They are staying in an ApartHotel.   This is a building of apartments which can be rented for one or two nights, six months, or whatever length of time is desired.  Paco got us an apartment there for our two nights in Madrid.  This made it much more convenient for him to pick both couples up and return us in the evening.  After we visited and got acquainted, we went to VIPS for wonderful salads.
The next day the Rodriguezs invited us for breakfast.  Then we had a day of training.  This couple has never used the computer much, so we had to be quite simple in our training.  Paco will be around to help them if they have questions, or they can email or call us also.  They speak only Spanish, so it was a little challenging for me, but I was able to communicate some and Paco helped when it was needed.  We broke for lunch and Paco took us to another VIPS because Sister Rodriguez doesn’t like Oriental food.
We finished up about 5:00 PM and then went to the old downtown Madrid again.  I took quite a few photos, as there are so many beautiful buildings there.  Many are so large it is impossible to get the whole building in the picture.  Paco was disappointed as the place he wanted to buy us dinner was no longer in business, but we found another place and had some interesting sandwiches.
We had an early flight out in the morning and told Paco we would call a taxi.  He insisted on picking us up, but when he was half an hour late because he was caught in traffic, we ended up getting a taxi and got to our gate just in time to board.  There’s nothing like a little excitement to get the heart pumping!  Needless to say, our week passed by rapidly.
Last evening we went to a nice production put on by the EFY attendees from Portugal.  It lasted over two hours, with lots of music by the young people and video presentations and remarks by the leaders.  We really enjoyed it.  When we tried to start our car afterward, we got nary a sound.  We stopped Elder and Sister Johnson and with their help and cables from another family, we got the car started.  But now we had another problem, the brake wouldn’t release so we could go forward.  It was finally decided to abandon the car there in the parking lot of a school.  The Johnsons gave us a ride home.  We were unable to attend church in Caparica again today, but we enjoyed visiting the Miratejo Ward.  It is continuing to grow and the chapel was quite full today.
We were saddened to learn that Fletch, our dog for the last 14 years, had died.  A big thank you to Brett for taking care of his burial.  We have many fond memories of Fletch—his rebounding of the basketball, his leaping and twirling when anyone was swimming, and just being a great dog.  We will miss him.
I will include some pictures from our trip to Madrid, including a photo of Elder & Sister Rodriguez.  The gospel is true and we are so grateful to have it to guide our lives and find happiness.  Love to all!