portugal experiences

When we think of our blessings, we often think of the opportunities we have had to serve missions.  We were attending our first year of college at BYU Provo when Grandpa received his first mission call. We became engaged on January 15th at 5:15 pm in 1971! I remember so well the day his mission call came the same year.  After lunch in the Cannon Center we would often peek in the little window of his mailbox to see if his call had come yet.  This April day, we saw the white envelope and he turned his key to open the box. It was here! I did not have a class that hour but he had to take a final math test and so with the envelope in hand we ran to the math building for his test.  He handed me the envelope and asked me to wait right there while he went into take his test. I stood in the hallway and looked at that envelope addressed to Elder Jay Stanley Benedict from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and knew that the inspired words inside would change o...

Handwritten hymns by Monks are stored in the Archives here with rows and rows and floors and floors and even winding steps into a Harry Potter type place made our visit so interesting.  Dr. Jorge spent two hours with us on Tuesday Feb. 15th and invited us back on Friday and we spent two more hours talking about genealogy.  Such a kind and interesting man! seriously...amazing! Handwritten journals from many Portuguese speaking countries... Director of the Evora Archives, Dr. Jorge Janeiro, was so kind to take us on a tour and explain what they are doing to save important records from the 14th to the 21st centuries. Just here in the District of Evora they store 4000 linear meters (or 2.4 miles) of documents in their archive.   We appreciate Pablo and Ana Quesada for their kindness in setting up the appointment for us.  It was so interesting to see how they take photos of documents (about 25,000 pages a day between the two of them.) Family Search work is a miracle ...

We have not met Vadinho's 3 year old son nor his beautiful wife, Ana, but we know that Vadinho loves his family.  He is here in Portugal getting his Master's degree in the medical field to bless his family back home in Guinea-Bissau. Vadinho had heard about the church in Lisbon on his way to Evora and wanted to know more.  The young missionaries in Evora began teaching him and after attending church, Vadinho wanted to know even more. When Elder Delaney and Elder Caetano tested positive for covid (and of course were quarantined) they asked us if we would help teach the remaining lessons to Vadinho.  What a wonderful experience to teach this young man with his profound questions. When we told him that he needed to pray about the things we were teaching to get his own answer, he was amazed that he could know from Heavenly Father for himself and he asked how it is done.  It is a treasure to know that you can just pray from your heart.  Vadinho's first prayer touched...

On our way to and from the city, to and from the church, to and from visits, we pass this building and have wanted to go in and see what the records are like here in Portugal.  The world in general has turned their hearts to their ancestors and genealogy is important to most people.  In the last verses of the Old Testament, Malachi prophesies that this will happen before the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  As you know, Grandpa loves Family History Work and has spent many years helping people find their Families.  So this building holds treasures that we want to discover for the families here in Evora.  However, the small sign below the red circle with the white horizontal line (which means you can't enter this way) is this little sign: which means: access is prohibited to strange people! (And that includes us in two ways!) But, translated the way they intend... it means that strangers or foreigners are not able to go in. Heavenly Father knows our hea...