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 hearts. We have come prepared to teach families. Two weeks ago, we sent a request to the amazing public library in Evora to offer Family History classes. We taught two classes in our branch. We have met families in the Grocery store, on the street, and in their homes who are interested in learning about their ancestors. We designed a little Family Search card to hand out to people so they can call or email us. And then, this week, (Wednesday evening) we were coming home a bit late due to some longer visits, and within the block of this archive building...a young man was jogging on the sidewalk coming toward us. When he saw Grandpa's white shirt, his tie, and badge near the street light...he stopped. "You are from the church!" he smiles. We become acquainted with this kind young man, Pablo Quesada.
He is here in Portugal filming records to be indexed. (In the archive building!) The company he works for was hired by Family Search. He and his wife are almost finished up with their assignment here. They live in Spain and go home every weekend because he is an elder's quorum president in his ward there (about an hour away). We asked him so many questions and told him that he was an answer to our prayers. He said that there was more to this miracle. He said that he has been planning to jog for 3 months now and was always side-tracked with work, so he just decided to go for it and this was the FIRST day that he had actually been out jogging on the street! The timing, our late visits that had us right there in his path, and his jog are to us a blessing.
Pablo and his sweet wife, Sandra Macias Tena accepted our invitation to come to our branch as they stayed in Evora this weekend. We were so happy to see them yesterday
AND...he has made an appointment for us to meet the Director of the Archives building, to take a tour, visit, and to see what is happening here in Evora!!! We are willing to do whatever we can do to bless families, but really, our part is so very very small. Heavenly Father loves each of His children so much that He guides, helps, and blesses any effort on our part to love His children. Like on other missions, all we have to do is get up and tie our shoe-laces and go...(and we get to witness Our Savior's Love for each one!)
We are excited to have you meet Valdinho next week! But for now we need to go hang up our laundry and then go get a few groceries. Love You Tons! Love your texts, and emails!!!
