portugal experiences

 It was amazing to be with the young men and women from the Azores to the Temple trip for 4 days during my birthday and to celebrate Easter the day after! Because of our Savior and His great Love, we all have life forever! I know. I know! Wonderful!!! Foi incrível acompanhar os rapazes e raparigas dos Açores ao Templo durante 4 dias durante o meu aniversário e celebrar a Páscoa no dia seguinte! Por causa de nosso Salvador e Seu grande Amor, todos nós temos vida para sempre! Eu sei. Eu sei! Maravilhoso!!!  Thank you to our dear, creative, funny, and sweet grandchildren, for the spectacular Birthday video...your thoughtfulness made us laugh and made us teary.  We are amazed at the love of our Savior and the reality that through and because of Him, we can live together forever!    What a great week this has been to add to many marvelous experiences to put in our pockets to bring home and polish and keep forever.  We hope this week will be a great one for you....

 

Elders Nascimento (Brasil) and Bogdanov (Italy) went to Sete Cidades (Seven Cities) a week ago with a branch member and came back with photos of the fog only!  It settles in quickly sometimes. We wanted them to have photos of this beautiful island so on this last Preparation Day we took them back and we got there just before the clouds filled the whole area.  Timing is important in everything!  I think they will love all of the photo memories! (I'll share two) Such a fun day with these great young men. The day was a splendid gift and even the ducks showed up in their tux and ties for us! The tiles in Portugal are amazing.  One could spend so much time discovering just that one subject, let alone the castles on the mainland and the beaches and libraries!!!  Fascinating!  We pass this tiled home on our way back from our visits with Olinda and Lourdes.  Waiting at the registo in Ribeiro Grande.  Getting family records for Donaria and for Dulce. Lucia...

Relief Society is 'Sociedade de Socorro" in Portuguese and 'Charity Never Faileth' is A Caridade Nunca Falha',  No matter the language, it means that Love is what we all want, need, and should concentrate on giving to others.  Every One.  Every Time.  Lucia and Rogeria planned a sweet evening to  celebrate the 181st Relief Society Aniversary.   While the sisters were playing games, learning more about Emma Smith, and eating cake, Grandpa was in the adjacent room helping Carlos prepare his family names to take to The Temple.  (and don't you worry...they both enjoyed cake as well!)   A real highlight was a text this week from Sheila who told us that she and Ronaldo will be married on May 19th.  We are so happy for them, their little ones, and their desire to have a Temple marriage someday!  (Hopefully Ronaldo will be baptized soon! They are watching a Temple video in this photo) The elders texted us to see if we could bring our w...

     We have been blessed with the finest of  Mission Presidents.  President and Sister Barcellos are a blessing ro all of the missionaries in Portugal and we are thankful to know and love them.  It's quite a thing to love and lead hundreds of missionaries for 3 years.  And this happens in missions all over the world.  We have great respect for the callings of our leaders and hope we are doing our best to support their efforts in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Everyone merits an invitation and the love that goes with it... to choose to follow our Savior.  Zone conferences are both inspired and refreshing! More visits...more finding...                        More family history and visits to the archives.  Dulce is preparing names to take to The Temple. It is refreshing to study the gospel and to get together with the branch to enjoy each other on Thursday evening...

We are thankful and reminded daily of the details and beauty of Heavenly Father's Plan. I love that He sends love-notes in the form of Flowers, Sunshine, Water, Snow, Scriptures, Prophets, Air, Eyes, Hands, Food, and beautiful Thoughts throughout the day.  Wonder-filled we wander through our days. Elder Bogdanov (from Italy), Elder Nascimento (from Brasil), and Paulo Jorge (Azorian, and our Mission leader in the branch) are all good to work with.  Paulo Jorge has quite a sense of humor and knows some english.  Whenever someone is talking in the meetings, he will call out in his English:  "Shut Up!"  And everyone does...(after a little bit of mostly contained laugher). Every Saturday from 3-5 pm, we open the family history center at the church.  Some weeks lots of people come and some Saturdays we have time to work on our own or try to do social media contacts.   We took Laura and Mariah to dinner to celebrate Grandpa's Un-Birthday and Mariah's Birthday...