Hi.  No time for boredom over here.  Our calling has definitely been one of variety.  We have been quite busy and have neglected our blog a bit.  Without going into a lot of detail, our last couple of weeks have been spent in Branch leadership meetings;  visits to active members, inactve members and non-members; zone and district meetings with our young missionaries; bringing new sister missionaries into Beja and then finding housing and negotiating lease contracts; going down to Faro with the youth from our Branch for a Super Saturday activity; and who knows what else.  It all kind of blurs together.  We have been busy enough that we haven’t really had a good P-day since we have been here.  We have been able to take small segments of days to get necessary stuff done and then on the way to one assignment or the other we will take an hour or two to sight-see or visit small little farms or groves or rural towns.  The days pass quickly and we are enjoying the challenges and variety.

 

When we picked the sister missionaries up we went directly to the apartment and then took them on a 15 minute tour of the city to get their bearings.  We then parked about 2 blocks away from a restaurant and started walking.  They were amazing and we were just lucky to eat lunch.  We couldn’t walk half a block without the sisters making street contacts, passing brochures and setting appointments for discussions.  By the end of the first day they had discussions set up with 3 investigators.  We typically walk past people and always say “bom dia” or “boa tarde” or something, but our missionaries here see everyone as a potential member and just stop on a dime and start talking.  After the how-do-you-do, they are launching into a mini-discussion and with any luck they set a follow-up appointment .  Last Friday Paula went with them to visit a sister member who is struggling with her testimony.  It was only a 5 minute walk back to the apartment where I was waiting.  You guessed it – it took half an hour.  Missionary work is amazing, and the strength of our young missionary force has never been greater.  What an amazing time as we prepare the world for the second coming and send the gospel out to a spiritually-starved world.

This week we will be going into Lisboa again for a mission presidency meeting.  It will be great to meet with these wonderful senior couples again.  It does renew us to spend some time with old people like us once in a while!  Over the next couple of weeks we will be spending time down in at least two of our branches along the southern coast.  Larry will be arranging, coordinating and/or teaching Melchizedek Priesthood training meetings, including those for new Melchizedek Priesthood holders as well as training for existing Branch leaders.  We have also been given the responsibility to upgrade the “chapels” in two of the areas where the facilities are inadequate and not conducive to bringing new investigators to – or even very good for our current members.  Getting through the beaurocracy of governments and church are going to be interesting to say the least.

Oh, by the way, we had to give up our apartment when the sisters came in.  We are now in another apartment.  It is actually nicer and cleaner.  And, no loss, we still have a pink girlie-room for Larry!

 

This is part of our little group that went to the youth activity.  The rest of the boys are playing soccer in the back. 

 

 

The Beja Castle is about 2 minutes from our church.  The castle was likely built in about 1,200 AD.  Beja has a lot of history going back to the iron age!  It is a very old city.  As a side note, when we went in we actually got to introduce the gospel and the church to a man about 35 years old that was manning the visitor center.  It was a cool experience.  And this next photo is someone that Larry was trying to explain the gospel to.  We are not sure how far he got.  The guy didn't talk much.  And he had a sword!  Larry used his best Portuguese since he got no response in English.

 

 

And then someone had a surprise Happy Birthday Party on September 21st.  Happy Birthday Paula!  Everyone here absolutely loves her.  Paula's spirit shines right through her attempts at Portuguese.

This is our apartment from the outside. It is on the second floor (but they call it the first). That is our car in front. It is a tiny cobblestone street. Paula is standing outside the living room and the other door is the bedroom. We have two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. It is small and only takes about two minutes to sweep!

This is our girlie bedroom.  We also have one that has more dark wood and looks more normal!  The doors open and there is a heavy-duty blind system that really blocks out the light.  With the blinds up and the doors open we get a good breeze that cools things down.  There are hardly any insects here at all, so we have no worries or problems with flies, mosquitos,spiders, etc.  They must all live in Utah!

This is our church.  It is on a very narrow cobblestone street in the old part of Beja....thousands of year old!  The inside is very modern and comfortable and looks like a lot of our chapels except for marble floors throughout.  We love the members.  They are so welcoming and are patient with our Portuguese.

This is the first baptism that we witnessed. We were able to be with her on her last two discussions. Because she is related to the Branch President (who baptized her) Larry was able to conduct her baptismal interview. It was a great experience and the first real push to speak and understand Portugese. Her name is Rosalina. She has a wonderful spirit and her fiancee hopefully will follow.
These are the missionaries that taught her. They are the only two here in Beja. They are great and have really helped us a lot to get settled in. Larry has been on splits with them four times now in one week. Paula bore her testimony in Portugese in Rose's (she actualy goes by Rose) last discussion. It was very simple but they seemed to understand. Whew! The elders have another family of investigators so we hope for more baptisms in the near future.



This is one of the narrow cobblestone streets close to our chapel.  There are hundreds of them and they weave and wind all over the place.  It is a maze.  We are surprised we still have mirrors on both sides of the car! This is the old part of the city and the roads were built long before there were cars.  They fit a donkey and a cart and two walking missionaries, and that's about it.

We are finally here! We arrived in Lisbon at 9:00am...a full 25 hours after leaving SLC. We are tired but excited also. Pres. and Sister Fluckiger met us at the airport and it was great to see familiar faces. They took us on a short sightseeing drive and then on to the mission home. The mission home is truly beautiful:very large, tiled floors, awesome grounds and views of the city and even a swimming pool. Don't expect any of this if you are considering a visit to see us!! We had a wonderful lunch with the Fluckiger's and two other couples who are serving in the area. We had our first interview with the Pres. and Larry was called to the mission presidency..so much for integrating slowly!! He will be awesome! We also got our car, phone and other needed items then packed up and headed for our area. Larry rode with Pres. Fluckiger and two young elders and Paula rode with Sister Fluckiger. At this point we had been 30 hours without sleep. We drove two hours south to the town of Beja. This is where we will be serving. Catch you all up on more later...Here we go!!