Christmas Day in Portugal...2013

 

 

We had our missionaries over to share a Christmas dinner and then check out what Santa left in their Christmas stockings!

 

 

Elder Ferreira, Elder De Olivera, Elder Fry, Elder Barton, Sister Lybbert, Sister Ornano 

(Elder Fry and Elder Barton complete their missions in a week.  They leave for home December 31st)

These are all awesome missionaries!

Of course we only get the very best.

 

 
Afterward we all Skyped with our families…AWESOME! Can´t wait to Skype with Mike when he makes landfall in a few days!

 Our Christmas décor…

 

 

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

 

                                                

 

Our fireplace with stockings hung with care.

                                                  

Total Cost for our décor?  5 euros!! 

The best part will be taking it down…3 minutes and it will all be in the garbage!  Who knew?!

  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE SANTARÉM ZONE

 

 

Lots of gifts for the missionaires ... plenty to go around.

 

And our members always go all out for our missionaries.  Portugal knows how to do desserts!

 

These are our incredible Oeiras ward sisters that "catered" our luncheon.  Wow!  We had salad, bacahlão, pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, breads, rice, fruit, drinks ... and at least 30 different kinds of desserts.  They are so dedicated and do this year after year.  The one in the center is Zelia, who Paula has become good friends with and learned a lot abot Portuguese cooking.  Zelia also works at the mission home.  Her husband is one of the Stake Presidents in Lisbon.

 

 

 

 Paula put herself in charge of organizing all of the mail and packages into zones so that things go "smoothly".  This is just a small sample of her work.  And she "loves" it!

 

Merry Christmas from us.  We would love to tell you this is our tree, but it isn´t.  The Mission home is large, beautiful, carpeted, warm, comfortable, not an apartment, and has a Christmas tree.  We love it when we can spend time here.

 

We found Santa at our Santarém Branch Christmas Party.  Here he is with two of the children.

 

Santarém put on a luncheon for some needy neighbors and friends for their branch Christmas party this year.  They donated food and gifts and spent the day preparing a wonderful meal.  There were about 40 members involved and they invited 70 to come to the luncheon.  More than 70 showed up!  The 70 plus were not members of the church, but people our members felt needed a Christmas lift.

 

Paula got some baby-sitting duties, which she never seems to mind.  Actually I am pretty sure she picked this one up on her own.  She loves little children ... they remind her of our grandchildren.

 

And the members actually enjoyed the cooking, doing dishes, setting up and serving.

 

And our missionaries were happy!

 

The Azores in November!  We went to the branches in the Azores to do some audit and financial training.  On the second morning we had an opportunity to drive around San Miquel Island.  The third day between meetings we drove around Terceira Island.  The scenery here is incredible.  We have a senior couple here already, the Phippens, and so the chances of a transfer here are slim.  This training trip was the next best thing.  We had no idea of how beautiul these islands are.

The Azores are known for their dairy products.  This is a rural Island with a lot of cattle and goats.  Rock walls are everywhere to contain the cattle and goats as well as to mark boundaries and for soil erosion control.  The fields are almost all on hillsides.

 

 

We have never been disappointed in the food in Portugal.  From beef to seafood to whatever category barnacles fall into,

 

We are spending a lot of time in the mission office right now.  There are not really a lot of exciting pictures to post so we have been lazy at putting things on the blog. 

Paula, besides being the mission historian, is now also the reference secretary.  It has kept her quite busy and not a lot of time to get in trouble or go shopping.  Some days she will get as many as 15 referrals.  When she receives a referral she also has to determine where it goes and then contact the area that is is going to.  She is also responsible for follow-up.  It is good that she has always been a power-house when it comes to talking on the phone!  She has seen some success and the missionaires absolutely love working with her.  I always get asked, "are you the other half of Sister Rose? We love her!"  No surprises here!!

 

 

It seems like my work hasn´t changed much.  As long as I have a phone and my laptop I can do most of the executive and administrative work.  I can work from home, from the office, or from the beach. 

 

 

 

We have continued to see and be a part of a lot of baptisms.  I have not spent the time like I did at the beginning of our mission telling the miraculous things that aways seem to happen.  It is sad if it becomes common-place and we need to recognize the Lord´s hand in so many things that go on around us every day.  When I find the picture of Joaquim I will need to add it here.  Joaquim was our first-person-to-contact here when we arrived in Santarém.  It took about a month to finally get to meet him and Anita.  And it took another 8 months before he got baptized.  When we first heard about him and then met him we were surprised to learn that he was active.  He attended all of the meetings.  He came to baptisms.  He paid his tithes and offerings, even as a non-member.  When he finally made the commitment to baptism he was definitely knowledgeable about the gospel and had a firm testimony and was ready to complete his repentance process and officially join the kingdom of God here upon the earth.  He and Anita were fun to teach.  The final straw was his decision that the time was now to repent and be baptized.  He wanted to be certain he was going to keep the covenants he was making at baptism.

 

And we love our local Santarém missionaries.  Elder Checketts, Elder Dastrup, Sister Ornano and Sister Caldwell.  This transfer we moved out Elder Dastrup and Sister Caldwell.  More coming!

 

Normally we toast with Root Beer that we buy at the American Store.  This time it had to be ice cream bars.  Oh, the sacrífices we make!

 

 

 

 

 



 



Celebrating 40 Years Together
 

 

 

 

                                                           

            

                  

                                                             ´

 

               

 

                                                  

 

     

                                                               

 

 

And we still have a few more years to go!

 

 

 

Off Into the Sunset.