Sunday

Sunday, Aug 12

Church at 9:30 this morning.  Got there on time today.  We are starting to figure out the streets – at least around us – and the freeway to Faro.

We had a nice sacrament meeting with the youth speaker being a young man (from Equador); the first speaker, the young returned missionary that leads the singing (Ieza, from Mozambique); and Pres. Rui as the concluding speaker (from Portugal).   I am grateful that I am familiar with most of the hymns and can play them without too much effort. All songs posted this morning were different than what had been given to me earlier.  

Two confirmations were performed today.  First for Simone Teixeira Trindad Costa; and then Florinda Laura.  They even confirmed her with her hat on.  She is a very sweet lady.

I decided to go to Primary today.  The first hour, the children are divided and meet in two separate groups:  3-7 years old and 8-11 years old.  There were 5 in the younger class and 7 in the older class.  They also have a nursery with 3 today.  When a song is to be sung, each child receives his/her own children’s hymn book to sing from – with no accompanying music.  The second hour of Primary is joint where they had a Book of Mormon video, singing,  talk, and a lesson.  The organization appears to be well organized.  We need to find a way to add some more music into their meeting.

Merl attended the Gospel Principles class today and visited with some members after class.

Next week the Young Men and Women will be singing "Paz em Cristo."  I could hear them practicing in their class room with a CD player.  I have been asked to accompany them, so we stayed after church today to practice.  I don't know why I was surprised, but they have beautiful voices and sang the song well.

Merl visited with a couple from Ecuador while the youth practiced their song.  They are a warm and friendly people, most live in Almancil - five families have joined the church there.  The other photo is of the mother of one of the couple.


After church we had lunch and rested.  I tried to catch up on the blog for a while; then we decided to take a walk around some new streets close to us.  I found several frutaria and eateries that I think we should go back to another day.