Mission and Leadership Conferences in Oeires and Lisbon

Thursday, Sept 20

We were out the door by 6:15, waited a few minutes for the sisters to come down from their apartment, and on the road by 6:25.  It was still dark, so we watched the sun rise as we headed out of town and towards the freeway.  It is about a three hour drive, and we are learning more about the landscape each time we make the trip.  We pointed out the cork trees, the castles on the hills, stork nests on power lines, etc.

We were about an hour from our destination, when we caught up with a car full of Elders from Olhão.  We passed them but later played leap frog as we were tied up in traffic for 45 minutes trying to get across the bridge to Oeira.   We were afraid of not getting to the church on time.  We then followed the Elders through the city, so glad they were there to maneuver the crazy busy streets.  We arrived at 9:47.

We met President and Sister Johnson, the European Area President stationed in Germany. The Johnsons and the Fillmores have been friends for many years as they had both worked in the church education system together.  Headsets were used today which was a blessing for us and a few other missionaries as President and Sister Johnson only speak English.   Young missionaries served as interpreters, bouncing back and forth between Portuguese and English depending on who was presenting information.  They did an amazing job!

We have learned that President Fillmore likes to use every day, visual examples to introduce and reinforce concepts.  Today he used a violin to demonstrate fine tuning to produce sounds that are in harmony.  An Elder and Sister (with their own violins) demonstrated the techniques.  Everything needs to be adjusted and in proper order (resin, bow, strings, bridge) to produce beautiful music.  The same steps need to be taken to implement the full doctrine of Christ.  Each step in the right direction increases agency to take the next step.   You have four notes (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost).  Each note (or step) needs to be in tune to proceed to the next note (or step) to make a harmonic chord. Those who the missionaries teach need to understand and be in tune with each step before they have the ability to receive and understand the next step.  (Some churches focus on one note and never reach the fullness.)  

Subway sandwiches, chips, carrot sticks, cookies, and bottled water were served for lunch.  They always order double – these young Elders are always hungry.

Merl's take away from the afternoon presentation by Pres. Johnson- 

If any man will know the Lord, he must do the will of the Lord.  Conversion is something that happens inside the investigator as he completes the invitations.  A missionary’s purpose is to invite a person to keep commandments. When they make a commitment and then do it, only then will they receive the blessing (Alma 32:28-35).  It is like having a desire to become a good athlete. Desire and learning everything you can doesn’t get you there. A person can ask someone to tell them how to become a good athlete– learn everything about a sport, but all this knowledge doesn’t make you a good player.  You must commit to practice, train and put in the work. There is no other way to become a good athlete. I a person wants to know and serve the Lord and become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, he must desire and do the will of the Lord – then will come the conversion.

 Is my work on the mission enough?  Don’t compare yourselves with others and don’t be self-consumed about your own weakness. Don’t be more concerned about yourself than the work and the service that you are called to perform.  Show your faith in Jesus Christ, and allow him to work his miracles in his timeline – not ours.  Don’t let your weaknesses get in the way of your work.  The Lord creates the miracles in spite of our weaknesses if we will let Him. As we serve him with faith, our weaknesses become strengths.

We dropped the Sisters off at the train station for their long ride back home; then we navigated the busy streets of Carcavelos to our hotel for the night - The Hotel Praia Mar.  The Mission office staff were excited that they got a great deal for everyone.  Online it looked wonderful! 

Accommodations were adequate – old and in some disrepair (and the bed was hard as a board).  We were so tired we were able to sleep anyway.  We checked out the swimming pool which was chilly and closed at 7:00 p.m.  It was too bad that there was not enough time to take advantage of the swimming pool or walking on the beach – just across a busy highway.

Four other couples (Laytons, Limas, Bowers, and Powers) were at the same hotel; we all got together to go out for dinner (except the Powers who didn’t arrive until very late.)  We walked around the area and found a small Italian pizza and pasta place.  We enjoyed a nice meal and had fun getting to know each other better . . I think the staff were ready for us to leave to open up some seating for other customers.  It was Elder Layton’s birthday, and he did (not) enjoy us singing happy birthday to him.  It was a beautiful evening.  

When we arrived back at the hotel, we found a group of people dressed in costumes lined up waiting to go into a large room.  We learned that once a week they have a performance - some indicated that we could go in and watch, and others said it was a closed group.  Not to cause a problem, we reluctantly all went to our rooms for the night.







 (Stained glass on the stairway)

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Friday, Sept 21

Happy Birthday, dear Alicia!  It was so good to talk to you today.

What the hotel was lacking in nice accommodations was made up for by the beautiful views from the 8^th floor where we had breakfast.  Each window had a new view that was amazing. 

We hurried through breakfast with the Powers, who we then followed to the Benefica Ward building (in Lisbon).  Traffic was heavy, so Sister Powers decided to take another route. . . ended up being just as heavy, and we arrived about 15 minutes late.  The drive was beautiful along the coast, so I didn't mind being stalled in traffic.

Sister West texted to check up on us and to direct us to the best door to use to enter the meeting (and to pick up our headsets). 

Following is Merl’s summary of the Mission Leadership Conference held today:

The purpose of Mission Zone Conferences is to teach and train the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainers how and what to teach the rest of the missionaries in their zones.  It is also to set the focus and mission of the work to be done.

 Whereas conversion and baptism has been the emphasis in the past, President submitted some statistics of Portuguese members, which have caused him to seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost to change the emphasis. There are 30 + thousand members in Portugal, but only about 4300 of them are active. There are areas like Southern Portugal (where we are serving) with enough members to create a stake, but not enough active, and not enough Priesthood holders.

 So, the emphasis has been changed to work with less active members and bring them back into the fold. The purpose is to strengthen the core which will also bring new members into the church through the association that exists within these families. As the core is strengthened and enlarged, stakes will be created which provide more secure and solid organizational foundation.

The Doctrine of Christ was discussed, and in that discussion, it was determined that the continuum of that doctrine is the principle of repentance. Salvation and Exaltation are processes that occur over a life time – and it is through Faith and repentance that perfection is attained through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We must continue to renew our covenant of baptism through daily repentance and then partaking of the Sacrament each week. Each step (personal decision) in the right direction increases our agency and increases the power of the spirit of the Holy Ghost to teach, testify, and assist us along the way.

Missionaries tend to teach the plan of Salvation, the doctrines, the commandments, etc. but do not obtain the commitments to repent and bring lives into harmony with the commandments and then continue through out life to repent and grow. The ‘endure to the end’ continuum is not sufficiently taught. So, this will be a stressed component of the discussion – the invitation and commitment to repent and follow Christ throughout the rest of their lives.

Also, the ultimate goal of becoming like our Father-in-Heaven through the Atonement Jesus Christ must continually be in our hearts and minds as the driving force – the ultimate incentive to ‘endure to the end.’ We must have the faith that this will be so if we repent and keep the commandments to the best of our abilities. 

After an additional short meeting for the senior couples, we walked next door to the Portugal Mission Office.  We took our bags of clothing downstairs to the supply room and did a little “shopping.”  We were able find a few things for our young missionary apartments – to help them out a little until all the inventories are completed and we know what items may be available as a few apartments are closed.

After a long drive home, we found our little city streets filled with people – a little unusual for the time of day.  We put the car in the parking garage and unloaded all our stuff before taking a walk to find out with the attraction was.   (Info to follow. . .)