Thursday, September 6
When I woke up this morning, we didn’t have anything
pressing on the schedule. That didn’t
last long before the Sisters called and asked if we would like to join them for
dinner with a member in Quarteira, Andrea and her two children. The second part of the invite was. . . could
you make something for dessert? We have
been trying to get out with the branch members more, so the answer to both was
yes.
I decided to make some lemon cookies and got them started
before I realized I didn’t have any vanilla flavoring. Here it is called baunilha. I went to three local markets (on foot) with no success in finding any. The last store had little packets of vanilla sugar, so I gave that a try.
I also picked up a couple of fresh lemons
from our little fruit market. The store
owner has always been very helpful and pleasant and likes to help us with our
Portuguese. I told him I was making
lemon cookies and he indicated I should add some lemon zest. 
Right below our apartment is a barbershop and a little
café/food shop next to it. They often
have a sign posted saying “Sopa de dia - €1. Before going back home, I stopped to get some
soup (paid 30 centavos extra for the container). It was the traditional blended vegetable soup
and went perfectly with a multi-seed roll I had purchased earlier on my
shopping venture. I have dreamed of
living in Italy next to a piazza with fresh foods being sold by the locals. This comes close to it – at least everything
is available within the block.
I made a double batch of cookies to also share with the six
sets of missionaries here in our district.
I ended up needing to put half the dough in the fridge because we had a
meeting with our friend (M). He’s still
hanging in there – fighting his tobacco cravings successfully so far, but it
isn’t easy. I gave him a bag of
cookies.
After some wandering around this evening (on the streets and
even in the right building), we finally found Andreia’s apartment. Instead of apt. #5, it was floor 5, apt
#24. Addresses are confusing – this time
even for the Sister missionaries. (Our
address is Avenida 25 de Abril, C3-1oC which means building 3, first
floor, apartment C). Different housing complexes use different methods of identification.
Andreia was trying to work in the kitchen, holding her baby on her hip as she was cooking. I offered to hold Daniel (5 months) while Andreia continued
to fix dinner and visit. She has a nice
apartment, small one bedroom with a tiny kitchen – but she makes it work. 
The living area had a table in the corner, a
tv and small couch, and a bed for her daughter.
She fixed chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce over rice – and “The
Elder’s Cake” – pineapple upside down bundt cake. It got the name because her mother made this
cake for the Elders when they ate at her house after she became a member. . .
Family tradition. Her mother was
Catholic, and her father was Moslem.
Kind of a rough upbringing for the kids. 
Sister Haws gave a lesson on three things that families should do to strengthen (hold up) their testimonies of the church: prayer, attend meetings, read the scriptures. She did a demonstration using cups and three knives configured to hold up the Book of Mormon (I had Merl reconstruct it so we can visualize it).
It was an inspirational evening as we learned of the
struggles and faith of this young mother providing a home, foundation, and life
for her children. It was late when we
got home – sometimes a struggle getting the missionaries home by 10:00 p.m.
Friday, September 7
I finished baking all
the cookies – packaged most of them to give to the six missionary sets we have
in our District while Merl worked on PC card and Gas card records. I took some Lemon cookies to our friendly
fruit market owner – when I bought the lemon from him I told him I was making
cookies and would bring him one – in Portuguese! I think he was actually surprised when I
brought them to him this morning.
I bought a package of egg noodles and made some chicken
noodle soup (boiled bones/skins from rotisserie chicken and added some fresh
chicken) for Sister Haws who has not been feeling well. Also sent over some fresh pears and cookies. She indicated she felt better – at least for
a while. I finally sent Sister Fillmore
a message about her condition.
We picked up Elders Rogers and Rodrigues in Faro and drove
them to Portimão (about an hour drive each way) for a half hour interview with
a baptismal candidate. We went shopping
at the Jumbo grocery store that is close to the church (has some “American”
kinds of food) while the interview was taking place. I was
excited to find salsa, tortillas, barbecue sauce, coconut milk, etc. I had been thinking about making fajitas for
dinner on Sunday . . . with rice and beans of course. We also had time to stop at a Worten store to
purchase a mixer for the Olhão/Tavira Elders. Little by little, we will get their apartment
furnished with the allocated items.
The Portimão chapel is a nice, stand-alone church. We understand that it is one of the first
chapels (if not the first) constructed in Portugal. We headed home and dropped off the Elders at
the church in Faro, delivered the mixer and cookies to Elder White.
I had the job of cleaning up the kitchen after cooking this
morning. Merl fixed his own dinner (left
over soup and pizza).
Saturday, September 8
We slept in a little bit this morning – we are using today
as our P-Day since we were working and traveling earlier this week. We are having the missionaries over for
dinner after church on Sunday, so I needed to do some grocery shopping. We are going to have chicken fajitas with
rice and beans, salad, and stuffed Mexican sweet potatoes. I also stopped by our fruit market and picked
up some pears for a sour cream apple/pear pie – it sounded good to me when I
saw the recipe. No shortening here, so
the crust will be made with butter.
Merl sliced all the chicken, and I prepped the vegetables
for dinner. I used the pressure cooker
to make the beans, and I will use it tomorrow to make the rice while the
chicken and peppers are cooking. I think it was a good investment!
Merl just returned from a meeting with the missionaries and
the Branch mission leader (Jairo). I was
home with a pie in the oven – we didn’t know about the meeting in time. Pres. Rui was there helping to clean the
building. He came into the missionary
meeting, and Merl asked him a question. . . in English. Pres. Rui’s response: “I will talk to you in English, but this is
the last time. I would like to learn
English better, but I am not going to speak to YOU in English again” (said with
a smile). Not only that, he asked the
Sisters to present a FHE for his family on Monday, the Elders on the next
Monday, and then us on the third Monday.
Merl came home wishing he hadn’t gone to the church tonight. I guess it is time to step up! We will also have 8 for dinner tomorrow –
Jairo and our friend, Miguel.
No comments:
Post a Comment