Zone Conference and Apartment Woes

Monday, September 3

With the recent turn of events, our P-Day became a Work day.  To economize, we decided to go to Tavira and Olhão to take inventory and do some work on the Elders’ apartment in Olhão before meeting up with the Laytons in Faro.  We are getting better finding our way between all these cities with the maze of roads.  We did take a wrong turn which sent us back on the freeway in the wrong direction.  It is impossible to get off the freeway (no turn outs), so we backtracked back to Loulé and started over – arriving in Tavira 15 minutes later than planned.  As we unlocked the building door, we met a couple taking a hug German Shephard out for a walk.  They noticed our name badges and introduced themselves as the apartment landlords.  Coincidence or blessing?  We were there to take an apartment inventory and try to determine what things belonged to the church and what belonged to the landlord.  Fortunately, within a few minutes, he produced an inventory document that he prepared when contracting with the church.  Saved us a lot of time as the only thing the church had there was one mattress and the missionary books/pamphlets.  No missionaries had been living there for a few months. 

 We then went to Olhão to take inventory and repair some outlets and the shower head supports.  We were working as fast as we could and were surprised when it was 1:00 and we were still there.  We were supposed to meet the Layton’s at 1:00 in Faro.  We called them, packed everything up, and hurried to the next destination… the Forum Mall. 

With the help of Elder Layton, we were able to place an order for 30 meals to be picked up noonish tomorrow.  Sister Layton and I will make a dessert to go with the salad and Churrasco lunch.

After seeing how bare the kitchen was in Olhão, we stopped at IKEA and picked up a few things:  dish towels, eating utensils, glasses, bowls, baking dish, spatula, and a blue, long handled scrub brush (IKEA special).  We will take them to the Zone Conference tomorrow.

I decided I was going to make maracuja mousse for tomorrow.  We stopped by the Chinese store to find small cups and spoons.  Amazing…they had just what I wanted.  So I spent the evening making the dessert.  We have to improvise because we don’t have a blender to grind up the cookies for the crust or to whip up the mousse. 

I had texted the Sisters to whistle when they arrived home.  We were reading D&C and didn’t hear them, so they called.  I rushed to the window and dropped them a big baggie of black “seedless” grapes – hard to find here.  They loved them!

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Tuesday, September 4

We packed up the car and picked up the Sisters, and were on our way by 9:15.  Zone Conferences are a big deal here.  We got things set up for lunch and then visited with the missionaries that were arriving.  President and Sister Fillmore arrived along with the two APs from Lisbon.

What did we learn in the conference?  If the Algarve wants to become a Stake, the missionary efforts need to include more reactivation and reaching out to and strengthening the less active members.  The Branches here  have enough members to support a Stake, but there is not enough Priesthood.  We faced the same issue in Brazil when we were there.  It is a challenge, but President Fillmore thinks it can be done. . . strengthen the core first and then reach out.

Lunch was a hit!  Each person got their own salad and a hot dish of beans and rice, three kinds of meat (chicken, sausage, pork), and fried banana.  Brownies and maracuja mousse finished it off.  Testimonies and singing the new mission song finished off the meeting.

(Foto:  Sisters Jones, Esteban, Fillmore, Hansen, Tavares, Restrepo, Cavalcanate, Haws, Kelson)

(Foto:  Elder Gusman, Elder Patricio, Elder McKee, Elder Rogers, Elder Alpizar, AP Quaresma-Mem Martins, Sister Fillmore, Elder Buarque, Eldmer Heiner, Elder Lima  Kneeling: AP Elder Smith, Elder Harker, Elder Bermudez


Each missionary had an interview with President Fillmore.  Merl even was able to have a temple recommend interview (his expires in a couple of weeks).  He will get the in the mail.  We hope to travel with the Branch at the end of the month to the temple in Madrid, Spain. 

We went with Elder Rogers (the Algarve Zone Leader) to be there when the landlady was coming by   It was not a very pleasant visit.  The balcony definitely needs to be cleaned up, but we felt she was over reacting on everything.  She will be sending in an apartment inspector tomorrow, and the Mission office will be sending a FM representative in as well.
to inspect the apartment.

We took the Sisters home, changed clothes, packed up or tools and cleaning supplies, and drove back to Faro to help the Elders do some major cleaning projects.  We worked until 9:00 and made some significant progress. 

(Fotos:  Me with Sister Kelson and Sister Jones)           (Elder Rogers, ZL)

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Wednesday, Sept 5

Shout out to Todd McQueen – Happy Birthday. . . let’s celebrate next year here in Portugal!

We are enjoying the mild weather that has finally come.  We are sleeping better at night and not dragging all day in the heat.  School will be starting here in a couple of weeks, and the major tourist season will wind down in October.  Then we will see what life is really  like here.

When we received our mission call to serve here in Portugal, we weren’t sure what to expect.  And we still don’t know what to expect each day.  Be flexible and go with the flow!

After working at the Faro missionaries’ apartment last night we felt pretty good at what we had accomplished.  We received a phone call this morning inviting us to return and meet with a contractor from the church’s FM group (facility maintenance) at 1:00.  I was in the process of making banana bread for Elders Rogers and Rodrigues.  There was enough batter to make muffins to share with the two sets of missionaries herein Loulé.  The Sisters were already out working, so we left them a bag of salad fixings and some muffins.

We arrived in Faro to find Elder Rogers making lunch (smelled good) and the FM contractor finishing his inspection.  He will have a report sent to Lisbon tomorrow.  Still not sure what the complete story is, but suspected damage to some apartments due to debris on the back patio that held moisture and penetrated the concrete/plaster walls.  FM thought it was a structural design problem. . . will see how it all plays out.

We did a little more cleaning and fixing and drove to IKEA to pick up a few kitchen items on the recommended inventory list.  Some of these missionaries have made do with very little, so hopefully a new glass or spoon – or bath matt – will brighten their day.  We also found half of the loaf of banana bread had been eaten.

Home again – and a short nap. . . three days of traveling back and forth with apartment stuff has taken its toll.  The evening was spent fixing dinner, recording expenses, doing laundry, and catching up  a little on the blog.  There haven’t been too many new things to take pictures of.