A week at a Glance

Being away from home and then trying to catch up has been challenging.  I will attempt to just capture highlights of this past week.  For those who don’t like to read all the “stuff,” this might be a welcome change.

Friday, Sept. 28     

I need to recognize the birthday of Madelyn McQueen. I can hardly believe she is 15 years old already – and much more well-rounded and accomplished than many twice her age.  Love you, Maddie!

We traveled to Faro to help with computer connections for the Young Adult Face-to-Face to be broadcast on Saturday.  Merl has a computer that his become the broadcast computer.  We then needed to go grocery shopping because we had given most of our food away to Jairo last week.  We also made our Voda-phone payment for the next two weeks.  When we go to Voda-phone, I like to pass by a Chinese clothing store - found two new blouses for a couple of euros. 

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Saturday, Sept. 29

Saturday evening was the Face to Face event with Elder Cook.  We picked up Edgar (a new convert) in Almancil so he could attend.  We had about 40 in attendance for the meeting, and a soccer tournament and hot dogs followed.  The Elders got pretty involved in the tournament and held their own pretty well against the young Portuguese players.  We stopped at Aldi to pick up some sour cream – and I purchased six chocolate truffles to share.  There were five of us in the car. . . I wonder who got two!

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Sunday, Sept 30

Today was the last Sunday for Elder Heiner and Sister Haws.  Both were called up to share what they have learned on their missions and to say goodbye to the members.

I helped Andrea with Daniel again during SS and joint priesthood/SS meeting.  The topic of discussion was revelation and new ways of how EQ and SS are functioning.

We were invited to lunch by Nestor and Sandra Querales along with the Loulé Elders and Sisters.  I offered to help with the lunch and took a wedge salad dip and rice crispy treats.  Nestor is the Elder’s Quorum President (past District President), and Sandra is the Young Women’s President.  They have three children, Natacha, Jonas, and Tomás.  Today I learned that Sandra is the daughter of Maria Tome – the second member of the church in the area; and her sister is the Relief Society President, Nerina Tomé da Luz. 

Bro. Nestor was born in Guatemala, but his father was Portuguese.   He lived in Guatemala until he was 12 years old and came to Portugal to live with his Grandfather.  He met Sandra in school, and they dated for several years.  He asked her to marry him, but he was not a member.  She waited for four years until he was converted and baptized before saying yes.  They have been a strength to the church here and are great examples of faith charity. 

They live north of Loulé in a hillside community of Tor.  Their home is in a beautiful location in the hills overlooking the valley.  They have fruit trees, grape vines, garden area, and bees.  Lunch included their own honey drizzled over apple slices. 

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Monday, Oct 1


Sister Haws had one last request before she completes her mission and returns to Arizona.  She wanted to go to a nearby beach and spend a little time walking in the sand and watching the waves come in.  We took them to the Villamoura beach in Quarteira – it was a beautiful area to enjoy part of our P-Day  together.   

We then went to Faro to have lunch at the Forum with the other missionaries in our area.

Our last stop was  at Jumbo for photo developing and cookies for Merl.  I was curious about the price of lemons (by weight), so I put two on a scale.  We discovered that these were fancy scales where you entered product codes to weigh and print off the sales tag for the checker.  We found this out when I couldn’t figure out the scale and a worker saw me – took the lemons, weighed them, slapped the sticker on a bag, and handed it to me.  He was probably mumbling something to himself that I wouldn’t want to hear.  And they were expensive lemons!

As we were checking out, a strange looking man (long hair and beard, backpack/sleeping bag, and a computer bag) noticed our name tags.  He got a little crazy and said we were supporting a hippy cannibal.  He went on and on. . . I felt sorry for our young checker, but we acknowledged him and didn’t say anything.  We saw him again a later in the food court, but fortunately he didn’t approach us again.

We ended the day be having dinner at the home of Andrea (children Nuria and Daniel).  She made a wonderful dish called Cachupa, a hearty stew-type dish served over rice.  It had chicken, pork, and sausage with cachupa corn (dried, large kernals), dried beans, and vegetables.  It was amazing!  She served two desserts – and we gave her a “heart-attack” on her door after we left.

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Tuesday, Oct 2          Happy Birthday, dear Halle!  Hope you had a wonderful day.  We love you!!

District meeting was today, so I used some ripe bananas to make banana chocolate chip bars for a treat after the meeting.  I shared a couple with our violin-maker neighbor and our fruit market owner.  They have both become good friends.

This is the last week before transfers, so we had scheduled our  pre-transfer inspections.  We started with the Loulé Sisters this morning before driving them to Faro.

District meeting today was a little different today.  Everyone new that changes were coming up - Elder Heiner and Sister Haws going home, and probably other changes.  After the closing prayer, it was decided that they would sing the new mission hymn together. .  for the last time.

They really got into the spirit of it!  It was fun to listen to them having fun (I couldn't watch them as I was playing the piano).  We then went to the kitchen and shared the banana bars and a tres leches bolo that Sister Restrepo made.  After the meeting, we did the inspection for the Loule’ Elders.

We liked the wedge salad dip I made on Sunday so much that I made a big one for dinner tonight.  I then made a batch of garlic-honey tea for Sister Kelson.  She has had a lingering cough that seems to be getting worse.  This remedy was from Sister Powers who now is assisting Sister Fillmore with health issues.  Later Sister Haws said that she really loves Sister Kelson. . . but she stinks.  Sorry about that.

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Wednesday, October 3

Today we had back to back inspections of the Faro Missionary apartments.  We purchased our “reward” Oreos on the way and had two good inspections.  We stopped at a neighborhood Pastelaria for a lunch – a cheeseburger with potato chips for Merl (his first here) and a cup of soup with a ham/cheese sandwich for me.  It was nice to just sit for a moment.

I brought some white shirts (NOT) home with us to see if we could clean them.  I soaked them in some bleach water, Merl scrubbed the collars and cuffs, then put them in the washing machine.  They came out almost 100% better.  Very usable again.

We attended the English class this evening and studied modes of transportation.  As we are helping others to learn English, we find that we are learning some Portuguese at the same time.

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Thursday, October 4

While sitting in bed this morning, we read from Preach my g\Gospel – word by word, letter by letter - identifying and practicing sounds that are different here in Portugal or what we may have learned incorrectly in the beginning.  It is tedious to read this way, but hopefully it will help us with our pronunciation and comprehension.

I cleaned the kitchen to get ready to start lunch for the missionaries + Jairo.  He called and asked permission if he could come for lunch with the Elders – it is his day off from work.  Merl told him he was always welcome in our home.

Today we had Cabbage and Noodles.  I marinated and cooked some pork, chicken, and linguiça sausage and added lots of vegetables and broth – then cabbage.  This was served with linguini noodles and crusty bread to sop up the juice.  I also made a batch of Red Lobster garlic cheese biscuits that turned out really well and a fresh fruit salad.  Banana bread and ice cream cones for  
dessert.

Merl and the Sisters played Uno while we waited for the Elders.  

We prepared a bag of some things to send home with Elder Heiner – he thinks he will have room to take some of the extra things we don’t need back to Idaho with him.  Then I will have room for other things I might find along the way. 

A short time later, Sister Kelson called and said that she was ready to go to the emergent care hospital in Faro to check on her 4-week old cold.  We first have to get permission from Lisbon and Germany who then sends the info to the hospital and the insurance company. We spent about four hours waiting for the process to be completed and then for the actual appointment, tests and x-rays, and to get the results. . . drink water every time you cough.  It will go away. 

Home again to face the dishes from lunch.  I would like to relax and get to bed early, but we have morning appointments with the Olhão Elders for inspections.    

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Friday, October 5

I didn’t touch the dishes last night.  As we were leaving to do inspections today in Olhão, we met the Sisters outside their door this morning.  I had some Restauration pamphlets for them, and they gave me the sad news.  Sister Haws is going home (we knew that), but Sister Kelson is being transferred – a white wash for Loulé.  So sad to think of them both being gone – we have certainly grown to love
them.

On our way, we stopped in Faro to replace some light bulbs and drop off the white shirts we had laundered.  The AP Elders were there visiting; it was good to see them again.  Both inspections went very well.  The Elders in the Olhão/Tavira apartment have done wonders to make it their apartment “habitable.”  With all the new lights Merl installed and some good cleaning and organizing by the Elders, things are much better.  It would be really nice to have the walls painted to cover stains, cracks, and scars. 

All our apartments showed significant improvement on their inspections.  There are few repairs that Merl plans to do, but things are clean and tidy.  Good job!  Oreos for everyone!

We stopped at the Mar Mall (next to Ikea) to buy Merl another pair of shoes.  He really likes the pair we bought two months ago – sturdy but lighter weight than the ones he brought from home.  Fortunately they had just what he wanted in stock.

Back home to have a late lunch and to clean our own kitchen.  The Sisters came over this evening to use our computer to purchase their train tickets for Sunday morning.  We learned that both of our Loulé Elders and Faro Sisters are being transferred (Elder Heiner completing his mission).  Three white washes!  This is at least six of our twelve missionaries – and maybe more.  I think we depend on these missionaries as much as they depend on us.  It will be different. . .