Week 2 - January 6, 2019

Sunday, January 6, 2019

I was up at 8:00 (not a good night), dressed and had prayer. Kathlyn still not feeling good, but, a better night. Gave her a blessing today with the Elders. Elder Howard anointing. . Kathlyn stayed home from church today, Fast Sunday. An elderly gentleman stood first and told of a vision he had where he saw the Joseph’s coat of many colors, of its beauty. And since he had seen the coat, now he only had the authority to be the head of the church here in Loulé. He usually bears his testimony, but not like this. He always ends in the name of Jesus Christ. But not today. He just said his peace, hit his fist to the podium (not too hard) and then sat down. Kind of strange! Then others quickly got up and gently covered his footsteps, I think. I don’t know much of what they said. I had to ask Elder Howard what the brother had said. That’s how I know the story. Several asked where Sister Egbert was. Etc.

Came home and had a quiet afternoon until the Elders brought over some peanut butter bars they made. This was their way of thanking us for removing the mold from their apartment. We had a lively discussion on some doctrine, questions, and scriptures. I fixed me some dinner (pork chop smothered with fresh pineapple, onions and celery cooked in apple juice. Steamed cabbage and broccoli. Yes, it was good.

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Monday, January 7, 2019

Had a better night, still have a tickly cough with sharp pain if I am not careful. I was up early (5:00 a.m.) hoping to catch up on things – couldn’t sleep. You know things are bad when there are dishes to do that early in the morning.

Today is Missionary P-Day. We took the Sisters to the Mar Mall on our way to Faro. Each Sister had been given an extra $80 in their monthly allocation from the missionary budget to purchase slacks.

We dropped off clean linens (items I took home last Saturday from the Faro apartment) and checked out the new apartment – all the IKEA furniture had been put together. We found black marks on the walls already – will need to address this with the new Elders.

Merl dropped me off at the old apartment and went to the Foram Mall to pick up the missionaries. They came to the old apartment to help remove the last of the missionary supplies and belongings. They filled the car again. After sorting through all the paper stuff everywhere, I started cleaning the rooms – kitchen first. We made a lot of progress today. By the end of the day, everything that didnt belong to the landlady had been removed, floor and walls cleaned, and trash gathered. It is really a nice apartment – too bad there were so many landlady issues.

The new apartment is newer, more modern, but smaller (good and bad). We came home exhausted. . . the Sisters had a situation develop with rides to and from Albufeira today. Some issues need to be resolved between the Sisters and Elders.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Looking back at Merl’s notes, it appears that most of the day was taken up with phone calls between the Mission office Elders, Bro. Santos from the FM group, the Faro landlady. .. we will be so happy to get this apartment closed. Merl was also alerted that a fraudulent charge had been made on his new gas card (someone at a CD/DVD store). The card will be canceled and a new one issued.

We have an appointment on January 15 to receive our SEF card – not exactly sure what that is, but is required by the government after three months. We received instructions of what to bring with us. We will stay in a hotel somewhere in Lisbon on Monday night to ensure we are at the office at 8:00 to go with the group to get our cards. We have been warned that it is a long, slow process.

Early evening we went for a walk and remembered that we had not paid our Vodafone recharge yet. . . fortunately we arrived before they closed at 7:00.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Still dealing with this crazy cough. I am really tired of it.

We met Bro. Teixeira (in the Olhao Branch Presidency) at the Faro apartment. He works in construction related things with Pres. Azevedo. We had contracted with him to do the previous painting and repairs of this Faro apartment. We gave him a new list of things that needed done before turning the keys back to Paula, the landlady. Included in the contract will be the deep cleaning to be done by his wife (they clean the Olhao chapel). He said he could have it finished on Saturday.

Returned home early in the afternoon. Merl finished gluing the cabinet door from the Beja apartment. It turned out very well. We went grocery shopping and spent the evening studying. Tomorrow is District meeting, so I mixed up the dough to make Snickerdoodles in the morning.

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Thursday, January 10, 2019

I pulled the Snickerdoodle dough out of the fridge to soften a little while I got dressed and ready to go the District Meeting this morning. I pulled out the last batch just as it was time to pick up the Sisters and head to Faro. It was a good meeting today with instruction to work with the leadership in the Branches to host the YSA conference.

We received a phone call from Bro. Santos requesting that we get the Faro apartment fixed the best we can – even if it takes a little longer. We will be glad when this project is behind us.

Scriptures, Come Follow Me, Portuguese studies.

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Friday, January 11, 2019

I fixed french toast for breakfast this morning. . . Merl is usually on his own for breakfast, so the day started off well. I then swept and mopped all the floors in the apartment – amazing the difference that makes.

It went down hill when we arrived at the Faro apartment to check on progress. Nothing has been done since we were there last – and only one more day to go (based on the original agreement). We hung new curtains and did some minor repairs and cleaning. Merl doesn’t want to “offend” our contractor by trying to do his job. He just needs to get here and do it!

We found a few more missionary things (hidden inside the couch), so we dropped them off to the missionaries. Then to Aldi to pick up some groceries for dinner on Sunday. I am planning to make chicken enchiladas with a couple of Mexican side dishes.

We took a walk to the park to enjoy the last hour of daylight. We stopped by the Municipal pool there



to get information on swim passes to use the pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and turkish bath (not sure what that really is). As seniors, it is 1€ each per visit of 1 ½ hours. I think we need to at least try it - and swimming is allowed for Senior Missionaries here.

After dinner, we studied from the Come Follow Me manual and a book that was left here by the previous couple, Comfort My Soul in Christ.

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Saturday, January 12, 2019

Up early to get a headstart on lunch for the missionaries tomorrow. Sunday is not the most convenient day to “entertain,” but seems to work best for them. I am trying some new things, and we will see how well it turns out. Menu for tomorrow is white chicken enchiladas, cilantro lime rice, spicy sweet potato salad, and mexican cole slaw. Dessert is tres leite bolo (three milk cake) to celebrate Sister Prado’s birthday a couple of days early. We will be out of town for the real day (Jan 15).

We went to Faro to again check on progress on the apartment. This time the contractor’s wife was there cleaning; it appeared that he had been there and did a couple of minor things, but the big jobs are still not done. We may have to make a trip back Sunday afternoon to see how today ended up. We will be out of town Monday and Tuesday – next chance to followup is Wednesday.

We purchased a microwave and magic wand for the Elders. They are loving their apartment – the put their clothes in the washing machine when they went to bed; and they were dry and ready to put away in the morning. Yes, they have a washer/dryer combo machine. I told them we would trade them for the microwave. . . they didn’t take us up on that one.

Finished meal prep this evening and took a short walk to find strawberries for the cake tomorrow. It is so nice having everything so close – at least the basics. . . and yes, even strawberries tonight. All the Christmas decorations and lights have been removed; but when I looked up, there was something new on the horizon – flower buds opening up on the trees. . .with the moon in the background.W

Kitchen clean up, blog entry, study, and bed. I am more than ready tonight.