Week 21 May 19 - 25, 2019

Sunday 19 The morning began with showers and some final meal prep before church.  I invited Ann to share dinner with us (E. Ann Sykes) along with the kids. We had stuffed zucchini boats, sweet potatoes with apples, green salad, strawberries with yogurt, artisan bread, and rice crispy treats for dessert. There was only a cup full of salad left on the table. 

Ann Sykes is livina in Sao. Bras and now attending our branch (previously Olhao). She is traveling to Oregon tomorrow along with the previous Olhao branch president, Paulo Azeveido, to continue work on her project: creating a community of yurts across the Algarve. It has been amazing to watch the plans and the people come together on this in a short amount of time. We always have good discussions around the dinner table with the missionaries. Today we discussed the atonement, Christ’s suffering for our sins, and our opportunity for repentence. We gave a nice white shirt to Jairo that was rescued from the Olhao Elder’s apartment – dirty but cleaned up really nice. (he was grateful for it as he has grown out of his others).

(Merl taking the photo:  Me, Sister Darnell, Sister Ann Sykes, Jairo, Elder Ribeiro, Elder Nichols, Jared, Sister Moulton)

Took a short nap and then took a walk around the city streets noticing the beautiful spring flowers,

 We checked out a little food shack on the main street  - Maxi's.
They serve Maxi pizzi, hot dogs, hamburgers, snacks.

Further up the street, we found where the beautiful music was coming from - all favorites of ours from home.  It was a beautiful evening.

Monday May 20 Walked around the city looking for casual shirts for Merl – ended up going to Primark later and found two. Stopped at Pinga Doce in the mall and bought strawberries, avocado, and eggs on sale. That was our exciting P-day!

We hadn't checked on our local storks in a few weeks and decided to take a walk in the afternoon.  Walk to bird’s nest and picked up goat cheese and raspberries at a little market while we waited for Faro apartment keys to be made (the office has requested copies of keys to all the mission apartments).  .

Tuesday May 21 Call from Philomena (landlord’s mother) mortgage company needs an architect report on our apartment. She will schedule someone to come on Saturday morning.  Because of Zone conference this week, there was no District Council - gave us more time to do some studying.  We prepared a room for the Anderson’s to spend tomorrow night with us and went shopping for pizza stuff - Made pizza for dinner on cauliflower crust.  I love bread, so the cauliflower crust was acceptable, but certainly not my favorite.

Wednesday May 22 With all the missionaries gathering, sleeping, and traveling together tonight and tomorrow, I made good use of ripe bananas, zuccini, and 'not crisp anymore' appkes,  I kept myself busy all day making loaves of bread and muffins.  We had enough to share with Elders who were traveling tonight and their hosts in Lisbon,  We had plenty for the Sisters for breakfast in the morning. 

We traveled to Olhao to pick up the Olhao Sisters, and the Andersons brought the Portimao Sister with them.  We got them all settled into the Loule Sisters apartment (they were at a teaching appointment).   Gave muffins to the sisters for their breakfast in the morning (zucchini/chocolate chip, banana, apple).

We debated whether to go out for dinner tonight with the Andersons, but we decided to stay in – made chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We had just turned off the lights and were on our way to bed at 11:00 when Curtis called.

Curtis called to notify us of a fraudulent charge on my credit card (It had been in my bedside drawer since we arrived here, and I had never used it here). The bank had been leaving messages on Kenadees phone (my old phone number). We were able to do a three way call – our phone talking to Curt’s phone which was the link between. We were able to get all charges cancelled as well as my credit card.  Thankyou Curtis!

Thursday May 23 Up early and prepared a quick breakfast. We split the six sisters into two cars and took off for Oeiras (near Lisbon) for a special Zone Conference for the Lisbon, Setubal, Oeiras, and Algarve zones. The area Seventy from Italy was going to meet with us - Massimo de Feo.  He was the first Stake President in Italy (Rome) for nine years and worked for 30 years in the US Embassy in Italy. He was instrumental in church growth and the approval to build a temple in Italy.  Hearing his stories and instruction was a real treat for the 115 mssionaries in attendance.  Lunch served today was pizza and salad with oreo cookies for dessert.

 We made sure we filled our car with gas before heading home as there was another truckers strike  threatening.   We met the Andersons back in Loule and swapped passengers .  We dropped our Loule Sisters off and then took the Olhao Sisters to Olhao; Andersons took their Portimao sisters back to Portimao with them.

Friday May 24 
Philomena notified us that the architect guy wouldn’t be coming tomorrow because he had some other paperword to take care of before he would be ready.  She let us know when the date will be rescheduled.  There is a little health food shop just around the corner that I have wanted to check out.  Today was the day - I discovered how awesome Dietetica Naturloule is.  Today I purchased flax meal and hemp seeds.  Doesn't take much to get me excited.

We decided to not go to Portuguese class tonight.  The Sisters stopped over to spend a little time before going home after the class.  They had spotted a drunk man on the stairs into their building.  They needed a safe place to hang for a little while.  We shared a couple of ice cream bars with them.

Saturday May 25 Fortunately we got out of the apartment this morning to go to the Loule Farmer's Market before it closed.  After much soul searching and discussion, we decided to change our traditional Sunday afternoon routine of having missionaries over for lunch.  They oft times have dinner appointments on Sunday so they arae spending too much time "eating" and not teachng.  We will  instead fill in one day during the week when they don’t have another dinner appointment.  As much as I do enjoy cooking, Sundays have become too much work (before and after church).  I could use a more relaxing day - at least for a while.  I notified the young missionaries, and the plan was well received.

Today is the birthday of our friend, Hellen.  After seeing a post on Facebook, I called her and wished her a happy birthday and found out that she would be off work at 4:00 today.  We invited her and her son to dinner at a nice little restaurant in Faro close to the marina- Restaurante Piteau .   We learned that she was turning 45 years old and that she had never celebrated her birthday. She was so happy and cried easily as she enjoyed her night out. Of all of our meals, I think she made the best choice - tender pork chops with a molten lava cake for dessert (Merl's was a close second with salmon and a special Portuguese cake).  We also learned that this last Christmas, after she was baptized, was the first time she had ever celebrated Christmas.  We take so much for granted!