June 2 Sunday – Fast Sunday today. Played piano in
Sacrament meeting - 2nd hour was discussing the temple
open house in August and the plans for taking buses to Lisbon – sign up
and payment, lots of excitement. We had left overs for lunch – so
nice to not have a the pressure of preparing and feeding the
missionaries today. Took a nap and a leisurely walk to the park.
The weather has been very hot this week. . . we stayed in the shade. I did some studying and catching up on the blog (the past 3 weeks to be
exact).
June 3 Monday – P day - All the missionaries in the Algarve Zone met in
Portimao for a Brazilian charrasco prepared by Elder Ribeiro. We
packed up our lawn chairs and took the Loule sisters with us.
When we
arrived in Portimao, most of the missionaries were either talking
with their families or playing games on the court and grass behind
the church. I helped Elder Ribeiro in the kitchen with his
preparations. He and Merl went to the market to purchase the meat
that would be grilled. I cut up all the vegetables for the potato
salad while they were gone. Of course there was rice and beans and a
tomato/onion salad to go with all the meat.
When we
arrived in Portimao, most of the missionaries were either talking
with their families or playing games on the court and grass behind
the church. I helped Elder Ribeiro in the kitchen with his
preparations. He and Merl went to the market to purchase the meat
that would be grilled. I cut up all the vegetables for the potato
salad while they were gone. Of course there was rice and beans and a
tomato/onion salad to go with all the meat.
The Andersons showed up for a short time to
check on things, but didn’t stay for lunch. While the meat was
being grilled, both the Elders and Sisters played flag football,
capture the flag, water balloons, baseball – and it was sooooo hot!
After the meal, we went to Andersons for a visit while the kids got
everything cleaned up. Later in the afternoon, we picked up our
Sisters and took them home to start their missionary work. . . we
probably took a nap.
June 4 Tuesday – This morning I made tortilla “sandwich” roll ups for District meeting. This was the start of switching from yummy treats to healthy snacks. We took the Sisters with us to Faro for the meeting. Part way through the meeting, I received a call from Sister Bradley in Olhao. She was complaining of pain that she thinks is coming from her kidney. She has had a history of kidney related problems. I gave her the phone number of the nurse in Germany for her input and whether to take her to the hospital. While I was out of the room, Merl gave his weekly message. Everyone enjoyed the little sandwiches, and then we took our Sisters back to Loule. Our instruction from the nurse was that we should take Sister Bradley to the hospital in Faro to be checked.
So back across the Algarve to get the Sisters.
We were given the name and address of the hospital to go to; but when
we arrived we found it closed (good thing, it was the old one we
didn’t like). This emergent care hospital had been moved to
another location downtown in a better area. We finally found the new location by the Camarao Municipal and got checked in and waited for someone to call Sister Bradley back to an exam room. Merl and I patiently waited while the two Sisters visited with the doctor. Sister Bradley was not pleased with the diagnosis – a strained muscle. She was given a shot for pain and a prescription for pain medication. She was still convinced it was more than that, but she resolved she would just drink lots of water and take care of it herself. Back to Olhao to drop the Sisters off, then back to Faro to deliver something to the Sisters there,
We stopped at Lidle for fresh vegetables and
Continente for bread and lunch meat/cheese. We finally arrived back
home around 8:00 p.m.. I fixed a late dinner, and we enjoyed a brisk walk
up to the park. We sent out texts to all our missionaries to
schedule this transfer’s apartment inspections and attempted to
catch up a little on the blog. . . a month behind.
June 5 Wednesday was the day this week I that I planned to fix lunch for the
missionaries. The sisters called and said they had a Zoom conference call (during the lunch hour), so I decided to make wraps for them to eat at the church. So thought we would only have the Elders for lunch. . . maybe make wraps for them, too. Then the conference call was cancelled, and the Sister Trainers from Faro were coming for exchanges. Now I had six missionaries - finally decided to quickly make a big batch of quinoa "taco meat" for taco salads (Rachel’s recipe). With all the trimmings, lunch turned out pretty good - mostly vegan (except I did add a little chicken to the quinoa. For dessert, I made banana pancakes with
strawberries and whipped cream. Merl always enjoys the discussion and question sessions that seem to always follow our meals.
A little nap (dishes can always wait), and then a walk through the tourist shopping
district looking for a cork tie (which we found to be very expensive). Instead, Merl found a cork bookmark with a blue Volkswagon van in the Algarve printed on it. It reminded us of our honeymoon - so many years ago.
Our walk took us back along the crowded little streets near the castle. We were so surprised to come across Q Ice - a gelado shop. The first time we found it, we were in Almancil. . . they were remodeling a little shop that had closed, and we kept watching for it to open. Turns out that they decided to move to Loule close to the Q Cafe instead. It is in walking distance! Their gelado is all hand made by an Italian, and is amazing. They have some of the basic flavors that everyone makes, and then some amazing, interesting ones. I tried a coconut/ginger scoop and a rosemary/pineapple scoop. Merl tried Pistachio and strawberry.
June 6 Thursday Woke up early to an email from Pres. Fillmore asking us
if we could help find someone in the hospital system. Sheila Brevin
from England. She is a member of the church, and a member of the Bishopric was trying to locate her.
We had an early appointment in Faro for a 45,000 Km service on our at the
Toyota Dealer. We were told that it would be done at 12:30. Merl sudied a conference
talk while I contacted Ana Neves to see if she could help us locate Sheila in the hospital system. Sister Neves is a nurse in our Branch. She did some research and found her in a hospital in Faro. She was able to give us information on her condition. She had a bike accident in Tavira and had been being shuttled around between hospitals. I was able to contact Sheila by phone and found that she could talk pretty well., even though she said her jaw was wired shut. She requested a blessing. We have spent many hours sitting in these chairs - also looking at the beautiful cars in the showroom.
We walked to AKI and the Forum Mall and returned by 11:30. The car was out of the shop and parked in the front. The attendant was busy with another couple, and then after a while he disappeared. After waiting until after 12:30, we learned that he left for lunch. Merl was not very impressed! Finally, around 1:00, another attendant assisted us
and we got our car.
We called the Faro Elders to see if they could assist with a blessing for Sheila. They were in Almancil doing a baptismal interview, so we picked them up there and returned to Faro. Only one visitor was allowed at a time, so we had Elder Hernandez go to her room. He was able to bring her down in a wheel chair to the chapel. We visited for a while and found her to have a wonerful attitude (and quite funny). She was pleased with a Lisbon hospital surgery to repair an eye socket (one eye pushed into her skull and pulled out and held in place with a post. Actually looked really bad and was difficult to see. She has no memory of what happened - has been an avid bike rider and was on a leisurely ride. She woke up in a pool of blood and thought she was dying. She has multiple broken bones in her shoulder, arms, and face, and bruised all over. She is doing all the facial work in Lisbon and other orthopedic work in Faro - therefore shuttling back and forth. Her daughter, Anita, went home to England this
morning. We had a good discussion and then she asked Merl to give her a
blessing, and Elder Hernandez annointed her. She appreciated the blessing of comfort and healing and returned to her room in good spirits.
We called the Faro Elders to see if they could assist with a blessing for Sheila. They were in Almancil doing a baptismal interview, so we picked them up there and returned to Faro. Only one visitor was allowed at a time, so we had Elder Hernandez go to her room. He was able to bring her down in a wheel chair to the chapel. We visited for a while and found her to have a wonerful attitude (and quite funny). She was pleased with a Lisbon hospital surgery to repair an eye socket (one eye pushed into her skull and pulled out and held in place with a post. Actually looked really bad and was difficult to see. She has no memory of what happened - has been an avid bike rider and was on a leisurely ride. She woke up in a pool of blood and thought she was dying. She has multiple broken bones in her shoulder, arms, and face, and bruised all over. She is doing all the facial work in Lisbon and other orthopedic work in Faro - therefore shuttling back and forth. Her daughter, Anita, went home to England this
morning. We had a good discussion and then she asked Merl to give her a
blessing, and Elder Hernandez annointed her. She appreciated the blessing of comfort and healing and returned to her room in good spirits.
The
Elders had missed dinner this evening and had a teaching appointment
before the Branch Integration activity. We picked up some things at
Lidl to hold them over for the night (croisants with sliced turkey
and cheese, bananas, oranges)
and dropped them off at the church.
June 7 Friday Totally no energy today - yesterday had been exhausting. We decided to move our bedroom again in preparation for visitors later this month. This time we also moved Merl's office into our smaller bedroom on the opposite end of the apartment. This is so visitors can have two bedrooms and a bathroom together on the other side. We took awalk to park to exercise and picked up Oreo cookies at Pinga Doce (on sale!) for inspections next week. The Portuguese class was canceled tonight so we studied by ourselves and went to bed earlier than usual.
June
8 Saturday The morning was beautiful! We made our traditional excursion to the market and bought some great tomatoes and some other cooking essentials (onions are always on the list. We checked out the stork nest and then went to our favorite ceramic shop. I love going into Teresa's shop to just look at her amazing creations. Every time we go in, I tell her I will be buying something to take home with me. Today turned out to be the day. If it were possible (or practical), I would love to have several pieces of her ceramics. Today, I chose two olive bowls, hand painted and signed. They are small and light enough to fit nicely in our return luggage.
In the afternoon, we drove to Almancil to pick up the Sisters. We finally found the new Overseas British
Market and picked up a few things to try. It is not as big as the Portimao store, but they carry some things we like that we can't get elsewhere.
As we entered the apartment building, there was a man who joined us in the elevaor, and he was carrying a flat of figs. They looked so good. Not only that, but this man then followed us to Miriam's apartment. . . he was also an invited guest! He is not a member of the church, is from Italy, and travels all around. The missionaries had given him a few lessons in the past. All I know is that his name is Conrado, and he was very personable and fun to visit with. And the fresh figs were amazing!
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