Week 31 July 28 - Aug 3

July 28 Sun Fixed a quick breakfast of fruit, banana bread, juice, cucumbers/cream cheese. Marriotts headed to Faro for church. We went to our ward, played piano, both sister missionaries spoke. Left after Sacrament meeting and took Leandro Brito and Eunice Dias Fonseca with us (they were called to be the young single adult leaders in our branh – right after Sacrament meeting.) 


 We picked up Bruno Freire in Olhao – all went to Faro for a meeting with the Marriotts. Good input and plans to put together a committee and work together in the district. We will assist as needed. Delivered everyone back to their homes, and had a quick lunch and nap. Made preparations for an early start for our road trip in the morning. Stayed up to get news of the transfers. Sisters staying, Elder Buarque leaving, Elder Payne going home, Sister Barajas going up to Lisbon area. Elder Terron going to Azores. Elder Howard coming to Faro. No new elders for Faro and Sisters for Olhao. Maybe next transfer.

July 29 Mon. P-Day, but a combo day for us. We invited the Andersons to take a road trip to three apartments where we had a little work to do. They haven’t been out and about much, an we thought they would enjoy seeing some new parts of Portugal. Picked them up at 8:00 and headed to Sines – going up the coast, very nice, beautiful drive.I love seeing the great cork forests (a variety of oak tree).  We passed by several stacks of recently harvested cork - this process does not harm the trees - just leaves them with a smooth red trunk which then grows new cork.  Each tree can be then debarked every 9-10 years.  We also passed by a mountan village with the grain mill overlooking the city.  We had seen these "windmill" looking structures in many places, but just now learned that the wind turns a grindstone.
  
Arrived in Sines, the largest and the first port area of Portugal and the birthplace of Vasco da Gama.  We installed thresh holds in the doorways, cleaned out a shower drain (again).  Sister Anderon helped organize the missionary materials

On to Evora on a rural road, driving through farmland, orchards of every kind, and vineyards.  Beautiful country that is a little flatter.  

There is a large castle in Evora with an extensive wall that the city has been built around.  Areas are referred to as within the wall or outside the wall.  The missionaries live close to, but outside the wall.  




We found parking at a Pinga Doce and had lunch at Francehinos, a little French restaurant across the street from their apartment.  

I ordered a French dish that was amazing (can't remember the name of it. . . something like french girl's skirt).  The others had grilled chicken and chips.  

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Wealked to apartment and worked on the kitchen counter top, light fixtures, baseboards, . It was nice to have Elder Anderson to help – made the work go faster. While there, we received a phone call from Sister Powers with the invitation of the senior couples to come to Lisbon to assist with meals for the Sisters who would be working at the Open House of the temple. We are assigned Aug 19-20-21.  What an exciting time for the saints in Portugal!

Beja was our last stop of the day. Merl installed the box cover for the bedroom blind.  I stained part of the hard wood floor in the missionaries study room where the finish had been worn off by sliding chairs.  We did a little bit of cleaning and stopped  by Continente to treat ourselves to ice cream bars for the drive home – two each.

We dropped off Andersons in Portimao at 9:30 – arrived home at 10:00. . . it had been a 15 hour day on the road.  Loved it!  After showers and a load of laundry, we were off to bed. I think the Andersons enjoyed the day.  It was nice to visit and get to know them better.  They were great help today!

July 30 Tues Slept in a bit this morning and then finished up some laundry before breakfast,.Merl did some  recorded expenses and caught his finances up to day.  Today was spent in Olhao to working on the Olhao Sister’s apartment.  One of my favorite stops on our way back home is the new British Overseas Market in Almancil.  We picked up some specials and then picked up the  Loule Sisters who had been working in Querteira today.



July 31 Wed. Took a walk to our friendly hardware store for dye - thinking we could use it to make a peach colored paint orange. I had recently made some basil salt from my plant on the balcony, so we stopped by a Chinese store for an extra salt shaker. Then to Olhao again all day – gave in and bought orange paint for our messed up wall. Got most of the work finished today. Tonight we drove to Albufeira to pick up Sisters.  We spend a lot more time running around the Algarve with our Sisters who are covering several cities since we are without Elders right now.  We certainly hope that visas will come for the many missionaries waiting to come to Portugal.   We need them!

August 1 2019

Distric Council meeting was changed again to Friday due to transfers and trainings.  It has been a little difficult to plan our piano lessons around missionary meetings that are rescheduled

.  This morning we met with Ann Sykes, our friend from Austrial via Italy.  She is making good progress on her project - a development in Sao Bras using Yurts. While we were sipping our herbal tea, she received good news from an investor with some financing being offered.

Off to Tor for piano lessons with Tomas. After the lesson, we stopped to visit Tome , his grandmother.  She has a severely broken leg that needs to mend before a full new replacement can happen.  She needs 24 hour care at home which has made life difficult for her family.  The extended family hopes to get some missionary assistance in harvesting the hundreds of alfarroba trees (carob).  The rest of the day was spent in

rest, dishes, scripture study, and a walk to park.

Aug 2 Fri District council with new District missionaries. (Sister Hales, Sister Moulton, Sister Breinholt, Sister, George, Elder Eriksson, Elder Ross, Elder Taylor, Elder Paul)

We enjoy working with these good missionaries.  Merl's message today was about three witnesses taken from Matthew 13 - The New Testment, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.









We had our four piano lessons this evening with our Tor and Salir families:  Emily and Felipe Rodrigues, Daniel Costa, and Caio Cesar Martins Pereira.                       
                       (Daniel, me, Emily)

(Caio and Raquel)

(Costa Family - Daniel in blue shirt)




                                    ( Felipe Rodrigues)







Our other Tor student is Tomas Querales











Aug 3 Saturday Market and gelado at Q Ice.


Looked everywhere for an affordable avocado. All avocadoes being sold here right now are imported and very expensive.  Our fruit man around the corner says we should have local ones in September.  I can hardly wait!

We had dinner with Ana Paula Neve (with Sisters Moulton and Hales).  She wanted to surprise with us an American dish - a big tuffed sausage filled with cheese and onions, potato chips,, bread, portuguese soup, and a bowl of pineapple for dessert. 

We had a nice visit with Ana - she is known as an angel. . . always ready to help anyone in need.  She is also a Family History Missionary.  She is heading to Austria for a week using a house exchange service.  She loves to travel!