Zone conference, first Baptism, and miracle refugees

This week, we spent Monday packing up to go to Lisbon and Porto. Zone conference was scheduled for Thursday in Porto, which is an hour away. But Sister Barcellos decided, a couple weeks before, to have a Sisters conference in Lisbon on Wednesday. So on Tuesday, we drove to Porto and caught a bus to Lisbon, 4 hours away. We met the Ramsey’s at the bus station. They’re the new couple from Virginia that just arrived for E. Ramsey to be the mission Dr. here. He’s 80 years old and just retired a couple months before they left. They’re troopers! We checked into our hotel with some cool graffiti.

Then we headed to the stake center, next to the temple, to have a potluck dinner with all the senior couples. We hadn’t met three of the temple couples, so it was fun to meet them and see everybody else. And extra awesome to speak English for a few hours! 

It was Sis. Barcellos’s birthday so we took this picture and then someone recorded us singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese.

The next day was the Sisters Conference and when we walked into the church, the foyer was full of sister missionaries talking, laughing, and hugging. They love seeing their old companions at the conferences. There was a lot of energy!

After the meeting, we all lined up to go in another room to eat lunch. As we were walking down the hall, the husbands were standing there and Dad said, “Get ready. You’re going to feel like you’re on a cruise.” It was decorated really pretty and the sisters loved it! 

After lunch, we took a group picture.

And after the picture, we zipped over to go to the temple.  That was awesome!  We miss going to the temple.

Then we hurried and changed our clothes and headed to the train station. 

The trains are usually really comfortable, but something was wrong with the AC and it was sweltering. We finally made it to Porto and checked into our hotel. Then we went to dinner with the Bremner’s, one of the couples in the Azores. 

After I got ready for bed that night, I heard music and went out on the balcony. The lights looked so pretty and somewhere, someone was singing outside - at midnight. The nightlife goes late in Portugal…🎉

The next day was Zone Conference. It was the Mecham’s last one (they’re the other couple in the Azores) - they go home in a few weeks. Here’s E. Mecham making wisecracks to dad. :) 

The Barcello’s son, David, was bored and kept wandering up on the stand. 

So I asked him if he wanted to read books and we went out in the hall to read. We read a few books on my I-pad and then he said he wanted to show me a dance. He played a rap song up on his phone and taught me the dance. I video-taped it, so he could watch it. That was a hit. Then he said it was my turn to dance and he would video me. Ha! He was a good little dance coach! 😅 

We had our first baptism on Saturday! Knowing that there was going to be a baptism, the Barcellos stayed north a couple of extra days, so they could come. We and the elders, went to lunch with them before the baptism. It was great to visit with them and get to know them better - we really hadn’t  had a chance to do that before. They’re a great couple! Very committed to the Gospel, strong testimonies of prayer and the blessings of being obedient, but also really fun! They love to joke and laugh. And bonus - they both speak perfect English! E. Barcellos started a business in Brazil called Green Mile. It was successful and the family moved to Florida, so that he could expand it to N. America. They had some big clients, including Coca Cola. He told us that when he was called as a mission president, he “sold the business to focus completely on the mission.”  After lunch, we headed to the baptism. E. Williams made his famous chocolate chip cookies for the lunch.

The Cardosos, from Capo Verde, are an awesome family in the Vila Real branch. Their two daughters are the only YW and the oldest speaks English, so she translates for me in class, if I don’t understand something. Anyway, the mom’s (Eveline) parents moved to Portugal about 6 months ago and they live with the Cardosos. Their names are Antonio and Valentina and they’re not members, even though their 3 daughters and grandchildren have been members for several years. The elders started teaching them and asked us to come to the lessons because we’re about their age. We had been teaching them for a couple of months when Valentina surprised us  at the beginning of the last lesson by telling us about this experience: The Sunday before, we had the Area Conference. During the second hour, Valentina was listening to the RS lesson, which happened to be the talk by Pres. Nelson, “Now is the Time.” She had tentatively planned to be baptized in August, but during the lesson, the phrase “A hora é agora.” (The hour is now.) came into her mind and she knew that she shouldn’t wait. That was it. She was ready. Antonio wasn’t ready, but he was totally supportive of her. The elders arranged to have the baptism on Zoom, so that their kids in Capo Verde could watch it. Antonio was very excited about that and introduced us to them. 

Their grandkids performed a musical number

Her smile just after the baptism. 

Her confirmation

Pres. Hugo had wanted to have a branch activity where each family brought food from their country to have an international potluck. He decided to combine it with the baptism, so after Valentina’s confirmation, we had a festa. We all sat in a big circle and they went around the room and had people tell the name of their food and what it was. In the U.S., we eat all kinds of food from other places, so I racked my brain for something uniquely “American.”  I thought of hamburgers and banana cream pie. But they have hamburgers here, so I switched to Mac n Cheese. Two of the women in the branch begged me to bring brownies, so I did those instead of pie. They’re obsessed with brownies here. They were in Mozambique too. I guess they're unique to America and people love them. Anyway, it was super fun to try all the different types of food! It’s the best food that we’ve ever had at a church activity.  Two of the sisters decorated quick style and put little country flags in the food.   😋

E. Williams said “Let’s see which is gone first - my  cookies or your brownies.” I had 3 brownies left when his last cookie got taken. Haha! 😅

The next day, we were attending the other little branch in Bragança, an hour away. The Barcellos stayed overnight and to visit that branch too. Knowing that they were coming, the branch planned a lunch after church. Actually, our favorite Delton planned it with the first counselor, who likes to cook.  They made a rice dish and pineapple cheesecake that was so delicious. Since it was Sis. Barcellos birthday that week, the elders asked me to make a birthday cake. I tried my second attempt at a Bundt cake. It was a total fail - worst than the first! Our tiny oven doesn’t cook evenly, so I guess I’ll have to give up the Bundt cake dream. I had put chocolate chips in it and couldn’t bear to throw it away, so I cut off the burned parts. Not sure what I’m going do with it.

It was midnight, so I hurried and baked another cake in a regular pan and after the lunch, we surprised her with the cake and everybody sang Happy Birthday to her. 

Dad’s favorite dessert yet! 

As we were cleaning up, the elders started arm wrestling with the members. E. Alvey had beat everyone - until dad asked Paulo to wrestle him. Paulo loves to work out and lifts weights every day. E. Alvey was down in 5 seconds, hence the look of surprise on his face. 😅  Paulo cracks us up. He’s really quiet, but interesting to talk to , if you can get him to talk. He’s wearing a hat because he cut/kinda shaved his own hair. He had several bald patches. Oh Paulo….

Pres. Barcellos took a group picture before they took off. Record attendance! 

After this, we went to a little group in another city that only has four women as members. There are no priesthood holders, so they don’t have anyone to do the sacrament for them. The stake president has asked us to go there twice a month, so we went there for the first time. One of the women was out of town, but a man that hasn’t come in a “very long time” was there. Dad did the sacrament and gave a talk, I led the singing. After our little sacrament meeting, I  shared a video and thought for “Sunday School”, like I do for our other group of 5 in another city. I was thinking, as I sat and listened to dad bless the sacrament, that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a church of 4 or 400, it’s the same sacrament prayers, the same hymns, and all the same to Heavenly Father. Pretty humbling to see these few sisters that continue to come and want the sacrament each week. 

We came home and had a fun FaceTime with Hoffmann’s!  We’re so, so thankful for technology to keep in touch with y’all. 🙏🏼

Then we crashed. It was a fun, but long week! ❤️

Part 2 next….