Elder Soares (in person!)

 Hi kids, 

      We had slow week and a busy week. Here’s a recap…

      This week was our 10th English class, so I told them last week that I’d make a cake to celebrate. Lisa Davis’s lemon cake was a hit!  Several asked for the recipe and I had to explain that they needed a lemon cake mix, which they don’t have here. There’s an “American” store in Lisbon that sells American items for triple the price. When they get cake mixes in stock, then Debbie Seibold buys some for me and sends them down with the office elders at the next Zone Conference. It’s a process, but the people really love American cake, so it’s worth it. 

The next day was district meeting. We thought it might be our last one with Elder Alvey, so I made lunch - hamburgers, chips. sliced oranges, and a pie-sized nata. The giant nata was an experiment, but everybody decided that the small natas taste better, so it was a “one and done.” 

    On the way home, we stopped off at the Ternova’s (Ukrainian refugees) house. They live 25 minutes from Via Real, so we only see them if they’re able to come to church, or we stop by our way home from another city. I had ordered the kids’ Book of Mormon stories and Bible stories in Ukrainian and they finally got here, so we gave those to them.  Maria, the 10 year old, was thrilled and immediately started reading them while we visited.  

 We had given them a deck of cards and they said they played with them alot - while they rode the bus and at night, when they nothing to do. But they only knew one game. It was too hard to explain Scum, so I taught them War.  I was a little nervous about saying the name…:( 

  After the elders shared a thought, Maria said the prayer in Ukrainian. I didn’t understand anything except the word “Ukraine.”  Nadiia explained afterward that every time they pray, they pray for the people in Ukraine and that the war will stop. It’s so really sad to see how their lives have been completely uprooted and they’re separated from the father, grandparents, and friends - everything. We don’t talk about the war in front of the girls. As we were leaving, Anastacia gave me this bracelet that she’d made. 

    The next day, we got a text from Pres. Hugo about 8:30 pm inviting us to the church to meet two families that had just arrived from Brazil. One family has 4 kids and the other has 3 kids. The husbands are cousins. With their arrival, our Young Women has tripled and the Primary has doubled. Woo hoo!! New members to strengthen our little branch! They needed bedding, so we stripped the sheets off of our spare bed, found an extra sheet to let them use, and put a food package together for them. When we got to the church, they hadn’t come yet, so we waited for a bit. When they finally got there, they were a tired bunch. Kaline, Pres. Hugo’s wife, had made hot dogs for them.  Brazilians do their hotdogs differently. They cut them up and cook them in a tomato paste and then scoop them onto a bun and top them with ketchup, mayo, and potato sticks (they put those on everything). The families dug in and had seconds - and thirds! 

    Portugal is a contrast of very old and very new. When we stopped at the bakery, I tried to pay the cashier and she told me to use the machine. I’d never seen one of these before. You put your cash on one side and your coins on the other.

    Another innovation that we love is the bread slicer at the bakery. They have these long paddles that you use to pick out your loaf of bread or rolls and scoot it over into the center where you pick it up and then carry it over to this bread slicer. You select how thick you want the bread slice, close the door, and the slicer does the rest for you. We tried it a couple of weeks after we got here and couldn’t figure out how it worked. A woman noticed us struggling and asked if we needed help. Our Portuguese was non-existent then and after trying to explain about selecting the thickness, and our not understanding, she went to her cart, got her loaf of bread and then showed us how thick it was while she pointed to the button on the slicer. Bingo! We understood! The Portuguese have an interesting way about them. They’re not very friendly, and rarely say hi or smile in the street, but they’re so willing to help you if you ask them or they notice that you need help.

    The orange juicer is right across from the slicer to make fresh make fresh juice.

 My other favorite innovation is the magic escalator.  The grocery store is on the bottom floor of the mall. So when you come in at ground level, it’s a pretty steep -with no steps - escalator ride down. But when you leave with your cart of food, the wheels of the cart lock into the escalator and it’s “no hands.”  It makes me smile every time. 

    This is Paulo. A few weeks ago he decided to cut his own hair and had several bald patches. So he wore a hat. It’s grown out some, but he stills wears the hat. He’s the Sunday school teacher. After sacrament meeting, we take our chairs and gather in a circle.  Here’s Paulo teaching the lesson, hat on his knee.

  That night, we FaceTimed with Jason and caught up with all of his comings and goings. 

At the next English class, Pres. Hugo was at the church for something, and being the party guy that he is, he made popcorn and sent the elders to the store for juice, so we had a mini party after class. 

    We stopped by the mall to get a quick dinner and saw the Garcia family. They moved here from Brazil about a month ago and Juliana’s a goer! She posts happy birthdays and quotes on the branch group text (you can do that when they are only 15 members ha!) and does whatever she can. They’re family’s been a great addition to the branch. Anywho….her husband has his degree in logistics and speaks some English, but they don’t have their residency cards yet, so he works at Mcdonalds. They had come to see him off to work. We visited and then watched as she got two hamburgers and a French fry for them to share.  We surprised them with sundaes. 

     I called Lisa for her birthday, and we both took a screen shot at the same time. :) She’s blurry and I’m ready for bed, but I love this picture!

    Now the busy part and the best of these two weeks was that Elder Soares and his wife came to Portugal! He’s from Brazil, but served as mission president in Portugal almost 20 years ago. A fireside was scheduled for the members  in Porto for  the night that they flew in, because that’s where the mission home used to be. Porto is our stake, so we were invited to go. 

     

     He was also scheduled to speak to all the missionaries in Lisbon on Saturday morning. Whenever we have to go to Lisbon, (4 hours each way), we try to take an extra day or two to see something on the way.  So dad and I planned to drive to Porto Thursday night, hear Elder Soares speak, and then drive to midway to Aveiro to, stay overnight, and explore the next day.

The Porto stake has been sending out notices about the fireside for weeks - everyone was so excited!  An apostle coming to their country was exciting enough, but having an apostle, that many had served with, was even more exciting.  Just a couple hours before we were supposed to leave, the stake sent out an email saying that the Soares’ flight got cancelled. They were arriving too late and would have to do the fireside via Zoom from Lisbon. It was such a disappointment for everyone….. We decided to leave right away, go straight to Aveiro, and watch the Zoom there. So off we went! Aveiro is such a cute town and our room had a great view!! 

    We listened to the Zoom in our room. (accidental Dr. Seuss) Elder Soares began by saying that when his flight was cancelled, he was frustrated because he wanted to have enough time to get settled and not be rushed getting to Porto. When their SECOND flight got cancelled, he was very disappointed and was upset because he knew that they wouldn’t be able to come at all. He said, “Then I realized that I had to stop. If I was upset, I wouldn’t have the Spirit. So, I want you to know that I am sad that I’m not with you now, but I have peace.” I thought that was an interesting sentiment. It was a good lesson for me. To realize that I can be sad or disappointed about something, but still feel peace. It doesn’t seem congruent, I’m going to have to work on that.  We found out later that not only did both of their flights get cancelled, but they lost all of their luggage. Elder Soares never got his luggage until they returned to Utah, and Sis. Soares didn’t get her luggage until they’d left Portugal and were in France.  This was a big trip and they had multiple interviews with Church News, LDS.org, etc.  Sis. Soares ended up having to go to the mall and buy a couple of dresses. I wondered what she did for her makeup and hair things. Here’s a link to a video about their visit here. We’re in it for 2 seconds.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/9/13/23350857/elder-ulisses-soares-and-sister-soares-marvel-in-return-to-portugal?utm_campaign=churchnews-en&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social_share

     Not only did Elder Soares never get his luggage, he also got Covid after they returned to Utah. Poor Elder Soares.  :/  So, another reminder for me: Everyone has difficulties. Even when you’re doing everything right. Even when you’re specifically on an errand for Heavenly Father. And I knew this. It’s happened to me and  I’ve seen it with other people. It’s life.  But it seems contrary to what would be the best thing. Like, wouldn’t it have been be so good for the people to be able to hear Elder Soares in person? And wouldn’t the Soares have been able to focus and perform their responsibilities better if they had all their things and didn’t have to worry about lost luggage?   These are the times that I want to know the “why” behind what’s happening. Sometimes we find out, during the situation or after the fact, and sometimes we don’t. Knowing every time would be nice though…sigh.  :) 

Anyway, back to Aveiro….The next day, we explored. Such a fun place! It’s called “Portugal’s Venice.” There’s a waterway that runs through the town. They have boats, similar to gondolas, called moliceiros.  They’re painted in bright colors and with scenes that tell a story. Originally, they were used to collect seaweed that was used as fertilizer.

    The bridges are covered in ribbons. You buy a ribbon, write your name on it, and tie it on. 

                                                Inside the mall - more ribbons. 

                                                                Yummy bakeries 

                                                            Fun buildings 

                                                                        Nautical sidewalks        

    About 2:00 pm, we decided we better head to Lisbon because the senior couples were getting together that evening. We were going to make lunches for the whole mission and then go to dinner after.  We passed through Nazaré, which has of some the biggest waves in the world, so we went to the beach and stopped for lunch. No waves. We found out that winter is the best time. 

             The seafood restaurant that we went to had this cool display of knots. 

     When I asked the waiter a question about the fish, he told me to follow him. He took me over to a table where all the fish were laid out on ice. He said to choose one, then he weighed it, and took it to the kitchen. I didn’t really understand the process, because it was all in Portuguese, and I ended up with a fish that would feed two people. 

    It was delicious!  But we were rushed to get back on the road. We’ll have to go back when we’re not in such a hurry. 

    When we got to the Mission office, they were starting the sandwiches - 153 of them. We did assembly-line style and a couple hours later, we were done packing the lunches. 

The Lisbon couples had discovered a new restaurant. It’s like a Portuguese Zupa’s and it was so good! Everything was really fresh and they had vegetables. Yay!! The only vegetables they usually serve are French fries. Yup, they count as a vegetable here. :/ Anyway, we all loved the food and it was so fun to be able to talk and visit with other people in English. Double yay!! 

    We headed to our hotel afterward, cuz we had the early meeting with Elder Soares. We were told to be at the stake center by the temple at 9:00 am sharp, ready to take a picture with him and his wife, and the other general authorities that were traveling with them. 

*To be continued….*