We were VERY happy to welcome the arrival of spring. The flowering trees and gardens are simply lovely!
Autism
Surprisingly, there is a disproportionate number of autistic children in the two church units where we serve. One of the mothers (Ceica, who has two autistic children) has studied extensively on how best to support/teach her children. So we invited her and a few other parents with autistic children to join us for lunch so they could establish a network to share experiences/learnings.
Road Trip
In February, we traveled to central Portugal to inspect missionary apartments. We stopped along the way at several beautiful spots, including Auroca and Lamego.
Monastery of Arouca
Founded in the early 10th century, this was a prominent female monastery. It is indeed spectacular!
Elegant wood sculpture of St. Peter, carrying the keys of the kingdom.
I love the feeling of family unity in this wood carving of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Left: the "pelican myth" was a medieval belief that, when food is lacking, a mother pelican pierces her own breast to feed her chicks with her blood. This is a beautiful way to symbolize Christ's sacrificial love. Can you see the baby chicks in the shadow of the mother's head?
Above: this monument, on the outskirts of Arouca, is evoked tender feelings - a deep appreciation for Jesus. As you might imagine, special Easter services are held on this site.
Lamego
Nossa Senhora de Remédios ("Our Lady of Remedy/Cure") is a small but exquisite sanctuary dedicated St. Mary's specific role as one who brings remedy, relief, and liberation. Believers gather in this sanctuary to plead for relief for themselves and their loved ones. Indeed, a wonderful nun (who declined to be photographed) led us through the sanctuary and encouraged me to pray to Mary for my Achilles tendon to be cured!
Love the twin bell towers and tasteful Baroque archicecture
Love the pastel ceiling.
After a tour of the sanctuary, we walked up a beautiful street to a small castle.,,
Back side of the chapel - gather place for an annual pilgrimage.
As you can tell by our atire, it was a blustery day - but
...and inside the castle, I was taken with the authentic catapult!
Teaching English
Our volunteer English teaching opportunities recently have expanded. In addition to our Saturday morning class, we also teach a weekly on-line EnglishConnect class, which has grown to about 25 students. (EnglishConnect is a free resource developed by my church.)
Recently our mission leaders asked us to teach an EnglishConnect classes to all non-English-speaking missionaries in our mission. We really enjoy these opportunities to interact with these dedicated and eager young men and women. I appreciate our church's focus on teaching English, which opens up career/leadership opportunities.
Our small-but-mighty Saturday morning EnglishConnect class is still going strong. One a Saturday after our class, we invited the students and other teachers to our home for to celebrate one of Mariana's birthday (she is front and center in the pink sweater and is one of our star students)!
Carnival
As a young missionary in Brazil, we were instructed to stay away from celebrations during Carnival. And for good reason: the ambience and activities of Carnival in Brazil are antithetic to our standards of conduct. Fortunately, Carnival here in Barcelos is much tamer. We enjoyed the many frivolous costumes and floats from our balcony - nothing at all offensive - just good clean fun!
Love this float advertising local milk products!
Several groups paradied President Trump - none of them positive.
This group's theme was "Disinfect Politics"!
Jacob's Visit
We were delighted that our son Jacob came to visit us! We had a wonderful 5 days together, seeing lots of sights and just enjoying spending time together and sharing our love.
Outside the Valenca city wall.
Barcelos must have 25+ tributes to the "Legend of the Rooster". This was Jacob's favorite representations!
At the trailhead of a super-fun hike just outside of Moncao.
Lovely waterfall at the end of the half-mile trail.
The Valenca city wall is simply gorgeous. The various ramparts were built to keep enemy cannons far from the main city wall.
As much as he enjoyed touring, Jacob said the activity he enjoyed most was a gathering of musicians from the Barcelos Ward, including friends with keyboard, drums, and classical and bass guitar talents. Watching the musicians jam was a delight - it's a treat to watch others in a groove and connecting through music!
Wonderful People
It's such a delight to be with these people here in Portugal. Our friendships are deepening. Many feel more like family than friends. Here are photos just a few .
Porfirio, a new member and Karate professor/judge, joins us for lunch and scripture reading weekly.
Johanna's 40th birthday celebration!
The parents of these two lovely girls were recently divorced, so we try to visit them often. They call us "grandma" and "grandpa"!
Juara is one of our most consistent English students.
Celebrating Maria Clara's 17th birthday!
Luiza just finished a psychology degree on BYU Pathways. I recorded an interview with her at the request of the Church History Dept.
I read scriptures regularly with Cruz, a delightful new member of the church. When he prays, he always mentions his countrymen/women in Venezuela.
Celina and her beautiful mother.
Olinda grew up in a very poor family in Portugal, overcoming many challenges. Because she is so talented, we invited her to help us teach our weekly on-line English class.
I'm always taken with the innate beauty and goodness of children. This is Morgana's daughter.
And this is Mariana's beautiful 2-month old daughter.
Weekly Street Market
As I mentioned before, Barcelos has arguably the largest weekly street market in Portugal. And the longest running - over 500 years! Below are some of the vendor (all lovely people) that we have met and become friends with at the market.
It seems like almost every week Chris buys a new sweater at the market!
This lady sells flower seeds, bulbs, and plants. Super friendly.
This woman is my favorite vendor of souveniers.
Consistent with their custom of honoring the dead, this Gypsy woman dresses in black for two years.
We bought a mixing bowl (in the traditional Portuguese pottery style) from this lovely couple.
This older woman expressed great pride in her granddaughter, who, like many in the rising generation, speaks fluent English!
Meat Market
I buy virtually all of our meat at the store right next to our apartment. Chris teases that I go every day. She might be exaggerating a bit, but not by much! It's wonderful to be able to buy fresh meat when I'm ready to cook.
As you can see from the photos below, the market sells virtually every edible part of the animal: heads, stomachs, hearts, livers, tongues, gizzards, feet. And so fresh! The pork is less expensive than in the US, chicken about the same, and beef is more expensive.
Columbian Soup
The Calles family offered to prepare and serve traditional Columbian soup called "Ajiaco". We jointly purchased ingredients and enjoyed cooking it together. The key is to boil potatoes with the chicken and corn on the cob. Remove the chicken and shred, that add it to the soup bowls along with cilantro and cream. Simple but delicious!
We invited Olinda (on the left) and França (on the right) to join our luncheon. The Calles family, from left to right, includes Keinny, Thomas, Esteven (son-in-law), Belem (baby), and Johanna.
Johanna moved to Portugal three years ago. Her children (and grandchild) recently emigrated from Columbia. They all live together in a 2-bedroom mobile home. We actively trying to help the new arrivals find full-time jobs!
Kara and Friends
We were thrilled that our daughter Kara and three friends decided to spend their annual "girls getaway" trip with us in Portugal!
Between the four of them, they have 17 children. It's a lot! So leaving behind parental responsibilities to their husbands for a week is a real treat!
Dubbing themselves "The Four Tired Moms", they basked in not having to parent - no meals to cook, no schedule to manage, etc. From the back of the car, they teased us with: "Are we almost there?", "I'm hungry!", and "I need to go to the bathroom!" They couldn't seem to get over how nice it was to not have be in charge. One said "Our kids have no idea how great it is to be a kid!"
Outside the Cleric Tower in Porto.
Chris loves both her Kare-Bear and bunnies (Porto city wall in the background).
Bom Jesus in Braga features 19 stations of the cross along the path up this impressive staircase.
Downtown Brag, with the Braga Cathedral in the background.
Guimeraes was the home of Alfonso Henrique, the first king of Portugal, who declared independence from Spain. Hence the caption on the buliding "Here Portugal was born". We really enjoyed Fernanda, an outstanding local tour guide.
Monsanto: considered "The Most Portuguese Village in Portugal". Loved our overnight stay there!
Just takin a little nap in sarcophaguses outside the impressive Monsanto castle, which was built by the Knights Templar during the 12th century.
We stopped on our way home at nearby Idanha-a-Velha, Roman ruins. Above to the left is an olive crusher (rotated with animal power). On the right is an olive press. Sacks of crusted olives were placed beneath the tree trunk and subjected to intense pressure applied by the lever and screw press to squeeze out the olive oil/juice.
On Palm Sunday, we returned to Braga with our friends Gabriel and Ideolinda to attend a procession kicking off a holy week celebration. Think of the procession like a sequence of events: representations of the final week of Jesus life, starting with Jesus triumphant entry to Jerusalem and ending in his resurrection.
Beautiful Young Family
Mariana and Joao recently moved into her parent's home near Viana do Castelo, soon after receiving lessons from our missionaries in Porto. Mariana shared a vivid dream that prompted her to meet with the missionaries.
As you can see, they have a lovely new baby, which Mariana cares for. Joao commutes an hour to Porto where he works as a nurse.
It's an honor to share in the sweet spirit of love and goodness in their home.
Alice and Vinicius recently emigrated from Brazil. Given their limited resources, they moved into a living space- with the four of them crammed into a small bedroom. They hoped to find employment quickly. But after two months of searching for work, their bank account was almost empty. As you can imagine, they were feeling panicky! We encouraged them and prayed for them. We were all delighted when Vinicius ultimately landed a good job.
The next goal was to move into a larger space. The expected that it would take six months or so to be able to accumulate the necessary resources. But it just so happened that the friend of a member in our ward had an opening in his rental house. After meeting this beautiful family, the owner allowed them to move in without any security deposit nor the standard payment of first and last-months rent. What a blessing!
Closing Thoughts
We have been so busy that I'm behind on my blog! This is Part 1 of the last two months. Part 2 will be published soon.
We have appreciated the opportunity to share just a little of our experience with family members and friends who recently visited us. We are grateful for their love and support! Likewise, we appreciate your interest in our experiences!
Our mission ends in three months. We are eagerly looking forward to being back home to see family and friends. AND we dread the idea of leaving.
It's a wonderful thing to be a grandparent. You have the opportunity to cultivate a deep relationship without the day-to-day responsibilities. Your role is something akin to a highly-invested consultant - you see the big picture so you can counsel and support. But you are motivated by love, not money.
Our role here is something akin to grandparenting. Every day we have many opportunities to speak an encouraging word, to offer up a perspective, to share our love. And most importantly, to share God's love!
Being free from line responsabilites, with no one following up on our daily activities, we are free to follow our heart and just look for ways to lift and bless. It's a wonderful role. We feel God's hand in our our day-to-day interactions.
When we began filling out our mission application almost two years ago, I hoped that we would have a special experience and specifically, that we would feel the joy of service. It's here in spades.
Blessings to all of you!
Elder Dave and Sister Chris Longhurst
Add comment
Comments