Both are true - we are super excited to be with friends and family, but very sad to leave the wonderful people in Portugal that we have grown to love.
This is my last post as a missionary - the sun has set! I will make one more post after we settle in at home.
We would love for you to attend our mission homecoming talks in the Alamo Ward 9 AM Pacific Time on Sunday, Aug 30.
Chapel location: 2949 Stone Valley Rd, Alamo, CA 94507
Please message me if you would like a video link to the meeting.
Cooking Lesson with Chef Ana Carvalho
Through a mutual acquaintance (Gabriel), we became friends with Ana Carvalho. She owns a restaurant nearby and is a marvelous chef. Over dinner one evening, I asked her if she would be willing to lead a cooking class at our home with some friends from the church. And she agreed!
She taught us how to make bruchetta using sourdough bread, fresh mazzerella, fried tomatoes (with garlic) and homeade pesto saice. It was increcible - perhaps the best thing I've EVER eaten!
She taught us the techniques to make mushroom risotto - also to die for!
Ana with all her sous-chefs oohing and aahing over the delicious food.
For desert, we helped her make peach granita - a wonderful sorbet!
Ana is a talented teacher - she had us all engaged during the entire process!
Our Mission Colleagues
President and Sister Leal hosted a dinner with us two senior couples serving in the Porto Mission. President Leal's sister was visiting from Brazil.
Left: President Esteven and Sister Danelle Leal. They look young because they are indeed....younger than some of our children! We have grown to love them dearly; friends for life. President Leal is an incredibly gifted teacher and a very strong leader. Sister Leal is full of love and positive energy.
Above: Elder David and Sister Pam Grimes. They served initially as MLS missionaries and then moved to the office. They handle mission finances, the auto fleet, emigration, oversee housing, and provide admin support to the President. They are talented and dedicated! And very good-hearted - they dote over the young missionaries.
A Lebanese Dinner
Laila and Lilian Saber (sisters who live together) invited to a enjoy a meal oriented around their heritage - their father is Lebanese. Meatballs, humas, mint yogurt sauce, and heshweh (rice with hamburger and spices mixed in, topped with cashews). Loved it all, especially the yogurt sauce!!
We love this family! Laila, our former Relief Society president, is an emigration attorney. Recent changes to emigration laws have dramatically reduced the number of emigrants. Thus, she is considering how to broaden her practice to other areas of law, probably focused on labor law.
Lilian and Mateus are wonderful. They both work nearby in Braga in retail. They moved in after Laila divorced last year.
Never Stop Loving!
Maria do Ceu recently joined the church. We finally found a time to meet with her overlooking the ocean near her home. Her son Luis is attending medical school in Braga. We had a delightful conversation about her experience in finding the church and deciding to be baptised. She loves our community! She gave a talk in church a couple weeks ago that was amazing - she was composed, thoughtful, and shared a wonderful message about how incorporating gospel principles into her life has been a blessing. I was surprised to learn that she was very nervous during the talk - it certainly didn't show.
Another of our wonderful weekly new member lunches, with Goreti, Juara, Luciano, Porfirio, and Carlos.
Luis and Beatrice hold a special place in our hearts. Maybe it's because they are so genuine, so sensitive, so kind. They are regular church attenders, and plan to be baptised after they marry.
Left: former and current Relief Society presidents (Laila and Soraya) in Barcelos.
Above: Francisco moved to Spain last year. Whenever he returns, we try to invite him over for a meal. This was after an enjoyable breakfast.
Lunch at our home after our last Sunday in Barcelos, with Elders Fox and Marcario, Adriana, Jaqueline, Jose, Kamaraj, Guilherme, and Vinicius.
With Lucca and Rafaela (+2) and Elders Durado and Haslam after we hosted the first discussion with the missionaries in our home.
Barcelos Artisan Fair
It's was fun to see our favorite sculptor, Carlos Dias, at the annual artisan fair near our home.
I also have fallen in love with a traditional Portuguese pottery style called "figurado". I bought the hand-made piece on the right from a delightful artist. When I first saw this style, I hated it. But it has grown on me - it's ugly/beautiful! I'm going to display this in our home, even if my kids hate it.
Youth Baptism
Relationships formed on a mission can be for life: Ceaser Milder and I served together in the Sao Paulo South mission some 48 years ago. He invited us to his grandson's baptism, who lives in Porto. The family went all out in preparing a wonderful, 2-hour baptismal service, complete with testimonies from family members and a wonderful reception afterwards.
After many years of church leadership in Brazil, Ceasar and Daisy now live in Utah. So great to be with them and renew our friendship and love of the gospel.
We Came for a Birthday Party… and Left Feeling Deeply Appreciated
When singing "Para Bens" (the Portuguese birthday song is sung to the same melody as in English), everyone joins in, including the honoree.
We were invited to celebrate Mateus's birthday, But right after the singing "Happy Birthday", the host (Raquel Mendoça) asked everyone to express their appreciation for us. They shared things that we had long forgotten or had not recognized that our actions had made an impact. We left with deep love in our hearts - and sadness about leaving these dear friends.
Front row, left to right: Adryelle, Olivia, Luisa, Raquel, Mateus. Back row: Rafael, Jorge, Francisco, and Kamaraj.
Barcelos Ward, right after Sacrament Meeting on our last Sunday there. Love these people!
Community Relationships
I previously mentioned that I love the "talho" (aka "butcher shop") next to our apartment. Chris teases me that I go there every day - and that's not far from the truth! Whenever I want to cook meat or need some cheese or fresh veggies, I can just pop downstairs and have buy it "just in time".
But the freshness of the food is only a small portion of the draw - friendship is the greater draw. The owner (John, next to the two women) is is a GREAT guy - he has established a truly outstanding culture among the team. They work hard AND are always friendly: we engage in lots of enjoyable banter. I've never had friendships like this with retail personnel, it's been really fun.
To thank them, I prepared and delivered a lunch - Moraccan sweet potato & lentil stew, feijoada (a pork/bean dish), rice, and homemade sourdough bread. With this gift, I was able talk the available team members into a photo. :)
We are regulars at large Thursday street market across the street. On my last visit with these friends, I gave them a personalized copy of Book of Mormon, which they seemed to appreciate.
More Goodbyes
We had a marvelous lunch with Linda and Carlos Marinho. Linda is English, and loves to put on a beautiful spread of food, complete with tea. She is also incredibly witty. We just love her and her husband Carlos.
Thomas and William, both adopted, live with them. Both boys have developmental disabilities due to the drug abuse of their biological mother. Linda especially felt God's guidance to adopt these boy (after having three of their own children), even knowing that they would have special challenges. The boys are indeed challenging, but Thomas (navy blue shirt) is especially loving - he gives the best hugs!
After reading the Book of Mormon with Keinny, Belem dove into my sourdough bread!
We love Morgana and Yuri, who plan to get married (finally) next year in Brazil. And who knows, it might be just the incentive we need to take a trip to Brazil!
Thrilled that Morgana's cake-making business if thriving; fun to be part of that journey!
We really appreciated França helping us pack our bags and clean our apartment.
Saying goodbye to this incredible Ukranian family was hard.
Johana deeply appreciates her new community.
The last visit with Iris, my physical therapist. I have particularly enjoyed doing pilates after PT sessions.
With Maria Aparacida, her son Guilherme, her boyfriend Anthony, and Guilherme's college buddy (who is on the men's volleyball team at the University of Coimbra).
Diego Antunes, a new member who lives 30 min away, stopped by for breakfast on our last day in Barcelos.
Our last new member lunch.
Last game night with França and Maria Clara. Not a dry eye upon parting.
The last of our weekly visits with Joaquim and he sons Marvin and Alexandre. We have a standing invitation to meet up with them in their native country, Cape Verde.
Our goodbye visit with the Lima family - Lucas, Daniella, Luara, and Daniel.
A Capstone: Mariana and Marco's Temple Sealing
Wow, what a way to end our mission! When we met Marco and Mariana 16 months ago, Marco was just coming back into activity in the church. They shared that they hoped their family could someday be sealed together "for time and all eternity".
We have had many touch points - visits in their home, dinner at our home, weekly English Connect classes, New Year's eve party, helping them plant a vegetable garden, and quick unannounced stops at our home. We feel honored that they treat us like family!
They planned their sealing for our last Saturday in Portugal. Mariana's mother arrived from Brazil two days prior. We rented a van so we could ride together to the temple in Lisbon, about a 3.5 hour drive. The sealing ceremony was a beautiful, never-to-be-forgotten experience. Their two kids, Emily and Bryan, were "real" during the beautiful sealing ceremony. :)
Enmanuel and Emilin also accompanied us. Marco and Enmanual kept us entertained all day. For example, during our car ride together, they ad-libbed creative rap sings about each passenger!
These two are incredibly in love. We were originally taken back by their volatile marriage style: high energy, argumentative, passionate way of relating where conflict is frequent but navigated well. They fight intensely, reconcile intensely, and bond deeply through this process.
We stopped at an all-you can eat buffet, with excellent sushi, in Porto on our drive home fun. A great way to cap off a wonderful day! It was also a long day - we arrived home at midnight!
But back to the temple: we arranged to meet up with our friends Vincius and Alice Matias, who recently moved from Barcelos to Lisbon. Their daughters drew precious pictures to give to "The English" (their pet name for us). So good to be with them again!
And we were pleasantly surprised to bump into Sister Cardoso, who just returned home to Lisbon following here missionary service in Porto. Just looking at her smile you can sense that she is wonderful, happy person. We count it a blessing that we had the opportunity weekly to help her and many other missionaries learn English via our weekly on-line English Connect classes.
Last Sunday in Viana do Castelo
Following the meetings (Chris and I spoke in Sacrament meeting), Luca ordained Theo a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. I was pleased that Theo extended a personal invitation for me to participate in the ordination. (Mayara's mother and President Casio were also present.)
After the church meetings, we attended a pot luck lunch. President Cassio publically thanked us for our service and we then had the opportunity to say goodbye to many of our Viana friends.
Luca and Mayara presented us with these T-shirts that they designed and printed. The text (translated to English) reads "The Best Missionaries - Porto North Mission. I will be with you, will never leave you, will never abandon you." Such a thoughtful, heartfelt gift!
Left: Jennie Marinho (Lynda and Carlos Marinho's daughter visiting from England) designed and painted this gorgeous "Heart of Viana" on a notebook in which members of the branch wrote messages of love and appreciation. A real treasure!
Above: Val and Carol presented us with this Portuguese license plate, together with a gorgeous needlepoint, "Be the Light", made with help from their daughter.
We will miss deeply the smiles and laughter of Morgana Ferriera and her daughter Luize.
Back in Barcelos
We refrained from eating at the Viana pot luck so that we could participate in a farewell lunch at Kevin Lobo and Claudia's home. They shared that they plan to marry next year, and invited us to stay in their new home whenever we return to visit. Chris is waving a victory sign because she was delighted to win for the first time at our favorite board game, Splendor.
Cruz and Maria stopped by our home in the afternoon to drop off this meaningful gift: "People that cross our paths don't leave empty-hande. They leave a little of themselves in us and take a little of us in them. Thank you for your kindness and dedication."
Departure Dinner
Helio de Castro and Lene Amazonas invited us to dinner the day before we left Portugal. With Anax as the grillmaster, we had a wonderful barbeque.
It was gratifying to see the picture we gave Helio and Lene several months ago displayed prominently in their family room.
This photo includes Lene's sister, Ideolinda, with Ana Amazonas (Lene's daughter) with Ana's beautiful new baby.
The entire entourage. From left to right: Deborah, Ideolind, and Anax; Ana and Derek; Pedro, Lene, and Helio; Ana's friends.
Last Minute Goodbyes
President Luiz Soares and his son Lucas stopped by briefly to say goodbye before we headed out.
Nadja sent us a wonderful set of photos to help us remember her and her grandchildren.
Joaquim invited us to a Cape Verde lunch on our last day - a big pot of cachupa, made of corn (hominy), beans, and pork. Delicious!
Luiza made us a beautiful needlepoint, entitled "Eternal Family", with the names of all our children surrounding a temple.
Porto Airport
And then, after a delay in mailing big box home, we rushed off to the mission office to return the car we have been driving. President and Sister Leal took us to dinner one last time (with Elder/Sister Grimes) and then dropped us off at a hotel next to the airport.
The next morning, the hotel shuttle took us to the airport with our six bags to fly to London to visit our son Adam and his partner Paolo before flying home to California.
After waiting in a long line to check our bags, we learned that we needed to fill out apply on-line for a UK visa. I struggled for 20 minutes trying to figure out the process/technology. Thankfully, these wonderful ladies to the right volunteered to help - and spent 15 minutes working through the new and not-so-well-defined process.
After another long line at security and an additional delay at emigration, we finally arrived at the shuttle to the airplane. The attendants exclaimed "thank goodness you made it!". I sensed that if we had arrived even a minute later we would have missed our flight. Thus, we are very grateful to these two angels to the right!!
Endings
The night before our flight out, our Stake President, Tim Richards, released us (via video) from our role as Member/Leader Support Missionaries. And so, our 18-month experience as missionaries has come to an end.
As noted above, we are happy/sad: happy to be returning home but SUPER sad to be leaving these wonderful people. It's been much harder to leave Portugal than it was to leave home at the beginning our mission: we knew we would be with our friends and family again, but we will never again have extended time with these people that we love so dearly.
But perhaps the limited time frame of a mission is what makes it so meaningful. A mission has a distinct beginning and an end. So you realize that each day, each encounter, is meaningful; the time to love is limited.
We are incredibly grateful that we for this opportunity. For support from family and friends, For all the structures and support that made our lives so comfortable (visas, insurance, housing, car, etc.). For our wonderful mission leaders (the Leals and Queretos). For the love and support from members. For God's love that opened our hearts to the people of Portugal (and Dayton, Wa). It has truly been a remarkable experience that has softened our hearts.
We love Jesus: His teachings, His example, His sacrifice for us. He is our foundation, our strength, our model. We love Him and His gospel.
Love, Dave and Chris
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