PORTALEGRE BAPTISM - Geraldo !!!

THIS FAMILY IS NOW COMPLETE!!

All baptized...

Delcio, Geraldo, Florabella

and granddaughter (their other son's child)

Elder Bascom and Elder Bishop 

at the chapel before the baptism

Small in stature but large in spirit!!! 

Whoa!!!  It's cold in here, :)

Geraldo doesn't seem to notice... 

But he was afraid of the water;

hence, Elder Bascom was also in the water with him,

just in case,

along with his son, Delcio, who did the baptism.

A great day... 

So happy... Geraldo is a great man!!! 

A privilege to witness his baptism.

Elder Bascom and Elder Bishop

Awesome missionaries...

This area only has about 8-10 members,

but it doesn't slow these 2 down :)

hmmm...wonder if he's related to John & Elaine??!?

MAIL AND PACKAGES FROM HOME!!!

So excited to get a letter from home...

It's from Jaxon! our oldest grandson...

 LOVE - LOVE - LOVE IT!!!

...and the very next day, we got one from Davon!!!

Wow!!!  2 letters in one week...

 

Of course, they're on the fridge to be seen every time we open it :)

AND...a Mother's Day package!!!

So grateful for the new pictures of the grandkids!!!

* * * * *

We also received a combined Father's Day and Birthday package

We just cherished everything in this package...

It was filled with all sorts of stuff.

I never appreciated so many little things so much!!!

(especially the new tie for Ron..., LOL!)

I have a pictures somewhere... but at this point cannot find it.

THANK YOU FAMLY.....YOU ARE THE BEST EVER :)

XOXOXO

P-DAY ... TENNIS!!!

What a crazy day!!! 

The Elders wanted to play tennis for P-Day...

easy enough, right??!?

Not!!!  ...first, we shopped for racquets,

then finally found tennis courts

with someone to let us on the courts (in Almareim)

--only to learn we could only use the court for 1 hour...

 

And to top it all off ??!?

the Elders had a conference call...

YEP, YOU'RE RIGHT,

It lasted the whole hour we had reserved the court!!! 

So, Elder Crossman showed off some of his old tennis moves 

to the sisters, who had never really played tennis!!!  

Now ,... what are we supposed to do???

...and Sister Juilfs looked more like a softball player!

 LOL!!!  So fun!!!

With a little teaching, they got to where they

could hit the ball...

 

...some of the time, that is!! 

 

...and then the Elders showed up

with about 5 minutes to play... a little disappointing at best,

but they were great sports about it !!! 

MISSIONARIES IN ACTION - May 2014

One day while waiting in the car, I caught

these 2 missionaries in action with my camera

talking to a lady on the street in a

neighboring city...Almareim.

Trying to find an address.

Elder Later and Elder DeOliveira

 

In Santarem we did some street

displays and contacting a few times...

Sister Shumway and Sister Juilfs 

Trying to get the display to stay upright on this breezy day! 

Getting the word out... 

Elder Singer  

Branch members participated...

our branch mission leader, Pedro! 

...a member talking with a typical Portuguese gentleman.

The men all wear these cute hats here.  

Elder De Oliveira
(this one's for his family...I hope they see it in Brazil :)...) 

What makes you think he's posing for the camera, LOL!!! 

Trying to be discrete when taking photos

is no small task...

Looks like Elder Crossman's head got in the way!! 

Our cute sisters... 

Getting an ear full from some guy :). !!!

OCEAN BAPTISM at FOZ DO ARELHO

Elder Huntington and Elder Rigby

at the chapel before the baptism in the area of

Caldas da Raina, a  city to the west of us,

on the Atlantic Coast.

This chapel does not have a baptismal font,

so they go to the ocean to do their baptisms.

It was pretty awesome :)

 

Last-minute prepping.... 

 

 The tides were out; so the water was very shallow...

...had to walk pretty far to get water deep enough to do the baptism.

(I zoomed in and this is the closest I could get with the camera!)

Some members of the Caldas branch. 

(The branch president is on the right in the suit

--a pretty young guy and a new father.)

 Can you say "windy...?"

(Gotta love photo bomber missionaries, LOL!!)

 Views of the area surrounding Foz do Arelho...

 

 ...a wonderful place!!

EASTER SUNDAY - 4/20/2014

Easter dinner with the Nogueira family!

Nuno and Monica

Barbara - age 3

Beatriz - 20 months

and... the sister missionaries,

Sister Juilfs and Sister Shumway

They have a very long and narrow back yard...

this is actually the neighbor's garden... they utilize every inch!

 The baby rabbits... so glad we had fish for dinner and not rabbit, LOL! 

They have a small zoo there... chickens,

guinea pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, birds... 

The yummy desserts... the one on the left is a

meringue pie with strawberry sauce (cooked strawberries)

 and the other is chocolate with what looks like

 grated cheese for the bird nests, but is actually egg yolks

 put through a strainer and dropped into

 boiling water to create the look of the nests.