Urban Art

Two incredible examples of Urban Art on abandoned apartment buildings in Lisbon.  

For My Birthday...

The morning of my birthday we got a call from the Elders in Olhao asking if we would come over to the church building.  When we got there they sang Happy Birthday to me.  Evidently,

                          Sr. Fluckiger told them it was my special day and I was very happy that she did.

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And then...the next day, on probably the hottest day of the year so far, these four came to our home and gave me this delicious treat.  It was kind of a cheese cake sitting in fresh strawberry puree.  Soooo Good. The "cake" said Para Bens!!!

Elder Quimaunga and Elder Fonseca

Elder Collier and Elder Rodrigues.  Elder Rodriques was the chef!

Word continued to spread and by Friday at branch FHE my new girldfriend, Alda Gonsalves gave me this beautiful red leather satchel.  WOW, what a birthday.  The sisters in the branch also went all out and made special cakes for FHE, above and beyond what they normally bring.  Obrigada to everyone for such a special birthday.

This is Gift Wrapping

We bought a gift for someone at the mall.  The clerk asked if we wanted it gift wrapped.  I said,  "yes", feeling so happy that they had this service in Portugal.  She carefully took off the price tags, folded the items,  and then closed the plastic store bag with scotch tape and put a ribbon on it.  And there you have it...gift wrapping Portuguese style!

Some of our Algarve missionaries

Tavira Elders,

 O'Malley from England and Martins from Cabo Verde

Lagos Sisters Warburton, from Britain and Sandholdst from Utah

Beja Sisters Almeida from Brazil and Shumway from Utah

Elders Rodrigues from England and Doxey from Utah.

New Flowers for the Church

Our new Relief Society president wanted to change the floral arrangements in the chapel and Relief Society room.  Here is what she came up with.  I think that it really brings our rooms up to the 21 century.

This is Irma Suzel Ribero.  She is really a wonderful Relief Society president.  I really admire the people in this branch.  They have been attending faithfully for many, many years with just a few people to do all the callings.  This is her third time to be Relief Society president.

Classic Portuguese Food

What you are about to see is a classic Portuguese meal, in fact, one of their most popular.  Fish cooked simply on the grill, diced tomatoes with onions and green pepper and either a boiled small potato or a french fry potato.  This particular meal that we chose offers 6 fish.  It is like a churrasqureia where they serve beef, but you are served fish instead.

I can't remember the name of this fish, but it was my favorite.  I am becoming very good at deboning fish.  What I didn't take a picture of is the plate to my immediate left which is the plate where you put all your bones.  They come by and change that plate frequently because it gets quite messy.

These two fish are sardines.  Sardines are very popular.  They taste OK but they are small and very boney so you have to work really hard to eat them.

I hope you can see that on top of my sardines lies another fish slightly larger.  Our waiter said that it was the sardines cousin.  In taste and bones, I would agree with him.  As you can see, I am getting behind.

My kids will tell you that I like salt.  One of my favorite things about the fish is that they coat the fish with  a large-grained salt.  Very good I think.

 

We are coming to the end of our 6 selections.  I was getting full so this was my last fish.  Ron asked to have another go-around of the first fish that we were served.  As you can see food is very simple.  The other night there was a neighborhood party which we attended.  I got on food network and chose a orzo and garbonzo salad with mint, basil and cherry tomatoes.  I was excited, but I can honestly say that no one tried it.  The main dish was tbar-b-qued lamb, which was good, but their side dishes were white rice and boiled potatoes.  Now you know why no one tried my salad.

Happy 4th of July America

We did our best to celebrate the 4th of July.  We started our day by taking ice cream bars to the zone meeting in Faro.  The Zone leader is British so he really wasn't  getting what we were trying to celebrate.  So we just left the ice cream without much comment.  In the late afternoon we found a place in Tavira that does their best to provide American milkshakes and hamburgers.  They did a great job on the shake.  It was delicious.  The hamburger was just fine, but I was trying to explain to our waiter about toasting the buttered bun on the grill, which got lost in translation because the bun did not come out toasted (no surprise), however, the pickles, which we paid extra for, were worth the price and somehow really made the burger taste American, if that is possible.  Anyway, it was a fun dinner.

In June, much to my surprise, I found sparklers in a local store.  So we sat on the roof and lit our sparklers and pointed them west in the direction of America  and thought about singing  Stars and Stripes Forever,  which  I don't think has words.