Missionary Christmas Party #1

I found this tree in the garage of the home that we are living in.  What a great find and just in time for the party.

The party was held in the Faro building. There are  22 missionaries in our zone.  The menu was chicken, and Funeral potatoes, rice,  (alway have to have rice)  salad, rolls, mustard sauce,  and apple crisp for dessert.

In December President and Sr. Fluckiger hosted a zone Christmas party and Ron and I got to help.  Typical me, once the party started I didn't have time to take people photos.   Anyway, we had fun doing the decorations and food.

Deb and Rand

My sister and her husband visited us in October.  We anticipated their arrival for months and then it was gone all too soon.  We did pack the time with wonderful adventures.

Barril beach is a jewel.  The water is turquoise blue and the sand white and soft.  And too many beautiful shells to count.

Sightseeing in Tavira.

 Beautiful Pottery.  The best I have found so far.

Barril Beach

More pottery.

Thanks for coming...we love you.

"Vim de Verao" Festa

 Dipping way back to our summer photos I found these of our "Last of Summer" party at our Tavira Branch.  This was an occasion to bring friends, family and non-members to the branch for a fun evening Portuguese/American style.  We played musical chairs with about 30 in the beginning circle, had a great churrasqueria chicken dinner, did the orange dance where you must keep the orange between your forehead/face/body without letting it drop for the entire song, and then we did the Virginia Reel called by President Sommer.  Such unexpected fun.

Missionary Display Boards

Our Mission President gave me the assignment to make display boards for the missionaries to take when they do street contacting.  This is a 2 sided tryptic which is lightweight enough to carry and will be weather proof when it comes back from the printer.  On the front the first 3 missionary lessons are covered and on the back, more general information about who we are as a church.

Missionary Christmas Party

We have been very busy over the past 2 months.  Our main focus is the Olhao chapel open house which is on December 7.  We were asked by our mission president to be in charge of this event.  The local Branch President and his Olhao Branch leadership are all involved as well as the  AlgarveDistrict President and auxillary leaders.  The Olhao community and leaders of various organizations, churches, schools and city officials are invited.  We will have members and missionaries to give tours through the building.  In the evening, we will have an hour long program with a 30 voice choir which represents 3 different branches.

 So why am I posting a picture of Christmas decorations?  It is because the day before the open house, December 6,  we are helping President and Sr. Fluckiger with this Areas Christmas party.  Making these decorations has been a very fun, much needed diversion.

Baptism in Olhao

 Sisters Hancock and De Carvalho, taught the gospel to this lovely lady, Benafica, and she was baptized on Sunday.  She has been looking for a church for a long time and has attended many churches in Olhao over the years.  When she came to the Mormon church she felt something very special and knew that she had found what she was looking for.

Impromptu Missionary Dinner

On Sunday morning, November 3, we got a all from our Zone Leader, Elder Bezerra, saying that it was his companions, Elder Wurtz (on Elder Sommer's left) birthday and could we have them over for dinner?  That was fine but there are 6 Elders in our town, Olhao, and word travels fast among the missionaries.  We couldn't  have just one companionship over for dinner without inviting them all.  So we had all the Olhao missionaries over and we invited the Tavira missionaries too because they are part of the district.

It was really fun.  I must say that I was scrambling to have dinner for 8 hungry missionaries at such late notice.  I just went into my pantry and started making everything I had.  I served rice and black beans, salad, I had a small pork roast that I was unthawing, roasted vegetables, and spaghetti with marinara sauce.  For dessert I made banana bars.  Elder Walton, first on my right, did the missionary stacking food technique.  He took the first item that he was passed and put it in the center of his plate and just kept stacking as the food came to him.  I admired his tall pile of rice, spaghetti, roast, salad, potatoes and carrots beans with marinara sauce on top as a kind of gravy.  For seconds he had salad with marinara sauce on top.

The missionaries are always so busy that it is hard to get them all in the same place at the same time.  This whole meal took about 1 hour and then they were all out the door and on to their appointments.  We love these missionaries.