The Anderton Homestead: Con Amo para Portugal

Another week has almost flown by and it has been another week of learning, feelings of being overwhelmed and even a first hand experience with the police here! One of the highlights of last week was meeting with Elder Thomas King the Europe Self Reliance Manager who flew here from Germany. He is a very warm and friendly man who speaks English with a pronounced Australian accent. On Thursday we attended a video conference (which seems to be a very common event here...it seems that there is always a video conference with someone!) During this meeting we also met the area 70 over the Europe area. I can tell you it very humbling and somewhat intimidating to be in these meetings with these men who have devoted so much of their lives to serving our Father in Heaven.

One of the benefits of tagging along with Antonio Paulo (our SR manager) is that we are included many times on lunch breaks etc that come from the church budget. We have tried to be self reliant and pay our way but alas, we are getting used to being fed when on work assignments!

Friday afternoon we traveled by car with Antonio and Brother King north to the town of Porto. It is over 3 hours away. We left on Friday in order to be in the town and ready for a northern conference of Stake Presidents and the Porto Mission mission president, Saturday morning. The drive was great as we were able to see the different areas as we passed, from industrial to rural. We made a brief stop on the way in the city where Antonio's parents live. It is called 'Fatima' This city is famous to Catholics and a mecca for devout members. The story is that Mary, the mother of the Savior, visited 3 small children there in the 1800's. There is a huge square for thousands people to gather and also a 'shrine' built over the area of the appearance. Brother Paulo suggested that we remove our missionary badges as we toured the area out of respect and to avoid problems. That seemed a little strange to me but we followed his suggestion. Porto is another very beautiful and interesting city with a mixture of old and new, and we finally got to be by thge ocean! There were ancient church buildings on almost every block. One highlight of the trip for Bro Paulo was to introduce us to a food called Franeszinas. It is only served in Porto......basically a 'heart attack on a plate' It makes a double whopper with cheese seem like health food. I opted for a salad but tasted Ric's and it was better than it looked. It is built like a hot sandwhich with layers of bread, cheese, ham, sausage, turkey or beef another bread, more cheese and topped with a fried egg....oh, and some sauce! A real weight watchers delight!!

   After getting home late Saturday night, Bro Paulo let us take the 'pool car' back to out apartment so we could drive ourselves to church the next morning. I had offered to play the piano for Sacrament meeting hymns and was in hurry to get there early to practice. With the help of Garmin, we made it and I had Ric drop me off while he parked. Long story short, after church Ric was telling one of the brethren how hard it was to find a place to park and he had parked on a road with tracks running through it. There had been 2 other cars parked there and someone on the sidewalk had told Ric that he doesn't remember a trolley ever coming down that street. The church member got a sick look on his face and said Ric better go check and see if the car was still there....So we hurried up the hill and sure enough....NO CAR - it had been towed away!!!   It was a big lesson in humility to go back down the hill to tell Brother Paulo that the church owned car had been towed away): Luckily there is the kindest man you have ever met (who looks just like you picture a Sleek European gentleman to look) who took pity on us and offered to drive us to find the car. Almost two hours later and looking in 2 wrong police car lots, we found the car and they were kind enough to let us have it back for a mere $140.00!!!   Insult to injury, they wouldn't accept Ric's American debit card so Brother Jose Seborras had to pay with his money. ouch! what a crazy day we both wanted to cry but it has been a funny story to tell since then.

   I started this on Monday and it is now Friday. It seems that time is flying....We are busy everyday but I couldn't exactly tell what we accomplish in all those hours. Thursday for example it took us over 40 minutes at the train station just to make sure we bought the right tickets to the right destination and that were standing in the right line to get on the right train....every new thing we try is at a snail's pace but we hope that will improve with time!

   Sending our love to all and prayers for your health, happiness and protection. May the Lord bless you.
Much Love,    Elder and Sister Anderton

This is Fatima (the Catholic Mecca city)

Notice in picture below, a woman in the bottom left corner is crawling on her knees along a LONG path to the top of the square- Antonio said this is either a request for blessings or a show of gratitude.