The WORK in Missionary Work

The Europe Area Manager with Ceu and Miguel the Europe PEF managers

Our office with our wall calendar of monthly events

   Just in case you've been wondering... we do actually have a calling as Self Reliance Missionaries here in Portugal.  We don't just go around snapping pictures of beautiful scenery and interesting Portugal sights all day, everyday.  We have an office right next door to our apartment.  In fact, if you open a door at the end of our hallway...you are in the Self Reliance Center of Portugal!!  Our 'boss' besides the mission president, is a church employee hired to get this new Self Reliance initiative from the church functioning in Portugal.  We are sent here as missionaries to help in that process.  There are other church employees (area managers) and other self reliance missionaries all over Europe, Central and South America, Philippines, Africa and other places.  We regularly have video conferences with the other European managers and senior SR couples.  We have the responsibility of teaching, training and implementing the SR plan to every Stake & Ward in Portugal.  We work directly with Stake and Ward Self Reliance specialists in training them and presenting the program and then following up with Self Reliance 'groups' that are formed in each ward or stake.  We work in the office daily on the record keeping end of it and on developing new areas of self reliance needed, like a class for "about to be released" missionaries and also for newly returned missionaries in the Stakes of Portugal.  Currently we are working on offering an English class for wards & Stakes.  We keep busy with all of that most days and on the other days we help in another office with the Perpetual Education Fund of the church.  We travel A LOT to visit other Wards & Stakes and to the North Mission of Porto.  Most of that visiting and training is on the weekends except for missionary training which is every 3 weeks for three hours on a Monday.  We have callings in our little ward and have been asked to visit less active members.  So...don't get the idea that just because I post other things that we aren't busy doing our job (:  It just generally isn't as interesting to LOOK at!  We love the people we have met in our service and we are learning so much from them. 

Elder Anderton teaching a My Path devotional

 These are My Path Devotionals... or Workshops.

 

A special friend made at an Education group meeting

A few participants of a My Path devotional

 These are our seminars for the missionaries returning home...

We drove to Porto for a seminar with these two sisters...love working with the missionaries!  A real boost for us!

 We are now in the publishing business!  We purchased a machine to punch the holes for the wire binding in our 'missionary seminar' booklet.  We were able to find the plastic for the front cover, and paper for the back cover.  We now assemble them ourselves and the cost has gone down from $9.70 a booklet to $3.50.  That's using the "OLD" noggin!

"Count Your Blessings...Angels Will Attend"

   The words to that hymn have new meaning to me.  The week between Christmas and New Years is usually a week I look forward to every year.  A time to relax, to enjoy the afterglow of Christmas and to spend time with family.  That week here in the mission field has been a real challenge.  We returned from our P day trip on Wednesday only to find there was little work to be done, everyone we contacted was busy with family and that we had a lot of time on our hands.  I had what can only be described as a 'melt down' on Friday, New Years Day.  It began the minute I woke up.  I felt like I had a dark cloud over my head.  My knee and hip were hurting from all the walking we had done on our little trip.  I was feeling sorry for myself, even the elders were busy when we called to ask if they wanted to come for dinner!  I let myself turn inward and that led to overwhelming feelings of loneliness and homesickness, the worst I have experienced since arriving here.  Except for small moments when I have been thinking about home I have NOT struggled at all with sadness or depression.  But Thursday was different...I was crying at the drop of a hat and could literally 'feel' the gloom surrounding me.  That day, as if an answer from my Father in Heaven, a daughter called me out of the blue to chat...not knowing how much I needed someone to talk to that day.  I believe she was prompted and that she listened.   The call was so welcome but I continued to feel overwhelmed with that dark feeling.  It frightened me a little and I knew I had to shake it.  That night as I knelt in prayer, I was prepared to plead my case to my Father in Heaven...to wallow in self pity, and ask for His help.  But, before I could even begin, I was flooded with thoughts and 'visions' of all the blessings in my life...all the things I had to be thankful for...everything I had been given up to this point in my life that made my life so wonderful and joyful.   Those thoughts kept me from asking for ANYTHING...all I could do was humbly THANK Him for all that I had been given. The feelings of self pity, sadness and despair left me!  At that moment, I felt loved, I was filled with a feeling of peace and I knew that everything would be OK, and that I could do what I was called here to do.  I slept well that night and awoke the next morning feeling like my old self again.  Counting your blessings really does have the power to change your outlook on life!

A Little More Algarve

Here are a few more pictures from Algarve.  We didn't just see beautiful beaches on our holiday break!

The View From the Top of castle

These are "cork" trees.  Cork is a big export item for Portugal along with olive oil.  Notice the bottom of the trunk...it looks darker than the rest.  That is where the 'bark' (cork) has been stripped.  You can only strip the cork off of a tree every 9 years!  We saw them in fields all along the roadside in this southern part of Portugal.

This is proof that our Garmin is secretly trying to kill us!! We were looking for a fairly large city.  We could see it on the map with what looked like pretty main roads leading to it.  We plugged it into our Garmin and 'she' took us on a crazy, winding, narrow road up into the mountains with HUGE drop offs and in pouring rain!!  When 'she' told us to turn onto a one lane dirt road next to a sheer drop off I begged Elder Anderton to turn around.  This is the spot where we made the turn....seeing parts of Portugal that I'm sure few have seen.  Luckily we made it down safely, had we gone off the edge no one would have ever found us!  We plugged in our 'home' address and drove directly home instead...We'll have to keep a close eye on 'Bertha' - you can't believe everything she says

Precious P-days

Everything basically shuts down here between Christmas and New Years day so we decided to take and extra 'P' day and take a little sight seeing trip.  We drove to the southern tip of Portugal in the  Algarve district.  It is a 3 hour drive and we stayed two nights in the city of Albufeira on the coastline. We explored from there and saw some breathtaking beaches...the water temperature and weather left the beaches pretty much abandoned which was great for us as we had no intention of getting wet anyway!  This trip was a needed break from our 3 room apartment when we had so much time on our hands...and we saw some beautiful and amazing views.

This is the view from our window.  From here is a short walk to the beach and "old town" with it's little shops and narrow streets.

Just look at the color of that water!!!

 This is the height of the cliffs in this area...sometimes even higher!  And all  along the coastline there were men fishing.  They would climb out and stand on very scary ledges and then throw their lines into the sea so far below.  I swear it looked like if something BIG grabbed hold of their bate they would be pulled to their death with little help of holding on to anything.  I'm sure I would fall into the ocean just from lack of balance on the little outcroppings some of them chose to stand on.  It was amazing to see so many of them as we walked around about a 2 mile pathway.

This is the puny little fish they were risking their lives to catch???  Unbelievable!!

SomeThings Are The Same in Any Language!

     My husband did give me a Christmas present!...he got tickets to Disney in concert with the Lisbon Orchestra.  It was so great!!!  Along with the familiar Disney tunes being played by an outstanding orchestra, there were four exceptional vocalists and Disney movie clips being played on a huge screen.  I felt like a kid at Disneyland!  I didn't even care that the lyrics were being sung in Portuguese...I was singing along in my head anyway.  I LOVED it so much...thanks to my sweet husband and truth be told- I think he loved it just as much!

 The concert was inside the Bull Fghting Arena! 
Sometimes it's nice to feel like you are 6 years old again!

A Portugal Christmas! ... Christmas Day

We awoke to 3 inches of fresh white snow on the ground and still coming down in big fluffy flakes!  Actually that's what I was dreaming just before we woke up.  All of the pictures from home with the crazy amounts of snow in Utah had influenced me.  It was actually a very beautiful day here with temperatures around 50 or 60....hardly even jacket weather for us but the locals are covered in scarves, fur coats and gloves.  We were excited to spend time together opening the packages we received from family & friends.... kind of silly how much we were looking forward to that!!  We didn't get gifts for each other besides a foam topper for our bed (tired of waking up with an arm or leg numb & tingling!) 

We took turns opening a package, carefully reading cards, looking at beautiful artwork from adorable children and feeling the warmth of love, home and gratitude fill our little apartment!  There was a lot of smiling, holding hands and even some laughing until we cried.  There were also a few tears shed as homesickness got the best of us....but that didn't last long and was quickly replaced by an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the blessings in our lives. 

This is the AFTER picture...minus a few candy cane hershey kisses!

This looks so great, think I might keep it up all year!!

We received several vinyl sayings to cover some of our bare walls, ensign subscription and some impossible to find 'comfort' items...  the postage was outrageous but so appreciated!!!   These people look like they need some sleep or maybe just toughen up a little bit!!

These smiling faces decorated our tree...well most of them are smiling!  I believe even the newest 'Anderton' is smiling too but the ultra sound just didn't get the right angle!

We were able to add a few new photos to my "Fridge of Fame"...Love all those dear faces!

It was certainly a different Christmas but one that we will always remember. We somehow felt closer to our family, to each other and especially to our Savior.  Christmas 2015 was a great one!