Happiest Day Since Arriving in Portugal

Our first Sunday in Portugal. It was a dandy! We still have no electricity, so a cold shower and dress up and off to Ovar with President Ayers and his wife for branch conference. It was a spiritual feast. The distance was about 25K and he drove nicely. The countryside is gorgeous—flowers all over, the houses with their tile roofs and small, well-kept yards—nearly always bordered by a few grape vines, the spaces between scattered homes and small clusters of houses are almost all covered with a forest. This place in springtime is what travel folders are made of. The several small towns we went through are of course cobbled with houses right along side the narrow road.

Ovar is a larger town, and we went right to the center where the chapel is. Like nearly all the chapels, it is located on a couple of floors of a loja building—loja (store) along the street, and 1° (1st) and 2° (2nd) andar (floor) for the igreja (church).* We renovated the interior and put in classrooms and a small chapel, complete in some cases with a small pia (font) for baptismals. It isn't like back home, but it serves, and there are a lot more baptisms.

At the sacrament meeting of the conference Marian and I sat on the stand and spoke briefly. President Ayers spoke, and the zone leader. After the meeting several sisters throngs Marian. One gave her an armful of roses. Two others just stood close, looked at her, and wouldn't stop. Just kept looking and smiling. These women are going to love Marian. She gets so many beijinhos (kisses) it's almost frightening. Such fine, beautiful people.

After lunch at the Mirabela (our electricity is off, and we felt we needed a real meal) we snoozed a bit then went to a baptism at the branch here in São João da Madeira. The floor was wet when we arrived, we watched two girls get baptized, then when we left we found another group of 15 waiting to use the font. 27 were baptized at that font today!!! Whoops—excuse me, 5 of those were baptized in the river nearby.In the early evening President and Sister Copeland came by and visited with us—invited me to a missionary presidency meeting tomorrow and us both to come Wednesday to have lunch with the new missionaries. (The Chapmans, Sister Parkinson and Elder _____ (can't remember his name). Then be there for the orientation and testimony meeting. We'd love to be there.


Then four elders came—Ainga, Beddell, Larsen and McCune—and we had a great time. Til dark. Real dark. The Elders ate peanut butter, honey, and jam and loved it. If the sister missionaries had been here, we would have had the whole district! Well, that was Sunday. We went to bed. We went to bed happier than we've been since we landed. The happiest man in Portugal.


*In Portugal, the 1° andar is what we would call the second floor, the 2° andar is the third floor, etc. The ground floor is called the res-do-chão.