People in Coimbra

Francica and Gloria. Gloria was a recent convert and Francica was her friend. They were both hilarious ladies that just loved the sister missionaries. These ladies were the best of friends but were always fighting. They thought that the missionaries were their friendship therapists so that always provided for some interesting visits and conversations. They also thought it was so funny that I was so tall. They always wanted to hug me and hold my hand.

Gloria had a son that wanted to learn more about the gospel. However he was in prison for dealing drugs. We taught him in prison which was a big shock at first checking through so much security and then going into a crazy packed room full of people visiting friends and family in prison. But he did read the Book of Mormon and was interested in learning about God's plan for us. An interesting tradition is that during Easter they let a few of the prisoners out for the weekend based on good behavior. Pedro was allowed to leave the prison and come to church on Easter Sunday. Here we are Gloria and her two sons in front of the church. A few weeks after the president realized that it was against the mission rules to teach people in prison so we had to stop teaching him except for when we was able to leave for the weekend.

Adalide: We met Adalide when we were contacted a potential investigator. She was super nice and always fed us chocolate and cookies after we had shared the messages with her. The funniest experience we had with Adalide is the following. When i was leaving Coimbra to go serve on Madeira she wanted to make us lunch. So we scheduled a day and had everything set. However when we got to her house she didn't answer her door or her phone. So after a little while we decided to go back home and have lunch and continue on with our day. After eating a big lunch at home Adalide called and wondered where we were. We explained that we had come and called and that she hadn't answered. She told us that lunch was ready and we had to go over and eat. So we did. When we got there Irma Ray and I saw the big lunch that she had made for us and wondered how we would possibly be able to eat this since we were both completely satisfied with our own lunch. So Irma Ray and I passed food back and forth the whole lunch and at the end I started to get the giggles. I had to leave to go to the bathroom to stop laughing so that we could teach the lesson after eating lunch. I loved this lady she was such a sweetheart.

Huila and Beatriz. These were the two girls of a member family. They were a spunky family with lots to contribute. They were offended for a while but we got them coming back to church as we re-invited Beatriz to play the Hymns for the sacrament meeting, which was great because it meant that I would no longer have to play. It was also great because the Dad was a counselor in the bishopric and needed to return. Beatriz (their mom) was a great lady that we always loved to call Diva B because she was always sporting the latest styles and fashions. Beatriz taught English at an elementary school and invited us to come help the kids one day. We had a lot of fun visiting this family to help them stay strong in the gospel. The two girls always loved to sing and dance for us as part of our visit. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to work with this family.