Still reading

Today I started reading my Book of Mormon again. I finished reading it on Saturday and decided that I have been reading too much too fast. I read as though it is a destination or a race. I want to treat it more like a journey. Iam trying to still read it each month until I finish the 18 months and I am using it as a way to still study and show some faith and hope that we will return to Portugal. Meanwhile the world is going stupid. I keep saying that now our isolation is done we can live like normal all we need to do is keep our distance. The weather is turning bad but it is still March. We still stay home because we are supposed to and because we don’t have anywhere to go. Today I am posting pictures of ester and martha enjoy.

Sunday morning

Today is Sunday and we reported our mission in an internet meeting. The cool part was Tray reported also. As usual grandma was awesome. I read all the comments from Ashley and Megan. I guess because of them I will continue posting blogs. I enjoy being home on Sunday but miss seeing other members. We called everyone except Drew. It was fun to see our grandkids and laugh with them. We ate lunch and just lazed around too much. The pictures are of Nephi going after the brass plates, and the sons of Mosiah going on their mission. Sacrament meeting with just grandma and I is good, but I still hope we get to go back to having regular meetings.

Pictures from the mtc.

It now is taking two days to get a blog done. Some is laziness, but some is just not much happens when you stay home. It is cold and when we go walking it is not much fun. Grandma reminded me that when we were at the mtc I took pictures of the murals and said I would share them later. Well I guess it is later. I will try to post two pictures each blog but you need to appreciate how large they are. The first one is of the brother of Jared when he was making the 16 stones that would shine in the barges. I really liked it and the next one of Nephi on  mountain looking back at the camp where his family were. Their tents look almost as good as mine. Well we fixed the oven so if we want we can cook more. I made a big batch of chili today. At one we started fasting as the prophet asked us to. Well I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I can stop blogging anytime if I get to boring. I got the wrong sign sorry.

It takes two days

Well once again I failed to get a blog done. So today I will try to cover both days. Yesterday we watched the news and because it looked like the weather only got worse later in the day we went for a walk early in the morning. The wind was blowing hard and it was cold. We spent the rest of the day just sitting around and studying.  Trae came home this afternoon and we visited on the phone. This coronavirus is getting to much. I was reading Ether 11 and this chapter is a lot like how my blogs are. Got up did this to and then that and went to bed. I keep trying  to come up with new stuff but at times it can appear like chapter 11. So now for today. It was cold today and this morning we had português class. It was hard to speak only português for an hour. But I did it. We picked up some groceries that my sister Vickie got for us. We got in a walk this afternoon. With the wind and the cold we only went 1 mile. Grandma has me on a diet and so the food is not the greatest. I liked it better when I was the cook but appreciate the help. So I included a picture of how it used to be.

Skipped day

I am sorry I didn’t blog yesterday, it wasn’t until this morning that I remembered. Yesterday we had a harder day. For some reason we were tired and didn’t feel like doing much. We exercised and that was difficult.  We eat well and I don’t think that has much to do with it, I think it just is a bit about trying to stay in and isolate from others. Today already is a better day. We enjoyed watching the voice last night and I went to bed early. It was a nice day if a bit windy. I was able to get pictures of the owl he starts hooting about 4 am each and every day. Today we just took it easy. I went in the basement and did a little shooting. I seem to be losing my touch. I could keep all 10 in the black but today I only got 7 of 20. The good news is that means more practice.  Meanwhile we study each day and try to stay optimistic about going back to Portugal. We have received emails from missionaries still there and they are prepared for whatever comes. I will try to do better tomorrow.

Sunday service at home

Seeing how last Sunday we traveled the entire day this is our first Sunday experiencing a day without meetings. Last Sunday we barely had the time to have prayers. I stayed up a little later last night so I was able to sleep until 5 am. I made biscuits for breakfast using a new recipe and I think I like it better. . We had our own sacrament meeting and then studied our lesson. It felt like general conference . That can get confusing. We got an email from the couple who stayed behind in Portugal they are fine but frustrated with no end in sight. We called the kids and visited good to see them. The car reminds me of herby the love bug in disney’s movie only it was number 8.

Dirty laundry

It rained during the night, but it wasn’t really raining during the day. Today being Saturday I didn’t get around to doing much. While I was reading my Book of Mormon I walked up the hallway and then down the stairs turned around went up and repeated. After 25 laps I was tired. I made breakfast because I am still trying to be the cook and maid.  We went for a walk but it started to rain. Looks like Trae will come home next week for a two week delay. I hope that he gets to go then as hopefully we will follow soon after. I watched the news today and there is still a lot of the virus. I have all of grandma’s pictures backed up on my iPad so I reviewed some of them. Some of them are really cool and different from mine. The one I liked showed how everyone hangs their clothes outside the window to dry, but with all the smog I wander if they don’t get dirty again after you wash them.

Owl hoot or hoot owl?

This morning I still woke up at 3:30. I hope it is still jet lag, and not the new normal. Each morning there is an owl hooting outside our window, and this morning he was sitting on the light pole where you could see him real good. I was able to get grandma up and let her see him, but by the time I thought to take a picture he was gone. Grandma and I eat breakfast and watch her favorite tv show each morning. I tried to spend more time on my feet today so I wasn’t sitting around. We had a nice walk and went for a drive to pick up food my sister had purchased for us. The church announced that more missionaries are coming home so it doesn’t look like it will be a quick fix. The last day we were in Portugal while we were driving across the huge bridge some motorcycles passed us and grandma

got some pictures. I hope they are in order, but no guarantee.

Aqueducts revisited

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When I talked about visiting the aqueduct early in my blogs I also the same day told of our visit to the huge old cathedral or castle that the aqueduct carried water to. This morning I was cleaning out my pictures and removing pictures of the floor and inside the car and others when I came to the section of the aqueduct I realized that I could share more about them. Since I am staying in the house I am trying to keep busy. I am trying not to spend a lot of time watching tv. The weather has been fair for the time of year. The plaque tells all about when and how long it took to build. The one section is over 100 feet high all done by hand in 21 years. The square box is a settling area the water comes in and because the bottom of the box is lower the dirt stays on the bottom and the water goes out the other side. There is a walkway along the top. The building is where the settling takes place and there is one at each end as well as this one in the middle. I spent some time studying and in my basement. I even went outside for a while. Another problem with staying home is all the food. Exercise is very important.  I figure it is beneficial to maybe talk about it with someone else who is going through the same thing. I will see what I can find to talk about tomorrow.

Still hunkered down

Last night after I went to bed I had two thoughts that I think might be important. First the chances of going back to Portugal will greatly increase when we are having church meetings again, and second that if after just two days in isolation in a really nice house how much more difficult to be in Portugal in a small apartment sort of cut off. If anyone in Portugal is still reading this if you need encouragement I will at least try to divert. If you are following this try and let me know. So today we had português class. It was good to have a bit of diversion. This morning  I woke up early and was able to read quite a bit. I finished my Book of  Mórmon in português. I started over. My goal to read lt each month for now is still in effect. We went for a long walk. It was good to get out. The pictures this time are of grandma and I that may be different.

Isolation

Since some of my grandkids have requested that I continue with my blog during our two weeks of self isolation I will see how it goes. We are still experiencing jet lag big time. Another thing we are doing is sorting some of our stuff in anticipation of going back to Portugal. We had many things we wished we didn’t, and things we wanted to have. With all the packing and unpacking we did that last week we found many things we were never going to use. It would be nice to have had a game or two. Several food items may also have been nice. I spent some time cooking today as I am still trying to be the cook and maid. I hope the refrigerator can remain clean and sort of empty. It can fill up fast with food that no one will ever eat. We got to speak to Trae today he looks so good and seemed so happy. I miss him a lot. Next it was time for a walk. It is colder the air seems thinner here than it was in Portugal. I put together a great supper for us tonight. We got to watch jeopardy together and a lot of news. If it is all accurate this could get a bit rough. I found some pictures of grandma to share. The ones on the beach it was so windy. The other three show grandma getting a shopping cart. To get a cart you put a euro about one dollar in the handle which causes a lock to release and when you ae done the lock gives you back your coin. No carts all over the parking lot and the homeless don’take them eithe.

Arriving home

Well we arrived at the airport and had to go through these huge lines twice the first was customs and that was hard watching the time slip away knowing we were going to miss our connecting flight. We got our bags and headed over to delta but the flight was already gone. They changed our tickets, but we missed the next flight as it was full of returning missionaries. I haven’t seen so many missionaries in one place since the mtc. We went through the security and went to our gate. We still had one senior couple and 5 young sisters from Portugal with us. We stopped at wendy’s and bought some food and one of the young sisters was really excited toget spicy nuggets we had this spicy pizza roll and as most people know I am not a fan of to hot and spicy food ibought a burger. She a bit later offered me one and I told her she was mean she just laughed and I told her she was meaner than a —There were missionaries from spain, ireland, the ukrane, germany and they just kept coming. I finally realized we were not the only ones being sent home. It was fun to see them all and think of their work. We finally got on the plane and headed for salt lake the plane was almost full of missionaries. 5 hours later we were in salt lake. We headed down to get our baggage and here were all these families with signs welcome home elder      Sister
   or. Grandpa and grandma it was really cool. It took a bit to get our bags on a cart on the shuttle bus and then in the car. After a long drive it was good to be home. I saw this cool air Portugal plane before we left.

Flying

Well today started off early we ate breakfast at the breakfast buffet at the hotel. We headed to the airport and started the process of getting checked through to leave the country. It was easy to check out and the security check was similar to what we go through at the courthouse. Then it was off to the airplane and trying to not be turned into a pretzel. Going to Portugal the flight was less than 6 hours but  we were  going about 550 miles an hour with a tail wind and the rotation of the earth working in our favor. Coming home the average speed was only 435 with a head wind. 7 and a half hours later we are landing in New York and almost to touch down when the pilot poured on the gas and climbed due to a wind gust and we had to go around that slowed us down 20 minutes, and then we ordered to remain seated for a mandatory health inspection.

Gps isn’t always right.

Well today we sort of slept in. We ate what we could of our breakfast food then went to visit the elders. They are not supposed to go out much where there are other people, and they are starting to get bored, but they will do fine. We wanted to go see the library where Harry Potter was filmed, but most things here in Portugal have been closed because of coronavirus. They are starting to shut down school and business and lots of things. All the places we visited this last week are closed. The other couples tried to visit tomar and other places we had told them about but they were closed. We on the other hand headed into Lisbon to see the longest bridge in Europe. It’s 7 and a half miles long. We also went to several other older bridges because judy the gps is cofused at times. We ate lunch at a Burger King and once again the food was great. More and more people are wearing masks and latex gloves. We had dinner with some of the other couples. Sometimes the food here is every bit as bad as it is at home. I guess we have a bit more stringent guidelines to follow than I expected. I miss my grandkids but I guess I will have to miss them for a while after we come home. Ashley wrote a lot of nice comments on about my blog and asked me to keep doing it during the self isolation. I really liked reading her, megan, Whitney, and kenna’s comments. Well we fly out in the morning enjoy the pictures. I saw the car and lt reminded me of herbie the love bug.