Tuesday, November 2, 2010

October 30, 2010 Part 2

So, I thought I should share with you (again) our Sunday (of last week – October 24th).  We had a great Sunday – I think prayer and a change of attitude works!!  Let me start with last Saturday night.  We are all feeling quite a bit more healthy.  So Saturday night I had a little pow wow with the kids.  I reminded them that the next day was Sunday and that we are all feeling better and that we would need to get up on time and get ourselves to church (did I happen to tell you that me and the kids ditched church last week when I had my “explosion”? NOT GOOD).  Rick said our family prayer that night and prayed that we would all be happy and have a good experience at church and feel comfortable there.  So, Sunday morning we all got up (on time) and took the long 45 minute drive to church.  We actually made it with only one dead end road (GPS doesn’t always work the greatest here) and Kaylie didn’t even throw up – although it was very close.  About 5 minutes before we got there we had to pull over and let her out of the car to get some fresh air. After the long drive there we turned the final corner and…    we see an ACTUAL church building.  I know that doesn’t sound like such a big deal.  But, usually our church is part of another building or a house converted in to a church.  So, to see an actual church was quite surprising.  And then to top it off the sister missionaries were there.  Woohoo!!  They are very sweet girls that we have become friends with through Fatocha.  We had watched part of General Conference with them at Fatocha’s home and had gone sightseeing with them on their P-day (which is the day they have to catch up on laundry and grocery shopping or go and do something fun).  So that was a nice surprise to.  The whole experience at church was good.  Tanner’s teacher spoke English, Kaylie met a girl her age who spoke fluent English, Devan ended up hanging out with Rick because there weren’t any boys his age in the ward, I hung out with the sister missionaries (who tried their best at translating).  The Bishop seems to be a pretty cool guy.  He’s about 30 and has just had his second child (who was a premie and weighed 1 kilo at birth, which is 2.2 lbs – I got to hold him for a while).  The Bishop spoke fluent English also because he served a mission in Florida.
After church we drove around and found a park to have a picnic lunch.  We had planned that because we had time to kill in the afternoon between church and an EFY presentation that evening (and we didn’t want to do the 45 minute drive 2 more times). EFY stands for Especially for Youth.  It is a weeklong “camp”, on a college campus, for kids ages 14-17 – run through our church.  The presentation was very good.  EFY is a brand new thing here in Portugal.  Their first one ever was last year and they will only have it every 2 years. There is a group of very talented kids/young adults that have created this music & DVD presentation.  They are going around to every stake in Portugal showing it in hopes that the kids will get excited and sign up next time it comes.  By the way – it only costs them 70 euros (which is about $100) – pretty good deal compared to the $410 I pay for each of my kids to attend in Provo, Utah.  Well, the kids were amazing singers.  There were about 10 of them.  And, to top off the whole evening, 1 of the performers happens to be one of the top 12 on their version of American Idol.  NO JOKE!!  Google it.  The show is called Idolos.  It is a complete knock off of American Idol – except WAY cheesier.  So funny!!  Portugal television is hilarious.  I swear this country is 20 years behind in everything.  So, “Mr. Portugal Idol” comes over to meet “the Americans” after the presentation was over.  He’s a 17 year old kid named Gerson.  He’s a very energetic performer, and really nice kid.  Basically he’s the “David Archuleta” of Portugal.  Good, clean cut, Mormon boy of the show.  Anyways, he’s standing their talking to us for a few minutes – checking Kaylie out the entire time.  I finally introduce my kids (I could tell he wanted to meet Kaylie).  So, he starts talking to her and asks her how old she is.  When she said 13 you should’ve seen the look on his face.  Pure disappointment.  He goes “You’re kidding – I thought you were like 16”.  It was quite hilarious.  I’m sure he was looking for a date from a cute American girl.  I think his bubble burst very quickly.  Anyhow – now if he becomes Portugal’s Idol we can say ‘we knew him when’.  After that we had some very interesting food at the church and headed toward home.
To end our day – we got a call from Fatocha on our way home.  She and her family were in our neighborhood for a friend’s birthday and they wanted us to come by.  So – we did (at 10pm).  When we arrived they had this huge spread of food waiting for us.  I’m telling you – friends and food – top 2 on the priority list here.  So, we meet everyone and then they feed us a whole dinner.  They served us soup, and then brought out this huge platter of meat.  It looked like chicken and I thought Rick had said it was chicken.  So I take a big bite and just about threw up.  No kidding – I am not a picky eater and I’m usually willing to try just about anything.  I don’t know if it was because I was thinking it was chicken and then it tasted nothing like chicken, but it just hit me wrong.  Turns out it was Leitao, which is baby pig (well, actually it’s teenage pig).  It was very sour tasting.  Hmm… could that be because it’s “teenage” pig? Anyways, I managed to swallow it.  And then I just cut the rest of it up and spread it out on my plate – a trick I learned from my kids.  Luckily I hadn’t taken too big of a piece because we had already eaten at the church, so I wasn’t that hungry.  One other thing I’ve learned about the food here in Portugal is that desserts look better than they taste.  Which is a blessing or I would probably come home weighing 50 pounds more.  Their desserts are very beautiful, but out of all of them that I’ve tried (which is many) I’ve only found 3 that are worth the calories.
Well, our Sunday was good – so I guess Rick’s prayer worked.  Things are looking up.  Health is good.  Attitudes are better.  And we’re very close to making a decision on a home.  All’s well!!
Love you and miss you (and bacon & warm chocolate chip cookies & American Idol)
Denise
PS - cross your fingers I don't "lose" this post when I copy and paste

1 comment:

  1. It sounds like things are looking up!! I laughed out loud about the sour pig, teenager thing! SO FUNNY! Why are teenagers so sour, anyway? Maybe that is a topic for a later discussion. :)

    I'm glad that church was a good experience. That is a long drive. We take for granted the fact that we can drive 2 minutes and be at church. (And we are often still late, go figure!)

    The leaves are getting more brown and falling from the trees. It has been warm, then cold, warm, then cold, typical Utah. Winter is definitely coming, which makes me sad. But oh-well, that means spring will eventually get here again!!

    I think about you often. I miss my swimming buddy. I have fallen off the wagon. I need to get my rear in gear!

    Keep up the posts. I love to read them. Tell Rick and the kids hi!

    Love ya-Marisa

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