Our Final Week

As we prepare to return home this week, it is with a touch of sadness that we say good-bye to so many of our friends.

Diana and Latícia are two of our favorites. They are the twin daughters of two special people, Jorge and Carmelita Silva from Cape Verde.

A Miracle

This Sunday is General Conference and consequently, we do not have our regular Sunday meetings. Regardless, Sister Erickson wanted to go to the chapel to see if anyone arrived. While we were there, we were surprised to meet a young woman and her son. Having lived in Portugal for twenty years, she had just returned from having a vacation in her homeland of Cape Verde. She had met with many of her church friends in Cape Verde and had the strong impression that she needed to return to the Church.

Fatima and her son, Eduardo, know many of the people we know in Cape Verde.

The Missionaries

Monday night we went to the Orient Station and picked up two sisters who had just arrived by train from the north.

Sister Mortenson, who is from Bozeman, MT, and Sister Evans, who is from Saudi Arabia, were in town to apply for their Portugal Residency Card.

One of the great blessings of working in the mission office is that we get to associate with practically every missionary in the mission. 

Elder Walker, who is from Orem, UT, and Elder Meleen, who is from Saratoga Springs, UT, are two of the Lord's finest.

Those Senior Missionaries

Once a senior couple serves one mission, they often return to serve again. Before we went to Cape Verde, we met Elder and Sister Smith in the Missionary Training Center. They were just getting ready to go to Zimbabwe. 

After Zimbabwe they served in Sacramento, CA and just recently arrived in Frankfurt, Germany to serve in the Europe Area office assigned to work with the Young Single Adults throughout Europe.

Sunday Dinner with the Couples

Today we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Elder and Sister Wilcox. They had three other temple couples over.

After dinner we were blessed to watch General Conference and hear words of inspiration and admonishment from our Prophet, Russell M. Nelson.

In two weeks we will give our homecoming address and then we will send our final blog. 

The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

—Joseph Smith, 1842

We have been so blessed and privileged to be a part of this great work.