We are just finishing the first two legs of a long training trip. The first stops were to do Self-Reliance training in Lisbon, Portugal for our SR missionary couple that has arrived from Brazil before they continue onto their mission in Cape Verde. We then spent a day participating in the District Conference of the Azores District of Portugal which is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, directly in the path from Lisbon to New York.
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| By the Biscoitos pools on the Island of Terceira in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean |
Our week started quietly enough with a normal day in the office. It was the last day that we would be with Tom King, our Area Self-Reliance Manager, in Frankfurt until we go to our Team Seminar in Paris 3 weeks later. We learned that the annual operations review from SLC that was scheduled for December of this year, has been rescheduled to be part of our Paris Seminar. The related changes to the schedule was one of the topics of the day. The others were a continuation of preparations for our long training trip to begin Wednesday.
Normally Monday night would have been our Senior Missionary family home evening, but it was postponed to the following week due to a German holiday on Tuesday. However, many decided (including us) to listen to a class by Sister Stay who taught us more about the Muslim religion, including it's origins with Ishmael, son of Abraham. This was scheduled since we were also invited to an open house at a local Muslim mosque the next day.
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| Sister Stay sharing insights into the Islam religion |
The next day was a holiday, so the office was officially closed. It was the German Unification day, celebrating when East and West Germany came back together in 1990. We think it is one of the most meaningful of German Holidays. However, we still held a Zoom conference with Elder and Sister Hardy who are serving in Greece. After that, we went to the Muslim Open House, where we were warmly greeted. The Open House was fairly simple and straightforward, with displays and guides to inform us. The Open House was in the prayer room of the Mosque.
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| Translation: October 3, day of the open door |
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| Mosque that we visited |
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| Tour guide explaining their religion, mostly in German. |
The green names across the top of the room are the 99 different names for Allah that the Muslims use. This particular sect is the Ahmadiyyah sect. They are not accepted by other Muslim sects and are a very peaceful people. We had met one of their members who was a taxi driver that we had talked to some time ago. They were very kind, the refreshments were good also.
We then spent our afternoon in the office with final preparations for our trip the next morning. We then met with our Returned Missionaries that evening. They were all there, except a new missionary who had returned the previous week. We have not yet met him, but they committed to meet the next week on their own and invite him.
Somewhere during this week, Sister Rueckert reached a significant milestone in her Duolingo training in German. She worked this program as far as it would let her earlier in the year and achieved 49% fluency by their measurement. Then it would not let her progress further. Recently she found a newer version of Duolingo and has again followed this course. Finally on this week, she achieve 50% fluency.
The next day, Wednesday, we began our 12 day training trip. Our first stop was Lisbon, Portugal. There we met Elder and Sister Portela, a self-reliance missionary couple that arrived that same day from the Brazil MTC. Since they came from Brazil, they did not receive the normal Self-Reliance training that is given in SLC. They will be serving in Cape Verde. We had planned for them to stop for two days in Lisbon and receive additional training and orientation from us and our Self-Reliance Operations Team who are based in Lisbon.
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| Waiting for a taxi at the Lisbon, Portugal airport. Very long lines, just to get to the waiting queue. |
We spent Wednesday evening with them and immediately fell in love with them. They are amazing people, with a very strong testimony and desire to serve. Elder Portela is a former stake president, temple sealer and patriarch. They have lived in several locations in Brazil and are both pioneers, being baptized even before my days as a missionary. They have a very strong desire to help the Church progress in Cape Verde and seem willing to do anything. We are truly blessed to have this caliber of missionaries to serve in Self-Reliance.
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| At Campo Pequeno, where we had dinner with the Portelas on Wednesday evening |
On Thursday, we held a full day of Self-Reliance training. Since their English language abilities are limited, we held the training all in Portuguese. This sometimes leaves Sister Rueckert out of the mix, but she does a wonderful job of trying to keep up with whatever she can. In fact, she facilitated our Facilitator Training group to show them how easy it is to facilitate a group, doing it without understanding the language.
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| Sister Rueckert facilitating the facilitator training in Portuguese with Elder and Sister Portella |
On Thursday we held our training straight through the lunch hour so that we could finish early enough to visit a few sites in Lisbon, since it was the first visit to Portugal for Elder and Sister Portela. We took them to the Jerónimo Monastery, built in the 1500s. Like us from the U.S., people in Brazil do not see buildings or historical sites dating back 500 years.
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| Elder and Sister Portela, with Sister Rueckert outside of the Jerónimo Monastery |
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| Sister Rueckert in the inside court of the Monastery |
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| The seats in the Church for singing and praying for the monks. It reminds me of the seats that are described for King Noah and his priests in the Book of Mormon |
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| Seat identified for the apostle Thomas, my namesake |
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| All of us together in the inner courts of the monastery |
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| Sister Rueckert with a few view of the inner court and the steeples and dome of the Church |
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| Outside of the Church that adjoins the monastery |
After our visit to the monastery, we decided to eat dinner at the world famous Belem Pastaís restaurant. Since this was a holiday in Portugal (their independence day), the restaurant was especially busy. This is us once again in a line, awaiting a table to sit at.
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| A dozen world famous Pastéis de Belém |
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| The story of the Patéis de Belém, made originally by nuns from the "Convento dos Jerónimos" |
On Friday we continued our training with Elder and Sister Portela on the PEF Loan program and their role with this in Cape Verde. They were primarily instructed by Miguel Adriano, our Operations manager, and Ceu Cavaco, our Loan Supervisor. We continue to be impressed with their depth of understanding and perspective with the PEF loan program. I spent most of the last years of my career administering this program. However, I love the way they understand and teach. It was a wonderful day of training.
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| Miguel training the Portelas |
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| All of us together at the end of the training |
We then went to the airport for our trip to the Azores islands, which left a few hours before the Portelas were flying to Cape Verde. Ceu took them by the site of the Lisbon Temple before they went to the airport. Even though we did not go to the temple site, this photo is a recent update of the Lisbon Temple shared with us by Ceu.
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| Updated photo of the Lisbon Temple construction |
The next leg of our trip was to participate in the Azores District Conference. This conference was dedicated to the topic of Self-Reliance and is being presided by our Self-Reliance manager, Antonio Paulo, who is also a counselor in the mission presidency. This district is on a few islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Our flight was about 3 hours long, going directly west. We were told that this took us about 1/3 of the way to the United States. We also advanced an additional time zone.
We arrived at our destination about 9:30 pm and were able to be lodged at a pretty cool hotel at a real good cost. Our room was one of the largest that we have stayed in. It also was next to a marina, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Our hotel room |
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| The balcony of our hotel room |
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| Overlooking our hotel from a nearby fort |
The next morning (Saturday) we took an early morning walk and explored our surroundings. Just next to our hotel was an old fort from the 1500s.
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| Looking back at the fort from the hotel on with a beautiful sunrise |
Our district conference meetings did not begin until the afternoon, so we took advantage and visited the island with Antonio Paulo's wife, Joanna, and another couple that was also visiting from Portugal. We were able to see the beautiful city and the countryside, including some amazing coastal views.
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| Overlooking the city of Angra do Heroísmo |
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| One of the beautiful Catholic Churches in the City |
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| A vacated house became the place to display the work of an artist in the doorway and windows. |
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| One of many houses dedicated to the Holy Ghost. These are locations to begin Catholic processions. |
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| The countryside is divided into smaller lots by stone fences. These are everywhere, we have never seen anything like it |
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| Overlooking the countryside, all divided by stone walls and with cows within many of the pasture areas |
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Overlooking the countryside on this beautiful island of divided fields
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| Another view of countryside and the ocean |
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| View of amazing natural swimming area at the Biscoitos area |
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| Panaroma of this beautiful coastal area with natural bathing ponds |
We finally met up with the District Leadership and Antonio Paulo for lunch. Another amazing experience. Seafood without end:
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| The District and Mission Leadership that was in attendance with E/S Rueckert |
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| All of this seafood was perfect for the eight of us |
Finally we started the District Conference. This was the location of one of the branches. The other two branches on a different island joined by video conference. Elder Rueckert participated for 25 minutes in training Priesthood Leadership while Sister Rueckert helped train the Relief Society leadership. We pondered quite a bit about this assignment and decided to let the Spirit guide us. We each ended up taking different approaches but felt that it was what the Lord wanted us to do. We each did focus on the doctrine of Self-Reliance which is so well summarized in D&C 104:15-17. When we do this, the Holy Ghost testifies to those who participate.
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| Priesthood Leadership participating with those on the other island joining in by Zoom |
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| Elder Rueckert during the Priesthood Training Session |
In the Saturday evening session, we also had the opportunity to share some thoughts. Sister Rueckert was asked by some of the other sisters to share her story of becoming the mother of 17 children. She shared it wonderfully as a lesson of trusting in the Lord when your life doesn't go as you had planned. That was our theme of the conference, to Trust the Lord who knows what is best for each of us. He will always bless us as "seemeth him good". We have learned this principle with all of our hearts and love to share our testimonies about it.
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| Sister Rueckert addressing the adult session of the District Conference with a translator |
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| With Antonio Paulo and his wife Joanna. They have become dear friends to us. |
I want to add in here Sister Rueckert's thoughts about her role in this district conference and the miracles that she experienced:
"Tom was invited to participate in the
Saturday priesthood leadership meeting. I was invited to meet with the Relief
Society sisters during that time. We were both asked to talk in the Saturday
adult session. I was also asked to play the piano for the Relief Society
meeting and the adult meeting. I was totally comfortable with playing the piano
because it doesn’t require knowing the language. After playing a few bars I
know what hymn they are singing. Everything would be in Portuguese. As we were
preparing I kept asking Tom what he was going to say in the Priesthood meeting.
We have a one pager that we use a lot in our training. He said he was going to
use that. I just couldn’t seem to get things to come together for me, both in
the Relief Society meeting and in the adult session. The wives of the mission
presidency counselors said I should share my life story in the adult session.
They thought it was powerful. I felt uneasy about that as Antonio Paulo wanted
us to share some self-reliance success stories to get the district excited
about implementing the self-reliance initiative in their district. I still
didn’t have a concrete plan even as the time came to start the Relief Society
meeting.
After the opening hymn and prayer the sister who was conducting said,
“ And now we will turn the time over to Sister Rueckert.” Panic. The first
thing that came into my mind was to have the sisters sit in a circle. There were
only about ten sisters. This was a very small district. My first thought was to
begin sharing the doctrine from D&C 104:15-17. As I began to speak I heard
a voice say STOP.
“Ask each
sister to tell her name and why she is here.” I thought okay. They would
probably say their name and that they were here because they are the district
relief society president, or the young women’s president etc. I was quickly
humbled when the first one said her name and that she was here because she has
a testimony of Jesus Christ. The next sister shared her conversion story and
said that is why she was there. Another sister said she was here because her
husband had been unemployed and because of self-reliance he now had a job and
could provide for their family. I was blown away. After this the words the Lord
wanted me to share just came flowing into my mind. I thought of the scripture
that says something like, treasure up in your mind and you will be told at the
very moment what you should say. That is exactly what happened, in the Relief
Society meeting as well as the meeting with all of the adults.
Once again,
because I didn’t understand the language I was caught off guard in the adult
meeting when right after the opening hymn as I went to take my seat on the
stand, I was told that I was on. After a brief introduction of myself I
received an overpowering prompting that I needed to tell my story. I took a
deep breath and the Lord once again gave me the words that he wanted the people
in this congregation to hear. As I shared my story I focused on trust in the
Lord, following promptings and letting my Heavenly Father be in charge of my
life. I took up my time and most of Tom’s time but it is what was supposed to
be said."
As the Saturday session came to a close, we were taken to the airport by the local branch president. This gave us a chance to talk more specifically to him about his ward and potential Self-Reliance activities. He is a good man who has been guided by the Lord to establish his life in this area and help build the kingdom.
After a two hour delay in our flight, we have finally arrived in Lisbon at 3:00 am. We are now waiting for our next flight at 7:00 am to London, where our training experience will continue. That will be included in our next blog.
