Dear Family,
How saddened we have been this last few days after hearing of the passing of our dear friend, Wendy Maxfield, daughter of President Nelson. What a wonderful person she is! We seriously think of her and her husband, Norm, as some of the most Christ-like people we have ever had the pleasure of knowing! When Gpa George was the bishop of the Brighton 11th Ward, Norm served as his first counselor. He and Wendy were such willing servants of the Lord and did so much to help out with this brand new ward in the brand new ward house. When Gpa George took the job in Jacksonville and I stayed back in Utah for the school year to allow Amy to finish her Senior year there, I don't know what I would have done without Wendy. Each day, after school, she allowed Kent to come over to their home until I finished teaching clear on the other side of the valley in West Valley, and pick him up. In addition, she helped out with so many other times because not only the younger boys were friends with her boys, but Amy was on the drill team with their oldest daughter, Marissa. Throughout it all, Wendy never complained or made me feel like I wasn't welcome to ask for any help I needed. As a matter of fact, she volunteered to help out in many more ways than I would have ever expected. We all will truly miss her! Gpa George and I were so amazed that even with her passing, President Nelson and his wife, Wendy, still went to California on Sunday to help and give comfort to the people there who lost so much in the fires, although I'm sure his heart was aching, too, for now the passing of his second daughter to cancer. President Nelson truly sees the whole picture of this life and beyond!
We have certainly had a busy week. On Tuesday, we were thrilled to finally get to see Elder Rothwell from Lone Peak area, a great friend of our grandchildren, especially Kade who plans to live with him at college when they both return. Elder Rothwell returns in May from his mission here in Frankfurt. I will never forget his big smile as he came in the front door of the church and saw us sitting there. Kade had told him that we were going to be there, and he was so excited to see us! We got to talk about 30 - 45 minutes and had such a great time laughing and talking about many things that we all had so much in common.
That evening, we went to our analyst from Italy's home for dinner. His wife is from China and made us the most wonderful Chinese meal--seriously a 5-star meal! Their two little children were adorable and we presented a spiritual thought and game. Gpa George told them about making choices and they especially loved the story about when he was cleaning out the water hyacinths behind his house in the boat slip and when he got out of the water for a little rest on the river bank, there was a huge water moccasin right beside him. He yelled to his dad as to what he should do. His dad calmly said, "Leave it alone." Gpa George listened to his dad--and eventually the snake gave up about bothering him and left. This is how each of us should choose when there is something bad or evil--leave it alone! They loved this story!
On Thursday, we left for Lisbon, Portugal, to meet with a AAA who has been having a few problems.
Then the next day, we met in a Coordinating Council Meeting where nine Stake Presidents, one District President, one Mission President, and one Temple President were in attendance--some with their wives. In total, 24 people were in attendance. We were able to do training with them--most of them spoke some English if we talked slowly--only one asked for an interpreter to sit beside him. This has been one of the biggest challenges for our mission--the language barrier. However, there is no way we could know Russian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Armenian, etc., etc. Instead, we try our best with interpreters and hope our messages get across. Anyway, the meeting went very well, we thought. The church house was actually a huge house that the church has owned for over 40 years--it is in a very posh neighborhood, which they acquired very inexpensively when they first bought it. Now, it is probably worth 2 - 3 million dollars.
A new church is being built right beside the new Portugal Lisbon Temple a couple of miles away, so they will probably sell it since they will have so much more space in the new church and won't need this building any more. We went by the new church and temple--both will probably be finished about September. As I say, they have already chosen the new Temple President and Matron who we got to meet at the meeting.
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George with one of our AAAs in Lisbon.
George and Kiever, our analyst, from Portugal.
Baptismal font in the church.
Lisbon is truly a beautiful city!
While we were in Lisbon, we took the opportunity to try to see many of the sites of this beautiful city! We were so impressed with the wonderful people there and what a great place it is! We were able to go to the old fortress high on the hill overlooking the city, right on the water called Castelo De S. Jorge. It goes back to the medieval period.
At another time, we strolled the streets of Old Lisbon, took the street car 28 through the old area--which is like riding the cable car up and down the streets in San Francsico--just as bumpy and crazy of a ride--maybe even crazier!
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