Great stuff

We had a wonderful zone conference tuesday with some great folks from Colorado. President and Sister Boss from Boulder and President and Sister McKonkie from Colorado Springs spoke with us. It was a great conference and we learned a lot. Sister Tanner and I are really enjoying each other and working hard. We will be helping with a baptism this weekend. Luis the husband of Conceição is so excited to be making this step. We also get to help a little bit at girls camp tomorrow. They are camping right outside of Braga and we get to help them learn how to put out fires, cook food on a fire, and basically how to have fun.
To all of those who have ever participated in girls camp there in the united states you should all thank your lucky stars that it was there and not here. The poor stake young women's president is the only one who knows more or less what she's doing and she has to organize everything. When I mean everything I do not exaggerate. She got a couple of phone calls from bishops or young womens leaders of different wards (many hours away) asking her how she was going to get the young women from their chapel to the camp site. She's just about pulling her hair out. It's a good thing she served a mission and has all that craziness training to help her through. She'll be sainted afterward I'm sure.

Speaking of saints, we got to see some great sites here in Braga today. We went to a cathedral called Bom Jesus and climbed all the stairs and saw all sorts of pretty gardens and cultural masterpieces. We then walked to another temple 2 km away called Sameiro. That was a very interesting experience. I bought a couple of post cards that you'll all enjoy.

This week we have had quite a few trips to various parts of our zone, and to Porto during the which we got to have a bunch of great gospel conversations. We had a great one on Monday. We were headed to Póvoa do Varzim and taught a Bulgarian named Tamar Nicoleta. We were in the back of the bus and it took a lot of curves. Sister Tanner was just about to relate the 1st vision when Tamar started heaving. Luckily she didn't have anything in her stomach, but that's going to be a great teasing opportunity for years....poor Sister Tanner teaches in such a way that her hearers reach for the Barf Bag... We really do have a great relationship and enjoy poking fun at one another, and at ourselves. Usually however, our contacts are much more positive, and for example Martinho, our contact from last week, showed up at church where he enjoyed immensly the meetings and is excited to return.

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here...A whole bunch of great stuff. Oh, and we had a great Fireside Sunday night. Sister and President Henry came and spoke with the members. They are now following a schedule of study for family night that will take them through the lessons in Preach My Gospel in about a year. It's really a great program and the members are really excited.

Oi Irmão...há tantos brasileiros aqui em braga. O bispo e a família e provávelmente mais três famílias são de várias partes do brasil. É um sotaque bem legal, ouviu? Faz me sempre lembrar de ti...É um grande privilégio servir na obra do senhor. tenho saudades tuas e porta-te bem. Tens sempre as minhas orações.

Love you all! hope you're spoiling all of those cute kids for me Mom. All my love!

ellen