FHE with Francisco and Fatima

Every Monday night I go over to a couple's home from the ward here that lives close to me, their names  are Francisco and Fatima. They are both originally from Cabo Verde (many of the members here are from Portugal's former colonies such as Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Sao Tome and Brazil) but have been in Portugal for a while now. They are some of the kindest people I have met in my life. It is so great to be able to go over there on Monday nights and have a spiritual thought, sing hymns, pray, play fun games together, and eat a snack afterwards. They are so generous in giving us food every week, even though it is pretty apparent that they are not the most wealthy people in the world. I of course have told them all about Camilia, so when she and her friends came to visit I made sure to arrange a family night at their home. It was maybe the best part of Cam and her friends' trip to Portugal. We had some great spiritual thoughts, I shared my testimony on the plan of salvation and how it has been strengthened with the passing of my Nana, how I don't have any doubt that I will see her again. As members of the group would talk, either I or one of the Elders would translate from English to Portuguese or vise versa so that everyone in the room would understand. Despite the language barrier, I don't have any doubt that Camilia and her friends were able to feel of Francisco and Fatima's love and charity. It was a very special evening and I'm glad that we organized it and that Cam was able to meet these great people, and that they were able to meet her. Francisco and Fatima remind me a lot of the Brazilian people in their love, generosity, and willingness to give all they have.

Sintra

Camilia's first day in Portugal we went to a city about a half hour outside of Lisbon by train called Sintra. It is a place that I have been meaning to come to for a while, but I decided to wait until Camilia came so that she would be able to see it as well. In Sintra we saw the two main sights to see there, the Moorish Castle and the Palace of Pena. Both of them were spectacular! It was supposed to be really rainy the day we went but it ended up being a clear, sunny day, which was good because both the castle and the palace are on top of a big mountain with beautiful views of the city and even all the way out to the ocean. Of the two, I enjoyed the Palace of Pena the most. It seems like it is a palace right out of Disneyland or something with all of its different colors and architecture, but it was absolutely beautiful. On the way from the Moorish Castle to the palace we walked past a woman who was stuck on top of a wall, and said that she had gotten lost walking around in the wilderness! The wall was pretty high up, so my friend Derek and I helped her down. When she got down, she said that she didn't know where she was, so we directed her to the nearest bus stop. It was pretty funny, but I'm glad we were able to help, she was from the U.S. I'm glad I got to experience such a beautiful place with my beautiful fiance.

Camilia's Arrival in Lisbon

The past few days Camilia came to visit me with a few of her friends from her study abroad program. To be honest she came just at the right time, as my Nana passed away this past week and her funeral was when Cam was here with me. Obviously I was having a hard time being so far away from my family during this time, and she, like she always is, was a great support to me when I needed her the most. We had a really fun few days together, I loved showing her around the city and the neat places that I have been to so far, and we even saw a few new things that I hadn't experienced yet. She and her friends Kendall, Katie, Alison, Lisa, Hilary, and Kinzie stayed at the Lund's house. The Lunds are are missionary couple that is served a mission here in Lisbon, they are from Utah as well. I met them when I got in contact with the Gales when I arrived here, and they have been great. I go over there about once a week to spend time with them and they feed me delicious meals which I really appreciate. They were very kind to have all of the girls stay at their home. The weather was supposed to be terrible the past few days, nothing but rain, but it ended up being quite nice the past few days, even sunny one of the days! I was just grateful to be able to spend some time with Camilia and see some neat places together, and I was even more grateful that she was here for me when I needed her comfort and love. 

Paris with my beautiful fiance

A lot of people my age dream of spending a week in Paris with their fiance before they get married, well I actually got to do that this last week, and it was definitely a dream come true! I loved every minute of it, and Paris definitely lived up to my expectations. It was a very romantic few days without a doubt, it was a great place to be with the love of my life, and Camilia Malnar (almost Lund) certainly meets those qualifications! It was so fun exploring the city with her and finding our way around with our little maps, it was even fun the times (more than one) where we would get lost and have to walk around fairly aimlessly to find our way. I swear it doesn't matter what I do with Camilia we have a fun time and fall more in love with each other. Our first night there we went on a boat tour through the river of Paris, and the best part was seeing the Eiffel tower lit up as we were riding along. After the tour we went up to the top of the tower, and let's just say that is one big daddy! It was just as big as we had imagined it, we were both blown away by its size and grandeur. The elevator up to the top was a little scary at times, but we protected each other and made one another feel safe. When we were halfway between the bottom and the top the tower lit up and sparkled, which was a lot of fun and made my Camilly look like a movie star. We also enjoyed some great museums, the best of course being Le Louvre. It was great to be able to experience together some of the most famous masterpieces of art, including the Mona Lisa. Versailles was also an incredible place to experience together, where we took a lot of engagement pictures. The funnest part of that adventure was definitely the boat ride we went on. I did my job as a gentleman and rowed us around the lake that they have in the massive and beautiful gardens there, and Camilia was a great navigational guide who would tell me when I was about to hit the wall. We enjoyed some great food in Paris such as crepes, and some not so good food too such as snails. The snails were a good cultural experience but let's just say that will be our last snail experience for some time, by that I mean our last experience ever. By the end of the snail meal I was just muscling down the rest of them because Cam couldn't handle anymore and I didn't want our 12 Euros for 12 snails to go to waste. Another fun thing we did was "lock our love in Paris". I didn't know about this tradition, but Cam looked into it and brought a cute lock that she had painted with two keys. We locked the lock onto a bridge, and through the keys in the water to lock our love in Paris, so now it's official!  It was an incredible few days with the person in the world I love and care for the most, and I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to experience the most romantic city in the world together.