Madrid Temple Trip

This weekend I had the chance to go to the Madrid temple with my ward and stake in Lisbon. We left at about 10 on Friday night on a bus and drove all night, getting there early in the morning on Saturday. We spend a few hours in the temple and head straight back to Lisbon at about 2 in the afternoon on Saturday. All in all, I was in the bus for about 18 hours and was in the temple for 6. Although it was tiring and I do not want to get in another bus for a while, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip and am very glad that I went. It was really neat for me to go to the temple where my Dad served his mission, and to know that my father played a role in the establishment of Zion in that area and in turn the construction of the Lord's house. The temple itself was beautiful, everything about it was amazing. As soon as we got there in the morning I did a session, and after the session I helped out doing some baptizing for some of the members. I had a really great experience baptizing a recent convert there. When I was baptizing him I realized that the names of the people I was baptizing him for were the same as his last name. I felt the spirit really strongly as I was performing the baptisms. Afterwards I asked him who those people were, and he said that they were some of his close family members such as his Dad and sister. I felt really strongly that those people had been hearing the gospel on the other side of the veil and were waiting for their family member to perform the ordinance of baptism for them here on earth. My testimony of baptisms for the dead was really strengthened through this experience. My testimony was also strengthened that my good friend Jared Johansen, who passed away this past week, is involved in this work on the other side of the veil. I'm grateful to know of the plan of salvation and know that the Lord has a plan and a purpose for us in this life and the next. I had a great experience at the Madrid temple. It made me realize truly how lucky I am to have a temple so close to where I live, I will never take it for granted. At the same time though, it was a great experience to be able to travel with the saints in my ward and do temple work together and feel of the spirit. I'm very grateful for the chance I had to go to the temple, I have missed being able to go frequently over the past few months. Hopefully someday I can come back to Portugal and go to the temple that they will be building there in the coming years. 

Tomar

It was a holiday from school today (we get a lot of unexpected holidays where we don't have to go to school yet no one can tell us what the actual holiday celebrates, I'm not complaining though) so Derek and I decided to take advantage of the day off to go see a city about two hours outside of Lisbon by train named Tomar. It definitely felt a lot more like a small city in the interior of Portugal, much smaller and quieter yet absolutely beautiful. A few of the main sights there that we saw were the church of Sao Joao Baptista, located in Tomar's main square, and the Convento de Cristo located high up on the mountain overlooking the city. The Convento de Cristo was basically a huge castle and palace that was a lot of fun to explore (we even got to get in free because it was a holiday, another unexpected blessing!). The convent was founded in 1160 by the Grand Master of the Templars, and was used by Henry the Navigator and Joao III. It was a magnificent castle, one of the best I have seen so far without a doubt. Tomar on the whole was a lot of fun to see and explore, I'm glad I got to see another one of Portugal's beautiful towns. 

Traditional Fado Music

The type of music that Portugal, and specifically Lisbon, is most known for is called Fado. It is normally a music that expresses "saudade" (longing or sorrow for what has been lost). It is played in what are called Casas de Fado, which can be found all throughout the city in back streets and alleyways. It is been a popular music for over 150 years, and it is sung by both men and women, accompanied by the guitarra and viola (an acoustic Spanish guitar). My friend Kevin and I went to a Casa de Fado in the Alfama district the other night to enjoy a nice meal and some Fado music. It was actually much more up beat and fun than I was expecting it to be, and the food was delicious as well. After we finished our meal we stayed to continue enjoying the music for about an hour or so, it was definitely a lot of fun and a great cultural experience.

Soccer Tournament

Our school hosted a soccer tournament this past weekend, so me and some of my friends put together a team to play against some of the other people from our school. Our team's name was "Maybe, Maybe No" and we even made jerseys! Now, you must be wondering where this name originated. Well, the young Korean man seen in the pictures is named Daighon, and he is famous for always saying maybe, maybe no, so we decided to make that our team name. It turned out to fit our team well, seeing as we lost all four games we played and managed to score only one goal. Although this was the case, we had a lot of fun the whole time and really enjoyed ourselves. We even had a few fans show up to support us despite our very poor play. It was nice weather, which is about all you can ask for seeing it is almost December!