Fighting the Curse of Unemployment

Since arriving in Lisboa we have seen a threefold increase in unemployed brothers and sisters coming to the Lisboa Centro de Emprego for help. Most expect us to have a long list of job opportunities where they can pick the best one and off to work they go. (You know the song....Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it´s off to work we go!) In reality the main objective is to help each individual to understand their career goals and dreams, build a plan and then take action to achieve the goals. It includes lots of steps, most require very focused and intense training.  

Céu Cavaco Teaching Specialists from All Over Portugal


First, we have to learn about coaching those that are unemployed. December 10th - 11th saw 20 individuals from around Portugal come to our center on Gago Coutinho for a Coaching Workshop. One of the two trainers from Spain suffered a heart problem and missed the whole conference ending up in the hospital down the street from the seminiar. She recovered well and returned home to Valencia the next evening. Céu, our direct manager in Lisboa, kicked off the meeting and helped organize the event. She is extremely talented, juggles many priorities and wears many hats.  

Bispo Sá Barros teaching the group

 Bispo Sá Barros is a former pilot for a large airline and has used his retirement to go back to law school plus help at the employment center....in addition to many other responsibilities. He brings great wisdom and knowledge to the center. Patricia at his right is over the Jovems-Adultos Center next door and works with the young single adults from 18-30. She is multi lingual and as bright a leader as you will find anywhere.


Céu, Paula and Eileen planning the Coaching Workshop

   Eileen works directly with Céu Cavaco and on Wednesdays, Paula Perreira rounds out the team. Paula is creating a mobile version of the employment center that we will be taking to each region. The first will be in Setúbal the first week in January. Eileen worked directly with Céu in planning the physical aspects of the coaching seminar. It turned out to be a huge success.

Getting the details on skills and experience

The real work takes place with the individual. Here, in our Centro de Recursos de Emprego (CRE) we teach basic principles once we have established a career path with the individual. Here Kent is working with a wonderful man from Romania that has been in Portugal for some time and just lost his job. The training has seen great progress already, including having this energetic fellow taking a night class in Portuguese 4 nights a week to make him more marketable. All in all, most days at the center have serious unemployed individuals in training for the entire time we are there. At times they bring their children along and Eileen turns into a pre-school teacher!

Thanksgiving in Portugal- Lot´s to be thankful for

Thanksgiving day found us deeply involved in a Zone Conference with 20+ other missionaries and the only vestige of a Thanksgiving Feast was chicken on the pizza at lunch. We found the Zone Conference exceptional with an incredible commitment from a roomfull of 19-21 year old young men and a handful of sisters. The meeting was virtually conducted and the training was given by these young people. President Torgan and his wife Rosa each gave some instruction but all in all, it was a meeting of young people teaching young people.
 You would think that on a holiday the traffic would drop off. But no, it was a busy day as you can see from the picture out the window of our apartment from 5 stories up. I suspect there is no respect for Thanksgiving in Lisboa.

Not to miss the chance to celebrate, Eileen put the best face on some elements of a Thanksgiving Feast for a big Sunday dinner (3 days after Thanksgiving) for the missionaries in our neighborhood. The missionaries that were native to Portugal found it entertaining (two young men and a sister, all from Porto). We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, special jello arrangement, grilled chicken (cousin to the turkey) and brownies with ice cream. The Portuguese Sister liked the stuffing so much she took the leftovers home with her.Eileen pulled off a great feat as all the missionaries and guests loaded up their plates. Ryan Turner, red head on right, is a graduate student from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and didn´t mind joining in the festivities. Brownies are unique to the U.S. we suspect and thus the U.S. Elders didn´t pass up the chance to eat every crumb.

 Eileen also took the opportunity to get a haircut for the occasion and you can see, they do a good job here. The map behind shows Portugal and many of the cities we will be visiting as Kent was just called to serve in the Mission Presidency and will help call, train and help the branches in remote areas like Beija. Eileen was called as a training specialist and will help on all the trips. We will be visiting Beija twice a month and Santarém once a month.

It took four different tables in our apartment to create one long table. Yes, it was lumpy and irregular but as long as you put your drink down in the right place you were OK. Elder Ferreira (front) and Dias (third from right) were two of native Elders that were introduced to "stuffing". We ended the meal with each person volunteering their thoughts on what they were thankful for. Everyone was far from home and each person´s thoughts were amazing and left an incredible spirit of thanksgiving with us. It seemed that most everyone was thankful for a person that had a significant impact on their life....brother, parent, etc. And overall, we were all filled to the brim with thanks for the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings peace and joy to the world when we live his teachings to love one another.