Hitting The Road

The Center for Employment Services (CRE=Centro de Recursos de Emprego) is located near downtown Lisboa (7-8 miles from downtown). This center serves all of Portugal which is a country about the size of Indiana. To help some of the folks get more value from our services we have taken the center on the road in a mobile environment.  

Breaking the Ice with an activity

Our first attempt at this was in the area of Setúbal and the city of Seixal. On Saturday afternoon, January 8, 2011 we held a workshop that covered: 1. Understanding your strengths and abilities, 2. You in 30 seconds, 3. Power Statements in interviews, 4. Resume writing and 5. Getting value from LDSjobs.org.

We were expecting between 10-15 people and we ended up with 22. We were ecstatic.

The best part was that everyone was serious about being there. Some had travelled quite a distance to participate. Kent invited a young man named João from Beja (a city in the Alentejo) and he came.
 

Paula teaches ´Habilidades` = skills recognition



Kent and Paula teach interviewing skills



Eileen and Céu Cavaco helped folks get registered with LDSjobs.org and to understand basic resume set-up. Paula Pereira and I (Kent) taught the skills portion along with "Comercial em 30 segundos, Declarações de Poder, Brasão and Entrevistas".
 

Eileen in front of our CRE (Centro de Recurson de Emprego)


Eileen took some fotos (see them included here) and kept the physical items in place. I ran the camera as we filmed some practice interviews. All in all a very successful first run of our mobile CRE. Our next one is in Lisboa for the whole country and it happens the 5th of February.



A Pickpocket can change your whole day!

December 18, 2010 found Eileen and Kent heading down to Praça dos Restoradores to hear the Lisboa Stake Choir sing. After enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen in an old downtown area...especially at Christmas time we headed back home on the Metro. As we entered the blue line I (Kent) slipped past a fellow that was blocking my way and sat down. Eileen stayed behind him next to the door while others got on (4 other people). They surrounded her talking loudly with each other and then turning to her and asking her questions about the next stop. They then proceeded to jump off right as the doors closed at the next stop (which I thought was the second strange thing- the first being the fact that they blocked her way to the seat where I was sitting).  

Previous sign says, watch belongings!

As Eileen sat down next to me I immediately asked her to check her purse. She looked down and saw the outside pocket was unzipped but her glasses were still there so she felt nothing had been taken. I asked her to flip over the flap and look further. Yikes! Three other pockets had been unzipped and they had taken her cell phone, keys, address wallet, credit card and lip gloss (but missed the little pocket with the cash and the camera). Well we ended up getting locks changed on the house, credit card cancelled and grew a new set of antenna to watch out for future pickpockets. A week later we think we watched one that was attempting something similar but the lady turned away from him with her purse hugged to her chest. We are getting a real education on the metro system here. Worth every penny it cost us.
 

Irmãs leaving in our large elevator

The experience allowed us to teach a training session to the missionaries about how to be a dumb American and get pickpocketed though this can happen in any major city in the world. A picture is worth a thousand words and we now see what they mean when they say watch your belongings, especially upon entering and exiting the metro. These Irmãs got the full story and a lesson was learned as they joined us for a Christmas Party at Antonio Serpa. Merry Christmas to all and to all a pickpocket free night.


Christmas Season in Lisboa

The most wonderful of all seasons began with our local church Festa de Natal on December 7th at Gago Coutinho Chapel. We enjoyed all the food and dessert a person could handle starting with homemade soup. Santa even showed up in Portuguese style.



Eileen and Maria Rosaria

 The best thing about Christmas parties is you get to be with best friends, like Maria Rosaria, who wanted to make sure Eileen tasted her traditional Portuguese dessert. Each time Eileen sees Irmã Rosaria she is greeted with minha amiga (my friend).

The Mission Christmas Festa was the next major event. On December 21st over 100 missioinaries convened in the Oeiras chapel for both a spiritual and physical feast. President Torgan and his beautiful wife Rosa taught all of us about the love of the Saviour and how it helps us, especially during this time of year. The more we emulate the Saviour the more joy we will enjoy in this life and beyond. We had an incredible group of missionaries with great big smiles and lots of hugs.

Rosa Torgan and Eileen at Irmãs Table



Eileen ended up at the Irmãs table with Rosa Torgan and lots of big smiles. Irmã Howard behind Eileen was to be on an airplane on the way to Minnesota to be with her family (after 18 months away) but the flight was cancelled due to snow in Paris so she was on her way the next day.

Elder McLean (from Pleasant Grove and a Gale relative somewhere back there) and Elder Rodrigues (Cabo Verde) sat across from us during dinner, making the time extra special for us. The closeness of the group personified the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love we can and should have for each other.

No matter what country, skin color or language, everyone was a brother or sister at this event and made it a great success. We ended the day with a white elephant exchange that had everyone involved. The last hour we enjoyed some inspirational remarks from Elder Rocha and President Torgan. Some abraços and fond farewells and many were on buses back to their areas, some with 4-5 hour trips ahead of them.

President Moroni and Irmã Rosa Torgan

Irmã Torgan put it all together with Kent and Eileen packaging the 100+ gift bags for the missionaries. Eileen spent almost 5 hours making 200 plus peanut butter cookies (small oven meant lots of batches) to be combined with the Rosa Torgan cookies. Nothing like homemade cookies to warm the spirits on a cold winter´s night (come on, it was below 50 degrees!).

Christmas morning found 17 missionaries at our home to share Christmas with us. We had a wonderful feast as the Irmãs made a huge fruit salad while Elder Keller and Wohlman cooked the bacon. We added scones and eggs with lots of chocolate milk and peanut butter for a celestial style meal. It was an amazing day with incredilbly unselfish young men and young women.

Christmas wouldn´t be right without some great Christmas Carols. Elder Bezerra (Forteleza Brasil-front left) was enjoying his last Christmas in Portugal with a plane trip home coming in just two short months. The terrific thing was that these young men knew how to sing and sang in harmony. And....they loved singing. We just basked in it all and enjoyed the entire day with different missionaries, with Elder Stanley leaving at around 5pm after he had written about the whole event in his journal. This was a time worthy for our journals toooooo!

Special Delivery Package

In the Las Vegas, Nevada corner of the world, weighing in at just over 8 pounds, Alexander Michael Jensen made his debut the day after Thanksgiving. A small package but a wonderful one as the Jensens get ready for the Christmas Season. Yes, life in the grandkids arena keeps on going with or without us there. When Eileen saw the text message of the new arrival cheers went up and big tears came down. That makes it 15 grandkids with another two on the way. Nothing greater than that.

 AJ, as they call him, is a deep thinker as you can tell by the far away look in his eyes.....or else he is just thinking back on the wonderful experience he just left.

He arrived just in time to help decorate the Christmas Tree but needed too much care and feeding to be left under the tree with the other gifts. Yep, he put smiles on all the faces in the house even though Rachel doesn´t get quite the attention she is used to.