Assignment- Portugal Riviera



Portugal has a section of the country called the "Algarve" which is a vacation paradise for many Euopeans and others from around the globe. With wonderful beaches, wildlife and lots of sun the Algarve attracts most of the world´s largest resort companies to satisfy the appetites of vacationers.  

First time to the Algarve Eileen looks at Ocean from Faro

This environment creates a labor nightmare with seasonal jobs resulting in seasonal unemployment. Eileen and I have the privilege of working with the Lisboa team and our manager from Madrid to help those that find themselves unemployed in this environment. We have done some individual training and will do a mobile Employment Training Center in Faro and Portimão during May.
 
 Our main assignment is to help strengthen the church in Olhão, a beautiful city on the Portuguese south coast just a few miles from the Spanish Riviera. Our goal in Olhão is to help build leadership in this first generation of church members. We all have a lot to learn about loving each other as exemplified by Christ, our Savior. The world invites us to satisfy every appetite and passion. Christ teaches us to control our appetities and discipline ourselves as we become his disciples. Much of this discipline comes from participating in the weekly instruction and sharing that occurs at church (thus, The Church of Jesus Christ). We are helping establish a structure and discipline of regular learning and keeping commitments by attending church. We love getting to do this. 

Alberto and Cristina have their hands full with work plus 3



We are assigned to work with the wonderful people in the Olhão branch of the Church. Felipe Barros is the unpaid local branch president (or minister). He is a statistics professor during the week at the local university.  

Silvia loves speaking English with Eileen, especially when out to eat

His sweetheart passed away 9 months ago so he and his daughter Silvia make up the sum total of the family there in Olhão. On one trip down he prepared the most tasty meal we have had in Portugal with tender meat in a wonderful sauce wrapped around a filling. Wow! We all walked out 10 pounds or 5 kilos heavier. Silvia, his 15 year old daughter, plays the piano for church and is quite adept at English, reveling in her chance to speak it with Eileen. 

President Filipe made a masterful meal for Eileen/Kent & Elders Bauman and Sherman (just look at Silvia´s smile)



The Portugal Team Gets Together



Trip home from Ikea w/furniture, Linn on Gary´s lap



We live on the 5th floor of a commercial building in one of the business centers of Lisboa. In this 10 story building there are many businesses (consultants, lawyers, etc.) and 3 families (we are one of them). Our apartment is large including 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms (or library/offices), a wonderful kitchen, big dining room and large living room. We also have two enclosed porches for hanging laundry. Due to the size of the apartment we volunteered to share it with another couple (Casal) from Huntsville, Utah; Gary and Linn, Lund. We share the rent and expenses and it works out great.....as long as we don´t get tired of each other and try throwing each other off the enclosed porch to the roof below. Why are we telling you all of this....because the circumstances and experiences of the 200 missionaries in Portugal are so different and yet in many ways, so similar, that we decided to look more closely at the "Portugal Team".



Eileen next to Elder Rocha and Elder Caussé at mission conference in Miratejo

One of our favorite experiences has been getting together with the other missionaries and sharing experiences with each other. It is so fascinating to meet so many unselfish and motivated people that love to serve, love representing Jesus Christ and have a single goal of helping the Portuguese people enjoy more happy and peaceful lives. The single missioinaries live a spartan life with no TV, Wii, video games, radios, etc.and use all their spare change for travel and basic necessities. We have attended quite a few missionary conferences where training and instruction takes place. The single missionaries have until 5pm on Monday set aside to do laundry, cleaning, shopping and such (also fun things like volleyball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, etc.) The other six days are dedicated to missionary proselyting and/or service work. We work at the Employment Center on Monday´s so we do the non-missionary stuff at other times. Many nights we find ourselves working until 8:30 or 9:00pm working on projects, studying or visiting local families. Comparing notes with the other married couples, it averages just over $3,000 per month to live and travel here so paying for the mission requires each couple to have at least $55,000 set aside to pay for the 18 month mission. Working with so many people that pay there own way and smile every second about it is amazing. One of our special treats was a visit from Elder Gerald Caussé, originally from Paris, France but now living in Frankfurt, Germany with his family. He came for three days to instruct the missionaries from the Açores and Algarve to Lisboa. He was so kind, wise and loving that we enjoyed every minute of his visit.

 

Eileen with Sister Almeda and Perez

Sister missionaries have always been exceptionally fun to work with. It may be unique to Portugal but the Sister missioinaries smile all the time and lift everyone they are around. We helped two sisters move south of Lisbon into an apartment that had Elders (young men) living there. We hauled 4 large suitcases and some smaller cases and it filled the car along with the four of us (2 sisters and us). The Elders were transferred so fast that they decided to leave without really cleaning up. As a token of their embarrassment they left two large chocolate bars for the sisters. As is typical, Sister Perez and Sister McCrery just smiled and got to work cleaning up.  

Sister McCrery and Perez looking at food left by Elders





All Over the Map



Elder Barbosa and Noda outside Beja Chapel back door

February found us traveling across Portugal and doing about everything under the sun. Three times a month we travel to small branches of the church in far away places to help strengthen and support them in their efforts to follow the Savior´s example of love and determination to do what is right. We see in the world around us and especially here in europe that there is great pressure to forget personal values and just do what feels best. Commitment to personal integrity, moral values, family and financial responsibility suffer much. So on weekends we work with the church units in smaller towns to better understand what it means to learn about Jesus Christ and follow his example. Our first adventure was to Santarém just north of Lisboa. We made several trips to visit them. Then we started routine visits to Beja, about two hours southeast of Lisboa.

Beautiful Beja Members at 9 pm dinner

Then last week we had our first trip to the Algarve (border closest to Africa) and visited Faro and Olhão. It was terrific. What wonderful people we have encountered across the country. The branch president we visited in the Algarve is a professor of mathematics at the university there. He is doing a great job helping the branch members in their earthly sojourn and has a wonderful daughter that plays the piano for the branch.  He lost his wife eight months ago and now must traverse life without his companion. 

Our role during the week is to help our friends and neighbors here in Portugal set a career plan and then follow it. That is the best way to diminish and eliminate unemployment.



Paula Pereira and me helping coach an interview prep session



We have helped with several workshops and had a special training session we did for four adults in the same family...quite an amazing group. The mother runs her own cake making business. The father is in the military. The daughter-in-law is a teacher in secondary school and the son just returned from a mission and is looking for a job. All of them wanted to understand how to build a career plan and make the most of their lives at work since it is such a consuming part of life.

Some of our classes have been much larger. Paula Pereira organized a bigger one in Seixal, just across the Rio Tejo from Lisboa. We helped film the interview simulations on three different nights and we loved the opportunity to really help. 

We also had some normal encounters with the real world. We have not been able to pay bills with our bank account because the username and password inadvertently got left with an auto stop date which threw everything into a tizzy. We are only 3 months into getting it set up.
 

Eileen at the famous fountain on Praça Rossio


We also ran into some more pickpockets (carteristas) as we walked to the bank. The leader (man in black) was going about the praça working with young men about 20 years old in scoping out and following wealthy looking tourists. We stood and watched for a while. Quite interesting as we watched their hand signals.
 

Coach, Captain and Director of local 20 year old entrepreneurs

On another front, our cell phone was saying the SIM card was not inserted two or three times each day so we had to go get a new phone....now that phone says we are not in a service area (might be a problem with the SIM card). And finally, the apartment below us got flooded, apparently from a leak in our bathroom somewhere, not obvious. That has taken 5 days and still no specific resolution. We have decided that our test is one of patience right now. So, on this valentines day we have just had some good old laughs about the little blips in life and then tried to get fat eating some heart shaped cookies Eileen made to share with the neighbors.

LDS Chapel Avenida Almirante Gago Coutinho 93, CRE in back

Today we had lots of rain after a week and a half of much sunshine and 55-60 degrees. This weather has made the location of our Centro de Recursos de Emprego (CRE) especially beautiful. It is snuggled behind the Gago Coutinho chapel shown above. It looks quite beautiful when seen from this angle.

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.