Aug 31, 2015 - Luis!

So we found this guy Luis about 2 weeks ago. Hes from Lisbon and is here visiting his son for about a month or 2. We contacted him in the street and he said that he has always seen the elders in Lisbon but never talked to him. So we invitied him to church and he said yeah he'll come by. He lives out of his car and doesnt have any clothes except one purple striped shirt and one green striped shirt. So hes in the perfect humble sitauation to accept the gospel!

So last week he didnt come to church and we call him wednesday to talk to him and he said " I didnt lie! I came to church! But I came at 3 and it was already closed! I didnt lie I didnt lie!" Haha Luis calm down just come next week. So then on friday we had an awesome lesson in the chapel with him and he said the most heartfelt prayer I've heard in a long time! He just poured out his soul just asking for a little luck. Then at the end he said he wanted to cry for some strange reason. (Yeah thats the spirit punching you in the face:D) So then yesterday he came to church and he really liked it! Hopefully he'll be here long enough for him to get baptized before he goes back to Lisbon! But yeah Luis is our best friend now!

Other than that nothing too special happened. Maria Jose didnt come to church but we helped pull some onions from her garden! It was pretty fun!

The Portuguese catholics do some good work on their Cathedrals!

Tenham uma semana maravilhosa! Até logo!

Aug 24, 2015 - MARIA JOSE!!

This week was awesome!!! :D

We've been working with this awesome lady Maria Jose for months now! And she lives literally next door to the chapel. I've come to really love her and SHE FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!! It was so aweomse! She just walked by herself and finally showed up! The memebrs were so awesome in making her feel loved and she had a good time! I actually spoke so that was a good coincidence and there were 30 people in sacrament too! (normally we have 17-19) So it was awesome! So now we can finally talk more about baptism and we are going to push for her to get baptized this next week!!

Oh I had ratatouille this week! We had a member meal and it was delicious!

Ok so I love my comp but sometimes hes a little blonde..... We were making a cake for his birthday from scratch. The recipe was written like this

4 flour, 

4 sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 salt

etc etc

So obviously the flour and sugar are cups and the salt is either Tbls or Tsp. But he insisted that no we have to add 1 and a half CUPS of salt. CUPS! I told him a million times no dont put in 1 and a half cups! Its Tbls! Thats insane! As he was doing it i was like yelling at him and it was too late and he reasoned that with 8 cups of the other stuff 1 cup of salt is nothing and will be evened out. So obvisouly we tasted it and we almost gagged and his cake was ruined. Too funny! Haha I love him:D

We watched Finding faith in Christ this week with an investigator! And the part where he has the adulterer brought to him and says "he without sin cast the first stone." THEN he tells the adulterer "Go and sin no more" I have a question that I cant find the answer to. Does the phrase go and sin no more mean she literally was blessed to never sin again and was perfect from that point on? Or was she just forgiven and told try your best not to commit adultery again and not to sin again? Because it kinda sounded like a command or a blessing as if she WILL SIN NO MORE. I hope my question makes sense.

Love you all and an awesome week!

And this our go kart adventures!

 

 

Aug 17, 2015 - Grape season!

So grapes are in full ripe season right now! And theres a law here that if any fruit is hanging over the fence theyre free game! So thats pretty cool. And theyre so yummy!

My comps birthday is today so we're going Go Karting! Its like the only Go karting place in the whole country and its in our area! I'm pumped!

Church was really interesting. So there was the portugal EFY this weekend so all the youth in our ward was gone. And my branch president is like 23 so he went too. ( I think it was like a 16-25 age group thing) Anyway, also our one other priesthood holder and his whole family was gone so it was just me, my comp, and 12 women at chuch! hahah so weird! So I presided and it was probably my first and last time having to take the sacrament first! Then I had to teach gospel principles class on honesty and I told the story of how when I was 10 or so my parents got me in a lie and I had to eat a spoon full of tabasco sauce. They all loved it haha then a couple from porto came late and so for priesthood it was just me, my comp and this one guy just chillin and talking about the brother of jared. Weird day!

I had my first district meeting which was pretty sweet! I love my district!

I was reading in 3 Nephi and in chapter 7 there is a verse that apparently I must not have read every other time I have read the book of mormon! In 3 Nephi 7:19 Nephi raises his brother from the dead!!! His brother who was stoned to death, Nephi was just like "nope I'm a prophet youre not dying today!" Crazy things man.

We find this guy Rui. We knock his door and we go in to teach him. He's a little slow in the head and isnt really understanding anything. Yada yada yada we're at the end teaching prayer. And we have to tell him 5 or 6 times how to pray and finally I just say ok. I will say each line and you reapeat it. I asked him if he had a question for his Heavenly Father. And it was weird he just wanted to know where he was. Actually a pretty interesting thought. So I say the most simple prayer I could.

Father in Heaven. Where are you? Are you here with me? In the name of jesus christ Amen

And the most incredible feeling came over me. I just felt calm and happy and all my stresses and everything left me. I felt really happy and I knew for a fact that he was there with me and with us in that room. I dont know if Rui could feel it but I feel like that little prayer was more for me. It was incredible. Prayer is so powerful and I am so grateful I can talk with my father in heaven whenever I want!

Everyone have an awesome week and have fun in school! Love you all!

Aug 10, 2015 - Sushi!

Bom dia tudo mundo!

This week went by way too fast! Last P day we went a had some sushi which was like a 5 out of 10 but still way good becasue he beat our cooking! But then on tuesday we went to a little gypsie neighborhood which sometimes could be a waste of time but we have one little family that we are trying to work with. Anyway we are talking to all these kids and they start asking us if we know all these WWE wrestlers haha like they are talking all about who is the best WWE wrestler and they have all these youtube videos of WWE. It crackd me up. 

Then we had our Zone meeting! It was the best zone meeting yet! First we wrote a huge list of things of why it is so hard to baptize in Portugal. So we wrote catholics, and church was too early, and people too hard to change, and everyone is on vacation etc. There were like 40 reasons. Then we read 3 profecies specifically about Portugal and we dissected D&C 4. And basically they asked if we should have these excuses or trust in modern day prophets and modern day revelation? I dont know why it didnt feel like scolding but got me super pumped! Then we talked a lot about teaching and finding families and fathers. And president said that if we find a woman or a wife or kid, we cant teach them without the father giving permision or him being taught too. So its been hard this week to find these families and the dad wants nothing to do with us making us have to drop them. But I know that this counsel is revelation and definietly will make this country grow and become stronger. 

Miracle story. It was like the last 45 minutes of the night and we hadnt had ay success. So we made a goal of just finding 1 new investigator. Just 1 before the night was over. So we said a prayer asking for guidance and we start knocking this building. The 2nd door is a family who has already been taught a lot by previous elders and are way super nice and boom. Miracle. I know for a fact that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and he is always there to help us! More on them next week. 

We had a FHE with our branch president again andwe talked all about the Book of Mormon and why its so important etc. The lesson went really well but its so awesome being a missionary because we teach so much and while I teach I learn so much too! So by the end of the lesson my testimony of the Book of Mormon was that much stronger. We didnt teach anything deep or some new revalation but just simple truth. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I love it!

Well hope you guys have an awesome week! Abraços! 

Aug 3, 2015 - Behind Enemy Lines

So my subject line has the weirdest story behind it!

First off this week was transfers! My comp left to go train and so I stayed here! My new comp was in the MTC with me, Elder Platts! His first name is Tanner. Haha of course. And hes from southern California and hes a classic surfer dude. Anyway I was called to be DL over one other dupla in our district and I'm pretty pumped! My old DL is my new ZL and hes super cool so I'm pumped! My old comp was the one with the drivers license so I needed to get mine! So we wake up wednesday morning and drive 2.5 hrs to porto to do all the paper work. We actually ended up just chillin in the mission office for the better part of the day and that was way fun to see all the elders passing through the office. I saw all my old comps and It was just fun.

Then that afternoon I had to get my doctor check up for my drivers license to make sure I can see and breathe and stuff. Then the next morning after sleeping in the executives house we went to the DMV to get my license. And if you think American DMVs are bad just picture portuguese haha thre was like a huge fight with yelling and screaming with police because someone thought someone else cut in line. ANYWAY we are doing our paper work and the lady tells us that we need to have our utah state driving record stamped, sealed, translated and signed by the US CONSOLATE!! And the closest one is in lisboa! So we called president and explained the situation and he said do whatever it takes! So we took a road drip to Lisboa!! 3 hours down the A1 and it was super relaxing. But Lisboa is now the other mission! So president told us not to tell anyone that we were going... haha so yeah I crossed the mission border and snuck into lisboa smuggling all our paperwork with us. It was pretty sweet.

Then the next morning, friday, we get it all figured out and now I am a licensed driver in the country of portugal! And my license doesnt expire until 2044! Sweeeet. So then we had to drive another 3 hours back to porto then andother 2.5 to our actual area and we got home to late to work and we finally started proselyting on saturday. So yup we spent 72 hours driving all over the country. Fun stuff!

I have a ton of respect for the office elders. They do so much and like never sleep or eat and they deserve a raise or something.

This week in preisthood we learned about fasting and the talk from president Eyring in conference. And our stake president said something really interesting. He said that with every commandment and law or anything we are fasting. Not just from food at the beginning of the month but fast from money for tithing, or fast from beer and drugs, or fast from the world on sundays, or fast from music and movies for 2 years on a mission, or fast from anything! Every law or commandment in the church requires some sort of fasting. Super cool insight.

Anyway. Last week we went to this super cool castle!

Love you guys! Hope you have a radical week!

July 27, 2015 - Gargulhada: A Burst of Laughter

Yeah this week was pretty nuts!

We FINALLY met our new mission president! Hes super Brazilian. I dont know if you know but if you didnt know portuguese you would think Brazilian and portuguese portuguese are 2 different languages. But hes super cool! He brought a ton of new fogo and just a lot of good vibes! We had to be at the meeting at 7 in coimbra so we had to drive there the day before and we stayed in the elders house there but the thing is half the zone had to do that! So 10 elders all slept in the same house haha it was quite a party. 

He talked a lot about how obedience is key! Just be 100% obedient and we will see the blessings come. He even gave everyone a new white bible as an analogy to a new start and a new revival of the rules. Super cool. Then he talked about how success isnt measured by baptisms. And that was really good for me especially. And he held up a jar of rice and he dumped it on the ground and as he did that 7 or 8 big black beans were revealed. He said how every grain of rice was a rejection or a door slam or a NO. And the beans were people prepared to hear us and be baptized. So be patient and we need to be emptying our rice jar one person at a time. Every time we get a rejection we should say "YES!! 1 less grain of rice!" Haha it was pretty cool!

Then we had interviews but ours wasnt till 5 pm! So we went on a little mini division with the ZLs and it was actually way good! We contacted literally every person we saw and I got a new fogo to do more contacts! Then in my interview he challenged me to do 20 contacts every day! And so being exaclty obedient in the last 3 days I've done just that! And my comp! So between the 2 of us in the last 72 hours we've talked to 120 people. I feel so energized! I'm really excited to see what more our new mission President brings.

Oh and about Francisco and Rodrigo. Their Dad is scared of and said that we're dangerous and we cant talk to them anymore. Pretty dumb but oh well. We had to respect him and so we dropped them. I really hope we touched them enough to change their lives.

This week in my studies I came across an Ensign article about Samuel H Smith. The OTHER brother of Joseph Smith! So I found my new Hero from Pioneer days! Sam Smith was the 3rd person to be baptized in this last dispensation (Poor guy! I've never heard of him! I've only heard of the first 2! You would think the bronze medal would be at least mentioned!) Haha and he basically took over all the farm and house duties of Hyrum and Joseph while they were out restoring things. Sam actually was a scribe of the BOM for a little while. He also was the first Latter day Saint to arrive at Carthage and he helped burry his 2 brothers. His wife died and left him 2 (or maybe 3) little children and he such a beast! He died 30 days after Joseph and Hyrum of some fever but I think it was like a broken heart or just exhaustion. He was the behind the scenes guy that made everything run! So yeah just a little bit of church history for you people. I'm sure Im like the last to find this out but oh well! So happy Pioneer day! 

Well hope you have a marvelous week filled with sun and summer fun! 

And this picture here is an owl made up of random car parts! This city has a ton of random modern art stuff. Boa Semana!

 

 

July 20, 2015 - Bom Dia Alegria!

One more week in the books!

So our mission presidente finally arrived in the country! He got here last week and he said that he is going to delay transfers until he interviews every missionary so now I gues we're going to have an 8 week transfer... weird stuff but I'm not even mad! This area is super awesome and my comp and I have become way good friends so 1 or 2 more weeks is going to be sweet! 

I gave a talk yesterday in church on obedience so that was cool.

We are still teaching Francisco and his brother Rodrigo and this week with them was hilarious! We can tell that they reallllly look up to us and they are kinda weird kids and need friends pretty desperately so they kinda just attached themselves to us. But they are reading the Book of mormon and they want every pamphlet and its been so fun! Every day they fight over who gets to pray and who knows more and stuff and its quite a strange predicament. 

But we decided that we feel like a father to them. Their father isnt really anywhere in their lives so we know that we need to not only be teaching them the gospel but also man and life skills. Its been cool to see them slowly but surely change. They didnt come to church yesterday but they said they would for sure this week!

We had a combined branch activity and it was so fun! We played soccer and volleyball and I realized that I have really slipped with my sports haha oh well. It was still fun and we got sunburned and everything and I love our branch!

Well this is what we do during weekly planning. We take light saber pictures! 

Love you guys! Have an awesome week!

July 13, 2015 - New Mission Prez

Hello my fellow Americans!

This week we had Zone Meeting! On wednesday we took our 2 and a half hour drive to Coimbra and we get there and we call the ZLs and they say it isnt until thursday.... Hahah that was quite annoying. So we drove back home did a little work then drove back the next day! So yeah we spent 10 hours in the car this week!

Anyway our mission president finally got his visa and he arrives this week! The mission council talked with him over Skype so they got to kinda meet him and get his vision for the mission and stuff. He's super cool! He has so much faith and said that we're going to baptize more tnan the mission did BEFORE the split! It was pretty powerful. Also, just to say, when he was on his mission in Brazil he was AP for his last 15 months and baptized every single weekend for his last 39 weeks!! too crazy! He focused A TON on obedience. He said that obedience and hard work was how we are going to succeed! So I'm pretty pumped to baptize!!

But this week we founf this awesome kid named Francisco! He's 16 and we always see him doing email and at the mall and just like randomly on the streets like every day. So we finally got his address and decided to teach him, and hes captivated to say the least! He is super into everything we say and he said he stayed up till 4 am reading the book of mormon! He is coming to church on sunday and hes awesome! 

I've been reading in the war Chapters of Alma this week and everytime I read this part I get pumped!!! Moroni is just super human. And a genius. And the stripling warriors are fearless and just trust in God more than anything and I'm a guy who likes action maybe thats why I like it so much haha but sometimes its hard to get super spiritual with all those wars. But I never really realized HOW MUCH the stripling warriors trusted in God. They shouldve lost. Helaman called them little boys and sons like 5 times but they still just said, "Nah we're good we've got the Lord on our side dont worry about it" too cool! I hope all of you are like the stripling warriors and know that you can defeat anything with the Lord on your side!!

Have an awesome week!!

July 6, 2015 - Its like a sauna in here

Well yeah its like a sauna over here on the other side of the pond! Its been hot and humid but oh so great!

 

4th of July was a pretty average day here. We just worked like normal and I wore my red white and blue tie! haha but it was actually a pretty crazy coincidence that for my morning studies that day I just happened to be on Alma 46 in mt Reading! So yeah I read all about the title of liberty and Moroni being his awesome self and it was a cool little reminder to fight for our freedoms and our family and our religion!! Its pretty cool.

 

Then for lunch on the 4th we decided to just get a good nice fresh salad! We went to the mall and it was delicious! Haha pretty unAmerican but oh well. We were so hot haha

 

Oh I tried sardines for the first time this week too! Way good!

 

But honestly this week was dang hard. We had a total of 5 lessons. yeah it was rough. Our teaching pool is basically empty and so we have been doing so much finding and tracting and we have felt pretty up beat and excited but just have been seeing no results! So we've been learning a lot about just enduring. Just keep trying to do better every day. So yeah. Not too much to report on.

 

Yes it was quite a shock to see the Supreme Court stuff show up over here in Portugal but I ehard the news. Its very interesting how in conference it seemed like every other talk was about families!!! Prophets can see the future! but no really! Really cool how they prepared us for battle really with those talks. I love this church.

 

Well thats about it! We went to this cool garden today! can you see me??

 

Love you guys and keep being you!

 

Oh and I forgot!!!! Our mission presidente still insnt here.... he cant get his visa stuff worked out. So the lisbon presidente is like ours until the porto presidente can arrive. weird stuff. I dont really know whats going on I just know hes not here yet. so yeah next week I'll probably have more info!

June 29, 2015 - Blood Sweat and Tears

This week has been exactly that! But its been awesome strangely enough! Haha Its still been dang hot and for some reason Greece is the only thing on any of the TVs... can someone please explain to me why? OH and happy birthday AMERICA!! I hope you all have an awesome 4th of July this weekend!

Well we had this awesome family that we were teaching but we still hadnt met the father. The mom and the 12 year old daughter were way cool and we always looked forward to our lessons. Then on thursday we finally meet the father! He was really nice and really friendly and we had high hopes! Then.... he dropped us. He said that he didnt want to split the family and they were going to stay catholic and to please stop coming by. we tried everything we could but there was nothing we could do! So that was sad. Maybe the next set of elders will get them. BUT THEN we recieve a text from the office about a reference from lds.org! (FYI super rare) about someone asking for a BOM. So our spirits shot right back up! We felt super bad for being mad at the world at that point haha

So on saturday we visit this reference. Shes about 60 years old and said that she likes to learn about other religions and heard about a church on the radio and then searched Christ Church in Covilhã and found our website. (Thanks Elder google) So we teach her and shes super Christian, not Catholic, but just super churchy and Only worships god and no saints or anything so it was a good start! Her husband was there too and about halfway through our lesson he starts to look really weak... he almost like passes out but stays in his chair. Then she stands up and puts her hands on his head and gives him a blessing. Like super loud and the spirit basically ran jumped out of the room. Hahah weird stuff over here man. But it was a super good lesson and shes going to read and shes going to invite her daughter to our next lesson and it was fun! 

Well thats all for now! Have fun blowing stuff up!

#instaworthy

 

 

June 29, 2015 - Pictures

June 22, 2015 - Cherries!

Olá!

This week the portuguese summer hit us like a brick wall. Its been crazy hot but interestingly enough pretty nice. Haha but our little city here is pretty famous for their cherries and they should be! Basically everywhere you look theres just a cherry tree thats just saying hey man come eat my cherries! And so I've gained an obsession with cherries! And theres a ton of other fruit trees just chillin all over the place too like figs and plums and these ones called nesperas. Super awesome. 

We had an FHE with our Branch pres and his family and it was so fun! They had these 3 little neighbor kids come over and my comp made balloon animals for them it was so fun! 

We've been knocking a lot of doors and leaving a lot of first lessons but its been pretty frustrating not getting the next lesson. So it seems like we've been having a decent amount of lessons and stuff but its been hard to see real growth or success. We only have 1 lady who has recieved more than the first lesson so thats been kinda frustrating but we've really come to love this lady Maria. 

Maria is your classic portuguese working woman with a 18 year old son who smokes who just wants to have health and peace in her life. We visit her everyday and we are really trying to just bring the spirit to her home. Shes been elder Whitakers investigator for about 2 months now and she still hasnt been to church so its just been a patience building experience but shes sloooowly coming around. 

But i really have learned a lot about dilligence this week. We are walking a lot uphill in the blazing sun in hope of just one person who might be home or someone who says that yeah that time should work. We take every lead and we are doing everything we can just to see little results. But honestly I still feel really good about our work. I feel like we're giving it all so theres nothing else to complain about. The lord always gives us strength if we trust in him and give him our all and he will do the rest. So now...its his turn haha. 

We had our zone conference and we said by to our mission president. He leaves in like 6 days so its going to be very interesting to see what happens. And I saw my dad there!! it was a fun little reunion.

Love you all! Hope your summer has been totally rad!

P.S. Yes i went skiing haha

June 15, 2015 - I'm living in the mountains!

Yo Everybody!

So this area is nuts! First of all its really mountainy and old. Its super cool the whole city is built on the side of this super big mountain! And our area has the only ski resort in the country! So next week I think we're going there for P day! Its legit. 

We also have another little city about 40 KM away from us and once a week we go there becasue we have 3 or 4 members and some other investigators so thats when we use our car. And we did the math gas is 7 bucks a gallon! So we bascally only use our car once a week but its fun!

Our branch is tiny. We have 3 main families keeping it afloat and our branch president is a 23 year old Cape verdian and hes the coolest guy ever! Our branch is cool and I can tell that the elders are super important to them and I can feel so much love from them its so nice and warm and fuzzy. Haha wait was that out loud? 

Anyway I gave a talk yesterday about the Word Of Wisdom and i told the story about Emma Smith telling Joseph to go talk with God because she was sick of all the spit. I love that story!

My comp is super cool. Hes from southern utah and he has about 6 months left on the mission. Hes my 3rd comp all from the same MTC district 18 months ago. haha its been weird. 

Its been super rainy here which makes for some bad finding but oh well! We're working hard! Hopefully next week I have better news about the people we're teaching but we dont really have that many solid people yet so yeah... Love you all! Have the most delicious week!

p.s. sorry no pictures this week... Next week I will for sure!

June 8, 2015 - Paciencia

Well this week was maluco!

Weel last week I said we were going to have a baptism yesterday but it fell through:P He was 13 living here with his grandma and his mo lives in England. So we were teaching him everything all week and he was getting pretty excited but he said he was still having some pressure from his mom becasue she thought it was too rushed. So we reassured him it was ok and he got interviewed on saturday! We started planning the service and everything and things were looking up then he said nahh I'm thinkng about waiting until June 21. Dang it. So we had the DL talk to him and we tried convincing him for about 45 minutes but he said he just wants to wait. Oh well. At least hes still getting baptized! But.... I wont be there for it.

I got transfered! I'm back up in the North mission in a huge area named Covilhã. Its pretty east actually like right in the middle of the country. Its pretty sweet so far I've only been here for about 5 hours haha but we have a car! So that should be sweet! My comp is awesome and he has 4 transfers left so its going to be awesome! 

Its getting pretty hot here but one of the memebrs in my old branch cut 3 of my long sleeve shirts so now I have 3 more short sleeve shirts! I love members! So now I have 5 in total! Its pretty cool. 

But cool experience last week. We were teaching this 18 year old kid who actually stopped us on the street because he heard us speaking english and he freaked out! Hahah so he started speaking with us in english and he is so good! Like basically fluent. he then describes how he is atheist and wants to believe in God but only through logic. Haha so we started meeting with him to answer this big list of questions he has. And in the past 3 times we taught him about intelligences, and how we can become gods, and how God had a god when God was a human like us and how there was no beginning or end and All this crazy deeeep stuff. Hahah so he comes to church to see with his own eyes becasue he really wants to know but he just has to think it through with logic. And he BORE HIS TESTIMONY! Hahaha too funny but awesome! He goes up and says how hes atheist. From the pulpt. Oh no. Then he goes on to say how he doesnt really know yet but he does know that he felt really loved at church and everyone seemed like a family there and he liked it! Too awesome. The whole branch loves him and it was awesome.

June 1, 2015 - Broadbent!!

Congrats Brother Broadbent! Hes going to be an awesome bishop!

Well today we spent all day in Lisbon at this sweet castle so I only had 30 minutes to write today and I already wrote president and Erin of course;) so I legtily only have 10 minutes here at this little internet cafe and the timer is ticking down and its getting intense! haha anyway! We marked someone for baptism!!!! Carlos is 13 and hes the grandson of the member that we ate with last week and hes sweet! His best friend is a member and 16 so we are teaching with him and hes going to baptize him!! We're pretty pumped! So yeah next week I'll have pictures of today and the baptism!!! 

Hope you guys have a splendid week!

Love,

May 25, 2015 - Crazy stuff here in Barreiro

So this week was hilarious! Too many things to write but I'll share my experience during church yesterday!

So 9:30. Church starts and we have a pesquisador and his grandson in church! Awesome! He's 13 and actually really liked it! We have priesthood first first and its all going good. 

10:30 Our gospel principles class starts and its all going good.

11:15 we leave class early to go grab Maria. We arrange a ride to pick her up with a member and we book it over there! She is a lady that my comp baptized last transfer but never came back to chuch to recieve the holy ghost! Haha so we finally just grab her and put her in the car and come to church! Haha but she finally got it after 6 weeks! That was an intense drive

11:30 Sacrament starts. The sisters in our ward had 5 investigators at church so we kinda had to help them by sitting next to them and stuff. Then we have sacrament. The recent convert that blessed the water ended up saying the prayer no joke 15 or 16 times because he was realllly nervous. So that was just hard. Then we have the most people we've had in church in like 6 months so we get to the end of the water and there ends up being 2 less cups then they needed! 2!!!! The only 2 people that didnt get the water was the 2 kids passing. So they had to fill up the cups again and resay the prayer. So that was a little long. Then the speaker didnt show up so my comp had to give a talk so that was cool. Then Irmao samual speaks haha and hes like 75 and hes awesome but just old. So he ends up just reading a conference talk. And hes 75 so he read it really slowly. Just straight reads it! haha it took like 25 minutes. And basically everyone fell asleep haha too funny. Plus for some reason there were a ton of little kids! Haha they were really loud and crazy and it was just a hilarious scene. There were 7 investigators there between the sisters and us and we really hope that they arent confused beyond belief saying all these different prayers and random long boring talks hahah BUT it was still awesome. Haha moral of the story. No matter how crazy or weird and long church is, its one of the most important ordinances we have and thats why it has to be perfect! 

Love you all! Have an awesome week and all you priests that are reading this. Make sure you have enough water!;)

This is a picture of us at lunch at a members house who didnt have room for herself so we just kinda ate while she catered to us. Haha shes not in the picture but she is amazing! but yeah this is our little district.

 

 

May 18, 2015 - I love members!

Olá from sunny Lisboa!

It has been pretty dang hot this past week! My missionary tan lines are coming in just great! But yeah we actually didnt have too much success this week. But for some reason I still felt way happy about this week. Yesterday was the Benfica game. They're the soccer team in Lisbon that is basically worshipped here and they were playing last night for the Portugal Champiosnhip. So from 6-8 nobody was home. Everybody was at the local Pasteleria watching the game. And the people that were home, were watching the game. Haha it was quite frustrating! Literally EVERYBODY was watching it. So we didnt have much to do last night until about 8. We passed Gabriella. We had taught her once but we just havent been able to find her again! But finally we did. And we had an awesome lesson! She told us that she had started the Book of Mormon since we left it with her and she started from page 1. Literally the intro and the 8 witnesses and everything haha I love her! We invited her to be baptized on june 7th but she said that she wants to but she doesnt know yet for sure. But it was still a succes! It was the first time we had a pretty hopeful lesson this week! Too cool! 

Yesterday also we had an awesome lunch with some members! Irma Fatima has been a member for 30 years and she has this beast of a son who looks like hes Dwayne the Rock Johnson! NO JOKE! Hes so sick! They were so nice and hilarious! Then he says that he wishes that he could feed us everyday but the rules  dont allow it. Then he went on about how much he respects the Elders and it 

was so cool to have someone so cool telling us that! I love members. 

2 interesting things happened this week. We found a mirror!!! It was just chilling on the road! And its so sick! Our bathroom had this really tiny mirror but now we can be vain and prideful with a better mirror!! Hahaha its sweet. Then on P day last week i was offered marijuana. So that was cool. It was too overpriced so  I said no. 

Well thats about it. Love you all! Até proxima semana! Heres a picture of our mirror!