Oct. 19, 2015 - Home makeover: Mission Apartment Edition

Week 1 in Póvoa was awesome! The ward so awesome and I already feel so welcomed and loved its gonna be a fun several months here! 

On monday when I arrived, the house was in ruins. Just terrible! It smelled like pee, there was dirt and trash and clothes everywhere and it was insane. So we stayed inside and didnt proselyte for 2 days straight. After district meeting on tuesday and all day wednesday we just stayed inside and deep cleaned the house. We reorganized the furniture, washed all the dishes and kitchenware, donated all the old clothes from past elders, dusted and swept, hand scrubbed the bathroom floor and it was intense. Theres no way to accurately show how much of a difference we made but here is the pile of junk and trash we threw out. I can show before and after pictures when I get home haha But yeah the spirit can actually reside in our house and I can finally concentrate! 

We have this awesome eternal investigator named Afonso. He has been an investigator for 11 years!!! And he actually was marked for baptism 2 weeks ago but fell because he didnt think he had a strong enough testimony of the book of Mormon. so we had a sweet lesson with him and read 2 Nephi 9 with him and talked a lot about the atonement. we then obviously talked more about the book of Mormon and we had him say a specific prayer right then and there asking for an assurance that the Book of Mormon was true. And nothing. I felt the spirit and he felt the spirit but he apparently didn't get the response he wanted. So yeah its gonna be a tough couple weeks getting him prepared for baptism. We are actually contemplating teaching with our Mission President because we're only about 30 minutes from HQ so we'll see next week. 

But I love this area and the beach here is beautiful! Its been surprisingly warm and sunny here so thats been sweet! The Portuguese sunsets never get old!

Love you guys and hope you have a week full of the spirit! 

Oct 12, 2015 - Povoa de Varzim!!

Well hello there once again!

Today was transfers! I left Covilhã after being 3 transfers there and I got moved way up north to Povoa de Varzim! Its basically like 10 minutes from the ocean and it has a ward! Which is probably the best part having been in a branch of about 17 people. So yeah I'm excited! My new comp, Elder Cox is from Tooele and is starting his 5th transfer. Its should be quite the adventure!!

It was hard saying bye to everyone at church though. I was really glad we had fast sunday yesterday so I could bear my final testimony and profess my love for my branch! haha but this past week was pretty fun! We had a branch activity and watched the Testaments! We had 3 families that said they would come and we were pumped! So we had a ton of food and everything and of course on saturday a huge rain storm hit and no investigators showed up. It was sad. BUT we still had a party with our awesome faithful branch! And the elders got to take home the extra food! Score. 

It was especially sad to say bye to the one and only Maria Jose. She didn't come to church yesterday but we did end up going over there last night to say bye. 

We were knocking some doors on thursday and at the same time a door to door salesman was knocking the same building so we stopped to talk to him. He was about 25 and he was so confused at what the heck we were doin! He kept asking How old are? Why are you here? Youre not being paid? Why? Why would you do this same hard work I'm doing but for free? And he kept asking why? And it was weird I had this moment of sudden deep thought. Why? Why am I here? And yeah "because I know the church is true" But that is just the sunday school answer. 

But no I really do know this church is true! And only through this church and the ordinances in the temple can families be together forever and I just want that for everyone! I know Joseph Smith saw God and and His Son and I want this people to know it! My mission has brought so much Joy and Hardship and I have grown so much from it and I wouldnt want to be anywhere else. So thats why :D

Love you guys and hope you have a marvelous week. This is Maria Jose who for some reason didnt want to smile in this picture. I promise shes cool haha

Oct 5, 2015 - Don't Focus on your Restrictions, but on Your Possibilities - Pres. Amorim

Happy October! 

I hope you all had a marvelous conference weekend and are all on a spiritual high! Super cool to sustain Elders Rasband, Stevenson and Renlund to the quorum of the 12. Their testimonies were super powerful! We actually got a part member family to come to conference for the Sunday morning session so that was cool! We found them knocking doors and the 2 sons were baptized in England but came back and are living with their parents who aren't members and they all showed up which was actually a big surprise because their kinda old and sick and live far away but milagres acontecem! 

But this week we spent 3 days in Coimbra! I keep talking about Coimbra because that's the HQ for our zone. Its like the 4th biggest city in Portugal with 2 huge wards and 6 duplas of missionaries working it. And on Friday we had our zone conference with president! But on Thursday we did a division with the zone leaders so we were there a day early and it was really cool to spend 24 hours with our Angolan ZL elder João! He's 24 and his girlfriend converted him and he was baptized in October of 2012! And hes a zone leader in 2015! Hes going places in life.

Then on Friday we had our zone conference and president is always so inspired! We got a new mission hymn, some new rules added to the white handbook and so much more. But all I can say is that President is SO inspired. He is truly called of God and with his vision and ideas, this country is going to explode!

Then we had interviews on Saturday. But since we live so far away we had to spend the rest of Friday in Coimbra. So we did another division with one of the other duplas and this time I was with Elder Earhardt! He's a Brazilian kid on his 3rd transfer and we actually taught a professional soccer player so that was cool! 

So after our interview we finally got back home by about 5 pm on Saturday. It was a pretty fun weekend hanging out with a ton of different Elders in the zone! 

We then watched conference with our faithful branch president and his family! Haha we were all kinda crammed into his office because that is the only place with good enough WiFi haha we had a party!

Amo-vos e espero que tenham uma semana cheio de milagres!

Sep 28, 2015 - Walnuts, Pomegranates, and Octopus

Welcome my friends to this weeks edition of "A Week in the Life of an Elder"

So Maria Jose, one of our only progressing investigators has a garden\farm. And she has this huge walnut tree! And some pomegranate trees! So we got some free walnuts and pomegranates. And they were delicious! She didnt come to church but theres always next week!

The other dupla in my district had a batismo!! Being DL I had to  interview him and it was a really cool experience. Really cool to see the change and the humility in him. He then fed all 4 of us elders dinner and it was fun to chill with other elders for a little bit!

On friday we went to the house of Christina and Fernando! We had found them about a month ago but then they went to Lisbon to look for a house and now theyre back! Unfortunately they are moving away this week but theyre obsessed with us. We visited their house just to say hi and talk about the Book of Mormon but they ended up feeding us and everything! Then they wanted us to come back the next day for dinner again! We obviously didnt decline and they made Octopus! And it was delicious! It was like this stew with fried up pieces of tentacles and potatoes and this cream sauce and it was yummy! Then we helped them move their stuff into their basement in preparation for their move of thursday. In the process of moving we found this huge box of all these random paintings of abstract randomness. turns out, christina is a professional artist and she sells these painting for 300£ or more! Whoa. As we're leaving we keep talking about the paintings and she says we can choose one to take home! Too cool! Heres the one I chose with the artist herself:D It was a fun day!

We also went to a soup festival. And we found this huge churro just stuffed with this oreo creme filling. We ate a lot this week.... Hahah every story is about food:D

We had a really cool lesson in priesthood about how we have to be spiritually strong with a good testimony before we can help anyone else. And we talked about how in planes we have to put on our own oxygen masks before we even help children. Then the stake secretary who was there said its interesting how in the scriptures it uses the word "vir" instead of "ir" or in English come instead of go. We say come unto Christ, not Go over there to Christ while I'm still over here. We have to be with Christ in order for us to say come to me, come to Him. Really cool reminder of sometimes we have to worry about our own testimony and make sure we're still doing those small and simple things every day. 

Well Love you all! Hope you have a crazy spiritual weekend with conference and find some questions to your answers! 

P.s. I dont know who the new apostles will be but I bet that Elder Rasband will be at least one of them...

Sept. 21, 2015 - Ezra Taft Benson

So this year we're obviously reading from the teachings of Ezra Taft Benson at church and this week we read about pride. And there was the best quote ever! I hope my portuguese translating skills are sufficient. it said "We have to replace the thought of what do I want from my life? with what does God want that I do with my life?" Super cool perspective of seriously just humbling ourselves and having no pride whatsoever and saying heres my life God, now what do you want me to do with it. Really cool insight. 

Anyway school started here in the good ole country of Portugal. Yes the 3rd week of September is when school starts haha be jealous Americans. But this city is a huge college town. We have one of the best medical schools in the country so there are a ton of college hooligans everywhere now. 

I got a parking ticket. That was a shame.

Maria Jose came to church this week and she was all dressed up in a nice dress and everything! Seeing the change in her is so cool! It was hard though because we have 2 women in our ward who have become best friends with her and we always teach with them but they both weren't there at church! And in a ward of 15 people that's pretty rough to be there at church alone just having to sit with the elders. BUT she still really liked it and we are praying and fasting that she will get baptized conference weekend!

So you know in the book Charolette's Web how at the end all the little spider babies are flying around on their web kite things, yeah thats happening here! We are being attacked by little floating spider web strings all over the place! Haha its weird. 

Other than that we had a pretty chill week. I've been listening to a ton of conference talks and I've been downloading them from the late 90s until now. And for the past 4 months I download about 25\week and listen to them all during the week. And I've realized president Monosn uses the same stories in some of his talks!! Haha I was listening to one from like 2008 and then one from 1997 and it was basically the same talk! Haha anyway I'm pumped for conference and I hope you guys are all prepared!

Love you all and I hope you have a marvelous week!

 

Sept. 14, 2015 - Saude, Dinheiro, e Amor

Bom dia! My subject comes from this random guy who actually came up to talk to us and was saying how we havent been over to his house in years and where have we been then we say well when can we come by? and he says no no hes catholic and we cant come over... haha then he goes off and rambles about soccer or something and we say well do you want to come to chuch with us and he says "the 3 things you need in life is Saude, dinheiro e amor" (or health money and love) then he walks off. I guess hes kinda right... haha

This week we had to say goodbye to Luis who had to go back to LIsbon because he has no money to stay here. It was pretty sad but I'm really hopeful the elders down there will get him baptized! His prayers were always so heartfelt and he felt the spirit so strong theres no way he wont be baptized! 

We were walking and this lady, Teresa, with this big white eye patch stopped us and asked if we had a prayer because she had just been operated on and needs a prayer. So we explained how prayer isnt memorized and we prayed for her and got a return appointment. She lived way the heck out in the boonies like 20 minutes driving up this mountain road. We get to her little town and takes us 2 hours of walking around and asking people where she lives and we finally find her as we're driving home! She was standing on her balcony and she sees us and stops us! Crazy. So we get to her house and she asks for another prayer or a blessing or something. And so we explain priesthood blessings and ask if she would like that and it would only work if she has faith and really believes what we're doing is with the right authority. And to be honest I was skeptical to just give this random person a blessing who doesnt know anything. So I annoint her with the oil and I still felt pretty uncomfortable. Then while my comp seals it and blesses her it felt so right! We say amen and immediately she says "wow i fell so good like something really clean and nice washed over me" Whoa. the spirit is the best missionary ever!! Then we keep talking and towards the end she says "I want to be a part of this church." MILAGRES!! So cool! sadly she lives really far away and there arent any buses on sunday so it will be quite the challenge to get her to church but I believe everything will work out just fine! Cool stuff man. 

Also with 9\11 being this week Im feeling a little extra patriotic. I just want to say how grateful I am for being an American. I am so grateful to be able to have the freedom of religion and I know that America was set apart so that this great gospel could be restored. I am so grateful for all the soldiers who defend this great country and I know we can never repay them. I know this church is true and I'm proud to be an american where at least I know I'm free!

Have an awesome week!

Sept. 7, 2015 - 6

So I'm still here in the beautiful city of Covilhã for my 6th transfer! My comp stayed as well and we have a goal of 3 baptisms this transfer! And as of now it looks so possible so we're pumped! 

We had a sweet Zone Meeting on friday and my Dad is in my zone! So that was exciting to catch up with him! In the meeting we talked alot about our appearance and our language and our stature has to be professional. We are representing Christ so we need to look as if he was walking with us! We arent rebellious dumb teenagers anymore. We have to hold our selves to a higher standard. It was a good reminder! And with that we learned even more that President wants Quality over quantity. He doesnt care if we have 300 lessons a week and 100 investigators in church if we have no baptisms those lessons and investigators are fake and weak. We need to find and teach people with real potential that will help the church truly grow. I got pumped!

We are still teaching Luis and hes doing so great! He is loving the stuff we tell him and the church and the members. He is still living out of his car but hes still pretty happy. On saturday we had scheduled to meet with him but he didnt answer his phone. We still wanted to find him but we didint know how. I remember him saying he was parked by the city park. So I said well lets just walk over there and try to find an older looking car with some blankets in it and maybe he will be there. So we're walking around this park just hoping for a miracle and THERE HE WAS! Just strolling through the park with nothing to do! It was insane. So we sat and talked with him and he was all excited for church and everything! Milagres acontecem! 

Maria Jose came to church again and she loved the fast and testimony meeting! All the memebrs have been taking her in so well and its been awesome! She is always saying how much she loves the people and how happy they all are! I love our members (:

Well hopefully we get some people marked for baptism this week! Stay tuned until next week! Love you all! Beijinhos :D