24 October 2016 Vou Embora

Dear friends and family,

This weeks word is transferências because, welp, tranfers happened, and for the first time, Im getting transfered.

Im headed to a town in the southern half of our mission, to actually the largest area in the mission because it encompasses some neighboring towns. Its about 200 km from where I am now, so Ive got a journey tomorrow for sure.

Im pretty excited. As you can imagine, I will miss this area. I was "born" here, as they say, so here I had every first impression of the mission. I will miss it for sure, I really grew to enjoy the people here in the ward.

Anyways, Im headed to an area called Beja, the largest area in our mission. It covers a more rural area of Portugal, from what I understand, and is a pretty different from the area Ive been in. 

I will serve there, starting a whitewash (when 2 new missionaries arrive in the area fresh) with Elder Cottrell. All I know about him is that hes american.. and thats that haha, lets see how this week goes!

But this week that just passed was pretty good. We worked pretty hard. Knocked a lot of doors, taught people, the usual. We continued taught Pedro and Hilena once again. We discussed priesthood authority for a bit, and then taught the Plan of Salvation. I think it went really well. They have a ton of curiousity about what we believe, but we just need to make sure they act and really ponder the things we bring them, so the Spirit can have a chance to convert them. We invited them to church, but its complicated, and Pedro wants to sleep in... c´mon... I actually teased him a bit about it, it was pretty funny. 

Theyre really great people, theyre both in their 20s. I enjoyed teaching them, it was nice because to "break the ice" so to speak was really easy, they feel like friends, we laughed a lot with them.

There was also a Baptism this weekend. Cátia and Telo, a couple who investigated the church for over a year were married this month and baptized just a few days ago. A bunch of people showed up (including Pedro and Hilena.) It was really cool. Theyve got such strong testimonies... When I got here, I thought they were members haha. They were always taught by the Sister missionaries in our ward, they waited and waited for papers until finally then got married and baptized.

A quick spot of sad news. Last email, I chatted a bit about Isaac... well unfortunately I heard from the bishop that he said he will no longer be coming to church. Unfortunately the ward seemed to be gossiping a lot about what was going on, and because of this Isaac felt very outcasted, and just gave up. He was already having a lot of doubts, and had read anti-mormon stuff too, its awfully sad. I really liked him, he was my bud. A couple months ago he would go knocking doors and teaching with us for an entire day. Im sure he will eventually miss the experiences he had in the church and come back, sooner of later.

Take-home lessson: dont gossip, and believe!

We also worked with an investigator named Januário, from São Tomé. Hes pretty cool, hes been taught by the missionaries for years, and was almos baptized... to sum it up were just re-starting with him, and trying to help him push for his date to be baptized.

We also got to teach a new fella named Celo. He´s also pretty cool, relaxed. He´s actually a muslim, but doesnt do much with it really. We taught him only once so far, but he seems to have potential. 

This week we went to Sintra again, everyone wanted to go, so I didnt stop them haha.

 We were having a ton of fun, then it poured.

I hit the limit for space... I hope yall like the photos, more next week!

Lets see what challenges the Lord brings this next transfer!

Vamos lá!

Ci vediamo,

Elder Ward

17 Oct 2016 Moscas

Dear friends and family,

This week was once again another pretty solid week. Last Pday we once again just chilled around, groceries, the usual, nothing grand there, sorry.

But, I went on an divisão (I legitamately dont know if its division in english or if its another word, like switch or split, i dunno we only use portuguese here haha) with Elder Turner, from Florida on Tuesday. It was pretty fun, hes a real character, lots of energy and humor in him. I worked with him here in my area. We had a pretty cool day.

I´ll start of with Isaac, he´s actually from Romania but has lived in Portugal most of his life. He´s got 17 years and he was baptized earlier this year, around May I believe. Anyways, hes a really cool kid, but hes also really interesting... sometimes he just calls us and says "Elders, I wanna talk." and just like that we usually plan a time and meet up with him.

A little background for Isaac... hes very... how can I say this, particular or worrysome. He in the last few months has started having a lot of doubts about the church. He also a couple months back started studying with the Jehovahs Witnesses, who are pretty common here in our little town. He has taken to believe some of the things they teach, but still basically believes in the LDS church, but now just has a head full of info and confusion. Much recently, however, he has stopped believing in the BoM, so now there are problems. But, its strange, because he still comes to church every week and loves the ward.

So we meet up with him every once in a while, and he usually brings a scripture and a question and we debate it for our visit... its kinda stupid when I talk about it really. But hes just really confused now because of what hes learned from other sources. Its a shame really, he gets "wrests" so much over the Bible sometimes that his conclusions just stop making sense. I tried many times to just explain to him that one of the BoM´s primary purposes is to clarify that haze of confusion that can emerge, to complete the Gospel...

Anyways, a couple nights ago we talked with him. He was actually a bit fed up with us, at this point he had read some ani-BoM stuff, and really just thought it was fraud. He said he still comes to church because he hopes its the true one, he just still doesnt know. But I know he knows, hes just forgotten. We talked with him in circles for a bit, discussing what faith is, stuff like that. He eventually said "Alright, I will just ask one question... If I were to attack you with a gun right know, and there was a gun on this table, would you defend yourself?"

So, immidiately thought, ugh, one of these questions, obviously a trick one. But I thougth some more, and shared 1 Corinthians 10:13, that explains we cannot be tempted above that which we can bear, in other words, I would never be tempted with such a thing, to take another mans life to preserve my own, because God knows me and knows whether or not I could bear such a thing...

I dont know why I share this story, but afterwards he kinda retreated a bit (so to speak) and said "huh that makes sense". He wanted me to respond yes so he could accuse me of not "turning my cheek" as Christ would. We left that day on a better note of understanding.

I dunno if that made sense, and the way I wrote it makes it seems like we´re enemies, but just to clarify him and I are actually buds, I know him for like 4 months now, we just have deep doctrine discussions from time to time. The take hom message is that the BoM is the bomb, and helps us understand so much. READ it everyday!

This week we also found a young portuguese lady named Hilena. She enjoyed the 1st lesson, understood it very well. She is a youth leader of some sort in the Catholic church, but we´ll get her baptized haha. Anyways, we returned to teach her, and she had read the chapter of the BoM that we left, and explained the gist of the 1st lesson to her coworker Pedro too, who was present. We taught the 1st lesson to review for Hilena, and to Pedro for the first time. They really soaked it up. They enjoyed it, are a bit hesitant to hop religion, they are really catholic, but they will read and pray. Lets see what happens!

Anyways, Im out of time. I have more to share, but our time is mon— the Lord´s haha.

Take care everybody,

Ciao,

Elder Ward

10/10/16

Dear friends and family,

A fun word to start off is almoço meaning lunch, because we had a pretty sweet almoço yesterday given to us by one of our members, Angolan food.

So last pday we just relaxed a bit, its always good to take a break (even though its not really a break, just permission to lie in bed during the daylight for a bit)

Yeah, weve been trying different ways to attack the work that needs to be done in the area. We organized a list of probably 200 names in our area and are trying to visit them, but were finding that a lot of them appear to have disappeared completely... but we try. A few of them have expressed a bit of interest, so we try to make return appointments with them, but sometimes people dont seem to know how to say "no". Sometimes "no´s" are a good thing because it helps us not lose too much time!

So on Tuesday we had an exchange, but really a trio. Elder Cabreira, a brazilian, came to our area and brought our numbers to 3. It was pretty fun. Hes got a lot of energy for the worked and he hyped us up a bit. That day we technically taught 5 lessons, although a couple were pretty short. But hey, it was pretty cool. Its always really interesting to see how other Elders work. He reminded me a lot of Elder Marques.

He stayed the night, and the next morning for exercises he wanted to go jogging, so the 3 of us went. He only had gym shorts, so to cover up, for some reason he had a giant Tigger jacket/onesie thing with a hoodie and ears, and he went jogging in that with us... no shame haha.

We visited a couple of people we taught a long time ago, but left because they werent showing a lot of progress. For example, we visited Lucilia, an old portuguese woman. She was awfully kind and said she missed us. We sat and taught for a little bit. During the visit Elder Fletcher sneezed, and she immediately butt in "OH goodness! are you sick? have you caught a cold? Lets close the window. Do you have a fever?!" etc etc. It was funny haha.

We found a nice young couple with a brand new baby girl. They accepted a visit another day. We taught the mother, Raquel, who was very nice and enjoyed the lesson. She commited to read and pray about the BoM, but unfortunately our visit we planned with her to follow up with her fell through... but we will try to contact her more this week! She seemed to have potential.

We have worked a lot lately with Clara and Joelson, that brazilian couple. Ill sum it up. Joel wants to be baptized, but Clara is still a bit hesitant. Theyve come to church 3 weeks now, and the members love them, they are being welcomed so well and warmly. Yesterday we had a big get together with some members in one of their homes. We brought the sister missionaries too. (see photos). There, we had people from Angola, Moçambique, Guiné, the US, and Brazil, it was really cool haha. We ate angolan food, it was pretty good!

Months ago with Elder Marques, we found a young man from Cabo Verde named Alex. We taught him later, and it all went really smoothly, he really seemed to have potential...we caught his cousin Edmir another day... however we never found them again, he just disappeared. We went to his house and called dozens of times... Elder Marques and I eventually accepted that he had disappeared. It happens here a lot, people are always coming and going.

But with Elder Cabreira and Fletcher that night, we were knocking a couple last doors at about 9pm. We still had a 30 walk home. We picked one last building, and literally the last door opened up, and Edmir was there. It had been so long, I didnt link the name to the face, but I remembered seeing him before. I skipped the normal "olá somos os Missionários de Igreja..." and just said "what a minute I know you..." Edmir let us in for a few minutes, and inside there was Alex and 2 other guys! What? Alex tried to toy with me... I said "whoa alex its been so long where have you been?" stuff like that, he replied "oh im not alex, im his brother patrick" and I was a little confused, because he acutally looked a little different from the last time I saw him. I got Edmir to spill the beans "Edmir, this guy is your cousin Alex, isnt he? you guys cant fool me" haha it was funny... it was also really strange because... well... all of them were drinking...

BUT we only had 5 minutes or so, so we just challenged them all to be baptized, they didnt really take that like a cookie, but we made a time to come back... But when we left the building I just bust out laughing. Elder Cabreira and Fletcher were like "whys he laughing so much" but I then explained what happened, how I already knew half of them. It was hilarious really, but also really cool because we finally hunted down Alex! And now we know that we need to teach him the Word of Wisdom ahahaha

But yeah a pretty good week. Ive got more tidbits of stuff here and there, but I havent got much time. Gotta wrap it up.

Ciao,

Elder Ward

 It was good grub.

 ​This is Abel, hes from Moçambique and was baptized 3 years ago! He´s awesome.

On the right with the glasses is Clara, our investigator we have worked with recently, and her daughter with them deuces. The woman between the sisters, Conceição gave us the meal yesterday, it was super nice of her!

3 October 2016 - Joel

Dear friends and family,

Todays word is brasileiros or brazilians, because theyre great. Ill explain.

This week was pretty good. It started with a really sick pday.

One day a month or so ago with Elder Marques, I looked off to the distance to a mountain (a big hill, really) that looms over the northeastern edge of our area. I told him "one (p)day I will climb that and just sit there and soak up the view." So, this last pday, I did. I convinced my companion and a sister companionship from our district to come with us. We got there and after about two hours we got to the top. It was a pretty spectacular view. I was zooming ahead on the trail, throwing pinecones and sticks (the usual) and just having a good time being outside, meanwhile everyone else was kinda trudging behind, tired already, and yelping at every insect that appeared. It was funny (okay Elder fletcher didnt, but the sisters kinda whined the whole time). We got to the top, and they stopped complaining. We brought lunch up with us too (in MY backpack, im always the pack mule haha) and relaxed at the top. I brought my ukulele too, so we just chilled there for a while and just looked around. From there we could see for miles all the way to Lisbon, it was pretty sweet. It was a fun little adventure, something definitely that mixed things up a bit.

Afterwards everyone said they really enjoyed it (despite complaints the entire time). I said "alright lets go again" and they all declined haha.

So this week we had a zone meeting. Afterwards Elder Fletcher and I stayed there in the area of the ZL´s and did a divisão. It was a fun day, its always interesting to work in other areas with other companions. Nothing super special happened, but it was fun. We returned to our area for a day, and then did another divisão in our neighbouring area with the Elders there. It was also pretty interesting. Time flew by because we broke the normal routine this week.

Elder Fletcher and I however have worked a lot in our area, particularly with Joelson and Clara. As I mentioned before, theyre brazilians who recently moved here to portugal to start a new life. They are super sweet and warm people. Weve taught them a lot, but we are trying to focus on marraige... because, welp, they cant be baptized until theyre married. So, in one visit, we spoke about it just straight-up with them, and Clara expressed some hesitation. She unfortunately isnt soaking up what we teach the same way as Joelson. Last visit, like 3 days ago, Joelson had read until 1 Nephi 10, and going strong... Clara hasnt shown the same progress.. We are working on that.

Anyways, Joel said hes down for marraige. Theyve been together for 7 years already, so hes got no complaints. Clara said "marraige is serious, we ought to think about it. Lets change the subject". Joel then responded "alright, lets change the subject. Lets talk about baptism!" I nearly laughed. Joel has such pure desire, hes a great guy. He wants to be baptized, we´re just trying to work him through the process. He already knows the Book of Mormon is true too, just some barriers unfortunately.

Later, we got Joelson and Clara to come to the Sunday Morning session broadcast... and they enjoyed it! We watched it in a neighbouring chapel that was bigger than ours, and the ward there is actually mostly brazilian. So, after the broadcast, all the brazilian members there just welcomed Joel and Clara so warmly and started exchanging numbers and then the Bishop of that ward (a brazilian) gave them a ride home! It was so cool, they were sooo darn nice. I didnt have to do anything! I was going to "follow up" so to speak with what they liked about the conference, but all the members were already doing that! Members have such a unique ability to help people know the church...

Oh, and of course, the broadcast was translated into portuguese. I understood all of it. I missed a couple small tidbits, but I basically understood everything. But it was quite a mental workout! The speakers dont speak fast, but they sure dont stop. I am so blessed with the language. It is coming along very very well.

But yeah, the work is progressing... sometimes slower than faster, but I still try to work my hardest. All this basically sums up my week.

Take care everyone,

Elder Ward

Oh, I solved a Rubiks cube for the first time this week! Elder Fletcher helped me learn what I still needed to learn, and now I can solve it in only 3 or 4 minutes haha. It was pretty satisfying, only took 19 years.

The neighbourhoods in the immediate backdrop actually are my area, Ive knocked a tonnnn of the doors you see in this photo!

Disregard the dumb looking smiling guy on the right.