7 November 2016 Chuva

Dear friends and family,

Another week has fwooshed by. Quite a bit happened. Let´s get to it.

Like I mentioned before, Beja is an area that sits a bit far from the rest of the mission. So, on wednesday we had a zone meeting, so we actually had to leave about 6pm the night beforehand to catch a 3 hour bus to Faro, a city on the southern edge of portugal. We stayed the night there with a missionary couple, Elder and Sister Roberts from Idaho. They were super super nice. We got there, they made us feel at home, gave us chicken pot pie, and then we crashed. The next morning they drove us to the Zone meeting, and it was a good time. I met a lot of new missionaries and learned some new things.

We then went to another city, Tavira, to do an exchange with the Elders there. It was a good time. I spent the day with Elder Mitton, our district leader. After only a few minutes with him I suddenly realized he was a spitting image of Zane, they look exactly alike, and he plays guitar too. It was pretty weird, I felt like I was walking around with Zane. Its pretty funny when we run into doppelgangers haha. So, we stayed the next night in there place, and then finally left to return to our area after being away for almost 3 days (we had to, travel options didnt allow for a shorter stay down south unfortunately).

So yeah, we got back to work here in Beja. Things ran decently. We found some new people to teach and taught a couple people we´ve already taught, and got to explore our area a bit more, going more towards the outskirts of the city to look for people.

We knocked on a door in a more poor area, and a young girl opened up. We were invited in, and long story short, we ended up teaching a massive 3 generational family with like 8 people there. Some werent paying attention (one was smoking, for example) but a handful of them actually listened. We didnt have a lot of time, so we returned the next day and taught the whole restoration. Maria and her grandaughter Elizabete seem to have potential. We will see what happens in the near future!

That other couple we met near the hospital unfortunately live a bit far from here. We planned to see them this week, but it didnt work out. We called them saturday night, and they said they would still come to church, but unfortunately they, as well as other people we confirmed with didnt show up... we´ll get them there next time.

A couple days ago we were given a little challenge to preach like Abinádi, (i forget how in english) not to burn, but to share the gospel even if it looks like no one is listening, in front of a group of people, because it couple make a difference, as it surely did with Alma.

When we were walking back form a lesson with that big family, we passed by a café. I said, meh, and walked into the café. There were probably 20 people there, mostly men, many of them smoking and drinking. I walked in, got everyone´s attention, and said basically "we´re missionaries, and we´re here to invite you all to follow Christ by way of baptism. Who here accepts or would like to learn more?" A bit more, but thats the gist of it. It was pretty funny. As you can imagine, not much happened, they just kinda said "nah we´ve got our religion" stuff like that. I asked once more, and welp, no one wanted anything, so I bid them good day and left, no hard feelings hahaha.

So it was a cool little experience, it was really funny too. But I actually learned something... Have you already seen the painting of Abinádi when he was talking to King Noah? His posture is quite notable. His chest forward and out, and his chin high. When I walked into this little café I couldnt help but do the same thing, chest out, chin up. I felt confident, and when I walked out, without any obvoius difference made, I really felt like I had done something good. I felt the spirit for that moment, and it was just a cool experience. I´d like to do it again sometime.

But the take home lesson is this: dont be ashamed, share the gospel! In little ways or big ways, and you will feel like you did something right. its that simlple. And you probably wont be burned by fire, so really youve got nothing to worry about.

Oh, winter finally showed up. Suddenly here it rained, and now its nice and frisky outside, with some sunshine! So, I actually had to use a jacket this week!

So today I actually brought my glasses to a little glasses store thingy in the center of town. (they broke a while back in the MTC I think) I walked in and said "ey can you fix these" and well, in a few minutes, they fixed em´. It was super nice of them, and they did it free of charge. While they were doing it, I chatted with the man who owns the place. He was born across the street (he pointed to the house) and said he had been running his little eye place business for 50 years now. We then chatted about the history of Beja a bit. He said originally it was started by the Arabs, then romans, and now portuguese. So, even way over here, there are roman ruins in the city. Man, those romans got everywhere haha. Then the portuguese hunkered down there, and made a big castle with a wall and turrets surrounding the city (much of which still stands). Its a pretty cool little town for sure.

And now I have glasses! Not a necessity, but a convenience for sure.

But yeah, it was a good week. Elder Cottrell and I are getting along well, still learning a lot about how each works and stuff like that. Let´s see what this week brings!

Chicka Chicka Ciao-wow,

Elder Ward

Photoos!