Dear family and friends,
Well good news! I finally got to attach some photos, so, enjoy those!
Anyways, time is short as always, I´ll get right to it. I wont cover all the happenings of the week, but I jotted down some funny ones to share.
We have an investigator, Alice, who is awfully great. She works in a little pharmacy and was actually a reference from some members, the Sousa family. She is about 60 years old, and a very nice lady, Portuguese. We´ve taught her a couple times now, with our branch president, President Rui. But this week we got to teach her with the Sousa´s, Joaquim and Amélia. It ran really well, the help that Rui and the Sousa´s have given is invaluable. We showed up for the visit, and Elder Jan and I almost didnt have to do anything, they were already talking about the gospel and just making a friendship that will surely help Alice become a strong member. Alice herself has already said that she would like to go to church 2 or 3 times, and then commit to baptism to "help us fulfill our mission" haha. She´s awfully willing and really accepting to the gospel right now. She called us today while we were in the grocery store (to cancel our appointment, we re-planned for tomorrow, no worries) and told us that she was reading about Alma, the missionary in that very moment and really enjoying it. It´s fun to work with her. We actually teach her in her little pharmacy during her lunchbreak, usually.
In our lesson this week she was chatting with Amelia, like old women chat, y´know? Just a lot of subjects very quickly and excessive nodding. Anyways Amelia in the conversation discovered that Alice is originally from the Alentejo, (a "district" of Portugal, kinda like a state). She was suddenly very elated and they started going on and on about their parents who are both from the same little town/village there. They covered many subjects, and discovered a lot of funny little links between them, for example, Alice´s uncle was Amélia´s mom´s milkman or something like that, it was really funny. Small world (especially in Portugal 50 years ago haha).
Church this Sunday was rather interesting. I was actually assigned to give a talk, but when I showed up, Rui came up to me and said "Elder Ward, you´ll talk next week, I need you to translate the meeting for these folks here". We had some visitors from Wales (our area is very touristy, lots of British visit), and I sat the whole sacrament meeting translating. I understand everything easily now, but in the moment that I would speak it to them, I couldnt hear the speaker over my own voice, and like so, it was a challenge but a brain workout for sure.
Our branch also has 4 or so Ecuadorean families, the men with dark ponytails and everything, its legit. One is the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency, so he directs the meeting in spanish haha. Anyways, they´re all really cool and awfully nice. In Sunday school we were sat there talking about a story in the Book of Mormon and the teacher said something along the lines of "and all of Lehi´s seed was nearly destroyed, well, not all of them, we have still some lamanites here with us" and its just always a crackup (dont worry, they dont take offense to it, they like it). Its true though, and they´re fulfilling prophecy at the same time.
We got a phonecall this week. The our mission president wants the entire mission to read the BoM before the 16th of February. So, basically 21 pages everyday... Its actually quite a challenge, because I like to take my time, but as youve already heard from me, time as a missionary is hard to come by. Every night I stay up a little longer reading. Its a very enjoyable experience. Ive certainly learned a lot about the gospel in a whole since the last time a sat down to read the whole book. Because of such, I grasp a lot more this time around. Its pretty great, would recommend.
We had a little FHE with a member this week, João, from Guiné Bisau (africa), and he brought is friend Celeste and Maiza (also africans), some investigators who had been out of the country for a little while, so I never got to know them. The lesson ran well, theyre some good people and have good potential. Afterwards, João threw 5 spoons on the table, and then a big pan with rice, various vegetables, and 2 hand-sized cooked fish on top (entire fish, head and all haha). No plates needed, we all just used our spoons and started eating, it was pretty good. I wish I would have brought my camera. Just imagine the following photo for me: 3 very dark africans and 2 whiteboys at a little wooden table in a little bitty house, with a pan of food in the middle haha. It was a good time.
Alright gotta wrap it up. It was a good week. We´ve got a few good investigators who are progressing well. Sorry for not writing more, we got our haircut today with one of our investigators, Nina. She did a good job but it took a bit longer than we anticipated.
Agh! Ive got more to share, but just no time!
Until next time folks!
Ciao,
Elder Ward
A photo I´ve been meaning to send for a while. This is back from Beja. Lots of little small houses.
Albufeira, a part of it.
A sunrise view from our apartment window, zoomed at 18x. A catholic church on the hill.
A couple pdays back, we made a temple with our LZs, it was pretty fun. No, I didn´t go swimming :(
A typical view during our days here. Its not cold enough...
A lovely family in our branch and the view they get to enjoy. They fed us well.
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