27 March 2017 Em Fim

Dear family and friends,

     An email a bit different. I´ll cut to the chase.

     In my mission, I´ve had various forms of success. Honestly, I´m not one to care how the success comes or how it happens, I´m just here to work, and if people are touched, great. If lost sheep are found, great. If hearts are comforted, great. If my fellow man is served, great. If people are reactivated, great. If people are baptized, great. If I learned something in the end, great.

     Whatever the form of success, I consider it a blessing. I wanted to share another tidbit of success with you guys. It´s been a long time, but perhaps you all remember a couple emails I wrote about Joelson and Clara, a brazilian couple that Elder Fletcher and I found in Póvoa, my first area. I will give a brief revision of the story, and an update.

     Elder Fletcher and I were knocking doors at about 9pm. Why? Well everything fell through haha, it was a pretty rough day. We were a half hour walk from home still, and needed to get home at 9:30pm. I said "Elder Fletcher, let´s call it a day, let´s head back." He replied "No, screw this! I ain´t going back until we write down one new name in our planners." I obliged, and accepted to knock one more building with him. We did so, and in the last door on the first floor Clara opened the door. I did the usual "hey, we´re missionaries from the church, we know it´s late yadda yadda" and Clara said "Oh hello! We saw you guys outside! Come in!"

     From there, we met Clara, Joelson, and Saiuri (their daughter). We came back the next day, and in the next few weeks taught them the restored gospel. They loved it, but could not be baptized because they were not married, and were living together. They came to church a couple times and enjoyed it. They made friends, and so on. We gave invited them to marry so they could live all the laws of God, and then be baptized. They expressed desire, but had trouble doing so due to problems with papers, being immigrants. They had a lot of excuses. Sometimes it was frustrating, so we decided that maybe it would just take a while. Then I was transfered.

     For a long time I didn´t here anything of them. I was transfered pretty far away haha. Here in Faro, I heard an update.

     Turns out Clara and Joelson were having lots of difficulties in their relationship... it wasn´t a good one, so leave it at that. They hid it all, and used the excuse of "papers" to hide the fact that they didn´t want to marry. Missionaries continued teaching them after I left, for months and months until this was discovered. In the end, as sad as it may appear, Joelson returned to Brazil, and Clara remained in Portugal. Fortunately, she is financially established, and is with Saiuri too. A week and a half after the seperation, Clara was baptized. I spoke with Elder Richards, the Elder who is there now and baptized Clara, and he told me the whole story. Clara and Saiuri are doing both very well, and are happy. Elder Richards gave Joelson a BoM with a testimony and instructions to find the church in Brazil. Elder Richards said that Clara has a strong testimony and Joelson as well knows that the church is true. He´s just gotta find it there in Brazil, which shouldn´t be hard haha.

    So yeah, I was expecting a different outcome, but the Lord works in mysterious ways I guess.

    In other news, here in Faro, unfortunately, I don´t have any updates... Basically nothing happened this week. I ended up being really sick for 3 days or so. I´m healthy now.

    All of our investigators, well, no progress. Mostly due to lack of contact. Some just arent responding. I actually think that the Lord is holding them off for now, He´s waiting for the missionaries in the area to get it together... I am having trouble motivating and helping Elder Kampff hold out strong until the end of his mission... its a long and complicated and seperate discussion... but its a learning experience. I will have the oppotunity to chat with president this week.

    We also had to use a chunk of time to manage stuff for our zone conference that will be tomorrow. Presidente is coming to town, so we gotta prepare a big meeting. We were assigned to get a lunch arranged too, so we walked up to a sandwich store, similar to Subway, in shirts and ties and we said "we need 50 footlongs ready and hot on tuesday. We will pass by at midday to pick them up" it was pretty amusing.

Well, I think that´s all. Big hug,

Elder Ward

ps, when I was sick, Elder Kampff and I played chess to pass the time. I wooped him. He doesnt know how to use a queen.

 Clara last Saturday, dressed in white.

Joelson, Clara, Saiuri, and Elder Fletcher and I.

20 March 2017 Where ya from Elder?

Dear family and friends,

This week was a pretty interesting one. I know, I say that same thing probably every week. This week brought some interesting challenges, but also some cool experiences.

Im learning a lot with Elder Kampff. He´s an old missionary, he´s only got 9 weeks left, which at times has an effect on him... Its actually a bit challenging at times. A companionship is like a bike, its got 2 wheels, and when one is out of shape, the speed in general slows down. Ive had to put a bit of extra gas in the tank from my own reserves, if that makes sense.

Even so, he´s a great guy, and Im learning a ton with him. I hope that I can help him learn some valuable lessons in the end of his mission as well.

I will give a wide update of our investigators.

We didnt talk with Stefan much. We wanted to give some space, or rather, time to think about the immense lecture we gave him about the priesthood haha.

There was a baptism planned in our chapel from another branch (will explain more afterwards) so we extended an invite to attend after church, and at the same time invited him to church. He said "well, yeah, I would love to see. I cant promise that Ill be there, but Ill try." Well, he showed up to church, and liked it quite a bit. This week we received a BoM in Romanian, so I took advantage of the opportunity there at church and gave him one. When he saw the cover and read the title his face lit up a little and he said "hey thats my language!". I took some time to explain it to him well, and linked it all to the Restoration and proof of Joseph Smith. He said he would give it a read. Its the only hope at this point I think haha. Either way, he´s a great guy.

Satu, well, our appointment with her this week didnt work out, and she couldnt make it to church either. We will have to replan with her. Work just got in the way. We will meet with her this week.

That man who showed up last week, Cristiano, trying to quit drinking and smoking... well he never picked up the phone and didnt show up this week. We´ll try to call him a couple more times.

Daniel, well, it was also tough to talk with him. He didnt respond much, he´s a busy busy guy. However, Ive got high hopes for him. We gave his number to a brazilian RM, Gary, in the branch, and he will communicate with him for us. Gary, being an RM, is a great member missionary, we trust him to do good work and create a friendship with him.

We used a lot of time this week to focus with members. After conversing a bit with some missionaries who already served here, we came to the conclusion that we need to use the members more than any other tool. We got to know a few of them pretty well. They are all great people. I hope that we can get some success from them.

For example, the branch pres, Pres. Tiago is a great guy, stereotypical brazilian. He rented out a room for 2 other brazilians, and Gary (who actually lives with Tiago too) took them to church. Theyre young guys, 25, 29, Bruno and Igor. Theyre really chill, and after church I chatted with them for a long while to get to know them better, and then we all headed to Tiago´s place to eat lunch, and there too we had a good visit. They enjoyed church, and are staying with a mormon family and and 2 Rm´s, so it´ll go well. I We´re heading there tonight to teach them officially.

On saturday, I got to do a baptismal interview for a very special man in Olhão. His name is Fransisco, from Guiné Bissau, and was found by the missionaries in a contact right in front of the church. He learned a bit, shooed the missionaries away, but then came back, and had a marvelous experience in leaning the restored gospel.

The interview with him ran perfectly. He was a very prepared man to receive the gospel. I enjoyed getting to know him.

He was going to be baptized yesterday, but due to some complications, it had to be cancelled... long story. But he´ll be baptized this Saturday, no problems.

I just wanted to say that it was an honor to hold an interview with him, a spiritual feast.

So yeah, I think that this basically is the weekly update. Im enjoying it here, its a good time, and I´m always learning new stuff.

Hope all is well with y´all.

Elder Ward

Oh, I put that title because when Im meeting all the members here, they all ask me where im from, and welp, i dunno.

 Myself, Elder Kampff, and Gary

Our district

12 March 2017 Todos cheguem aqui

Dear friends and family,

This week flew. 

We finally feel like we got started, but also had to finish up with some "administrative" work if that makes sense. One day we headed to Loulé, my previous área. I got to do a division with Elder Fogg, Elder Jan´s new companion. I got to know him well. He´s a "baby" in the mission, he just finished his training. He is passing some challenges in the mission, but we talked for a long while in the division and it ran well. I got to walk the streets of Quarteira again, it was kinda strange walking around in my old area.

We also headed to Tavira, a city darn close to Spain to do another division. I passed the day in Faro with Elder Taggart, a cool guy. He´s from California. 

We were doing the normal, talking with people in the street, etc, and this one guy with a "california" sweatshirt. Elder Taggart only said "hey man I´m from that state" and this guy stopped and said "aw no way". From there we started talking with him, and he is a really cool guy. He´s brazilian, called Daniel. We met up with him yesterday in the chapel, taught him the restoration, and he soaked it up. He says that he had already gone to various churches and said he always had to "filter" what they were saying because sometimes he didn´t think it was all true. He liked the news we told him about a modern profet with authority. We invited him to be baptized (he was baptized in the past once already) but this time with authority and he said yes, but wanted to give a good inspection and study to the Book of Mormon and come to church. So yeah, it was a great lesson. It was very satisfying teaching the Restoration again, it had been a week or too since the last time I taught it anew. Its such a simple and powerful message.

We afterwards stayed in the chapel and taught Stefan (mentioned in last weeks email). The lesson was almost the opposite of the lesson of Daniel. Stefan just couldnt wrap his head around priesthood authority right... we used a chalkboard, a video, analogies, scriptures, all the tools.. I wont go into detail. He still really enjoys visiting with us and likes to visit the church, so maybe he will just be more of a long term process.

But, before Stefan showed up at the chapel, a member walked in for a meeting and said "hey elders, theres a woman out there who wants to talk with you guys." So we went out there and met Satu, an african woman who has already investigated the church. We started talking for just a bit and Stefan showed up... so actually Elder Kampff headed to one side of the room to teach Stefan while I taught Satu. It was strange, and probably not something advisable, but hey, we had to think fast.

Funny enough, I spoke with Satu on the phone a few months ago. I dont remember why or when, but I think she called us wanting to know when she could meet with us, but the trouble was that she had moved out of our area (which was at this time Quarteira) to Faro. So we passed her number to the Elders who were here in Faro at the time so they could meet up with her, but nuthin happened. So she showed up on our porch basically!

She was nearly baptized a few months back, but lost contact with the Elders due to the move and well, poor contact management by the Elders who used to be here. Luckily enough though, we are in contact with her again, and me for the second time!

The lesson I had with her was quick. I wanted to discover her needs rapidly and then plan a baptismal date for her. We (well, I techinically) marked her for day 26 of this month. So, second to our mission rules, if she comes to church these 2 upcoming sundays she´ll be baptized. How cool.

I finished up with the lesson and jumped into the lesson with Elder Kampff and Stefan... and yeah I already talked about that haha.

But yeah that was all yesterday, it was pretty cool.

Oh, and forgot one more, near the end of Sacrament meeting, a man showed up on his bike to the church and basically said "Im addicted to smoking and drinking. I want to leave it all behind me." We grabbed the branch president, a member who smoke and drank for 30 years and was baptized a year ago, and we went into a room and started conversing with him. 

I personally think he was a tad tipsy still, but we chatted with him about Christ and a plan that we would make together so he could leave his addictions, and then be baptized, thus leaving everything bad in the past. He accepted a challenge to lower the rate of smoking, and we´ll be chatting with him throught these next few weeks to see how it all plays out.

And yeah, it was a kinda crazy week, especially yesterday. Elder Kampff was a bit sick this week, so we lost some time so he could rest. But with the time we had we found some success, or rather, the success found us!

Times up!

The church is true!

Elder Ward

I looked out the window and what did I see? A woman grilling fish and squid.

I didnt have time to make it rhyme, chill. (portuguese like seafood just a bit)

A less active member gave me a recipe for chocolate salami, and I tried it myself, it turned out pretty good! We´ve already used it as bribery with some members.... heheheh

6 March 2017 Viagens

Dear family and friends,

Well, I think it´s gonna be an email a bit shorter this week. Lot´s happened, but not a lot of cool stuff happened, if you get me.

So to work out the transfers, we just had to drive down to Faro with my stuff, drop me off with Elder Kampff, who had already arrived there by bus, and just go to our apartment there. It was pretty simple. Elder Jan picked up his new companion and a couple other missionaries who were arriving in our region and they went back up to Loulé.

I forgot to mention in the last email, but I will be serving as a Zone Leader here with Elder Kampff. We are responsible for helping all of the missionaries of the Algarve have success. We also help in some training meetings, we organize stuff, stuff like that. Because of this calling, we were invited to Mission council, so after arriving in Faro, we had to catch a bus the next day and travel 4 hours to Lisbon (the second time this week for Elder Kampff). We travelled at night and we spent the night there. We had a big meeting with all the other mission leaders and with President Tavares. It was a really good meeting, lots of stuff learned. We then had to stay there for another day waiting because Elder Kampff had to renew his residency... so as a result we lost a ton of time this week in travels, transfers, and meetings. Kinda annoying.

But rewinding a bit, we had a bus at 5pm for lisbon. We were in faro, and a guy who met the other Elders just a few days before wanted to meet up with us. The chapel literally is a stones throw from our apartment, so we obliged and headed down to meet up with him. His name is Stefan, and he´s romanian, but speaks portuguese very well, a nice man. We showed him the chapel and we started teaching the restoration. We were about to tell him about the first vision when I looked at my watch and saw 4:45pm and the bus station is 20 minutes by foot away. Darn.

I said to myself "this has gotta be quick" so I started explaining "so Heavenly father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith" and I showed him a photo. He then looked confused and we found out that due to orthodox background he doesn´t understand the 3 seperate beings part... 

anyways we cut it short and ended up grabbing our suitcases and running to the nearest location to catch a taxi... we did so and caught the bus the moment it was leaving, late, at 5:08 haha.

Anyways this guy, Stefan, is actually pretty cool. He came to church this sunday and enjoyed it. We will be talking more with him this week. But the whole chaos part was kinda funny in retrospect.

Anyways it felt like our work didnt really start here in Faro until Saturday due to all the delays and travels... really annoying, we basically lost a week of work here.Anyways we got up on Saturday and we spent a few hours looking at maps, lists, the area book, trying to get our heads on strait to start off our transfer here in this whitewash. We got to know Faro a bit, visited some folks, lots of normal stuff.

Also, Elder Jan is a District Leader now, so I get to talk with him a lot to follow up with the progress of the areas there... good stuff, I like Elder Jan a lot and we still get to keep in good contact. We will likely pass our pdays together a lot. Ive heard that the area is going well there. Alice was sick again, so her baptism will be planned for a later date, but no big deal, she will be baptized anyways. Emanuela was sick too, so didnt make it to church, and Amadis and Alvaro were caught up in work... but that kinda stuff always happens. Certainly there will be quite a bit of success there soon.

But yeah, we went to church yesterday and it ran pretty well. The branch president here is pretty cool and seems to have a pretty good grip on things. There are quite a handfull of good strong members here, lots of youth too, so things should run well. We have a lot of plans to work with them a lot in our time here.

So, weve got a lot of work to do here in Faro. We still havent really planted our feet, but we shall see how it goes!

Tchauzinho,

Elder Ward

 the countryside of the Algarve from the bus.

 The hospital across the street has helivacs every once in a while, and good photo-ops

A quick snap of Elder Kampff (no he´s not german he´s brazilian ok)