15 May 2017 Nina

Dear family and friends,

     A really good week. Lots of jazz happened. 

     Starting with monday, we had an average pday, nothing special. That night we went to a member´s home to hold a family home evening. The member is Mamá, an elderly african member who is a strong member of the church. She was baptized way back when in Africa and is in portugal for quite a while now. She is very caring and has inherited the name "Mamá" because she is basically a big mom to everyone in the branch. She always brings basically cauldrons of food to activities. She is really great, the funny thing is, she can´t even read! She has many of the hymns memorized and has her grandchildren read her the BoM. 

     We taught a short lesson to her daughter and son-in-law. It ran pretty well. Theyre good folks, we hope to see more progress in the future.

     You´ll remember Ivansilson. He´s actually progressing really well, and he doesn´t really know it haha. He´s a humble man, and a man who is really trying to discover the truth. To sum it up, he has accepted everything, we just need to teach him now that he has already received his confirmation of the truth through a million little things that have already happened. He´s great, very intelligent, and has been a great pleasure to teach. We still need to plan it with him, but if all goes well, he will be baptized this saturday. He came to church yesterday and got to know a lot of members, he liked it a lot. We´ll be teaching him tonight.

     Maybe you guys remember Carina too. She disappeared for a week, but we got back in contact with her. We are seeing the changes that the gospel is making in her life. She has a desire to follow the Savior´s example. She is pregnant with her second child now, and lives a couple km outside the city, so she cant get to church alone anymore. We are trying to get her parents to give her ride, but they are being a bit stubborn saying stuff like "she´s not ready yet, give her time to think about these decisions" — meanwhile she reads the BoM everyday and has already committed to live the commandments. 

     We´re working with the process. If her parents wont give her a ride, we´ll get someone else to do it haha.

     A while back I mentioned Denis. He got super busy and kinda escaped from us. I think he got a bit scared off to be honest. However, we saw him in his car, and he actually stopped and said hey. We got to talk with him on wednesday in the chapel. He´s going through some tough times but he has an honest desire to see what it is that we represent. He´s a lonely fella, so the support we offer has lightened up his life a bit. We´re gonna take it slow with him.

     Recently, our mission president made an announcement. He wanted all of us missionaries to look through our reference manager (an online reference thingy to visit people who were referred through the internet, relatives, etc). There, Elder Welch and I found a handful of people who were referred years ago, but never contacted. We tried one, Basílio, and actually went there a few times, but never found him at home. Later in the week, in a division, the thought of him popped into my mind again, so I went strait there. We found him at home, and taught him right away.

     Basílio is a man in his seventies. He lives in a little home a little stroll outside the city. It is evident that he has had a hard life in his past. He lives a very humble life, few possesions. He is portuguese, and born a catholic. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can help Basílio feel closer to God and to prepare to meet him again someday. Basílio is a man obviously prepared for us. I thought for sure that he would have problems with the word of wisdom, but as we covered it with him, he agreed to live it, and doesn´t have trouble with it at all. We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted.

     We invited him to come to church. He said he would come. However, just to play it safe, Sunday morning we walked to his house to get him (because he doesnt have a telephone) and we found him there, already combing his hair.

     He enjoyed church. He has bad vision, so just passed his time listening and looking at the photos in the books that we had. After the meetings he said to me that he liked it a lot, but wanted to know why there are so many churches, why there isnt just one church for everyone. We returned that night and taught him the restoration. He liked it, agreed, and accepted to be baptized this sunday. We´re gonna get him a 

    Funny enough, we showed up on his street, and he was standing on his neighbors´ porch conversing with a few neighbors. He was talking about us! His neighbors were saying stuff like "eh let it be, youre already catholic!" but he just said "nah, you dont get it, they are good folks," he then turned to us and said "hey what´d you guys say about the baptism? When is it?" We replied "no worries! we came today to work that out!"  It was really cool, Basílio is just an elderly fella that warms your heart, and does so even more when he embraces the gospel.

     It all happened because we took a hint from our mission president!

     Another day, we were walking down the street, contacting people, the usual. I then saw a fella in his twenties, a student obviously, walking in our direction. I saw that he had a tattoo on his arm, a tattoo that I actually recognize. You may remember that I like that band, Twenty One Pilots a lot. The singer has a tattoo that is basically 3 rings around the elbow. This guy in the street had the same thing.

     So I walked up to him and said "hey, how you doin? I like your tattoo! I recognize it" "Aw really?" "Yeah, are we thinking about he same person?"

     From there we started a really relaxed and smooth conversation. His name is Kaíque (Kah-EE-kee), a brazilian student here. We made a time to meet up with him in the chapel.

     That day, we had a really good lesson with him and his girlfriend. We taught the Restoration, and we talked about the process of receiving personal revalation. Kaíque mentioned how "coincidental" it was that on that day that we met, he was walking to work, which he rarely does, and how he also was using a path he rarely uses, and how we "happened" to cross paths with him and how I "happened" to recognize his tattoo and have a lot in common with him.

     He and his girlfriend Claudiane (brazilian pronunciation- clow-jee-AH-nee) both came to church. It turns out that they are neighbors to Milena and Sirlei (the members you guys met in skype) so they already have friends there and they enjoyed it. I hope to teach them more and see progress.

     I share this story to show that my taste in music was clearly inspired by God.

     We taught another Brazilian fella this week, Kelvin. It all ran well, he accepted to read the BoM and pray and even be baptized if he really discovers the truth, but he didn´t come to church for some reason.... So we´ll get back to him soon.

     And of course, on Saturday, Nina, a lovely lady that Elder Jan and I tuaght for a few months was finally baptized! It wasn´t for any specific reason, she just finally decided, and she invited a ton a people. It was a great experience to see her there.

     Anyways, I think that that´s an update. It was really cool chatting with family on skype, thanks guys!

Tchauzinho,

Elder Ward

Here we are getting our hair cut with Nina

 And here´s Nina just after her baptism. Elder Jan got to come and visit too.

8 May 2017 Elder Ward, Wedding Planner

Dear family and friends,

     So last monday Elder Welch and I visited a little foresty riverbed thingy in some rolling mountains outside of Loulé. It was pretty cool, but there were supposed to be waterfalls but we didn´t find any unfortunately. But it was still "pretty neat". 

Monday

     You´ll remember me mentioning a little bit about Cícira, that brazilian woman. Well, we lost contact with here, tried to call and stuff, but no luck. Later, we were just walking down the street, contacting people when I noticed that somebody was shouting, trying to call somebody´s attention. I glanced, but didn´t recognize the person. I said, what the heck, let´s go say hey.

     Turns out it was Cícira, she was sat on a bench with her husband and her 4 children (ages 9m to 9y). We chatted with her, got to know her husband, and we ended up walking about 7 or 8 minutes together to the church. There, we taught them both as their children played in the nursurey. It was a really good lesson. Cícira´s husband (well, partner, turns out they aren´t legally married) Nuno is a chill guy, a portuguese man. He looks a bit like a grump, but he really opened up with us and they accepted the restoration and a baptismal invite very well. Nuno lives here in Faro with his father, a very anti-religious man, and Cícira lives with her sister in a little village a few kilometers outside of Faro. Her sister is the same case. The children attend school outside of Faro, so they only get together in Faro sometimes to run errands and stuff. We planned to meet up with Nuno in the chapel another day, and Cícira in that village another. However, it only worked out to meet up and teach Cícira a second time this last week.

     Cícira and Nuno are really great. In the little bit that we have shared with them they have accepted the gospel very well. They showed excitement to learn more. However, they in this awkward split family life have a lot of trouble in meeting up with us. However, they committed to come to church but all saturday and sunday they didnt pick up they phone... kind of annoying. So, no they didn´t make it to church, but they are still great, I hope to work with them a lot in the near future.

     On Tuesday we had a huge zone conference. President and Sister Tavares came down to the algarve for the once-in-every-6-weeks training meeting. It ran well. Elder Welch and I had a half hour to talk to our zone and share stuff with them, a little training thingy. It was cool. 

     Zone conferences start usually at 9 or so and go until 2 or 3pm. During our lunch break, I headed outside with Elder Kaelberer to take out the trash. Elder Kaelberer, trash bags in hand, simply said "hey how ya doing?" to this guy walking by the church. The man stopped. We talked with him. His name is Ivanilson, he´s a 25ish year old man from Angola, and he´s here studying at the university. We invited him in to see the church. He came with us. Elder Kaelberer had to run and manage other things, but I showed Ivanison around. He said that he isn´t religious. He has already been to a lot of churches, but didn´t like any, and now he doesn´t really believe in god. However, after a short conversation in front of the baptismal font, we marked a time to meet up with him. 

     Ivanilson was taught twice this week. He´s a busy busy guy, but cut out time to meet up with us. We taught him the Restoration, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the word of wisdom. To sum it all up, he´s seriously interested now. He has already read a bit of the BoM and is searching for a testimony and a response. He came to church yesterday and liked it a lot. It was fast and testimony. He said "man, it´s true, it´s gotta be, I just gotta know for myself."

     We have a baptismal date marked with him on day 20 of this month. I think he will make it, he´s a great guy. He already stopped drinking coffee so that he can gain a testimony. He stopped smoking just a few months ago. He has been prepared for us.

     Good thing an Elder opened his mouth as he took out the trash.

     In this huge meeting, we had a lot of missionaries who kinda just hung around. They had to wait for trains and buses to get back to their areas, or they were hanging around for the meeting that evening. Elder Welch and I basically started forming "dream teams" as Elder Welch put it, and we just grabbed random Elders and headed out to work split up and with reinforcements. That afternoon, only in a few hours, Elder Welch with other missionaries taught a few lessons and found new investigators. I also grabbed some elders and headed out, and we too found some success.

     Wednesday I went to Albufeira (my old area!) with Elder Martel, from Canada. We drove there and had a decent time. We met up with Emanula (Imentioned in previous emails). She was happy to see me, and we also saw Maria (recent convert that Elder Jan baptized) and Nina (a woman I taught for a long while with Elder Jan, Maria´s boss.) We chatted with them in their hair salon, and turns out Nina finally wants to be baptized, and will be baptized this saturday if all goes well! How cool!

    Thursday was a bunch of work, not too much special happened, but on friday we had a great lesson with Ivanilson (already mentioned). We also taught some new folks, a young brazilian couple (not married) who are studying here as well. Their names are Amanda and Andrei. They really enjoyed the resoration and committed to read. They also recognize the need to get married. They came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. Amanda said "I wanna come back next week, I want to get to know this church."

     Saturday was also pretty cool, we worked hard and got to teach another young brazilian couple... it ran okay, but they aren´t married... I wont go into much detail haha.

     In my mission, I have decided that I´m a wedding planner. I have found tons of couples who have loved to hear about the gospel and many who applied it, but aren´t married and have trouble doing so due to paperwork. Examples: Jane and José, Jonatas and Fernanda, Clara and Joelson, Amanda and Andrei, Maria and Séni, Cícira and Nuno, Amadis and Macha, Barbosa and Esmeralda, and more that I can´t remember. It´s kinda rediculous! 

    So, I´ve decided that it is my destiny to become a wedding planner. I will study marital arts in BYU or something.

     But yeah, the work has been good. It´s great serving here with Elder Welch, once again I´ll say that I´m having a blast.

Today we´re gonna go to Quarteira to cut our hair (for free!) with Maria and NIna haha. Connections. Then we´re probably heading to Albufeira to see the tourisy stuff there.

But yeah I think that´s it. Take care everyone,

Happy mother´s day! Love you mom!

Elder Ward

Pday drive-thru lunch.

 An old well we found. Very common here in Algarve. They use basically use buckets that are welded to a big flexible ladder chain.

1 May 2017 Chumps and Champs

Dear family and friends,

A busy week! Lots of travelling.

     Last monday after emails, we drove to Lagos, one of the most famously pretty cities here in the Algarve. We stayed there sightseeing for a bit, and then monday night we split up with the Elders there for a division. It was a short division, but I went with Elder Castro, a brazilian missionary, and we taught 2 lessons. It was pretty cool. The next morning we got up and for exercises we took a jog. We jogged down a narrow classic european street, through a square with a super old catholic church, to the road, we followed a castle wall, passed a small fortress and a port, and then we jogged on the beach for a bit with cool cliffsides and we watched the sunrise. It was pretty scenic haha.

     We then headed with those Elders to a district meeting in Portimão. Our zone has 3 districts. To try to help out and also to get a good perspective of what´s going on, we visit other districts and attend their meetings. From there, we returned to our area and got to work. That night we found 2 new investigators, Júlia and Lucas, two brazilians who are here to study. We taught the restoration in a short time, and invited them to read the BoM, pray, and come to church. We marked a return appointment, they were pretty chill.

     Wednesday we went to another district meeting in Loulé. It ran well. Being a zone leader is pretty cool, we get to see lots of missionaries in the Algarve and always help out in their growth.

     I went with Elder Vigne, another brazilian Elder. He is hilarious, I think I already mentioned him once. He´s a spittin image of Gabe, in looks and a bit of personality. He is a new missionary, so he still has a really fresh brazilian accent and still says a lot of pure brazilian things... its really entertaining. Imagine an Elder from england arriving in america to serve, still saying things like "chaps, lads, biscuits, lorry, bonnet," etc. I really like brazilians haha.

     I worked with him only for a few hours though, because once more Elder Welch and I needed to return to Lisbon. So, we used Wednesday night to travel. There, we stayed the night and after about 4 more hours of line-waiting and other paperwork tasks, I finally got my portuguese driver´s liscence thingy. However, I needed to watch a church produced video before I could drive, so Elder Welch drove back and I watched the video at night. With everything out of the way finally, I can officially drive here!

     Elder Francis and Elder Cottrell were there at the DMV thing too to get their liscences. I had a good time to catch up with them. They are both doing well. Because Elder Francis went to the Açores, it had been almost 9 months since the last time I had seen him!

     We got back Thursday night. We didn´t get back to work until Friday unfortunately. On friday, we drove to Tavira, a touristy town pretty darn close to the spanish border. I did a division there with Elder Heiner, from Idaho. It was a good time. He´s a newer missionary too, so I got to help him out, and I learned some new things too. Elder Welch took Elder Heiner´s companion to Faro to keep working there.

     Saturday morning we wrapped everything up and Elder Welch and I hit the pavement again in Faro together. We worked hard, taught Carina again and found 2 new investigators.

     Carina is doing well. We taught her the word of wisdom and discovered that she doesnt have any problems with it, and accepted to live it. 

     The new folks we found are 2 more brazilians! A few days back I contacted Renata and Rogério in a park. Saturday night I felt like we should stop by, and we did and found Renata and her daughter, Cárol at home. We had a short visit with them. They are very open and will probably progress well. We didn´t full on teach, but we explained to them how a relationship with the Savior will help them. They are passing through some difficulties, and they accepted to continue with us. They were awfully nice.

     However, Sunday gave us a bit of an uppercut. (I don´t know how to say it in english... but "comprometido" is like "invited, confirmed, accepted, agreed") We had 10 people comprometido to come to church with us, aka 10 people were invited and said that they would come (Including all the people I have already mentioned in this email). To our disappointment, not a single one showed up. We haven´t figured out why with many of them still, but it was a bit frustrating. It is one of the biggest challenges in the mission... Even when people have a car or live 5 minutes from the church by foot, they just don´t show up because they "were tired" or some lame excuse like that.

     Elder Welch however said something pretty funny after the big bummer. He said "hey, when things hit the fan like this, they become wife points" Elder Welch is darn funny haha.

     Carina was set up to be baptized this saturday that is coming, but because she didn´t make it to church, we will postpone it. Our mission rule requires that someone shows up to church at least 2 times before being baptized.

     Sunday afternoon we ate at a members home and afterwards we taught Ígor and Bruno. They are doing well, but aren´t keeping up with the "homework" we give them. In portuguese, one says "dar faca" which literally means "to give knife". However, it actually means to critisize or correct someone. I´m good friends with Igor and Bruno, I know them for 2 months now, so I felt the need to "give a bit of knife" to them. They understood and admitted that they arent putting God in the first priority. We explained that that´s why theyve been having some troubles lately and also why they still haven´t discovered the truth for themselves.

     Don´t worry, I did it smoothly and with love. They got he point and agreed with me. They should progress soon.

     Also, a little miracle. We were doing the normal thing, talking to people, trying to visit others, all that jazz. About 5pm, we were a bit tired and on the level of a bit discouraged, we had been rejected that day already probably 100 times. We tried visiting an old investigator in a building. Up there on the third floor, he didn´t open up, and Elder Welch and I looked at each other and basically thought the same thing "What´´s going on? why aren´t we finding prepared people and teaching? What´s wrong here?" We almost sat down on the stairs to chat for a bit, but instead we just descended and right outside the building entrance was a woman with two young boys with her. We immediately talked with her. Her name is Cícira, a very nice brazilian woman. We chatted for about 10 minutes, and actually the conversation ran so well that we invited her to be baptized. She accepted, so we marked a day to pass by. Unfortunately that day didn´t work out, but we are working with her to get things arranged. 

     It was just nice to see that the Lord is looking out for us. He wants us to keep going always, and will help us when we need it, he wants to see our effort and perseverance first.

     So yeah, that was the week basically. Whenever I don´t mention anyone in an email, it basically means that there has been no progress with them. Generally progress is hindered due to the fact that we cant meet up with them due to work, travels, business, etc. But when the work is a bit tough, it´s a good thing, it oughtta be. 

     But it´s not so bad, It´s actually very satisfying and great serving here with Elder Welch, I´m having a blast.

I thinks that´s it. Take care,

Elder Ward

 The cliffs of Lagos

This here is the very edge of the south-western corner of Europe! It was quite a view.

24 April 2017 Italiano

Dear family and friends,

Elder Welch and I are having a good time here in Faro. I´ll throw in a quick reveiw of the people I mentioned last week.

     We had a follow up appointment with Dinis on Monday night. The assistants came down to the Algarve monday night as well, so we had a quick division. I didn´t get to teach Dinis, Elder Welch and another Elder went to that appointment. However, I heard that it ran well. They taught him the plan of salvation and discovered some more about him. For example, as they were talking about God and and families and stuff they asked Dinis "who is the person closest to you in your life?" and Dinis responded with a curveball "no one".

     So from there Elder Welch learned that Dinis is actually a very lonely fella, and that with the few relationships he has with acquaintances and work he passes through a lot of obligational stress, aka, he feels obligated very easily towards people. That´s one of the reasons why he came to church and read the whole Restoration pamphlet.

     I wasn´t there, but I hear that Elder Welch was able to iron out a lot of wrinkles and clarify a lot of things. We now understand that we´re gonna need to take it really slow with Dinis. So, we tried to get together with him only one time this week, but it fell through due to unexpected work on his end. He couldn´t make it to church either because of work once again. But we will certainly work with him in the future and at his pace.

     Unfortunately we couldn´t arrange a time to meet up with Cristina again. She´s a teacher and has little time. Her daughter is going through some sort of medical treatment, so we didn´t get to meet up with her this week, nor did she make it to church. We´ll pay another visit this week.

     We had a handful of curveballs with Bruno and Igor. Igor got a job in a bakery, and works everyday for the next month, 4am until noon, and cant choose his days off... bummer. So, it was tough to mark a time to chat with them. We got to see them once in the road and we learned that they found the church that they used to go to in Brazil and have been visiting there lately too.

     Anyways, the weekend came around, we knew Igor would be working, but we invited Bruno to come to church despite all the recent happenings. He said he would come, but didn´t unfortunately, those brothers don´t go anywhere without the other. We have plans to work around these obstacles.

     Carina is another story as well. In short, because she has been a bit rebellious in her family in the recent years, and because her parents are a bit stubborn, we have had a bit of difficulty. Elder Welch and I have to be really upfront with them sometimes. They are still all getting over grudges and judgements when they should all be happy that another family member is accepting the gospel. One whole lesson was focused solely on forgiveness and was actually directed more towards her parents (who are members) than Carina haha. In fact, Elder Welch and I planned a visit with Carina´s parents just to help them show a bit more Christ-like attributes to their repentant daughter. It was kinda frustrating. They are strong members, but a bit thick-skulled at the same time, excuse my terminology.

     Carina came to church yesterday for the first time since a small child with her parents. She brought her two-year-old, Adriano, who was a bit of a ruckus towards the end of the sacrament meeting, but even so, Carina left with a more positive reveiw than negative. Helping Carina progress to be baptized will be a process for sure, but we´re working on it.

     This week we worked our tushies off. We spent a lot of time searching, knocking, walking, and contacting. We found some decent success. It was a big investment of time and energy. It´s tiring, and it should be. Elder Welch is really funny. He´s only got 4 weeks left, so he wants to hammer it out until the end. He says stuff like "It´s not hot enough. I need to be suffering." or "We need more steep hills in this city" and stuff like that. He´s a missionary who loves to work and has "high endurance" so to speak. He doesn´t slow down at all. In short, his motto is "feel the pain, love the pain". 

     In this great search for new investigators, we met, knocking doors, a 19 year old girl from Cabo Verde, named Evy. As we talked with her in her doorway, I saw Janice (a young mother, less active, from Cabo Verde too, I had previously met her in KFC in which she works a few weeks back). Elder Welch and I set a time to meet with both of them. Theyre really nice and open, easy to joke with.

     A few days later we sat down and taught them both. Janice was baptized a few years back, and doesn´t come to church due to work and laziness (she said it herself). We tried to focus on Evy. Evy has come to portugal recently (I forget how recently). While she was in Cabo Verde she met the missionaries, learned with them about 3 years ago. She said she has already read the majority of the Book of Mormon, but doesnt remember much. She remembers that she liked it though. The missionaries there spoke with her about baptism, but it never happened because Evy always worked on Sundays. I think the time she was taught was very limited, and because of such, she must have lost contact with them. 

     Elder Welch and I read the mostpart of 3 Nephi 11 with them, and we invited Evy to be baptized. She will pray about it. We also left her a new copy of the BoM, and invited her to church. She was going to come for sure, but didn´t make it because her family had to go to the neighboring city, Olhão for some reason. We will be working a lot with her, she has great potential.

     Earlier in the week, Elder Welch and I travelled to Portimão, Loulé, and Ohlão to attend 3 different district meetings to give a training. It was pretty cool, we got to meet up with all of our zone bit by bit, and help them all better their teaching skills. It was a good learning experience, particularly for me. I stayed for an afternoon in Portimão doing a division with Elder Fisk, from Utah. It was pretty interesting, it was cool to see a new city and work with another Elder for a day.

     Also, just for a little cherry-on-top, yesterday I went to Olhão to teach an Italian!

     There are 3 Elders in Olhão, and they noticed in these last 5 weeks this guy in a nice suit who came to church but never said anything. They thought he was a member. Turns out, he´s a ~65 year old Italian man, Nino, from Palermo. He is quite well-off financially, and is working here in portugal for a time.

     The missionaries there discovered this and started teaching him... well, they tried. Eventually they called me up saying "Elder Ward, you speak italian right?" "Not to great, its been a long while." "Dude we´re teaching this guy from Italy and we understand jacksquat". 

     Nino is a really nice guy. However, he loves to talk. So, in all of the monologues he´s given, the other misisonaries had understood that he basically want´s to leave the Catholic church, renounce he baptism there, and be baptized the right way. Simple. Now, he is seriously investigating the LDS church. However, the missionaries have had difficulty in teaching, so basically he doesn´t know much, and is now reading the BoM. 

     So, I showed up and tried to get to know him, get a grip on the situation, but soon after he began talking about he history of the world since the start of the catholic church. He began talking about socrates and other philosophers, John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc. I tried to control the situation a bit, but my italian has faded immensely. I started the lesson with him only understanding 20% but in the end I was understanding 75%, However, due to language troubles, and his infinite love for conversation about politics, philosophy, history, and spirituality, we didn´t get much done in our conversation that unfortunately lasted a couple hours...I was actually a bit frustrated in the end with my performance, but I´m not too worried. He understands that there was a great apostasy, and will pray and continue reading the book of mormon. I don´t doubt that he will eventually be baptized. He just needs to start listening a bit more and needs to find italian Elders!

     Nino will return to italy in a few weeks, to Rome for a time. He will surely meet up with the missionaries there.

     But oh man, it was good fun and very entertaining to see so many little italian quirks, sicilian quirks haha. He used his hands almost as much as his lips, said stuff like "buh" and a couple old swear words I havent heard for a long while (he used them in very specific circumstances to express a point, such as to describe Emperor Constantine). 

     But yeah, that´s what the mission brought to the table this week. We have plans to go to Lagos today, and maybe another cool place, so I should have cool photos for next week. For now, just one. 

Ciao,

Elder Ward

We visited an old catholic chapel, and there was a bone chapel outside in the garden. It was... interesting. Yes, those are all real bones.
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