Tuesday December 27, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

So we have some really cool news this week. In our Zone Leader meeting president Torgan told us that Portugal is now the Lighthouse of Europe, and that we were the missionaries that were prophesied of to fulfill that Prophesy. Here are some cool statistics. There are 27 missions in Brasil, we baptized more than 20 of those 27 missions. In the European area we baptized 1094 people, and the next closest was Cabo Verde which baptized 500 (which isn't even part of Europe, but in the European area bacause of temple districts). My only fear the the activity of those people, because a lot of those people were baptized and need to be strengthened, in my ward, I have seen 5 baptisms in the last 3 months and not a one of those people have a calling in the church yet.

 

Update for y'all: Rui Pinheiro, the man I baptized in Viana do Castelo, is now blessing the sacrament and should be recieving the Melchizedek preiesthood in February when they have Stake Conference.

 

                           Marta and Arlindo (from Ermesinde) have "revived the branch" according to Elder Searle. They have 3 little boys that have opened up new callings for the members, and Arlindo blessed the Sacrament for the first time on Christmas.

 

                          Orlando (from Miratejo) is going back to Santo Mae where he will be forced to go less active because our church isn't in that country yet.

 

I don't know about any of the others, they are the only ones I have been keeping up with.

 

The meeting yesterday was quite interesting and involved the following scriptures: Hebrews12:5-7, D&C 95:1, D&C 105:6, and D&C 136:31 incase you are curious how our meeting went.

 

 

Thanks for your love,

 

Elder Hope

Monday December 19, 2011

Dear family and friends,

 

This has to be short because i was trying to get a video sent, but it didn't work

 

This started out to be the best Christmas ever. We got beds last friday, and Elder Washburn Broke it within 24 hours (its alright we fixed it)!!!!, but then on Saturday we went to pick up Benicio for his baptism and found out that he had drunken wine the night before, so he wasn't able to get baptized. He is one of the guys that we are having to do everything for and won't do anything on his own. He didn't come to church after saying he would, so we are seriously contemplating on dropping him, since he will come to church only when we go and get him, it is a really hard choice, but I would perfer to baptize strong members rather than people who go inactive right after I leave.

 

We had a ward Christmas party that was sort of funny. we had a fun time trying to figure out a skit to do, so we went and found did a thing where one of us laid down and we sat on the other one, and then put a towel around us so that they couldn't tell . . . ish, and then we played around and were able to put "our legs" behind our heads and such, it is sort of funny, i'll try and get a video sent, it starts about 50 seconds into it.

 

Yesterday we had a great time, we had a lesson with a guy named Moises, and he is super awesome. his friend was over and was giving us really good answers and such. We were sort of curious, and then right as we got to Joseph Smith, she left and got her bible, she came back and found a scripture, and then Elder Washburn and I looked at each other and realized she was a Jehova Witness. So we closed the lesson before talking about Joseph Smith, and her face got a smile of disgust on it, she was so furious. It is sort of funny how sad it is that they have to play dumb just to try and prove us wrong. So we left and didn't get into it. It is sort of hard, because between Elder Washburn and I, we could probably bible bash pretty good, but there is no point to it.

 

Anyways, love y'all tons.

 

Elder Hope

Tuesday December 13, 2011

Dear family and friends,

 

yesterday we had our Christmas conference which was one of the most spiritual and frustrating times at the same time. We had Elder Texeira of the first quorum of the 70 speak to us, and I really think he likes english better than portuguese, because he kept switching back to english, and then to portugese. I sort of felt bad for the brazillians there that couldn't understand the English. The whole mission was there, and it was interesting to sit and talk with old friends and companions. Elder Whitaker, Elder Searle, and I all sat and talked for a while during lunch. Elder Searle reported that they are still baptising the people him and I found when we were there in Ermesinde. He is still there. Elder Whitaker was called to be district Leader in Vila Franca de Xira, but then decided he didn't like it, so the next transfer was transfered to be in another area in the middle of Nowhere, Portugal. We sang songs, had fun, and met a lot of new people.

 

Elder Brown, my trainer has 6 more months left on his mission and was so happy to see me sitting on the stand yesterday with the other zone leaders. He came up to me, and told me he was glad that his greenie turned out ok. I was his first person to train, and he thought he had failed.

 

Elder Del Aguila is going home on December 20th. He is from Houston, TX, and he has already extended for 9 weeks, so he is going home, but oh well, he is one of the greats.

 

Presidente Torgan was speaking to us, and then paused, and then he said that the spirit has commanded him to bless each and every one of us with protection from evil and against the firey darts of Satan.

 

We got to get together as a zone and one of our missionaries refused to wear his plaque and told us that he doesn't believe the gospel anymore. This is super hard for everyone to see this because he was one of the legends. He baptized nearly 50 people in Portugal which is almost unheard of, and now he has given up and told us that he doesn't pray or fast or do anything anymore, that the story of the church is a "nice story". I debated whether or not to share this, but I think is goes to show an example, that when we stop doing the basics, pray, read, fast, and follow the savior, we lose the most important things to us . . . including our testimony. It is super sad to see that one of gods most faithful missionaries can fall into the same trap. Our mission president told us he would be going home since this has been happening for over 2 transfers now. This is his last transfer in the mission, and he is going home early. How sad . . . how sad. The legends are the ones who finish strong and work until the last hour of their missions. It shows me the kind of missionary I want to be, the one who finishes strong.

 

The great missionaries are not the ones who baptize and baptize and baptize, the great missionaries are the ones who work as hard as they can every day of their mission.

 

Love

 

Elder Hope

Monday December 5, 2011

Dear family and friends,

So this was by far the worst week of my mission up until now. Monday we went to a members house, Tuesday, I was sick, throwing up. We thought I got something from the food, because Wednesday I was fine, until wednesday night, and was just a little queezy. Thursday I came home early to throw up again, and friday we stayed home littlerally all day, so our numbers were terrible. President Torgan even called to find out how I was doing, and told me jokingly that God only wants healthy leaders and he wants the sick leaders to get better soon. He was stressing out that we wouldn't be a very good example for our zone that week, but in the end, the numbers that president Torgan is worried about we ended up doing well (baptisms, people marked, people in church, and new investigators). We only taught 13 lessons this last week, but still led our zone in number of people marked for baptism and people in Church. We have 1 (basically 2) marked for the 11^th and one marked for the 18^th, but about 80% of our marked baptisms fall through because the wards don't fellowship people, and they feel like loners at church, and they don't go to the baptisms. That is why our ward list has 800 people but only 60 or so are active. We teach people, bring them to chruch and mark them, and then find out they are already baptized somewhere else too, it is great.

So on sunday morning we went to a house of a family that has told us every week for the last 4 weeks that they would go to church but never have. The mom went to the Gypsie fair, but said she would meet us for sacrament meeting (last meeting), but the kids would go with us. So we got there and knocked on the door, and one of the kids answered the door, and pulled the I am too tired and don't want to go card. We said, that's ok, we can wait. They said they weren't dressed or anything, so we sat down in front of their house and waited. They went in and out and didn't do anything to get ready, but we waited there for about an hour and a half. The mom came back from the fair and saw us and asked if we had been waiting for all that time, we told her we had been, and she said, one minute, I'll get them. (the youngest is 11 and the oldest is 20). She went in there and woke up her kids and told them they were sinning and how rude it is to tell us one thing, and do another, and such. So they all went to church (4 investigators) and then one of our drunk friends showed up again, and told us he didn't like it when we chewed him out for not going to church, so he made it a priority to change, so that will be interesting.

Next monday we have a mission christmas conference, so I won't be writing next monday, probably. President Torgan said the conference starts at 10:37. They have figured out the trains and everything, and the last area should arrive infront of the chruch at 10:35. We will get there probably by 8:30 or so.

Well, the news of the mission is that we got happy p day taken away until president torgan leaves in July. Happy p day is when we can leave our area and travel in our zone and have p day with other missionaries, which is supposed to be once a month, but it never happens anyways.

We were super excited because beef was on sale for once. This last sunday is the first time I have had 'real' meat from a cow in a long time (they substitute pork for everything). It is €1.79 for 500grams. It is generally 4 or 5 euros for a package that size which is roughly 4.50-6 USD. It is interesting to see how happy we are for the little things, a washing machine, beds, beef, and a heater.

We had another strange thing happen to us the other day. We were knocking doors and all of a sudden a lady answered the door. She looked like a whitch, literally. I have seen a little bit of voodu stuff here, but not much. Her eyes were black as night and super shiny. She looked at us as if she was looking into our souls. There was a super dark feeling there and behind her there were little black statues that looked like they came from africa. Right as we said we were sent from Jesus Christ to help her, she stepped forward, put her right and on the door, and just slammed the door hard. We decided she was possesed by a dark spirit, likes satan more than Jesus, and wasn't too interested in the gospel, though we did pray outside her door to help her. She was the first lady that ever slammed a door in our face. Most people just slowly close it and keep saying Excuse me, excuse me.

With love,

Elder Hope

Monday November 28, 2011

Dear family and Friends,

Well things are starting to get better. We had apartment inspections today and guess what?! We get beds and our washing machine is fixed!!!! The other Elders love that we are the Zone Leaders, because they will called 10 or 12 times to get approval to pay the guy for the washing machine. They never got it, and then I called them, and they gave me permission the first time. They said it is because we are the Zone Leaders they listen to us, I personally think it is rediculous that is what happens, I think they should be treated the same way. It is so interesting how the little things in life are bringing so much joy and happiness, like bed frames, phone calls from other missionaries with good news, and fire extinguishers (we haven't used it yet), and washing machines

So we got permission to watch 17 Miracles today. It is such an interesting story. Mary Hurren was on the end of it, and I was so excited about it. Can you ask grandma Hope about the story about her and the snakes? In the movie she jumps over snakes and stuff, but I don't know if that was her in real life, or just in the movie.

Patience is truly a virtue. In interviews my mission president said he put me with Elder Washburn so that Elder Washburn could learn how to love others, because he wants to chew out other missionaries in our zone daily, and that is why I have self-assigned myself to the phone. I feel like we just have to pick our battles. I understand sometimes, we have to be direct, but in a way to be direct with love. It is funny because he reads me in D&C 121 where it talks about reproving betimes with sharpness and then I point out the part that says WHEN MOVED UPON BY THE SPIRT (or only in the spirit of prayer and understanding) and then SHOW AN INCREASED OF LOVE. It is neat to see our progress. I guess I tell you this because today we sat back and looked at our progress we have made the past transfer, it is interesting to see.

So we were going to church and I greeted a lady on my way down the steps, and we started talking a little bit, but then she said that a while ago the Elders past by and left a book with her. She has thus read the book and decided that Jospeh Smith was a prophet of god, and asked to be baptized that very day. Since we didn't know the circumstances we marked her for this upcoming weekend. We will see, she was sort of a strange character, but we will see.

So we went to a members home and she was feeding us a meal, the four of us. It was some sort of pea soup with flour meatish stuff in it, topped off with half frozen carrots. To tell you the truth it wasn't all that good, it was edible, but not great, so we just ate and were so greateful we didn't have to cook. So after I ate, Elder Washburn has this great Idea to dish me up again, so I ate that plate. Time turned to the spiritual thought and it was my turn to start, and I said, Elder Washburn sings like angels, he has come here prepared to sing a song for you as a solo. He looks at me and said that he doesn't have a hymnbook, so the lady jumps up and says, don't worry, I have one, so she goes and gets a hymnbook for everyone, and we made Elder Washburn sing his solo. It was really pathetic, because he butchered the song on purpose, and sang out of tune saying that he didn't know the tune of I am a Child of God, it was sort of sad, but he sang his solo.

Well, I don't know what else exciting happened other than we had a zone leader meeting with president torgan that was amazing. He got up and read a quote from Salt Lake City that said of all the missionaries in Europe right now, the Lord specially hand-picked the group in Portugal right now at this time. That some of the best missionaries that the Lord has right now are in Portugal right now to fulfill the Prophecy that Portugal will be the Lighthouse of Europe. It was then said that Prophecy would be fulfilled this year with Portugal Exceeding 1000 baptisms this year (roughly 5 per missionary). He then looked at us and said that the lord hand picked each one of us to be the capitão-chefe (cheif captains) of our areas, of the some of the best missionaries in the world. He closed by saying don't forget, you will have to report to the lord what you did in taking care of some of his most elect missionaries. I couldn't help at that time not to think of Jessica and how she is another one of those best missionaries in the World right now, bringing the gospel there. She is another one of those people.

Love,

Elder Hope

Monday November 21, 2011

Dear family:

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, the zone all called me to wish me happy birthday, some at 6:52 right before we wake up . . . it was fun though. (we sleep until 7 and go to bed at 11)

Guess what I got for my birthday…
The answer:
FLEAS!!!!!!!      
But don't worry, the promise is true I don't have any problems in the area that my garments are covering . . . I feel bad for Elder Washburn, he had a hole in his garments.

So this last week has been a week which was sort of strange, we had a drunk guy come to church again, but this time a lot of the members gave him crap and he left before sacrament meeting (last meeting) they told him he had shulei (spelling??) Which is a word that we don't have in english but basically it means stinky. it is the name of the smell of your feet, but is more of an insult than you don't smell good, so at least he came . . . I guess we told him not to come if he was drunk, but he did anyways . . . and guess what, He wants to be baptized!!!, but we haven't talked to him since the members kicked him out.

The Mission President has told us that we will NOT be celebrating Thanksgiving, because it is not a portuguese Holiday, which doesn't make any sense to me, because we don't even celebrate the Portuguese Holdiays (which are like every other week) Portugal has more holidays than any other country in Europe, because they have 3 independence days (I think) and then they have all of their Saint Days and then they have all of the seasonal ones, I am sure they would be up for thanksgiving, but hey it works out.

Yours truly,

Elder Hope

Monday November 14, 2011

Dear family and Friends,

Well, it is another week and a fun time to be here in Portugal. We have been trying to figure out how to get people to church and work with the ward leaders. As Zone Leaders, we get to meet with the ward leaders, or at least we are supposed to, but they always cancel the meetings, and they are super fun to work with when they understand what we are saying. It is sad that we have to defend our other missionaries when the leaders get upset with them because of things the leaders should be doing, but hey Come what may, and love it!!!

For Christmas we need to wait until transfers which is November 22^nd, and then we can figure it out. If I stay in the same area, we can skype, but if I go out to another area, maybe not, it just depends. About half of the zone thinks that one of the 2 of us are leaving, and the other is staying. It is hard to guess because we both whitewashed, so anything can happen, and President likes to move people around. I suggest you make a list of things to ask, so that the conversation keeps moving, I don't know what I would say.

So our fun for the week was going out with a member to go proselyting. We were all excited to do a blitz with the members there, so we get out there with the one member, and the other lived in this area. (this is that really poor area that I was talking about), so we get there and the other member was completely drunk at 11 am. We asked him if he had been drinking, and he said no. We aked if he had alcohol, and he said no. We asked about wine, and he said no, so we asked about beer, and he said no, so then we asked about Whisky and he said just a little bit, so that was fun. We ended the week with 12 member present lessons and 31 other lessons . . . which is better than we thought it would be. The hard part is that no one wants to be baptized “again”.

I did a baptismal interview this week for a little boy. I asked him if he ever went to jail, and he said NO, but I have kissed a girl on the lips, and I asked him why just to see his response, and he said because I liked her. I thought that was funny, and then told him to be careful with that (he was only 10 years old).

I did another interview this week in English, that was strange. I didn't know how to explain certain things in English, I knew the Vocabulary, but I have gotten to the point that the gospel is easier in Portuguese than in English. It was really a cool thing. She is from São Paulo Brazil, but speaks English better than Portuguese, so she asked for english. At the end of the interview I asked her if she was ready to make the covenant and be baptized. She said she doesn't know if it is all true, she thinks it is, but doesn't know with certainty, so we prayed and I asked her how she felt, and she said she didn't feel anything, and then I felt like I needed to tell her that she really felt a peace, so I did, and she stopped dead in her tracks, and said, how did you know? I explained more about the holy ghost in Broken English, and so that was pretty cool. She still won't get baptized because she hasn't gotten permission from her mom yet, but we got permission to interview her, so we will see.

I can't really think of anything else that happened this week that is really cool. We do have a couple here named brother and sister Lund. They sort of know Gerald and John, but don't really talk to them much about them.

To be honest the mission is something really hard. It makes us someone else I have seen a change, and I have seen the hand of the lord and the angels preparing the people for this work, it is wierd how just 9 months can change one's life so much. In 9 Months I have been speaking another language in which the natives still question if it is portuguese, In 9 months I have been put into the refiners fire and back out again. In 9 months I have seen a culture that makes absoultely no sense if you think about it. In 9 Months I have learned what it means to be an American and a saint.

Elder Hope

Monday November 7, 2011

To my family and friends,

I almost got robbed, but it is a good thing my comp is about 6 ft 6 in and looks fairly big.

The Sisters got locked out of thier home and we had to go and jimmy the lock for them, I have learned how to break in to homes without a key, but our doors in the USA wouldn't work.

So 2 really cool things happened this week. It all started with a Zone Conference. President Torgan called us and told us that we were having interviews with him. we had a great interview and at the end, President Torgan looked at me and said, Elder Hope, The lord wants you to have a baptism this week. I asked him who since 5 of our investigators at church were found drunk this last week and the last one is in an unknown location. So I asked the president who and he responded that he doesn't know, I just know that is what the lord wants. So we said, Ok, lets do it. So we worked all day Wednesday and Thursday . . . nothing. Friday we passed by a guy that went to church that has fallen away from us, he looked at us and said, When I went to church I felt something different and I want to change. I got drunk this last week and I don't want this anymore. I have quit drinking, quit smoking, and am ready to do whatever necessary to get that feeling back. We looked at our watch and it was 8 o clock, and we didn't have anything left, so we said, we still have a couple of things to teach you, are you going to be home tomorrow? He said only from 11 to noon, then I have to go and work. We said ok, and taught him the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lesson in an hour, and scheduled the interview for 11 the next day. He passed the interview and was baptized on sunday. We are now reteaching him all the lessons.

So we do something called eyes of faith, where we pray to find out who we should contact or where we should go. One time, when I was in Viseu I honestly feel like I saw a family with a stroller going up a hill. I could litterally see them. I found them in Ermesinde and we taught them a lot, Marta and Arlindo. They were my family away from home. We were walking and we were on a perpendicular street and had already passed them, and then I looked back and I saw that family. I went and contacted them, and we taught them the whole time I was there. I got a phone call yesterday that they were baptized and comfirmed yesterday. I was talking to Marta on the phone and she was nearly crying and told me that I was the reason she was baptized. She thanked me for contacting her and her husband. Arlindo said thanks again and offered me a place to stay if I am ever passing through. They are an amazing family and I am so greatful they were baptized.

We had another investigator out of the blue find us again and asked if he could start paying tithing without being a member. It is crazy how all of our drunks have decided that they want to be sober for the rest of their lives.

I really can't think of much more that is happening, alot of the things here in portugal make sense if you don't think about it. Their bread it to die for though. I am having fun I can understand why some elders come home, The mission really is a place that forces you to stretch to your limits, to points where the only place left to fall is on your knees. The lord never said it would be easy, but it would be worth it. I have had companions that I absolutely love to death and will do anything one for another and I have had a companion that drive me up the walls, Luckily for me Elder Washburn is a stud. He is super cool, just sometimes he lets his mind wander a little to far.

Anyways I have to go now, but it is going good here.

Love,

Elder Hope

Tuesday November 1, 2011

Family!!
As Zone Leader President Torgan likes to take away our P days and he gives us 2.5 hours on Tuesday for email, shopping, and cleaning, so if I don't email on Monday, it should come on tuesday or wednesday.
Brazillians are the coolest people ever, their accent is so out of place, but it's ok, dad and I will have fun with that when I get home. They like to screw up our language though because we will use phrases that work in brazil but not portugal like in brazil it is dar faca and in portugal it is dar facada and then portugal doesn't even have the word fubeca

In this area I will go to the office 2 to 4 times a transfer and the Lunds (an older couple) goes and gets our mail for us every once and a while.

So, This week we got hosed out of our baptism this week. The guy said he was baptized, but we had doubts, so we went through the church records and found a guy with his name but a different date of birth and a different country of birth. the record said he was born on 15 may 1973 in France and his documents say that he was born 16 may 1961 in Cabo Verde, 12 years different. He said he was baptized 6 years ago and the record said 11 years ago, but the strange thing was that his mom and dad's name were the same. So we called president and he said it sounds like a brother or sister that used his name. We got permission to baptize him. So we marked, interviewed and had him ready for baptism right after church. They announced it in sacrament meeting, we got him in his whites, I got in my whites, and then about 5 minutes before the guy that gave us permission pulled the permission and told us that they decided it is the same person and he can't be baptized. So we have a meeting with them tonight to tell them 2 things (under direction of the Mission President, and as Zone Leaders) that 1, if they want to wait, they can, but don't give permission, and 2, the mission has the keys for baptism, so the only thing they can do is verify if he is a member, they can't stop a baptism in the middle of the first talk, it will be fun. President Torgan said if they want to talk to him, to give them his personal cell phone number and he will have a chat with them. (President torgan is 6 ft. 6 in and is huge, a former member of the brazillian military, and a brazillian senator, in other words. . . the portuguese are scared of him, he also said that brasil always wins the wars against Portugal jokingly). I have a hard time telling the members that, but that is what I have been asked to do, so I'll do it.

I don't think anyone knew about daylight savings time, because all of our investigators showed up to the church an hour early.

I am just shocked at the difference of life in our "little africa", it is the poorest place, but the happiest place I have ever been. I have seen Marijuana, Heroin, and other drugs there and it is sad to see how lost those people are, but then there is a group of super humble people that are infested with fleas. Our mission president said that if we are obedient and keep our covenants we will never have fleas where we have our garments, we might have them in other parts of the body, but never where the garments are.

Zone Leader is tough, especially when we have so many disobedient missionaries. We are in a 4 elder home, and walked in and saw our District leader and his comp sleeping in the middle of the day. It is so sad to see how the little things make all the difference.

Talk to ya later,
Elder Hope

Monday October 24, 2011

Dear family and Friends,

Good News! I can now send my weekly emails to my aunts, uncles and grandparents every week, and they can email me!, so if you want to give them my email adress, they can email me, and I will just send them the big email.

Ok, so this last week has been really hard, but really fun at the same time. It is a different area because it takes 20 minutes just to walk from our house to our area, and we don't have the bus, so it is very fun to get people to church, especially when we don't have busses or anyone in the ward able to give rides to them.

So, we marked a guy named Wayalo for baptism for this next weekend. He told us he wanted to be a part of this church, so I said, ok, how about next sunday, and we prayed, and he said, alright, next sunday. Little did we know he has no time to meet with us until saturday, so we gave him all of the pamphlets and gave him a reading schedule, and then everyday we call and find out if he has any questions about the topic and review it on the phone. This will be a fun experience. He doesn't smoke, and only drinks wine, so everything is great.

We met with the bishop of our ward to try and get some support, and he has had it with the missionaries, because there are a ton of people baptized, that didnºt stay active. There is a list of 150 recent converts in the past year and a half, and only 10 or 12 are active right now, so it isn't a very good exchange rate.

The mission as a whole has been having problems. There were 40 people marked for baptism last weekend, and only 18 were baptized, so needless to say, there are a lot of questions that have been raised.

My companion and I are getting along really good, it is hard to lead a zone. We have a couple companionships that are slacking off a ton, it is hard to encourage people who simply don't care, I have seen first-hand what president Torgan talks about with the Celstial missionaries and the Terrestial missionaries and the Telestial missionaries. It is interesting to see how stressed out they can get too when they just have one thing go wrong.

Anyways, it has been good. Oh, my zone has the Cristo Rei Statue, it is like the one in Rio de Janeiro, just smaller, but it is outside of my area. I see it everyday, but I can't go there until next p day, (we can only leave our area once a month for P day) and President Torgan called a meeting for us from 11 to 5 next p day, so we will see if we can swing by right after, lukily it is only 20 minutes from our area.

We are getting into the rainy season, and it is raining a lot now, so we will keep working through the mud, rain, and cold for the next 4 to 5 months. The other missionaries say that is starts in November, but it has been starting early this year (maybe it will end earlier too), it is a humid cold, so the Utah Mormons are sort of whimps, it is funny. It should end march or april.

With Love,

Elder Hope

Monday October 17, 2011

Dear family and friends:

Ok, so I had the name of my new area wrong. I am in the Almada Zone, it is over by Lisboa and Seixal, and I am actually serving in an area called Miratejo. I didn't even know my area was Miratejo until the zone leader meeting on Tuesday.

My new companion's name is Elder Washburn. He is from Mapleton, Utah and he is a Lisbon Elder through and through. It is interesting because we have the Porto Elders and the Lisbon Elders, it is really sad, but it is giving me a chance to learn a lot. The Lisbon Elders have been under President Torgan and his form of leadership is amazing. He is super bold and direct, he doesn't pull any punches, while President Walton was one who was more of a subtle and would encourage people. It is interesting to see the two of them in action. Our home is a 4 Elder Home, we live with our district leader. the conditions are terrible, we spent 2 hours just throwing tons of stuff away. Elder Da Silva has already gotten fleas once this transfer, it is crazy. We have already talked to the office about it, and we will see what happens, we have black mold on our ceiling.

Last sunday we had stake conference. We found a guy named Wayolo that is from Santa Mae (off the coast of Africa, it is 2 islands, and really small, and I don't know the spelling) Anyways we found him and he didn't have time, but we invited him to stake conference. He showed up to our meeting spot before us, with his book of mormon in hand, ready to go. We hadn't taught him anything, so we were sort of nervous, but we were so excited.

 

President Torgan was there to speak, and he gave faca to the members there, it was so strange. (Dar Faca is a brazillian frase that the missionaries use that littearally translated means give knives, but in english is basically extreme chastizement) So what has been happening is our mission has tripled the numbers of baptisms in the last 2 years. Every week 20 to 30 people are baptized, on really good weeks we will have 37 or 40 baptisms in our mission. Anyways 24 people were baptized in our ward in in the last 5 or 6 transfers and only 2 are active right now, so President Torgan let the members know it is their fault. Our investigator told us that he wants to be a part of this church.

So we have 2 parts of our area, the dirt poor and the rich people. The missionaries have been working with the rich because they didn't want to go to the poor, I don't know why, so Elder Washburn worked in the poor part for 4 days and came away with 28 new investigators. They are so humble and ready to hear the gospel. It does require the I keep up on the Vitamin C, because I went into a house that was painted in black sploches. It had a dirt floor, a flea infested couch and a door that wasn't anything more than a curtain. Later I found out that the paint was actually mold, and that would explain the headaches. It is intersting to see how happy people are there, they are truly happy, they don't have anything, but they are happy. They love us missionaries, and know we are there to help them out. I am still curious why some people have dirt floors, concrete walls, and a plasma tv, and nothing else, but oh well. I don't know how to describe this area, it is where the lord called us to work, in the poorest place I have ever seen.

Anyways I also interviewed a witch god to be baptized. 4 months ago she was worshipping satin, and in a vision she was told to stop and join the Church of Jesus Christ of the last Times. She denounced everything, destroyed everything in her house that had anything to do with it, called everyone in her congregation telling them that she is sorry and that witchcraft is false, and came with tears in her eyes praying to be baptized. She passed the interview (an hour and a half later) and was baptized. At her baptism one of her followers (a less active) was asked to give a prayer, and she gave a voodo prayer asking god to send us a sign and letting us mark our testimonies in his blood. She was doing really wierd signs and such.

Got to go, it was an intersting week,

Elder Hope

Monday October 10, 2011

Dear Family,

First off, Mom, my wart is fine, is still there, but isn't causing too much pain, but am being obedient to our "mission nurse" and following her counsel. It is Sister Torgan, she is brillant, but gives me medical instructions in Portuguese, so half of the time I just guess what she wants me to do. She doesn't speak Portuguese and she speaks brazillian portuguese, so life is very fun trying to understand her. I have found that brazillians from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the eaisest to understand. As you go North, it gets a little more difficult.

I was sort of down, because I have been sort of sick lately, but nothing too bad.

COOL STORY: So as you know I tell people that my dad served in Brasil. We have a member named Claudia here from São Paulo (the state just north of Paraná, where dad served) So, I she has moved to Portugal, and will start coming to the Ermesinde Branch at the end of the Month. She is staying in Porto until then. So, she came to an activity to meet the ward, and she saw my name and just stared, just stared. I started talking to her, and found out she was from São Paulo, Brasil. So, I told her my dad served in Curitiba, and she paused and asked what years. I told her I think it was 83 or 84 and then she said that she was baptized in 1984 in Curitiba. She said there are 4 Elders that she remembers by name, and only knows 2 personally. She knows Elder Hope and Elder Silva (she doesn't think she knows them personally), and then an Elder Brown, and I don't remember the other name, I wrote it down and left it in the house. She said that she has a sister named Ana, and Ana has a group of friends. Aparently, one of the friends (of Anas) was baptized by an Elder Hope and Elder Silva, and because of her baptism, Ana was Baptized, and shortly later Claudia.In other words, I MET A LADY THAT WAS BAPTIZED AS A RESULT OF DAD´S MISSION!!! She is almost certain that it is the same Elder Hope, she said after the mission split, another Elder Hope came into the Londrina mission, but she thinks it was the Elder Hope from the Curitiba mission!

Yesterday we were teaching a family, and our phone rang, it was our mission president (it was about 9:33 at night and we have to be home by 10), so I rejected the phone call, with the intention to call back after the lesson. We had a prayer, committed them to pray and read the book of mormon, and then as we were leaving the phone rang again (this time 9:40 ish) and it was the mission President again. I answered it, it was the voice of President Torgan who said Is this Elder Hope. I told him yes. He asked, How many baptisms did you have, I told him one, and then he said, ok, The Lord has many more things in mind for you, He then said Elder Hope, you are hereby released after tonight from your calling as District Leader of the Ermesinde District, because you will be transfered to Almeda (i don't know the spelling), and he said Elder Hope, the Lord has revealed to me that you are not to be the district leader there, but you have been called to labor there as a Zone Leader. Good Luck. He then asked me if I felt ready for Zone leader, I told him no, I don't even speak Portuguese. He said, good, Samuel was only 16 when he was called and Joseph Smith was only 14, you are older than both of them and you are only a zone leader, not a mission President or the Prophet, and then he said, the Lord will prepare you really quick because who he calls, he qualifies. Report to the Lisbon Mission office at 10:30 am and you have authorization to travel alone, your companion will stay in the house until his companion arrives in Ermesinde. So I get to travel to a city that I have never been to alone, with all of my bags. Luckily, one of the other missionaries in Braga has to do the same, so i am going to hop on the same train as him.

Later I read a quote from President Hinckley that says, Brothers, I want to ask you to be happy in your work, Have a smile on your face and a song in your heart while you serve the Lord.

I get more or less an hour for email, just depends on the area that I am in. In Viseu we could have an hour and a half, 2 hours, whatever, same in Viana do Castelo, but here, we only get an hour.

With Love,

Elder Hope

Monday October 3, 2011

Family and friends

Ok, so here is how conference works here in Portugal. Saturday morning starts Saturday at 5pm and saturday night has 2 showings, one at 9pm saturday and one at 1 pm Sunday. Priesthood session is at 10 am sunday, and sunday morning is at 5 pm sunday and sunday night is at 9 pm sunday. I watched the last half of Saturday morning right as President Monson was announcing the temples. I watched Preisthood, Saturday evening, and sunday Morning, and didn't watch any of Sunday evening. I am fine, we can watch it on the internet mom, but thanks for thinking of us.

So friday night Olivia was interviewed to be baptized and passed!! She is the Jehovah Witness that we have been teaching for the last 4 weeks. She is probably the funnest investigator to teach. We taught her the law of Tithing 6 times until she finally understood it. In the Jehovah witness you can pay tithing with your time proselyting, and they open the donations infront of everyone, where it is personal in our church, she didn't understand that.

Also, Margarita passed her interview, but we still don't know the date, it looks like she will wait until the 30th so that her family can be there.

We had 6 investigators at conference, 2 were eternal investigators, but they went none the less. We also had 3 less actives at conference which is always good to have.

We were walking to a train stop to catch a train and there were 2 Jehovah witnesses on the other side knocking doors. There was one door in particular they entered. We saw them come out, and I told Elder Searle we need to go and knock that door. We did a few days later, and came out with a new investigator!!

I love our lovely bus drivers here too. if you want to get off, you hit the button and wait by the door, so we hit the button and waited and it was only us two, I saw the driver look through his mirror, and just keep on driving right past the stop and stopped at the next stop because there were people waiting to get on.

I lost half my time trying to get onto the internet. so I don't have much time.

Love y'all

Elder Hope

Monday September 26, 2011

Family and Friends

 

So, to start, we have a Jehovah Witness that we have marked for 8th of October. She is progressing super well. We got her to pray in the name of God finally, and had a whole lesson explaining to her why Jesus was Jehovah. In the end, she actually accepted it (it is interesting how it is easier to prove it in their bible than in ours). We only have 2 more commandments to teach today which are Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. We know that Law of Chastity isn't a problem and the word of wisdom is pretty much done. She doesn't smoke or drink like the other 98% of the portuguese people. Her date is pretty solid, we are not seeing any real problems, which means there is something we don't know.

So, we found out that the law of Chastity was a problem for our investigator so we will wait just a little bit to baptize her (we are interviewing her on friday), but she wants to be baptized by her boyfriend, which would mean that we will have to wait another 3 weeks or so. Anyways we were very direct and didn't pull any punches with the Law of Chastity. We went in with that intention that it was necessary. We made the boyfriend read the scripture Jacob 2:28 which says that the lord delights in the chastity of Women and if they do anything to defile that they will be cursed. We then went into it by saying that this was the reason Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, and told them that it wasn't anything funny. After that they payed a lot more attention. They were sort of laughing about it and trying to rationalize it, but we were very direct, and it was interesting, as we were halfway chastizing them, the spirit was really strong. The mission President says that as representatives of Christ, sometimes we have to chastize. The lord chastized the brother of Jared, Joseph Smith, and many other men and women to get them in line, and then the spirit testified the truth, and then he showed a grand increase in love.

 

Conference will be at our stake center a whole hour away by car. Because of the time difference there is only one session on Saturday, but then there are 4 sessions on Sunday. Our investigators really don't want to go because it is in Maia and is sort of hard to get there. By public transport, we have to take a bus down to a big hospital called Hospital São João and then take the metro over a little ways and then take anther bus over to the chappel, and it could take about 2 to 2.5 hours to get there without a ride, which is hard to come by. We aren't getting a ride. When we get there they have 4 rooms set up. The chappel will be playing in Portuguese, and then the Relief Society room is playing in English (the members who speak english really good have been asked to go to that one, we have been told to go to the english because we will understand it better and we get the emotion), then they will have 2 more, one for French and one for Spanish.

well, the library time is shortened today because of weird stuff, but I know that we are being blessed and protected and god loves us a lot.

Elder Hope

Monday September 19, 2011

Family!!

24 Lessons last week!!! Even though most lessons are prayer contacts. to be a lesson, we have to pray with them, teach a principle, and extend an invite. So we go and teach people something, and then pray with them on the street. Our Mission President asked us to do that and it is working great, because one of 2 things happen. 1, the person won't meet with us again, but they know that we like to pray and ask god for help, or 2, they will feel the spirit of the prayer and want us to come back. 2 investigators that we had at church we had a prayer contact with them, and we told them that that peace that they felt during the prayer they would feel at church. They came to church on sunday and had to leave right after sacrament, but they were nearly crying, it was amazing. But they are going to germany for the next 6 months.

Ok, so a few quick things. 1) I think I am going to give up on the Lasagna from home and just have to do it the way of the Portuguese. They have a sauce called Bechamel, that I hope will be good. I don't think I have eaten any Beef since I have gotten here with the exception of McDonnalds, because it is way expensive. Elder searle and I looked today and a thin little dinky steak is €13 and they didn't even have ground beef, just ground Pork, so we got the ground pork (it was only €2.35), and it was 500g. We did find Sour Cream, I don't know why it is called Queijo fresco in Portuguese, because translated that means fresh cheese, but that is way expensive too, so I am learning how to cook all over again because we get different foods. The typical meal at a restaurant is rice, french fries, and some sort of a meat thing, the portuguese people disagree, but it is true. They also sometimes have salads. As for me, Elder Searle and I have found a good Fruteira that has some good fruit and stuff that we have been eating.

As a district we doubled our number of investigators at church. The last several weeks, we have been averaging 3 to 5 as a district, and this last week we had 9!! In my area we had 5 investigators, including one TJ, which I will be way excited to mark on this tuesday for baptism. She loved it, we just have a couple big problems to overcome with her. 1, she keeps praying that Jeová will forgive us for not using his name in Prayer, 2, she doesn't know too much about the plan of salvation, which will be a big hurdle for her (we have taught the Restoration, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the ten commandments, Sabbath Day, Tithing) I don't know why we have been going so out of order, but it just works for this investigator, so we will keep working with her. Keep praying for Olivia. she isn't married and know she is living the Law of chastity. It is funny how the TJ bible is easier to prove that Jesus is Christ easier than with our bible, because ours says, the Lord, where as theirs says Jehova

We have an investigator marked for this weekend for baptism, but that might not happen, because we just found some things that may postpone her baptism. We wanted her Less active boyfriend to baptize her, but we found out that he won't be ready, which is really sad.

We had zone confrence this last week which sort of ruffled my feathers a little. The week before I called the general secretaries every day to find out if we had zone conference and every day they said I don't know, it is still a maybe. So I kept calling, and finally, Monday night they called, telling us that we have zone conference on Tuesday, the very next day, after we had marked an appointment with an investigator who we don't have a phone number. right after Zone conference I decided we were going to do a division, so I went with Elder Locee to Guimerães. Well, after Zone conference we had a leadership meeting, and they gave the leftover pizza to the district and zone leaders, so on the train back, I had elder Locee hold the pizza all the way to guimerães (1h15m) I found out the next day that Elder Locee was fasting, but don't worry, I was holding a box of book of Mormons. We got back to Guimerães at 9:00 and only had 30 min. to proselyte, so we prayed and found 1 new investigator and had a lesson with a less active, it was interesting, we only contacted 2 people, and both of them were lessons.

I haven't eaten anything too strange since i have been here. I have had fish pies (interesting, not bad, just interesting), pig intestines (in intestine form, not just hot dogs), pig tounge, pig ear, and a ton of different fruits like passionfruit, ect... We have had a lot of fish stuff though, the Cheese Bread is good though.

thank you for your love and support,

Love

Elder Hope

Monday September 12, 2011

Dear family and friends,

It is nice how much we have needed a P Day. Last P Day we went to Braga and went to a chapel called Bom Jesus, and it would have been fun and relaxing if the Zone Leaders wouldn't have called and said that we have a meeting that we need to go to, So we got to sacrifice most of our P day for a zone meeting, today, it should be better. Also this last week elder Searle and I have been streched out. We have taught 21 lessons last week which is a new companionship record, but none of our investigators are progressing. It is interesting how many people are sick, only on sunday, and no other day during the week.

So as we were running around to appointments, Elder Searle saw a building and he felt like he needed to go and knock it, so we went (we only had 10 minutes), but we went in and the only door that he knocked, a lady answered the door we had a lesson and a prayer, and came out with a new investigator, it was really a blessing to see how much we can be running around and seeing the little things.

I have actually prepared for district meeting this week. I do every week, but generally it is the night before and on the train (I have an hour on the train). So I have really been trying to figure out what we need. I found the scripture the small and simple things, and then started reading some from Preach My Gospel. I was amazed by the little things we are asked to do, that we just simply aren't doing. So I wrote down a ton of them, and will talk to the district about this, all 3 of us are having the same problem, we are finding people to teach, they just won't progress and then they will drop us.

Elder Searle and I really Chastized Marta and Arlindo this week for refusing to quit smoking. We went in and basically told them that they need to quit smoking and they know it too. I am pretty sure Marta was wanting to try our program, but she wouldn't do it without Arlindo, and Arlindo wouldn't do it. So (damos facas) it means we gave knives, or chastised them, and then the next day they called us and unmarked themselves from baptism. We were really concerned that we had been too harsh with them, so we asked our Branch President what to do, and he said that we just need to show an increase of love, that as representatives of christ, if we felt that is what we needed to do, then do it, but always afterwards, show an increase of love afterwards (the same way the lord chastens his people). . . So we will see.

We have another investigator named Pedro that was dragged to church by his overly enthusiastic member aunt that lives in France. She took him to Porto, and he didn't like his time. Apparently, she took him to relief society and took him to sunday school where he didn't understand what was going on, this sunday we told them to come with us to our church, and we were ready for them. I called our branch president and he told us to assign a member to him, so we prayed and thought of a member, but this member is disfellowshipped, so we called our branch president back, and hesitantly, he said, go for it.so we got ahold of this member and sunday this member was amazing, he took him to gospel principles where our branch president did a wonderful job with the life after death and then this member tore his aunt away and brought this guy to priesthood, and Pedro loved church. it was funny to see how the lord works. At the end our Branch President was almost in tears of joy, saying that he wants to shorten this members "sentence" of time he is disfellowshipped, because he has been proving to everyone what a member should do.

I don't know what else is exciting to tell you about.

As of right now, we are still working on our small pool of investigators.

Stay Well,

Elder Hope

Monday September 5, 2011

Dear family and Friends,

Elder Searle was impressed by me calling the Sisters and getting help cooking from them (I just needed the recipie, I knew what I was doing), and then Elder Searle reaped the benefits of it. We absolutely love one and other and we are working to fulfill our purpose.

This last week we marked 3 people for Baptism. Marta, Arlindo, and Julio. Marta and Arlindo are marked for October 1st (we forgot about conference) and they are preparing really well. They agreeded to start the Stop Smoking Program and to get married. They asked me to marry them,and I explained to them that I will be a wittness, but I can't marry them, because our Mission President doesn't want us to marry people. So, our branch president will marry them and Elder Searle and I will be the testimonies. They want us to baptize them too, which is super cool. Elder Searle said that I can baptize them since they were my Eyes of Faith. Eyes of Faith is where we pray to find a specific person. I felt these people back in Viseu and I have been looking for them ever since, this was the answer to my very first eyes of faith and so it is really special to me.

Julio is still tecnically marked, but probably won't get baptized since we were kicked out of his house. His brother doesn't like us and threatned us to never come back, so the next day we went back, and no one answered the door, so we are really worried about this one. Our Branch President said he will help us out.

This week we should mark a girl named Margarita. she is way cool. She is the Girlfriend of a less active, and we asked him to baptize her. he said he would start preparing. We left her with the introduction, and when we went back she said we didn't leave her enough so she read until 1 Nephi 13. We can only meet with her once a week, but she said that she didn't have time to read very much this past week, she was apoligizing bigtime. She had ONLY read all the way through the first book of Nephi. She was telling us how the tree of life doesn't make sense, but then Nephi explains it, so it's all good. She has really good relations with our Primary President, and she is like another Liz Friend, so she is helping us a lot with her.

Our District total for number of investigators in church yesterday was 4, and elder searle and I had 3!!!. Marta and Arlindo were sick, and Margarita got food poisioning (her boyfriend cooked for her), so we had our eternal investigator that is more active than the members and knows more than half of the missionaries about the church, and 2 people that we taught that said they will not come to church just happened to show up. I love it when we pray for Miracles!!!

There is a lady that gives us a box of food every week, like a lot of food, but it is always half moldy and hard bread. I asked her where she got the food, and she said that a bakery down the street gives her the food instead of throwing it away.

This week has been really long, but really fun, it was great to have a P day. Last night I confrenced called my district and we were talking about what to do for P day. Then the Zone leaders called me, so I added them in, and the first thing Elder De Hoyos said was "What the heck . . . Confrence" because our phone says confrence call when we are added in. So he liked that idea of how to plan a P day, and then it all changed about 15 minutes after 11 when they called to tell me that I have a meeting today.

Hope all is well, and that everyone is doing good things.

Elder Hope

When we are hoping for things in the future we are building our faith, and when we hope for things in the present, we are building charity. Elder Uchtdorf

Monday August 29, 2011

Family

So we are writing a little late because of transfers. We didn't get our phone call until about 20 minutes ago. I will be staying in Ermezinde with Elder Searle. We are some of the best of Friends and are so excited to stay together. I will remain as District Leader. Appearently, our district last transfer had the best numbers in the Zone, which was suprising, but it was really cool at the same time. President Torgan told me to keep up the good work.

So our Eternal investigator named Diolinda (she is more active than some members, but she wants a specific elder to baptize her, which is a pain because he is in Lisbon right now). She invites us over for meals all the time, and is like our mom. She always gives us the leftovers and always looks out for her. We had a lesson in which I was crying, Elder Searle was teary eyed, Her husband and their daughter were all crying or tearied eyed. The spirit was so strong. Elder Searle and I couldn't decide what to tell her, so we said we would just follow the spirit in the lesson (those aren't always the best . . . just saying), so after the prayer, I started out and opened to 3 Nephi 11:7 and told about the love that god has for christ. Then we went around saying how much we loved one another, and it was really spiritual and neat. . . . I don't know if I already said this story, but it was cool.

Laura won't answer her phone and we don't have an adress, so she is sort of gone.

Marta and Arlindo. Marta has decided that she is our mom. She calls to check in on us and was really sad when we told her about transfers. She said she has the faith that we will both stay. We are planning on marking them for baptism tonight. Our lessons with them are generally question and answer lessons where they ask a question, and then we answer. Marta has invited us and the Branch President over for dinner tonight, which is way exciting. It is cool, becuase she is starting to make the changes necessary to join the church. She has talked about joining our church a few times, but always says no, after she brings it up. She has a desire to come to church and the members already love them. Arlindo has been learning English from us and is way excited. His boss is going to let him move posisitions within the company if he learns English better. Marta already speaks english, so it is fun seeing them progress like that. They already know about the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, so we are excited for that. The biggest problem for Marta (she has asked us about 3 times) is about the garments. She has no desire to wear garments, and we keep telling her not to worry about that, but she is dead set against that . . . which is funny.

We were teaching the Plan of Salvation to Marta and Arlindo, and they invited a friend over to meet us. Her name was Monica. Monica just happens to be the Daughter of Terezinha. Small world. So Marta is excited now and was trying to get them over for dinner too, but Terezinha just had surgery, and so we can't meet with her for a while. We send our love, but she won't talk back on the phone just listen. It is hard to teach a lesson like that, so we just give words of encouragement.

So I was feeling like we need to have a division. The Elders in Guimerães didn't like the idea, but I told them that we were doing it anyways (I first talked to the Zone Leaders). So reluctantly, they did the division, and I told the elder that didn't want to do the division (he didn't want to leave his area) that if he will work hard, he will see a miracle in Ermezinde. I went to Guimerães. That day, elder Searle and him found 7 new investigators, the most anyone had ever found that transfer in our Zone. That day they found 4 people that we have been looking for the whole transfer and set up a ton of appointments. Elder Abreu and I in gumerães found 2 new investigators in Gumerães. They were the only 2 that were found in the whole week by Gumerães.

Margarita, the girlfriend of a less active, we met with her, and she told us that we hadn't left enough for her to read, so she started from the beginning and got to 1 Nephi 13, and she understands it. She was teaching us some things, it was way cool.

I did a baptismal interview this week too. I love interviews because I see miracles every time. I don't understand what people are saying half of the time, but in interviews I understand everything. Before the interview they found out that she had an abortion. President Torgan told me that he trusts me enough to take care of it, so I went in there and prayed hard. It was so much fun, and also the longest interview that I have ever had, a little more than an hour. It was so interesting it seemed just like a conversation with a very blunt person. She was very blunt with me, and at one point when I asked about The Law of Chastity, she said I know, I know, I have already repented of that one. (she said that outside the interview too, that is why i can say it), so it was way cool. I understand more why it is important to have baptismal interviews.

Jessica word of advise when teaching. Please teach your investigators about President Thomas S. Monson. I have had interviews in which I had to teach people who he is, and then they look sort of strange and then I say, let´s pray right now and ask god if he is a prophet. He is an important part of our church.

So, all in all, if we listen to the spirit we will be blessed and protected in all that we need to do.

 Until Later,

Elder Hope

Monday August 22, 2011

Dear family and friends;

It is true . . . Perfect love casteth out all fears. This week has been a week of Miracles and blessings. It all started on Terça. Elder Searle and I decided to skip lunch right after District meeting so that we could have some more time in our area. If we didn't we would lose 2 hours, not 2 because of the train schedules and such (it also helps that I am District Leader and told my district that we were starting District meeting 15 minutes early, we were all there at 9h45 anyways, because of buses and trains, so why not?) So we went back and had a lesson with a lady named Laura. She was an old investigator that sent us a text saying that she has doubts and she wanted us to answer them. We had never met her before, and it was a pretty big surprise. So we got there and her doubt was "How can I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God?" It was a good question. We explained it and were way excited about it. Now we can't get a hold of her, but it was way cool. So after that we did our Prayer of Thanks, and we felt we needed to pass a potencial named Shana. She wasn't there. So we thought maybe god was just sending us to that specific area. So, we started knocking and the last door we knocked, we found a lady named Terzinha. Terzinha is from Africa and is way cool. She said  "I was waiting for god to help me." It was an amazing lesson, she accepted the basic baptismal convite (without a date). She really wants to talk to us, but her son is in the hospital right now, and she has been really tired and exhausted at our other lessons. We just give her words of encouragement, pray with her, and mark another time to come. Right after that we had a dinner appointment. (Here we only get dinner appointments if the members want something) So we went to the area and were early and so we started to knock the area. Elder Searle accidently knocked the door of our dinner appointment, and tried to contact the member (it was through the Quem é Box). Here in Portugal the Quem é box is an intercom system. There is an apartment complex and to get in you ring the person's doorbell. The box generally has 3 to 30 different houses for the same system, so we can stand in one place and knock 30 doors without taking a step . . . it just hasn't been super effective. Anyways, we call it the Quem é box because people answer ºQuem éº, which means who is it. It is sort of rude in the states, but here it isn't. Well we found out the reason that she wanted us there was to teach her sons girlfriend, who has turned out to be probably one of our best investigators. It was amazing.

We also had another really cool experience yesterday. To preface, I was studying how to respond to the question, why is there so much suffering in the world if god loves us so much. It is a hard question if the next question is where are you from, we respond that we are americans, and people tell us we are from the worst country in the world because we are fighting in Afganistan, and the war is 100 percent over oil (when I want to ask how much oil is in afganistan, but I don't because I am a disciple of Christ) So I was studying that and I came up with an answer. My question would be do you really want to know? It gets people thinking. Because people will ask us that just to throw us off, so we throw them back off. When they say yes, I tell them that I have an answer for them, but I have to explain a little more first to have everything make sense. This is where I find out if they have real intent, So I pull out a book of Mormon and explain why it is true, and we bear a short testimony about the book. Then we open it, and read them the promise that it is true. I then give them a short answer that because god loves us men have their agency, and the suffering is the fault of men, not of god, but then I say, That is really a short answer. If you will read this chapter, study it, and pray about it, you will find your answer, and then we will come by again to answer any more questions. (Generally I leave 2 Nephi 2, or MAYBE Alma 14 (I haven't done that one yet)) So the next day, we had a girl ask me that same question sort of arrogantly, so I responded in the manner above. Because of that, we now have 3 new investigators, and 2 of the 3 are pretty cool. They like us and we found one in the street later that ran up to us asked us where our chappell is. (To bad they couldn't go to sacrament meeting)

The last story is about my family. Marta and Arlindo. They are so sweet and have told us probably 4 times that they don't want to join our church. So Elder Searle and I prayed and asked god if we should continue to teach them. We felt like we should, so we went back. Taught a lesson, and they told us they don't want to join our church, but we still invited them to church and told them where they could meet us to catch the bus up to church. They showed up!! They went to church with us, and we found that they are keeping most of their committments. They agreeded to have an FHE tonight with us at our branch president's home, but they remain the fact that they will not join our church. We went back to their house last night to see how they liked church, and Arlindo wasn't home, but marta asked us a lot of questions about church and stuff and said that the reason they don't want to join is because Arlindo doesn't want to make the commitment to be a faithful member in the church, but she does, but she said that she wants to be baptized with her husband. . . understandable. So, we are way excited for them. We have an interesting FHE planned, I'll keep you posted on what happens if it all works out. It was sort of funny, we have only taught the 1st lesson, and at church the Priesthood and Relief society was about the Law of chastity . . . which is interesting. Marta found out all about garments from our branch. She asked us about them, and it was sort of strange . . . I told her it will make more sense as we teach more.

With Love

Elder Hope

Monday August 15, 2011

Family:

Ok, so I only have a few minutes because it is a holiday and we lose time for that . . . I donºt understand that.

Here in Portugal there have been a ton of Arson Fires. They have been reported in areas around Porto (my area) as well as in Viseu and Viana do Castelo (my old stomping grounds) It is so sad that the kids are revolting here. We were confronted by some teenagers, and they told us that they like to rob the missionaries. So, I started a contact telling them that we were disciples of Christ and such and they left frustrated . . . they never robbed us, but they confronted another guy and I don't know exactly what was said but the guy went to punch the 2 teenagers that confronted us, missed, and the one teenager threw a bottle at the kid, breaking it and ending up his eye while the other one picked up a chair and threw it at him, and then they ran away. I don't know if his eye is ok, I think it hit a little high, but he had some bad cuts. . . . This was another example of why socialist health care is not a good idea. It took the ambulance 15 minutes or so to show up . . . I could walk to the station in less time than that, and there wasn't much traffic. It was sad. We get mail once a transfer now. Our branch president loves the maple. a bottle that size you can only really find in Porto and Lisbon and costs about €19 (which is about $25 give or take)

I had the opportunity to do another Baptismal interview and got permission to tell one of the answers of the person. I asked him Do you want to be baptized. He said yes, so I asked him why, and his response was Porque val o pena, which means, it is so worth it. It is a phrase that is hard to translate, but dad might remember it, or it might just be a portugal thing, I don't know. I thought that was cool.

We had a lesson with a member and the member told her that she didn't need to come to church . . . fun stuff!!!

Anyways we had one other thing, dad will really like it, jessica might be able to use it in Spanish, i don't know if it works in spanish or not, but it doesn't work in English.

Anyways what is a offspring of a dog ( cão (dog) cãozinho (hot dog or puppy))

offspring of cat ( gato (cat) gatinho (kitten))

offspring of god (Deus (god) deuszinho (us))

it just sort of shows our divine heritige and how we really can grow and be like our heavenly father.

got to go

Elder Hope

Monday August 8, 2011

Family and Friends,

So we found a way awesome guy that agreed to pray, and study the first lesson pamphlet (I thought that was interesting, but he did), and then his friend came into his house and kicked us out because we were TJ's. I still don't understand how a friend can kick us out of a house that isn't his. His name is Julio, we will see, he left us with "Até Próximo"

So here in Ermezinde is another story and a half. Everyone got really pumped up because we whitewashed the area and we have received more references than i have ever recieved because of it. By the way, members like it when you follow up and tell them how it worked out when you passed their friends.

So my biggest problem is getting people to come to chruch. We call everyone on Saturday night to invite them, and they all seem to have excuses, so we started passing by every single one on saturday to deliver an invitation for church, and we had a lady say she wanted to come but her husband is in the hospital. (which doesn't mean much in Portugal, people go to the hospital for a bruise because we don't have doctors offices like we do in the States, just Hospital. And by the way, socialized health care . . . not a good idea, it doesn't work and people take advantage of it and miss missionary appointments because of the Hospital.)

So we took the train to go to an apointment, and we took the wrong train, so we missed our appointment. We learned it is better to ask where the train is stopping rather than just looking at the direction . . . but in our defense, we didn't know the track splits before the stop at Travagem. We have passes, so I am glad we didn't lose money from it, just a lot of really precious time.

So we are starting to teach a lady named Roberta. She is from Forteleza, Brasil . . . If i haven't mentioned, I love the brazillians because they already know that the church is true, or they want to know more about the church. We have to see if she can get baptized, we are having promblems with her desire to search, but she is way cool. She speaks in a really high pitched voice, and it is always a fun time trying to understand her, but she loves the missionaries and our lessons. It will be hard if we drop her this week because she doesn't want to get baptized. we will give her until sunday, and see if she comes to church or not.

Being district leader brings many blessings and many tears at the same time. As you know you grow to love the people you serve. This last week we had a missionary burn their arm on the oven, and the companion called a few days later saying that the missionary that got burned had fainted and was in the hospital and needed surgery. Long story short, it was all a joke and the missionary really did burn their arm, but never went to the hospital. The missionary was chastized by the mission President, and then i was called as the District leader and given "Orders" to follow the instruction in Doctrine and Coventents 121 that says at times "reprove with sharpness, then show an increase in love" more or less. To tell you the truth I didn't want to, and so I ended up having a long chat with the zone leaders on what I should say, do, and such. To tell you the truth that was the hardest phone call to make ever. To tell the missionary that we are here for them and we need to follow Christ, and endure to the end, that is not in the character of the missionary to do these things. Luckily they called me, because they have to every night to report on their day, and then I began talking about the day. It is hard to do those things, but during the next day when we talked, the missionary was still sort of depressed, but at the same time I knew that they had taken it to heart. The day after, they were happy again, and were working harder than ever to correct their wrongs. since that instance, this dupla of missionaries has marked 2 people for baptism, and I will go and interview them this week!! All in all, I have to say that as a leader we are sometimes asked to be a leader, not just an administrator, but we can also be best friends. I love my district. I love the missionaries I get to serve, My companion is my right hand man and a friend. I love this work, I love the lord, and I know we are blessed for the work we do.

Story for the week: We were exausted. We were ready for sucess, and we were ready to talk with people that wanted to listen. We found a lady named Marta with 3 young kids that wants to know which church is true. Her mom is a TJ, her Husband used to be a part of the Reino de Deus, and so they are a little family that we are excited to teach. We talked with her about god, the need for a church and baptism. I don't know how to explain love, but i could just picture her in white as we were talking, preparing to be baptized and recieve all the blessings god has prepared for her. I know my savior lives.

I have to go (I lost time, because some guy had to tell me that I am not authorized to use the computer because I am an American, and am not employed here in Portugal, I hope church counts as employment because I gave him the church as the company I work for, and the name of our Branch President as our employer . . . I should have given him Thomas S. Monson . . . .that would have been interesting,. . . oh well next Monday!),


Love y'all
Elder Hope