Monday, April 18, 2011

Family!!

Thanks for the emails and I am able to email until elder brown tells me to stop.
I am living in Viseu (a section called Marsevelus) with an elderly woman and her husband (and my comp). We live in the basement. Apparently it is the best apartment in our mission and the coveted apartment, because it is small (easy to clean), the lady cooks for us and does our dishes for us (she gets mad when we do them, which is strange), and she also does our laundry for us. She knows the church is true but isn´t baptized yet, because she has ties that she won´t give up.

And just fyi, incase you were wondering i get 210 euros a month for stuff (groceries, hair cut, ect . . .) there aren't a lot of members and most are poor. infact, the Silvia family is really poor too, but they save money every week to feed us because she wants the blessings for feeding the missionaries. It is her highlight of the week. According to elder brown, him and his old companion elder Packard  took food one time, and she was offendend, but they are the coolest family ever.

So we broke our contacting record in a day . . . 17 contacts (they count as people that actually talk to you, you have to teach a principle and give a pamplet or a card to count them as a contact), and it is a companionship record. We still only have 1 investigator, but we have 2 appointments marked this week. One lady was really cool, and said she would come to church, but never showed up, and gave us the wrong phone number. (it was a street contact)

We contacted a deaf guy, that was fun. we have to write to communicate, it was fun.

I haven't made too many mistakes with the language in terms of mixing up words yet. I did call the trashcan beautiful once (Lixo and lindo)

I also got a mini Preach My Gospel in English and Portuguese.

Milk comes in a box or bag
all the sidewalks are hand laid cobblestone
some people are really rich while others are really poor
the gypsies scare me, because all the elders say that they are really good pick pockets
I love Portugal though I do miss air conditioning
euros are coins that are really annoying, a little different than bills. (they have 5, 10, and 20 bills)
I played their game and payed a guy in 5 cent pieces . . . he wasn't too thrilled I don't think, but they won't trade let you trade it in for bigger coins. (like the 1 or 2 euro coins, and tax is generally already included in prices)
we have special training this week and a supposive baptism on may 7th, but we still have to finish the first lesson with her.

yes on sisters tags it now says irmã. and all the people are trying to learn engish (which is really funny, so the members call me Élder Esperança, and the mission home offered to make a nametag for me that said that for sundays, but i haven't decided yet, because it is easier to say Esperança than Hope for them. They have problems with the i sound like in igloo, the H sound and the th sound, and we have problems with the lh and lhe sounds in portuguese)

I mark my scriptures blue for Restoration scriptures, Orange for Plan of Salvation, Green for Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Purple for Laws and Ordinances and red for other and for really really important parts, it works well.

Here if you want a perscription drug you just have to ask and the Pharmacist asks for the Perscription. If you don't have it, he scolds for a little bit, and we tell him we are americans and don't have a portuguese doctor, and they give it to us. People in portugal just say they are too poor, and that generally works too.

In closing, I hope you keep that adress to yourself and only use it for family, because we get transfer info on Mondays or Tuesday, so sometimes I might not even know until after I email, and the mission office is easier and you can give others that address.

President Torgan is a very good mission president but very strict too. I think I am going to like him, I hear if you stay obedient you don't have anything to worry about, but it might be hard for us to make the transistion.


I Love Y'all
Élder Hope

Monday, April 11, 2011

Hey family!

Tudo Bem?

We are in Portugal and the computer and mouse is very interesting. The keyboard is different too, which is really fun too. I like Portugal and the Portugese people. They talk too fast for me but it's good. I can understand some people who can speak slowly. My family favorite is the Silva family in our ward. They are friendly and they like the missionaries.

Ok, so I am in an area called Viseu and have a companion named Elder Brown. He is from Idaho and is a really cool trainer. He teaches me a lot.

This is the language they taught me at the MTC, but people slur their words and makes it really hard to learn the language here. Élder Brown says that it is natural and I will learn the lanugage over time. One word at a time. His old companion was Elder Packard, Merideth Packard´s son.

So we got to Portugal a quarta-feira e nosso presidente de missão picked us up from the airport. I absolutely love Presidente Walton and his Wife. On thursday we traveled to our area and began working. We began by contacting people. We only have 1 progressing investigator named Teresa and I met her until she went out of town this week. People here just don't want anything to do with the missionaries, except the first person that I contacted. She is really interested in our message, but she is in the sister´s area. Every single one of our lessons has fallen through, but we are trying to think of creative ways to contact people. For example, we can set up a quit smoking workshop.

Things about Portugal that are fun

The bread is the best thing here by a lot. It is so good, I about died when I had some.

Everyone is paranoid about robbers

They don´t have any law enforcement of the traffic here, but everyone follows the rules. If you get in an accident you have to wait for the cops to show up, which can take hours of waiting, so no one gets in an accident

People walk in front of the cars in the street because they have the right of way

People like us because we speak English. They are really fun to get along with, so we speak in português and they correct us and they speak in English and we help them. they just don´t want anything to do with the church. They are cathloc, don´t know what they believe, but they are cathloc.

The food is really good here, they have all sorts of fruits. The beef is nasty, but they have good chicken and pork (and bread)

All lot of the music is in English.

We need to find people to teach

there are 6 people in my district, 4 elders and 2 sisters.
What else do you want to know? My P day is monday

please send me jessica's email address, I am now allowed to Email her

most members call me elder esperança and they think i have an itallian accent not an american accent, which is strange

they don't believe in air conditioning

they love soccer

no drinking fountains

first rule: DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!

my english is getting messed up but elders say that is good, and then in the future we will figure get the two languages really straightened out, and this keyboard is different

euros are mostly coins, which is strange, everyone carries coins, and it weighs down your pockets

They answer the phone by saying estou, which means I am

right now my favorite people are people from cape verde, angola, and mozambique because it is easier to understand them. the people from Portugal and brasil are crazy. (Dad, the only ti that I use that is the brasileiro way of saying it (chi) is curitiba all the others are ti (the way they are written))

Email is the best way to reach me, and my mission president said that the blog has our pictures on it, if not now, they will have it soon.

tax on some food is 23% , but i haven't run into that yet.
any language suggestions? I just have a hard time understanding them.

Love,
Elder Hope

Into the Mission Field!!

Dear Brother and Sister Hope,

We were very excited to welcome Elder Hope at the airport in Porto after his long flight from the MTC.  We are very pleased to have your son serving in the Portugal Porto Mission with us.  We are grateful for all your efforts in raising such a worthy son and for your sacrifices in sending him here to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary.

When we arrived home from the airport, we had dinner and I interviewed each of the 9 new missionaries.  Following the interviews and a testimony meeting, the missionaries slept at the mission home.  After a morning of orientation and training, the missionaries had lunch with their new companions and then headed out to their assigned areas to work.  We have prayerfully chosen the best trainers possible for the new missionaries.  Your son’s new companion is Elder Brown from Idaho, and they are serving in the Viseu Second Ward, a little over an hour south of Porto.

Please know that Sister Walton and I feel our greatest responsibility is the spiritual, emotional, and physical well being of our missionaries.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

With love and gratitude,

President and Sister Walton

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

We got an email today from a Siste Witaker. Her son is Nick's companion and she wanted to share some pictures with our family, from Monday, the day before the Elders leave for Portugal... We were also blessed to hear from Elder Hope last night. He has officially left the MTC for Portugal and told us he loved the MTC but was really excited to be on the plane! In order the Elders are... Elder Whitaker, Elder Searle and Elder Hope

Friday April 1, 2011

I just have issues!!

 

Family:

 

I saw Jessica!! She is the only sister missionary I don't call Sister, because it is wierd . . . so I try and call her Irmã but sometimes I call her Jessica or Jess on accident. This is my last email of the MTC!!! I leave on Tuesday! Ok, so a few things you will want to know. I am sending home a package of stuff I don't need or won't need. Unfortunately, I didn't want to get rid of some of the things, but I had to. Sorry I am sending some candy back for Megan, Mom, and MY GRETA!!! 

 

I am responding in response to my wart removal that everyone is intersted about (at least in our family) First, the lady numbed my finger (the whole thing), and then she pulled out a scalpel and cut off 2 of the 3 warts on my thumb. She cotorized it and then froze how she said "the virus out of the thing" it was ok, because I couldn't feel it until the lidocaine wore off. She cotorized it again and then sent me on my way.(I think she said Lidocaine). Today, my finger is black, scabby and gross. Puss (which some people in my district think is plateletts and it very easily could be) mixed with blood is still coming out of the wound. I have another appointment with her on Monday where she said she would give me some drugs to try and prevent the wart from coming back. She said warts like the one on my thumb are stubborn and said it looked like it had been removed once before because the part at the top of my thumb wasn't fully back . . . whatever that means. So on monday I will get the info.

 

I should be able to call my family before leaving the MTC. I find out on Monday if I do and we will either call monday night or tuesday morning before 1 pm. We don't get to chose the time we call on Monday night it could be as late as 11:30 pm your time (10:30 my time). We only get 5 minutes and we have to pay for the time, but I think it is worth it. I will call mom's cell phone and hope she answers if not, I will default to dads. . . not that I don't like dad, but I think he would perfer for me to call mom too, and I have already gotten to hear dad's voice it will be nice to hear mom's voice too. (I really hope I am not digging myself into a hole here) Please take the last paragraph as I intended it, not the way it sounds.

 

Ok, so on Wednesday I got to escort again and I escorted a guy from Lisbon! He was very fluent in English, but he could understand me. He said all the new missionaries sound like I do, but then improve a lot faster in Portugal . . . if they speak Portuguese (that is the plan). Apparently most people in Portugal are Fluent in English too because they have to take english in school for 5 years. I plan on speaking Portuguese. He said the People of Portugal will respect me more if I try and speak portuguese and help them with their english. He said that everyone (he was included) had a hard time pronouncing the "th" in English, because they don't have that sound in Portuguese. Americans have a hard time with the "lhe" because we don't have that sound in english. It sort of sounds like the mil-LI-on, in the word million, but it isn't. it is a wierd sound, that our teachers have said good luck on, and they will help you. The guy said "the" like "Te", our teachers taught us how to teach them the "th" and they will teach us the "lhe" or "lh" just depending on the word.

 

Well my time is almost up. These are the quickest 30 minutes of my week. I sent dad the bulleten from Portugal. I didn't get to really read it, but that's ok I will.

 

Thank you for your support, love, and prayers,

 

The next sacrament meeting I have will be in Portugal and next email!!! (general conference)

 

There is a special on the MTC in conference between sessions on Saturday or Sunday, I don't know what day . . . I might be in it because I was there when they were filming it!

 

Love

 

Elder Hope