Family!
So sorry last week was sort of a crummy letter, I was trying to get some pictures to you, and it wasn't working they way I wanted it to.
Ok, so I have a few things to say. In Viana do Castelo we are strapped a lot more for time with emails than in Viseu. Here our session is only 1 hour whereas in Viseu it was for as long as we wanted, but we were asked to keep it around an hour or so, but every week we went over by about 20 minutes. I also don't have the capability to send home pictures yet, but I think I will go to the mall in a few weeks to get a cord for my camera. The area I am in Extends all the way up to Spain, so I am lucky this transfer is 9 weeks so that we can see everything. We want to find a castle one week, we want to go up to Santa Luisa (pronounced lu-ee-za) and see the pre roman ruins, and go up to the Spain Portugal Border. The welcome to Spain sign is still technically in our mission area, so we can go and get pictures there, it is just big sign that says España, and that's it, but I think we will go. Theres a mountain elder Vrooman wants to go up and hike. There is a legit lighthouse by a member we are going to go to and a fort. Viseu didn't have that stuff. Also we figured out that if we plan our adventures for the last thing we do on P Day, and then visit all the members nearby, we can get our transportation payed for, because those things are sort of far away and cost a lot in transportation, but the mission will pay for it if we are going to the city to work, so we go early (like 3 or 4 pm and since p day ends at 6:30, we can see the sights for 2 hours and then go to the members and tract there.
Viana is the name of some sort of Sea Goddess, and Castelo means castle. The whole city was like a fort, and there really aren't any ruins left, but we are going to go and check some of them out today, so it was a walled city apparently.
My companions name is Elder Ammon Vrooman. He is from Castile, New York, about an hour from Palmyra. He has been out on his mission for 4 transfers and this is his 5th. He has been having me do a lot more with Português than elder brown, but it is good for me, it helps me with fluency a lot more. At times it is really frustrating, but I think it helps a lot more.
Our Branch here has about 20 members or so. The Chappel is an apartment complex has had some walls taken out and stuff. The apartments are a lot different in Portugal (they were this way in Viseu too), where there is one entrance for the 6 or 8 or 10 apartments, and all the doorbells are on the outside with an intercom system, and you can let them in or keep them locked out, it is pretty interesting. And then when you enter the main door, there are doors for the individual apartments or stairs to go up to yours.
Miracles happen every day on the mission, you just have to look for them. I was transfered to a new area this last week and my first full day there we taught a guy for the very first time the 3rd lesson. He was an old investigator that just came to church randomly. The elders got to know him, but everyday except thursday and sunday he has night classes for driving. The elders planned to go and meet with him those nights, but somehow forgot to write it down. I was transfered into the area on Thursday and we did a few contacts and went to bed. The next day (Friday), we were calling all of the members in our branch and investigators (we are so blessed to have 3 investigators. The whole time I was in Viseu, we only didn't even have any, we just had a ton of Potentials). We called them and this guy answered and told us that his class had been canceled and invited us over to his house, since we didn't go the other night. We went and taught the 3rd lesson and challenged him to baptism on the 18th of June. He said that it has been his desire for a while to be baptised and he continued to read the Book of Mormon from the last time that missionaries had given it to him. He said he knew it was true). He then said I know what this means, I have to quit smoking and drinking. He said that was the reason he wasn't baptized last time. We then said, yeah, but you can do it, we know it will be hard, but you can do it. (it is even harder for him because he lives with his brother, and his brother smokes, so he still has the influence). He said ok, i'll try. We went back on sunday and he said he hasn't smoked or drunk any alcohol since the last visit, but he is going through all the withdrawals and stuff. We told him of a program we have called Deixar de Fumar, and he said the other elders tried that with him, and it worked for the week, but then he stopped and relapsed. He said he is going to do his own program that is similar to Deixar de Fumar, and we just kinda shrugged and said good luck. Anyways, LONG story short, he is getting baptized on the 18th of June if everything goes as planned!!!
Also, I got to see my MTC companion at Stake Conference, which was awesome! It was a miracle for me to see him.
I know our savior lives and loves us, I know that god will help us in all that we need help with. Jesus Christ lives and loves us and will help us do things in our lives we need to do to enter and live again in God's kingdom.
With Love,Elder Hope
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