Family and friends:
What a week. We had a lot happen and I don't know where to begin. A few highlights is that Rui’s Baptism is the 25th now and not the 18th, and that we had a medieval fair, and now I am getting sick, but its not bad, and I have already been perking up.
As far as Jessica’s accident, it sounds like a Fender Bender!
Ok, so the room looks fine but I didn’t get any final pictures, which is sad, but its ok of the room getting painted. We don’t know what our next service project is.
One of my purposes here is to strengthen the members and to teach the members about some of the policies of the Church . . . which is strange, I never thought I would have to do that. Our branch will have 25 active members when Rui is Baptized. Most of the members have been members less than 10 years. They won't let a guy named Bruno bless the sacrament (he is deaf and can't speak very well) because he is deaf and can’t speak very well. Our mission president said he thinks he can still bless if he signs the prayer, but he is going to contact Salt Lake to Verify. Bruno has a testimony stronger than some of the missionaries. He is so cool, and has a heart of gold. The women didn’t think they could touch the sacrament tray, so they had to pass from preisthood holder to priesthood holder, which they still somewhat believe but that is just about taken care of. We have a slightly mentally retarded member who still gets confused about that sometimes.
So about Rui’s baptism. We have had this planned for the last 4 weeks without any problems. Póvoa (the chapel with the baptismal font and Elder Packard’s area) had it planned to come to the baptism and support Rui. Apparently they even had a barbeque planned for our branch if we wanted to attend. And they scheduled the barbeque around the baptism. Elder Packard interviewed Rui and found him ready to be baptized. In ward counsel every week, we have to convince the ward that Rui is ready. He missed 2 consecutive weeks in a row of church because he was sick out of his mind (Diarrhea (same word in Portugês) and Vomiting (vomitar)) and there was one other thing that I think should remain confidential because it is a lie. Anyways the ward told us that we have a stake activity on the 18th and no one is going to go to the baptism. We called Póvoa and they said there wasn’t a stake activity and about the baptismal plans that the ward had for Rui. The ward counsel kept asking us if he has repented and they don’t feel like he has repented of all of his sins because we have only been teaching him for 4 weeks (more or less) and that isn’t sufficient time to repent of all of your sins for the last 45 years of life of his and such. The Presidente de Ramo said that he doesn’t feel Rui is ready, but then stood up and said to the Ward Counsel. 'Eu vou deixar disso. A missão tem as chaves de Baptismo' Which means that I am going to let this alone, The mission has the keys of baptism and they have the spirit of discernment on whether or not he can be baptized. The first counselor kept saying Esquese Junho which means forget about June for his baptism and finally we agreed on the 25th for the baptism because the 'Stake Activity'. It really peeved Me, Elder Vrooman, Elder Packard, Elder Ruis and Ellsworth (Zone Leaders), and Presidente Walton is shocked that a branch is trying to stop the baptism.
We had a feira medieval, and it was basically a big open air market in the center of town. Presidente said we can go but we have to limit the number of pictures we take. He made it clear we can take pictures, but we need to limit them at that event because we are missionaries, not Tourists. Our Church members organized a booth to raise money to go to the temple and we met a lot of people from around Europe. I think I spoke more English than I did Portuguese during the fair because I don’t speak french or German. We had a lot of spaniards, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Germans, Irish, and Scottish people there. It was cool, but we didn’t have english tracting materials, which was hard. We have them now, for next time there is a big fair, but not then.
There is a communist poster that says 'Por um governo Democrático e patriótico' it was a vote for us poster for the communist party, apparently it is really big here in portugal. I didn't get a picture because it was by an area we can’t take pictures.
Funny Story of the Week
Yeah dad, I think the Lisbon address would be the best address to send them to. Presidente Torgan said that on the transfers in July (we think it is July 13 or 15, transfers are a different day) every area in our mission will have at least one, if not both elders leaving the area. He said he likes to whitewash less productive areas, which means having both missionaries getting transfered.
We had an appointment with a guy named Ámadu, and he was so cool in the contact. We were going to meet him in a park. All of a sudden another guy that looked like him came up and we contacted him and said Hey amadu. He said no, é Mamadu. We said oh, Hi anyways. He just kept walking so we followed him and we asked him what he thought of the fair and stuff, and he said this was his first time in Viana. I figured I didn’t understand, so I just kept going. We soon realized that it wasn’t our appointement and we looked like fools following a guy that had never talked to us before.
Story of the week.
So with the Feira medieval, we were contacting and all of a sudden a lady comes and puts a hat on Elder Vroomans head. We start talking to her, and over the period of the 3 day fair, we gave her the first lesson, book of mormon and the zero Lesson, and she is a vendor das coisas. Her name is Agnes, and we are going to pass her this week, we are so excited!
Also church is supposed to start at 9h but we didn’t have anyone in church yesterday until 9h20, we also found a random chicken in our church building, so we took pictures and had the kids take care of him.
What a week. We had a lot happen and I don't know where to begin. A few highlights is that Rui’s Baptism is the 25th now and not the 18th, and that we had a medieval fair, and now I am getting sick, but its not bad, and I have already been perking up.
As far as Jessica’s accident, it sounds like a Fender Bender!
Ok, so the room looks fine but I didn’t get any final pictures, which is sad, but its ok of the room getting painted. We don’t know what our next service project is.
One of my purposes here is to strengthen the members and to teach the members about some of the policies of the Church . . . which is strange, I never thought I would have to do that. Our branch will have 25 active members when Rui is Baptized. Most of the members have been members less than 10 years. They won't let a guy named Bruno bless the sacrament (he is deaf and can't speak very well) because he is deaf and can’t speak very well. Our mission president said he thinks he can still bless if he signs the prayer, but he is going to contact Salt Lake to Verify. Bruno has a testimony stronger than some of the missionaries. He is so cool, and has a heart of gold. The women didn’t think they could touch the sacrament tray, so they had to pass from preisthood holder to priesthood holder, which they still somewhat believe but that is just about taken care of. We have a slightly mentally retarded member who still gets confused about that sometimes.
So about Rui’s baptism. We have had this planned for the last 4 weeks without any problems. Póvoa (the chapel with the baptismal font and Elder Packard’s area) had it planned to come to the baptism and support Rui. Apparently they even had a barbeque planned for our branch if we wanted to attend. And they scheduled the barbeque around the baptism. Elder Packard interviewed Rui and found him ready to be baptized. In ward counsel every week, we have to convince the ward that Rui is ready. He missed 2 consecutive weeks in a row of church because he was sick out of his mind (Diarrhea (same word in Portugês) and Vomiting (vomitar)) and there was one other thing that I think should remain confidential because it is a lie. Anyways the ward told us that we have a stake activity on the 18th and no one is going to go to the baptism. We called Póvoa and they said there wasn’t a stake activity and about the baptismal plans that the ward had for Rui. The ward counsel kept asking us if he has repented and they don’t feel like he has repented of all of his sins because we have only been teaching him for 4 weeks (more or less) and that isn’t sufficient time to repent of all of your sins for the last 45 years of life of his and such. The Presidente de Ramo said that he doesn’t feel Rui is ready, but then stood up and said to the Ward Counsel. 'Eu vou deixar disso. A missão tem as chaves de Baptismo' Which means that I am going to let this alone, The mission has the keys of baptism and they have the spirit of discernment on whether or not he can be baptized. The first counselor kept saying Esquese Junho which means forget about June for his baptism and finally we agreed on the 25th for the baptism because the 'Stake Activity'. It really peeved Me, Elder Vrooman, Elder Packard, Elder Ruis and Ellsworth (Zone Leaders), and Presidente Walton is shocked that a branch is trying to stop the baptism.
We had a feira medieval, and it was basically a big open air market in the center of town. Presidente said we can go but we have to limit the number of pictures we take. He made it clear we can take pictures, but we need to limit them at that event because we are missionaries, not Tourists. Our Church members organized a booth to raise money to go to the temple and we met a lot of people from around Europe. I think I spoke more English than I did Portuguese during the fair because I don’t speak french or German. We had a lot of spaniards, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Germans, Irish, and Scottish people there. It was cool, but we didn’t have english tracting materials, which was hard. We have them now, for next time there is a big fair, but not then.
There is a communist poster that says 'Por um governo Democrático e patriótico' it was a vote for us poster for the communist party, apparently it is really big here in portugal. I didn't get a picture because it was by an area we can’t take pictures.
Funny Story of the Week
Yeah dad, I think the Lisbon address would be the best address to send them to. Presidente Torgan said that on the transfers in July (we think it is July 13 or 15, transfers are a different day) every area in our mission will have at least one, if not both elders leaving the area. He said he likes to whitewash less productive areas, which means having both missionaries getting transfered.
We had an appointment with a guy named Ámadu, and he was so cool in the contact. We were going to meet him in a park. All of a sudden another guy that looked like him came up and we contacted him and said Hey amadu. He said no, é Mamadu. We said oh, Hi anyways. He just kept walking so we followed him and we asked him what he thought of the fair and stuff, and he said this was his first time in Viana. I figured I didn’t understand, so I just kept going. We soon realized that it wasn’t our appointement and we looked like fools following a guy that had never talked to us before.
Story of the week.
So with the Feira medieval, we were contacting and all of a sudden a lady comes and puts a hat on Elder Vroomans head. We start talking to her, and over the period of the 3 day fair, we gave her the first lesson, book of mormon and the zero Lesson, and she is a vendor das coisas. Her name is Agnes, and we are going to pass her this week, we are so excited!
Also church is supposed to start at 9h but we didn’t have anyone in church yesterday until 9h20, we also found a random chicken in our church building, so we took pictures and had the kids take care of him.
I decided it was in my best interest to pay the mission back for the camera card reader thing with my personal cash that I have as well as buy the insoles with dad’s card. I payed the mission back last tuesday and on wednesday I was on divisions in Póvoa and a lady named Ana contacted us and said she was interested in the church but doesn’t know where it is or much about it. We did the first lesson and gave her the Book of Mormon and she said she would read and pray about it and was way excited to give us all the contact information we wanted and then some more (email, phone number, address, hours of school, best hours for us to visit, and when not to pass by her house), it was so cool. I think that is a direct blessing from being obedient. Elder Vrooman said that the mission president before president Walton gave the missionaries money each month for souvenirs and such, and that is why the zone leaders thought that way.
I am a little sick now, but not to worry, I will be better soon, I have plenty of drugs to use.
Ok, so about the money situation,
I got my reimbursement, so everything is good. I talked to the Zone Leaders about the personal and mission funds. (I did bring us bills with me to portugal that i traded with DeSoto for Euros), anyways they refered me to the list of things that we can use our mission funds for that i got earlier. They told me that I can buy insoles with the mission funds, that that falls under the category of Personal supplies (we have a budget of how much for each section), they said that camera thing to attach the camera to the computer is under the section for ºMail, Film, and Cameraº, but my companion was right on the fact that when it goes over the amount that we are given, then we use our personal funds, which made sense to me, because I didn’t understand how insoles weren’t covered in our line of work. So we worked it out.
I got my reimbursement, so everything is good. I talked to the Zone Leaders about the personal and mission funds. (I did bring us bills with me to portugal that i traded with DeSoto for Euros), anyways they refered me to the list of things that we can use our mission funds for that i got earlier. They told me that I can buy insoles with the mission funds, that that falls under the category of Personal supplies (we have a budget of how much for each section), they said that camera thing to attach the camera to the computer is under the section for ºMail, Film, and Cameraº, but my companion was right on the fact that when it goes over the amount that we are given, then we use our personal funds, which made sense to me, because I didn’t understand how insoles weren’t covered in our line of work. So we worked it out.
Elder Hope
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