Dear Family and friends,
These last 2 weeks we made one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make in my mission. Under the direction of our Zone Leaders, we basically spent half of our time that we have visiting members and strengthening members because the members here are really weak in the Faith. We have a lot of problems in our little Branch. The members feel like if it isn't a commandment, then we only HAVE to do it. For example, we can use cake instead of bread for the sacrament, because D&C says we can. (Elders in the past fixed that, not us, but it was right before we arrived here in Viana) Also, it is only counsel that we have to wear a white shirt when we bless the sacrament, so we don't HAVE to. So, in other words, we are having to work a lot with the members. Apparently a while back, we had some very disobedient elders that all the members are wondering why we don't do some things with them (such as go to the Spain Temple, go skimboarding, sunbathing on P Day, ect...) It was a hard, but very necessary decision to be made. After this, Pedro decided to let us teach his daughter, so she can be baptized.
So yes, last week we missed the bus and thus couldn't get an email off to you. I called Pedro immediately, and he said would send a message to mom, but he had the email address incorrect and didn't get if off until Quinta-feira. Is the only member who speaks English in Viana do Castelo, that is why I asked him. Pedro's daughter, Melissa, will get baptized on July 16th, and she will be 9, so it is another Convert Baptism we have marked!
Elder Vrooman has been out about 8 months. He is from Castile, New York (Rodchester area) He went for 1 year at a community college in Rodchester. What kind of living conditions are you in? Well, the easiest way to explain it is small. Our apartment living room and kitchen are about the size of Megan's old room. (they are in the same room) Our bedroom is skinny and long. It is big enough that I can put the ironing board across and have about 1 foot on both sides, and the bathroom is about the size of our bathroom for the kids minus the area with the sinks. It is small, but sufficient. We have a ½ meter X ½ meter granite block that is our counter space.
So big things to let you Know. This week the missions are combining, because of this we will have a conference on July 4th and 5th (President Torgan said that we will not be celebrating the 4th of July or Thanksgiving this year) That means that I won't be able to email that day. According to the Waltons, it looks like we will either have a couple of hours another day, or we will just lose the P Day, they don't know.
Dad, can you send me the stuff from Correct Quotes about Caffeine? Don't worry, we are telling our investigators that it is not prohibited. But I guess more the references for the talks, because those talks were about the Word of Wisdom. We have a big problem in our Branch and in Portugal with the Word of Wisdom.
Story from last week: A guy named João (about 18 yrs old) just started talking to us and we gave him a LdM. He seemed interested, but we couldn't contact him, so we just dropped it. Randomly, when we were up by Rui's house in Meadela to teach a lesson, he was there, and said he had started reading the book we gave him, and says he wants some explication about some of the things, so we taught him a little. Got his real phone number, and left. It was great! We start teaching him on Terça-feira after school exams!
Story from Saturday the 25th. So we didn't have any success all week with much. We passed a lot of members and feel satisfied, but couldn't find new people. We went up to talk to Rui Pinheiro (he likes us a lot) because it was right before his baptism. We walk in without knocking because we yelled and he said "entre" so we did. He came out in an orange swimsuit, no shirt, trying to remember how to tie a tie (the people here love the way us americans tie ties) so we taught him how to tie the tie. He went in the back, changed his clothes and came back out about 2h30 (only 2 minutes or so), Our ride was to come about 2h30, and at 2h32, he called her to ask where she was. She said she was coming. Again at about 2h40 he called and asked again where she was. It was fun to see how antsy he was to get baptized. He was so ready, he asked us to skip the talks until after the baptism, so he could go, we told him to hold his horses, and it was a special baptism. Elder Packard showed up to support us.
Anyways, have to go and get a haircut.
Love,
Elder Hope
(In another Email...)
Please call and let President Packard know too, because it sounded like Elder Packard was already done emailing today. This happened Today, 27 June 2011
Ok, so Elder Packard lost his residency card, and we went and asked the bus company for it, and it wasn't there. So, we called, told him they didn't have it, and continued our day and went to email this morning.
A random guy was sitting by to email, and asked if we spoke english, and we told him we did. He started talking to us for a little bit, and then we left, there really wasn't anything else.
We then left to get haircuts, but we were late by about 10 or 15 minutes, so the barber yelled at us and told us to return a lot later. As we walked out of the barber and around the corner we found this guy again who spoke English and we struck up a conversation. He was impressed with our English and then he found out we were americans and didn't seem as impressed after that. He said he was going for lunch, and invited us to go with him. So we ate lunch with him and learned a lot about what was going on with him in his life and such. We found out he was from England and was way awesome.
We invited him for a chapel tour. He seemed really impressed by it and then told us he had to go to the train station. We walked with him, and got his address so we could pass by (he leaves for spain on thursday and won't be coming back . . . dang, but he is going to meet with us on Wednesday)
Right as we left him, another man who worked at the train station came up to us, showed us a picture of Elder Packard, and asked us if we know him. We said YES!, it was his residency card! He then had us call Elder Packard and get elder Packard to give him permission to give us the card and his wallet.
Elder Packard was estatic, and couldn't express how happy he was.
The miracle. We wouldn't have been at the Train station if we hadn't met the guy from England, we wouldn't have had met the guy from England (Harry, and I am serious that is his name) if we hadn't been emailing, and if we hadn't gone overtime to the barber. Everything worked out for the better, and for perfection.
Please, send this on to President Packard. I know he will be interested, if he finds out, he gets our end of our story, not the end of Elder Packard who got a random call that said we had his card.
Elder Hope
Ok, so Elder Packard lost his residency card, and we went and asked the bus company for it, and it wasn't there. So, we called, told him they didn't have it, and continued our day and went to email this morning.
A random guy was sitting by to email, and asked if we spoke english, and we told him we did. He started talking to us for a little bit, and then we left, there really wasn't anything else.
We then left to get haircuts, but we were late by about 10 or 15 minutes, so the barber yelled at us and told us to return a lot later. As we walked out of the barber and around the corner we found this guy again who spoke English and we struck up a conversation. He was impressed with our English and then he found out we were americans and didn't seem as impressed after that. He said he was going for lunch, and invited us to go with him. So we ate lunch with him and learned a lot about what was going on with him in his life and such. We found out he was from England and was way awesome.
We invited him for a chapel tour. He seemed really impressed by it and then told us he had to go to the train station. We walked with him, and got his address so we could pass by (he leaves for spain on thursday and won't be coming back . . . dang, but he is going to meet with us on Wednesday)
Right as we left him, another man who worked at the train station came up to us, showed us a picture of Elder Packard, and asked us if we know him. We said YES!, it was his residency card! He then had us call Elder Packard and get elder Packard to give him permission to give us the card and his wallet.
Elder Packard was estatic, and couldn't express how happy he was.
The miracle. We wouldn't have been at the Train station if we hadn't met the guy from England, we wouldn't have had met the guy from England (Harry, and I am serious that is his name) if we hadn't been emailing, and if we hadn't gone overtime to the barber. Everything worked out for the better, and for perfection.
Please, send this on to President Packard. I know he will be interested, if he finds out, he gets our end of our story, not the end of Elder Packard who got a random call that said we had his card.
Elder Hope
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