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