Monday December 3, 2012

Dear family and friends,

Well, Presidente Fluckiger called me and told me that I would be transfered because the area of zone leaders would be changing. So I am still Zone Leader in Porto North, just I am now going to Foz de Douro.

This last week was crazy and I hope that I will be able to give it justice in this email.

On monday we went over to Anita's House to tell have her write about her baptism again so that we could send it to president. While I was there I got a call to let me know that I was on the radar for going home. I didn't like that, but the office said they would contact dad to get all of that sorted out. That night we went over to Filipa and Manuel's house to finish off the lessons. Filipa got confused because she watched the restoration movie and the finding faith in Christ movie back to back and thought that Joseph Smith was the one talking about faith. We had to sort that out.

On Tuesday we helped a member move houses and then got invited to eat Pão de Queijo with the brazillian less actives!!!! We didn't really do much on that day. We were also on a division and I had a fun time training the greenie.

On Wednesday on the way back from the division Elder Govier and I had the pleasure of going ring shopping for the wedding. We found 5 euro rings!!! Well turns out that the bride needs to have the grooms name on it and visa versa. Well, Elder Govier and I had a fun time because apparently, being the witnesses, we got to give the rings too. After about 1/2 an hour of talking to the man we finally figured out how the ring thing works. We went to manuel and Filipa and had a great lesson with them and prepared them for the wedding the next day. That night we taught a lesson to an alcoholic that came to church. Her name is Bianca and she is ready to change her life once she is sober. She came over and nearly fell on top of me, it was sort of strange.

On Thursday we had the wedding of Filipa and Manuel. We were so excited. We ended up getting the rings switched . . . I thought that was funny. In the end it turned out ok, because they got the right ring, but we gave manuel the ring that was for him and filipa the ring that was for her, but we forgot the fact that they would switch rings. That night we had a huge party at the chrurch with them.

On friday we ate lunch with Anita and then went to the church to review the baptimal questions with Filipa. That night, after a lot of travel, Elder White came up and did the interviews for Filipa and Miguel, the kid that is 14 years old of another investigator.

On Saturday we went all over the place and didn't get much done.

On Sunday we took 9 investigators to church and Filipa and Miguel were Baptized!!!! at church Bishop interviewed Manuel (a less active) and he let him baptize Filipa. It was a dream come true.

Well I don't have much more time, but have a good one.

Elder Hope

Monday November 26, 2012

Dear family and friends,

On monday we went over to Filipa's house and marked her for the 2nd of December. She is so excited to get married and baptized. We then went over to Akiwa's home (a member) to have a party for her son. Filipa is 23 years old and will get married to a less active that we are reactivating.

On tuesday we had district meeting and then went over to Anita's house for lunch. Anita is set and she is doing really good. She is going to leave to go to Mosmbique here soon but she will come back. We then went over to help another less active move houses. We went over to an investigators house to help her lift furniture up the window of a 4th story apartment because it was too big for the stairs . . . thank goodness.

On wednesday I had the privilege of going to the registro civil to help a Filipa and Manuel mark their wedding. It was a great birthday gift and I am really happy that I had the time to do that. Right after we went over to another investigator's house named Guaretti and we taught her about coming to church. that night we had a great time with Lynda Marinho. We ended the night by reviewing the interview questions with Ihnderson. After the day I was looking through my bags, and I found a letter that I had written to dad. I don't know what it is, but I might as well just give it to him when he comes, the problem is that I already sealed it and I don't want to open it up incase it is important.

On thursday we ate lunch at Anita's house again. Anita likes giving us food, seeing as she has a fairly large food budget from the government. there wasn't too much more interesting things.

On Friday I went to viana do castelo to do an interview. The problem is that I saw two member families and then we spent the whole day looking for the guy to be baptized. We found him around 8 pm . . . drunk . . . .so needless to say he didn't pass. Ihndersen passed the interview.

On saturday we spent most of the day traveling home, but we did manage to teach Filipa and Manuel in the chapel and find a family of 4 to teach. . . .they are planning on moving though. The woman, Rabia, went from super big Mundial de Deus to asking for a book of mormon!!

On sunday we spent the whole time trying to figure out the baptismal font, but at the end Ihnderson was baptized. He doesn't have a lot time, but he is cool. HE comes to church on sunday and wants to follow god.

Elder Hope

Monday November 19, 2012

On last monday we got stuck and had to do some paperwork and some stuff on the internet, so we didn't work a lot, but we didn't do a lot of work last monday, but we did mange to find a member to feed us and give a really cool reference.

On Tuesday we finally had a lesson with a less active named Janaína, she is all upset about polygomy and a curse on the blacks, so i told her that doesn't matter, that the real thing that matters is if Joseph Smith really was a prophet or not. She thought and protested a little, but admitted that she needed to know whether or not he was a prophet. We also challenged her to find the true prophet if Thomas S. Monson was a false prophet. After 2 days, she called us and said it was impossible to find someone else that is a true prophet. . . Though she did say that Jeffery R. Holland could be a prophet too, we agreeded. We then taught a lady that loves church and just doesn't know if she wants to be baptized or not. We told her it was time to side with the savior and she is still thinking, but she is still coming to church. Our Drug addict told us that he has only smoked 1 time last week. . . better than daily.

On wednesday we had lunch with Paul and a member. Paul is super smart, and our member did really good. We found out he believes that Jesus was selfish. . . I don't know how. At the end of the lesson he asked, "What is the difference between Jesus going to the cross and Uthenasia?" Good question that I had to think about. I am glad that the spirit is with us, because automatically we said just about everything. Anita is getting super cool people for us. We took a bishopric member with us to teach Guaretti and we found a less active and his wife. . . Guess what the less active's wife wants to get baptized!!!! Manuel, the less active is really good at football.

On Thursday, Anita made us lunch. She has this goal to get us more of "her people". She has found a lot of Portuguese for us even though she is from Moçambique. She made us rice cooked in Chicken blood. Filipa told us that she wants to get married to get baptized (manuel's wife). We might be a good matchmaker.

on friday we did a blitzed Ermesinde. My members love me. Diolinda has already planned 4 meals with y'all. I told her that she had to pick and choose, or we would never leave ermesinde, she said "isn't that the point". She reduced her offer to two meals, and after I told her we would bring the juices, she was a typical portuguese person and told me not only no but heck no. i told her dad wanted to pick out the juices, she gave in. Marta introduced me to her sister, and Marta is planning on going to the temple in Februarary. Ihnderson called us and asked if he could get baptized on the 25th of November. We told him yes . . . in my opinion it is sort of sketchy, but ok.

On saturday we painted a lady's house and then went to a Magusto which is a chestnut party in portugal for the members. Ihnderson told us that he was ready and agreeded to all of the commandments.

on sunday we had church and then went to an indian church by invitation. We told them that Mormon was not a god and that the bible was true. I presented the leader of the group with a book of Mormon. Elder Govier told me I was out of line later, but I gave him a book of mormon and he gave me a book about god. It was really strange. We then celebrated Sister Tingey's birthday.

Today we celebrated thanksgiving, my bday and Sister Tingey's birthday. We ate a big meal in the chappel and played foozball.

Elder Hope

Monday November 12, 2012

last monday we went to a big cathloc cathedral with Anita, our recent convert, and then we ate dinner after an intense lesson with Paul. I don't know how to help Paul, he seems so sincere, but at the same time, he is so difficult to teach. I called a member for help, and she said that we were put there in that situation for a reason, that is why I then invited myself over to her house to eat lunch and have a lesson with paul this week since paul went to barcelona.

I truly hate this keyboard, so please excuse any spelling errors,

On tuesday we went to our English family for dinner. they are so fun and Carlos Marinho is so ready to get released as stake president, it is funny. We also had interviews in Braga where president Fluckiger got out all of his notes, and my name was written there with a ton of notes right next to elder Hatch's name. Elder Hatch is ending his mission this transfer and is one of the really good elders in this mission. Well, he told me not to relax, since I would be leading other missionaries until the end of my mission.

On wednesday we had a division with the assistants. I went with Elder Cá and Elder Carvalho went with elder Govier. The funny thing is that Elder Carvalho and Elder Govier do not like each other, but they ended up doing good things. I asked elder Cá if he spoke spanish, he said yes, so I took him over to a columbian lady's house, and pois, he doesnºt speak spanish. It was a nice try. We ended the night having dinner with Guarretti and Eudielson at a memberºs home. He is in the High Counsil, so it is all good.

On Thursday we ran around trying to get things done, but all of our apointments fell through. Anita accepted us, and we taught her the 2nd lesson for the third time. . . it is her favorite, it is funny because she asks to hear it again and again.

On friday, we went to dinner with Mario and Monica. We are just waiting on a marriage with them and he will get baptized. He has stopped smoking marijuana. We also taught a lady named fátima that is progressing really well she finally understood that her baptism wasn't valid.

Saturday we went to go and do service for a lady named Kiwa, Anita's niece. We were supposed to paint a room, but she hadn't bought the paint, so she made us lunch instead. I am actually quite impressed how may meals I am getting.

Sunday we had stake conference with the Area president. we had 4 investigators there, it was pretty cool. Jaime was called to be the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency. I got to see all of my people from Viana do Castelo and Ermesinde, and I got a picture with Claudia!!!! She said she might be in Brasil when y'all are here, but it's all good, she said she would send you an email. We found a brasillian lady that was crying. We asked her what was going on, she said her husband beat her up, and that she called the cops half and hour ago and she was waiting for them. She said she would get deported seeing as she and her husband are ilegal imagrants, but she said it is better than being beaten by her husband. After talking to her for 15 minutes, the cops showed up, and we ditched her because we didn't want to be involved. Needless to say, we saw her today in her window smoking, so she wasn't arrested, she was allowed to stay, we haven't talked to her, but I thought it was strange.

Elder Hope

Monday November 5, 2012

Anita, our Recent Convert, told me she was really chapped with me since I never went to her house last week. After looking at my planner I realized we had been at her house 5 of the 7 days. She laughed, and said, you guys missed 2 days. . . . even though on monday we were in Lisbon. Today we are going to go sightseeing with her in Braga. The ward is happy that she has a car. It is sort of annoying sometimes, because she thinks we are more important than the bishop and comes to us for everything. It is flattering at the same time. She is such a funny lady. Yesterday we realized she is old enough to be my mom.

On monday we went to lisbon and had a meeting with presidente fluckiger. That night I made the executive decsion not to return to Braga since on tuesday we had a zone meeting in Ermesinde, so I made the executive decsion to sleep in Ermesinde's apartment. We pulled into ermesinde at 8:30 and We had an hour to spend with marta and arlindo. They absolutely love Elder Govier.

Tuesday we had a zone meeting and a division. We talked about marking people and we marked a guy named Joaquim. He lives in the sister's area, but both of us teach him since he doesn't have a woman there. It will count for the sisters, but I will be his missionary!!

Wednesday we basically had a p day since we had 2 meetings and in between we were running around to get food and write y'all. At night there was a halloween party and our family came to the party.

Thursday we taught another lady that is progressing named Fátima. She loves our visits and has already been to church twice. She will be getting baptized here soon!!! We went to our English families house for dinner (members) and Elder Govier got his cake and everything. They made him really good food.

Friday, we went around to figure out all of the forms for recent converts and less actives to please our bishop.

Saturday we finally got to teach Guaretti and Eudeilson, a couple that is working on getting married. We marked them for Christmas Day, because of the wedding, but then we had to change the date to 2 days earlier because the bishop didn't want it. Guarretti is a portuguese woman that has come to every church activity since Anita's baptism. She is a friend of Anita. I am so greateful that she has been coming into the church. She never fails on appointments and is super cool. I am so excited to help them get married and baptized. . . . 1 problem, the date is after transfers. After Anita so kindly explained that to Guaretti, guaretti is now tring to get married as quick as possible.

Yesterday I am not really going to speak about since I wasn't too pleased with our bishop as he refused to interview our recent convert because we didn't have a form that is not our responsibility to have, that is also a blank form as the bishops interview is the first step and one of our district leaders told us that we don't have the right to correct problems within the zone, that we are simply here to support, not to correct, and that we don't have any right to receive revelation for our zone. That is what you hear from a missionary that only taught 3 lessons in an intire week, and 2 of those 3 were on a division with us.

Elder Hope

Wednesday October 31, 2012

To begin, we had a zone leader meeting on Monday and a division on Tuesday, so today is the day to write a letter, if y'all can believe that. Also I am really tired right now with all of my travel, so I know that I will sound completely bored, and halfway out of it, but I promise that everything is on the up and up.

 

On Monday we had a family home evening with a lady named Sandra. She is a lady that wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to live the law of chastity. . . . so in other words, wants to get baptized, without getting the blessings . . . makes sense to me!! We went to the house of one of the counselors in the Bishopric and she understood why she had to be baptized, she understood that the lord does want her to live the commandments. It ended in my opinion a little tense where she told her "boyfriend" that she doesn't want to marry him. . . so we are going in circles with her. The Sisters were mad at us becuase they feel like we stole Anita from them. The funny thing is we started to teach her and she lives in our area and then the niece (member) gave the Sisters Anita as a reference and told the Sisters that she wanted the Sisters to teach Anita. Well, turns out, it didn't matter for Anita and she already really liked me, so everything was cool. To add to the confusion, I told the Sisters to go and teach her Monday night because we couldn't due to the family home evening. So the Sisters were upset that we "stole" their investigator. It ended up that we got to teach Anita since she lived in our area. the worst part of it all is that she was marked for baptism on this last saturday and the Missionaries were divided on who was teaching.

 

On Tuesday we had a lesson with a guy named Paul . . . by far my most favorite investigator because he makes me think, and he is an American. He is a Yoga teacher that travels a lot, so we won't teach him this week, but the following week we will. He wanted us to relax before our lesson, so we got into our sweat pants and did Yoga in a White shirt, tie, and sweat pants, and then taught him a lesson. We were on the 2nd lesson and asked an interesting question, if the people in the spirit world are taught by the missionaries in this world, since the spirit world is here in this earth.We taught Anita in the Chapel with the Bishop and we got the bishop on our side for the baptism. We went by the "coolest less active in our ward" according to the members, and he literally kicked us out of his house because he was drunk and "didn't have a contract with us"

 

On wednesday we were having problems with people showing up for their appointments, but during the night we managed to have a night at the chapel with some investigators and some members. Anita told us that she had absolutely no friends to invite to her baptism, after we found out that she has roughly 300 friends on facebook . . . . interesting

 

on Thursday we had correlation with our ward mission leader. he is cool and helped us organize Anita's baptism. I also managed to make Chicken Fried Steak with gravy that didn't turn out too well. I am very pleased with the way that I am cooking now because Elder Govier is just letting me at it, and I am learning some new things. So that dad knows, the No Bake cookies are a hit.

 

on Friday, Anita got really scared that she would fail the interview, even though she was ready. she made us squid for lunch, but the Stake President couldn't come (the Stake President was told to do the interview). So we had to reschedule. I told Anita to be at the baptism 30 minutes early to get ready.

 

Well on Saturday, I convinced a part member family to make me lunch since "we didn't have a lot of time" and they did!!! It is good because they came back to church and brought a friend. We spent the rest of the day at the chapel. Aparently, according to church guidelines, someone has to be in the chapel when the font is filling up, and we were the ones volunteered to be in the chapel at that time. It's ok because apparently according to church guidelines missionaries can cook in the chapel, so we made no bake cookies. I just think it is funny that the church guideline book is different in Portugal than in America. . . or people just don't read it and guess!! Anita showed up 35 minutes late, but since I told her to be there 30 minutes early, she was only 5 minutes late. We got her in her jumpsuit and everything, and then realized that Manuel Bento wasn't there, the guy that was supposed to baptize her. He showed up and the 5 pm baptism started at 5:45. Turns out that according to church guidelines only non members can film the baptism . . . that one was my favorite. Anyways, The baptism was a success and Anita brought 3 families to see the baptism and 1 is progressing!!! She also decided to bring a ton of food for afterwards, so we had a party after.

 

On sunday, Anita got confirmed. We were late to getting to church because we were walking with a less active member, and they made Anita stand up to tell everyone that she would be confirmed later in the meeting, and then we walked into the sacrament room right as they told her to sit down, so they told her to stand back up and go to the front to get confirmed. She got confirmed by me. I don't know why I was asked to do it, but I was at the last minute. Afterwards, we made our way to Lisbon, what a long 4.5 hour train ride. I found out it is only 3 hours by car. Well, we got into lisbon late at night and slept there so we could be in lisbon for the meeting on monday.

 

On Monday we had a meeting with Pres. Fluckiger and on Tuesday I did a division with elder Barros, but those are stories for next week.

 

Elder Hope

Monday October 22, 2012

Well the transfer has come to an end and Elder Govier and I will be staying together in Braga.

The computer crashed, so, well It won't be as long as I wanted.

This last week was very interesting

monday we went to Bom Jesus with the rest our district, it was fun and I had the oportunity to see Elder Searle again.

Tuesday I went on a division in Ermesinde. I spoke with Jaime and he told me to go and pass all of my recent converts and people that knew me really well instead of finding new people. I didn't quite understand his plan, but at the end of the day I was able to make a lot of headway with the baptism of Marta and Arlindo's son and they came back to church this last sunday!!! Also 3 other people that I knew went back to church. Everyone was so excited to see me, that I got 3 dinners!!!! and 1 lunch!!! They were all telling me that I was the missionary that helped restart the branch. The ward mission leader showed me the list of everyone that was baptized in the last 2 years. I was there one year ago and the list had 11 people on it. I taught 7 of those 11 and 2 were baptized before I got there and 1 was a reference of a guy that I taught. It is interesting to see what god has done.

Wednesday I ate lunch with another one of my buddies in Ermesinde and convinced him to give me a ride up to Braga. We ate Rabbit. and then got back to Braga. In all it was a successful division. We got to braga around 3 and we got to work but didn't really have any sucess.

Thursday we tried really hard to get out and work but with the rain and the cold on Wednesday Elder Govier got sick and gave it to me now.

Friday, despite our sicknesses we got out and worked again without really any success. What I have learned is that Braga is not Coimbra and it is a whole new game to learn. Coimbra is a college town, this is more of a single people, just graduated town.

Saturday we finally talked to Sandra, our Brasillian that wants to be baptised on the 4th. We are sad to annouce that she still really wants to be baptized and she is married, just to a different guy than the one she is living with, and if she divorces, she will be deported. . . We told her to have faith. We also marked a lady named anita for Sunday the 21st, she sat us down and said elders, I want to be baptized.

On sunday Anita was interviewed and it was decided that she should wait until this saturday seeing as she smoked saturday morning. Luckily it isn't a bad addiction, she smokes an average of 4 or 5 a week, not even everyday, so we should be just fine in that regard.

all in all the week was interesting.

I forgot to tell you about Mario.

We share a ward with the sisters and we are only 5 melquesideck priesthood holders away from splitting!!! , and one moved in this last week!!!, but we don't know if he can be one of the 5 or not for worthiness reasons, but he can get worthy.

Mario is the boyfriend of a less active brasilian lady from São Paulo. They are going to get married this week!! Well, for the last two weeks the sisters have been teaching them and got them to come to church this last weekend. I met Mario and he was super cool, he does smoke marijuana, but hey, he can stop!!! Well after talking to him, he went up to Manuel Bento, our Ward Mission Leader (he found out he was in charge of the missionaries in our ward), and asked if we can teach him because he clicks more with the elders. He came and asked me, but I told him he would have to speak with the sisters. I feel like it was sort of a low blow to the sisters, but he was super excited to tell me where he lives even though I had no clue where he was talking about. After looking on the map, it looks like he lives right next to our house. So all in all, without doing anything, we stole the Sister's investigator. I feel bad, since the sisters did all the hard work trying to get them married.
Love y'all

Elder Hope

Monday October 15, 2012

Truth be told, sometimes the worst decision is not to make a decision at all.

I am currently in Braga and we get to stay on a little longer since we had a meeting that really didn't happen today.

Monday we went to the 1st counselor's house and his wife has a better Brittish accent than Elder Govier, it is really funny, since he has been loosing his accent. It is funny because he will just say "jog on" when we tease him about it . . . it is like get lost. We are working with the members a lot better to get back some confidence, it is really annoying that dumb elders in the past screw up the work for a long time, I have seemed to have to do that in my mission. The cool thing is that I am the zone leader of Ermesinde and Viana do Castelo, and this upcoming week I will do a division in Ermesinde. I called one of the members and they were so happy to hear from me. I get to see my people!!!

Tuesday we had a zone conference and I went to do a division in an area called Matasinhos. It is a "hard area", so I showed the Elder how we can teach and mark. We taught a really good lesson to a lady that will come back and bring her family back, she just has to sort out work, we marked a guy for the 14th, and he was baptized!!! and we found 5 new investigators. Needless to say, it is hard, as you make it out to be.

Wednesday we finished our division and had Subway. There are only 4 Subway's in Portugal, and we found one in Matasinhos!!! We went back to braga and the Elders from Matasinhos were with us that night and were going to return the next morning. One of the Elders from Matasinhos thought it would be funny to moon Elder Govier to egg him on. Well, it was funny because he got all ready to go and I was standing between him and elder govier with my back turned to him. He turned around, and I noticed what he was doing so I grabbed Elder govier's baby powder on his desk and sprayed his keester. Today we have learned that he got a rash because of it . . . serves him right! His comp was literally on the ground laughing because of it.

Thursday we waited 4 hours for someone who was only 5 minutes away with a recent convert. It was cool because she arrived. I asked her so many simple questions that she couldn't answer, and it was sad that she couldn't even answer the question if she loves god.

Friday we went over to Julhy and Jennifer's house. They are 2 Brasillian sisters from Paraná. I found some!!!! They said the city was rondonia. We marked their mom for the 4th of November. It will be rough, but it is possible, she needs to get married. I will be so happy to baptize a lady from Paraná!! I keep forgetting to tell dad, but Ala Portão doesn't exsit any more, instead two or three years ago they created the second stake in Portão in Curitiba, where dad served.

Saturday we found a guy with dimentia that showed us a really old book of mormon with the angel moroni on the cover. it had pictures of replicas of the gold plates and the hill comorah.

sunday I got to know the members and we ate lunch with an english family.

It is interesting to see that the focus of our mission has changed. in the last 3 years portugal has baptized nearly 3000 people but the frequency only increased by about 400 or so. In other words, no one is staying active, so the focus is reactivating. I have heard that some of my recent converts have been coming back!!! Alberto in Ermesinde has always been really strong and was just released as the person who prepares and organizes the sacrament. I heard he was really sad about that, but he was called in the presidency of the Elder's Quromn, but Marta and Felipe have been struggling. I will go and speak to them on tuesday, and Olivia has been coming back in Ermesinde.

Elder Hope

Monday October 9, 2012

What an interesting week.

 

So guess what? I am currently in Braga. I was emergancy transfered and am now serving with Elder Govier. I was Emergency transfered because of a bad situation with an investigator in Coimbra that wanted to have babies with me. so Elder Govier is from Wales (Great Britan). The sad fact is that he has been losing his english accent bad because of his american comps. He is my first comp that is not an american, but I have known him for a while and we all joke with him about his big forehead, eventhough his forehead isn't that big. I have been having fun learning a lot of English words and learning words I can an cannot say. Apparently you can use J. Golden Kimball Language and you are just fine, and not cussing . . . That would make a lot of since, Elder Govier says that J. Golden Kimball has English ancestry.

 

Well, Ricardo was baptized this last saturday!!! It is sad I wasn't at his baptism in coimbra because of the transfer, but I was happy to know that he was baptized and doing well.

 

It is intersting to say that Braga could be my last area if I stay zone leader, since I only have 3 and a half transfers left. The 18 year old elders shouldn't be coming until after I leave since they have a 9 week wait in the MTC. the best chance is one that started his papers really early and sends them in here really soon.

 

so Tuesday I was literally in the bus more time than not since there was a train strike. we went to lisbon by bus, and left at 6 am and got to lisbon at 9 because of some problems in the bus, and then at 5 pm we got back on the bus to go to braga which took us until 10:30 to get home because we had a 30 minute layover in Porto. All in all, Train strikes aren't fun. The times are increased because of bus routes, so that you don't think it takes 3 hours from lisbon to coimbra, it really only takes 1 and a half hours by car.

 

Wednesday to Friday I was getting to know people in Braga. I learned I get to start form very little here. I love how I am always sent into these areas I build them up, I love them, and then I leave. Saturday I enjoyed trying to get investigators to conference as well as sunday. We have a frequency of 100 people in this ward, but the good thing is that Elder Govier has worked a lot with them members to get there confidence back. I am glad I donºt have to do that. we are working a lot with some recent converts who are less actives to help out.

 

I really am still oblivious to everything that is going on. I enjoyed conference and was glad to have all that and it was great to hear the announcement of the new missionaries at 18.

 

I think it is sad that in Portugal the people take holiday from the church because of conference.

 

Elder Hope

Monday October 1, 2012

Well it has been another exciting week in Portugal.

 

Monday was a day in which the youth tried to rope us into going to Chior Practice. The old appointment excuse works everytime!!!, We ended up catching the last 10 minutes of chior practice and we got roped into singing at stake conference. On the bus there was a little girl about 3 years old or so that was rummiging through the things in her mom's purse and taking them out and messing with them, and then the mom stopped her and told her to keep her hands to herself. Well, it got to the point where she pulled out a lighter. Not a lighter to light cigarettes, but a long lighter to start stoves and stuff. Well, the mom wasn't paying attention, but the kid pointed it up and pulled the trigger. No joke, a flame about 5 inches high shot out of that thing and the girl's eyes grew 3 sizes. We laughed, and so did the mom, and the kid cried, it was funny, but we shouldn't have laughed, but we did.

 

Tuesday was a day in which we did a division in Viseu and I got to see all of my people there. Dona Cassilda was super excited to have me come in March and has already laid out the arrangements. She did say that Megan and Jessica will have to sleep on the same bed, or else I will sleep on the ground. I haven't broken the news to her, that I could sleep in the basement with the missionaries, and then all the problems would be solved. Anyways, there were two members that invited me over for dinner too!!! I got a cold because we got stuck in the rain, I didn't let it get me down though.

 

Wednesday I got home from viseu and got to work in Coimbra. Maggie was preparing for baptism and her friend made some Peanut butter chicken for us, it was actually really good.

Thursday while we were proselyiting we found a guy. this guy was about my size, had really bad teeth and his haircut was just like grandpa hedelius's haircut, he was about 50 or so, but he also smoked a lot. He looked at us and said tell me about god. He then asked us about our age, marital status, and if we wanted to marry his mom, or a gypsie? it was great! we started into the first lesson and I pulled out a first lesson pamphlet. He took the pamphlet and I was having problems with congestion, so I blew my nose. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of stolen napkins from the café across the street. He took the pamphlet and he said, Don't I look like jesus? We said that we all look a little like jesus. He then asked us if Jesus was here, what would we do. We said we would worship him, and then he said would you kiss his feet? we said sure. He then took off his shoe, and told us that he can start kissing his feet.

 

Friday was weekly planning and we had the oportunity to have a lesson with Natercia and get maggie ready for baptism. she was super ready, anyways, we left and said that saturday wouldn't work for her. A kid named ricardo marked himself for the 6th of october.

 

Saturday everything was ready and elder whitaker and I went on a division where we marked a lady named Djusa for the 20th of October.

 

Sunday we don't know what happened to Maggie and she wasn't baptized, it was sad, but I guess it was for the better. Maggie is going to move in to live with Natercia.

 

All in all there is a really solid baptism this next saturday, but unfortunately, it is likely that I will be emergancy transfered tomorrow. President called me and told me of the possibility, but said he would verify it or not tonight.

 

Thank you for all you do.

Elder Hope

Monday September 24, 2012

Dear family and friends,

 

Since I am having difficulty typing today, y'all are going to have to be patient with me in my spelling skills.

 

On monday we had p day and we had a phone conference for all of the zone leaders and it should have lasted 0.5 hours but instead it lasted an hour and a half because one of the zone leaders was overly ambitious and liked to speak over President Fluckiger, it was quite humorous.

On tuesday we had district meeting and a division with the assistants. They are good elders that really do help us out, but it is funny to see that they are stuck in a different mentality. We saw a fire in Coimbra that day that was really close to our house, but it was all good, it stayed in the other elder's area.

 

On wednesday we once again hit the pavement to find some cool people. We found some brasilian girls moving houses, so we helped them out, and we were invited over for coffee this week . . . that should be exciting. We also talked to natercia, and she was super excited to give a talk on sunday and got Maggie and Anete really excited for baptism.

 

On thursday natercia decided it would be a great idea to shine our shoes, so she sat down and shined our shoes for us since we helped her stop drinking and smoking.

On friday we had weekly planning, and then we realized that literally no one was home at all, we had a rough day on friday.

 

Saturday we went through a goal to have 35 people in church for the zone and we were all excited about it but on sunday it rained and a lot of people came up with the great excuse of saying that it was the rain.

Sunday it rained, and natercia didn't show up to give her talk, we found out later that she had a relapse saturday night and went to a club and drank and smoked there, but it's ok, we can repent and move on, she felt really bad.

 

So this whole week, there is a lady that we have marked named Maggie, that absolutely loves me. I will go over for important lessons and following up, but I don't go too often because she is in love with my "blue" eyes, even though they are green. This last week, I ended up having to go over there every day. On Wednesday she cooked dinner for us and told me that was to prove she was a good cook ready to be married off, and then Anete's kid was acting up, and she calmed him down, and said that she was a good babysitter, ready for kids. The worst part of it is that natercia is supporting it, and egging her on, so I showed her the only picture I had on me that wasn't my family, and i showed her Megan's picture, she looked at it, and I thought it had worked, I didn't say that Megan was my sister, nor did I say that she was my girlfriend. After about 2 minutes she looked and said she shouldn't have too much competition because I won't marry my sister. I don't know how she knew, but she guessed it right, so I had to tell her that I would not marry her, but she kept insisting. Meanwhile, back on the farm, Elder Alston is thinking that this conversation is hilarious, and is not adding in his two cents, or helping me out, so he sat there eating his food slowly and sipping on his Guaraná. Needless to say it was super awkward. She came to church on sunday and told people she was going to get baptized, and then said that she was doing it for god, not for any Elder, which is good. Best part of it all. She is from Guiné Bissau, which has people that are black as night.

 

Elder hope

Monday September 17, 2012

Well it has been a good week. The only annoying thing is this keyboard that I am typing on.

Victory!!!! I was wondering if that milk would get there. It was simply a test run to see if Portugal would mail that box. The plan was send the milk and then instead of green envelopes, send empty milk cartons. I took the green envelope and wrapped it around the milk carton. Unfortunately I only have one or two more green enevelopes, but they are only €1,50 or so. I took it to the Post office and the lady told me there was no way in heaven or hell that they would ship that across the ocean in a box without charging me extra, so I said thanks, but no thanks, and put it in the drop box at the post office, and it got there.

Transfer week was quite interesting. We started by convincing Elder Borhorquez that he was the new district leader, he is still a greenie, now in his second transfer, and had him give a training in District meeting on Tuesday, until we told him that Elder Whitaker was really the district leader. We made it really convincing too. We told him that no one was aloud to have more than one leadership calling. Elder Whitaker is trainer, and Elder Alston and I are Zone Leaders, so he was the only one left. He was pretty convinced, and now we laugh about it.

On Wednesday we were in a tripla with Elder Markham. It turns out that Elder Markham and I spoke with each other when we were at BYU Idaho in the fall of 2010. We knocked on an apartment door, and a guy answered, didn't want anything, but was really rude, he came down the stairs, and pushed Elder Markham and told him to get off of the property. The funny part, is that we have every legal right to be there, but oh well, it happens.

Thursday we had a really good lesson with Natercia and are trying to work on helping her be ready for her talk on Sunday. It was really good and she is progressing really well. She also marked her temple recommend interview with Bishop on the following day.

Friday didn't go the way we wanted it to. Bishop's wife had her kid, so Natericia didn't get interviewed, but we got a guy named Bruno to the Youth Center. He is a guy that thinks he is possessed by a devil, but wants to be free, it is interesting how he feels free when we are around . . . coincidence . . . I think not!!!

Saturday Maggie, our lady that we had marked for the 23rd, decided to go to a party that was supposed to end at midnight, we told her it wasn't a good idea because african parties generally go until 6 or 7 am when planned to end at midnight. Well needless to say she couldn't wake up for church on sunday.

Sunday we got Bruno to chruch!!! We rallied all of the youth in our ward together to invite him to come to church. We didn't invite him, and left it up to the youth in our ward. They did such a good job that they not only invited him, but they got him a ride and a ton of friends in church. Our gospel principles teacher was sort of chapped with us that we told him to stay with the youth instead of going to gospel principles, due to his past and he is starting to feel welcome. I still think it was a good choice. According to Lucas, our american student here, he said that they all tried to explain the parts in the Book of Mormon a lot more clearly for him, and they all had a mini testimony meeting about the book of mormon. In the end Bruno agreeded to keep the book of mormon that the only accepted on the grounds of "borrowing the book".

have a good one
elder hope.

Monday September 10, 2012

Dear family and friends,

I have determined that portugal is gross and I don't have too much more time to talk because our time got cut to 30 minutes by the internet people instead of 1 hour, but I looked at a picture right infront of me of 2 people hugging, a boy and a girl, and it says ama, diverta-te, e usa perservativo, which translated means, love, have fun, and use condoms, the best part is that we are using youth center
computers. Welcome to Portugal.

Best things first,

On friday I got to do a division with Elder Fry. I was so excited to go out and teach with him. It was funny because on the missionconference on saturday, Elder Neilson told everyone that he trained Elder Fry. So since he is new, everyone was asking him who trained him, and he said I trained him, so I got a lot of elders coming up to ask me who trained elder Fry. Training is 2 transfers, but I only
trained him his first one and Elder Neilson trianed him the second, but I am the official trainer, not elder Neilson, but I thought it was funny. I also found the Henry's that knew Craig and Deanea Hope.

On tuesday we had a zone leader meeting with President and Sister Fluckiger. They spoke a lot about goals, and it was funny because the assistants kept pulling Al Gore's in what they were saying. They were trying to keep it the "Torgan Way" and President Fluckiger said No, so they backtracked and said, yeah that's what I meant. But that happened a couple times.

We had a lesson with Bishop and Natercia over tithing and it ended up with Natercia being called as a ward missionary and accepting the challenge to give a talk on the 16th of September. We are stoked to find out that she is doing so well. Bishop said something interesting that the doctrine and covenants says that we will be blessed with more commandments. It is interesting to think that the way that god blesses us is through commandments and obedience to those commandments.

So yes, this was a week full of meetings and such but it was nice to see all the things that have happened since we have gotten here.

today is transfer Pday and I will let you know when I find out something about transfers in a smaller email.

Love y'all
Elder Hope

September 3, 2012

We worked all week with elsa, but she didn't stop drinking, she is losing her fire to stay strong because she refuses to leave her bad friends.

 

Luisa, Miriam's mom, called and told me that she had a very serious question that she needed answered, but then she had to go, so she made me wait about 3 or 4 hours to hear this very important question. It turns out that the question was if mentally handicapped people can get baptized. She had me thinking that she was about to deny her testomony or something.

The city drunk is named Silva and he is one of Naterica's friends. He knew some information that we needed, so we had to go up to him, anyways Elder alston and I were walking with him so that he could show us where some stuff was, and once I knew where it was, I told him someone was following him. He told us that he was stronger than anyone there and he would fight the whole city. Then I told him that the guy was stronger than he was, and he said, yeah, but I bet I am quicker and drunker than he is. It was funny.

We taught a kid named Alex who is a recent convert to the 7th day adventists, and he brought up the big saturday being sunday thing. That is actually really hard to explain, but it works out because you can ask them what the most important thing to do on the sabbath is, and they know it is going to church and taking the sacrament, and then you ask them what day did Jesus break bread at the last supper, which just happened to be thursday, so then we ask them why we don't take the sacrament on thursday, and it is a good hole in the doctrine, and then you just tell them about how in Exodus 20 and Deut. 5 it lists the 10 commandments and the reason for keeping the sabbath changed, but both of the events happened on Saturday. Then you tell them that the event was changed to the ressurection of christ which was sunday, and they they sit there astonished, not knowing what to say, but not wanting to believe you.

 

Natercia was asked to give a talk yesterday and here soon she will present the talk!!!! She wants to go to the temple so bad. When y'all come, I know you will absolutely love her, she is the nicest lady, and has changed a lot.

 

This morning we played soccer and basketball with some investigators and some members. A guy we invited yesterday showed up. He is from Iran, and can't be converted, but is really a cool guy.

Lucas taught us how to make cream of potatoe soup, it is actually really easy.

 

That about sums up our week, I donºt know what else exciting really happened.

 

I forgot to tell a story.

 

So it was wednesday when we went to go and find Elsa. She is always in a very sketchy part of town seeing as she has no house. So we find her complety drunk. We were sad to see her like that but she wanted a lesson, so we said ok. In the middle of the lesson, she told elder alston if she was younger they could get married, and then looked at me and told me that I was cuter than elder Alston and she likes me even more. She said that we can all just get married. We then told her to come to church on sunday, and she said she only will go to the church to get married or to see weddings. Needless to say, we left her at that and a prayer.

 

Natercia finally got to see her son. He is in an institution for bad boys and girls. He refused visits but heard that Natercia had quit smoking and drinking, we accepted a visit and he was shocked to see her progress. It is wierd to think that 3 months ago Natercia was a drunk smoker, and today she is becoming one of the strongest single women in the ward. She is planning on going to the temple in November.

 

elder hope

Monday August 27, 2012

Dear family and friends,

 

Natercia is by far one of my favorite converts. We went by and made some form of contact with her almost daily this last week. She found a friend named Elsa that is progressing and getting ready for baptism and another named Maggie that should be doing just fine here soon as well.

 

On monday we went over to Natercia's house and her face was in literal Panic. There was a rat in her toilet. she had dumped bleach on it, but was freaked out because it didn't kill it (I am pretty sure it would have), but we took a pole and shoved it down the toilet while it was flushing.

 

On tuesday we had our first district meeting this transfer (this was the 4th week of the transfer), and we spoke about getting people to church. It must have worked because we had 8 investigators at church, and we didn't invite 4 of them, they just showed up (they are family members of a really active member that didn't want anything)

 

On Wednesday we taught Elsa and Natercia together, it is intersting because we are talking with Elsa everyday, and everyday she is getting better. She doesn't remember anything, but hey!! Repetition peirces even the dullest of minds!!! But we are so happy that she was never involved in an abortion.

 

On Thursday We found a lot of the members in the street and we went and had lunch with them, what a blessing since our money was a week late. It is sort of rough because when the money comes late, we scrimp and save, and then all of a sudden we have have twice as much as we need, so we decided to keep a reserve fund.

 

On Friday and Saturday I did a division with Covilhã. It takes 2.5 hours to get there, but President Fluckiger said we needed to go, so we did, and it was a blessing because I got to go with Elder Packard. It was the last division that he will do on his mission as he flies home tomorrow.

On Sunday we didn't have anyone in church to begin with. Natercia had a great idea to take a sleeping pill at 4 am, but she put her phone right next to her bed on loud, so that she would wake up when we called. After sleeping through the alarm, she woke up to us wondering where she was. She said she was coming. We then saw Ramiro and a 2 of his friends come in to watch him get confirmed, and then an eternal investigator walked in. Then all of a sudden, that family of 4 investigators walked in, it was awesome. We then heard the doorbell of the chappell, and Natercia shows up with Elsa. Elsa slept in the road the night before since no one offered to let her stay with her (Natercia offered, Elsa just didn't go to Natercia's house), so Elsa stunck really bad. After church Natercia said that Elsa smelled like Urine, I don't know what is going on with her.

 

Today we played basketball with some youth and Elder Alston got 6 euros stolen from him.

 

Love y'all

Elder Hope

Monday August 20, 2012

First off, there will be NO spelling corrections in this email. I am writing without glasses or contacts since I have a really inflamed right eye, and I left my glasses in Viseu on division. I am going to get my glasses tonight.

So the week started out really good. On Tuesday we had an oportunity to speak with Natercia, and a friend of hers that has the exact same poblem as her, she is a drunk, and wants to find god. So Naterci, but she is also a Postitute and a homeless woman, so it is a little more extreme. We talked with her and I decided to mark her for baptism. Elder Alsoton is a good elder, he just never will bring up baptism. He is really good at getting people to pray and read though, so we work well together. So we marked her for the 3rd of September, and since that time she has never gotten drunk, she has drunken, but hasn't gotten drunk. So we prayed with her for a date, and she stood up, and siad, I feel so alived. I feel like god loves me and wants me to come to him. To be honest, I don't know whay she wouldn't pray after that, but he accepted the date, and she prayed in the next lesson. Natercia has lived the word of wisdom for the last month now and is one of becoing a very strong member.

Tuesday we had interveiews with President. I told him my biggest pet peeve was that the assistants would call us and talk to us for about 30 minutes during perssonal studay. He said, well Elder hope, you need to learn Patience, but they haven't called us during personal study anymore. We then went on a division with the AP's and Elder Carvalho was able to get permission from parents for us. We could never talk to the mom or dad. A little girl would always answer the door, but she would never lest us past her, saying her perents weren't home. Elder Carvalho said that there was a very important matter to speak with them about their son in a loud voice. The Parents weren't fooling us, we could see them. So they came to the door and the dad asked us to leave. Elder Carvalho said th Ramiro wanted to be baptized and we needed the daads signature for that to happen. The dad tood the letter and signed it and then told us to stop annoying him. Ramiro called us the next day and asked if he could be baptized the next sunday (yesterday), and then we lost contact with him for the rest of the week. He showed up to church on time (shocker) and said he was ready to go. We were nervous because we know that he smoked, but we also knew that he hasn't been to church for the last 5 or 6 years, so he knew the commandments. We decided to interview him anyways, and he stopped smoking the minute he found out that he could get baptized. He also has been working on his vocabulary and isn't cussing at all. He changed!!!

Friday and Satruday I was in Viseu. I did 2 baptismal interviews for them and had fun seeing all of the members I grew to love. Not all of them remember me, but there are the ones that I really liked, that still remember me. I taked to my buddy David Di Pillo. He had avoided the missionaries for about 6 months, and since we got new phones and a new number, I called him, and he set up a time to meet with me. We met with him, and it was just like old times, but this time, I knew what he was saying in Portuguesse and he didn't have to translate for me. He came to church last sunday!!!

In these 2 and a half transfers I have been here we have baptized 10 people. Our bishop is loving it, but he is having problems giving them callings. He understands that is a very important part of the church. He did the following, and I really liked the idea. He prayed and prayed about it, and felt the lord wants to reactivate the less actives (we have 600+ people on the records, and a frequency of 90 or so, since we are in the summer, it has been about 65 or so just because of vacations and stuff), so in Ward councel meeting he asked us what we did in the states to reactivate. . . to be honest I didn't know, I just knew that most of it was with home teachers. Together he decided that he would form reactivation committee. The took the 2nd councelor of the elders quorumn presidency and called him to be an assistant ward mission leader under the ward mission leader reponsible for this reactivation, and a guy that just got the melquesideck priesthood was put into be the 2nd counceslor. So he called a few recent convers, and some old members (filling their spots with recent converts) and every week they send an email out to the whole ward (including less actives) and then they invite everyone out the activities, and give a recap of sacrament meeting, and then some of the "seasoned members" go with the recent converts to go and visit the ones without the capability of receiving emails or anything. In just 1 week, a lady came back to church and brought her non member husband with her. She traveled 1.5 hours to get to church leaving her house at 6 am to catch a bus at 6:30 so that she could get into coimbra and then walk 45 minutes to the chapel, getting there way early. Next week, she will take the later bus and a member will go and pick her up at the bus station.

Elder hope

Tuesday August 7, 2012

Dear family and Friends,

I have 5 minutes.

Elder Alston is from a military family and the majority of his life he lived in Wititah Falls Texas. He claims he is from Utah, but I tell everyone he is from Texas.

We had a meeting yesterday with President Fluckiger and President Teixeira (Area President) and they are working on making us a much more obedient mission. With President Torgan, he gave us so much leeway and so much permission to do stuff that we are actually having fun following the rules. For example, we are no longer allowed to travel alone, we are no longer allowed to get permission to stay out of the house late, we have to do a division with every district leader every transfer as zone leaders, we can't take investigators to church in mission vehicles (I haven't had one yet, so I didn't have a problem with that). Things like that. President Torgan would give us permission for that, but President Fluckiger said No, so we won't do it. The most annoying one is that Zone leaders can no longer interview people who had an abortion, which is really rough because it seems like everyone and their dog has had one here, but come what may and love it.

Elder Whitaker is living in the house with me!!! (He is my district Leader, and I am his Zone Leader)

last couple days,

Light explodes in our apartment, then a cat shows up in our house randomly 4 times, our entire building was invaded by ants, elder Alston cut his finger on a tuna can and got blood all over our meal (he ate it, we made more food),

Elder Hope

Monday July 30, 2012

Well, for a really quick rundown, I don't have a lot of time because it's transfer monday and we don't know what is going on yet, we are going to save a little bit of time to send an email at the end of the day to let y'all know.

So for a rundown this last week we had two baptisms.

We baptized a little girl named Miriam. She is the daughter of a less active family that we have been working on reactivating. They have come to church for the last 5 weeks in a row and I was asked to do the baptism. The bishop took advantage of it and called her 13 year old brother to be Deaconºs quromn President and now he has come working with us this last week. They are becoming really strong now.

The other baptism was a little more stressful, it was a lady named Natercia. She has depression and about 10 days ago she went from smoking a pack of cigarrettes a day and drinking herself to sleep every night to being baptized yesterday. So she stopped us in the street two weeks ago and asked what she needed to do to get baptized. We had marked her about 4 or 5 times, but she never progressed, so we dropped her. Her son went to prison and she got even more depressed. We told her that we had to meet with her every day, several times twice a day and we would be calling her during each day to work with her. So she said ok. We had a lesson everyday on the word of wisdom and taught another lesson generally too. We scheduled a lesson where we had 6 members present to show her that she has a family. It was neat to see that those were the people she said she wanted at her baptism and asked several of them to be present and participate in the program. So yesterday was a disaster trying to get her baptized. We had called her at 8:30 and she was in bed and going to sleep. We were pleased, She said the alarm was set for 8:00 but she didn't wake up and when we went to get her for church at 9:00 and she wasn't awake. She said that she would get up and be ready by 10:00 and just miss the first part of Releif Society. We went back and she was still asleep. At 11:00 we went there to get her for sacrament meeting that started at 11:15, and she was taking her jolly sweet time. We ended up paying for a taxi and just barely missing the sacrament. Our bishop came up and said Elders don't miss the sacrament again, but you two can go and bless it at home, but don't miss it again, but good job on the baptism, everyone gave up on the baptism except you two, we thought, we almost gave up too, but we made it happen!!! The brazillian and Angolan members brought treats and a lunch!!!

I went to viseu again for an interview, it was cool to see all of my people: i.e. Felipa, Marco, Ana, Nela, Miguel, Telma, and Lucia. Nela and Miguel (a couple that I became close to in Viseu came to our baptism in Coimbra.

That was my week, taking care of Natercia

have a good one.

Elder hope

Monday July 23, 2012

Dear family and Friends,

For the record:
1) Mom, I was not chastized by you because I send this email to Bishop Young as well.
2) We have transfers next monday
3) Bishop Young has still not responded to me.
5) Bispo Furtado (in Coimbra) was sort of chapped with us last week (I will explain)
6) Good Job Megan for your adventures . . . When did you get roller blades?
7) Congratulations Jessica on your baptism!!!!
8) Did you notice I skipped number four?
9) Did you look to make sure that I skipped number four?
10) And thus begins my letter to my family (and bishop young) . . .

so to begin with my justification of the story. We called Bishop Furtado in Coimbra and told him that Celeste would be baptized on thursday, and she was, but the bproblem that we had was he said that he didn't know her at all. . . In our defense she had already been to church 5 times, and he taught a lesson with us to her about following the will of god and not her own will. Needless to say she was a miracle baptism. She was a member reference and we taught her the first time last transfer. She didn't like us because we were two 20 year old boys that wouldn't accept her excuses nor have sympathy with her when she didn't go to church because she was resting (I wanted to tell her that the high priests go to church to rest, but I decided not to). So after 2 sundays at church and refusing to speak with us, she asked everyone how she could get baptized. Everyone kept saying that she had to meet with the elders, but we are Americans that don't understand the portuguese culture. Finally we went up to her at church and said look, we just have to meet with you for 1 hour and you can be baptized. She agreeded on the grounds that she was baptized on Thursday during her work break . . . don't know why, but that was her stipulation. So, on Tuesday we met with her with our district leader and he interviewed her and taught her what she needed to know, and she was baptized, the weird part is that she asked me to baptize her.

Another interesting difference that I noted between Jessica's mission and my mission is that with question 4 that talks about grave crimes and such is treated by the zone leaders, the zone leaders interview those people, unless president gives you special permission as a district leader (which I had when I was in Setubal).

This last week I had the privilege of going to another church. They said that we could have free lunch if we went to their church, so we did. Elder Rose didn't want to go, so I took Elder Gooch from Coimbra 1 with me. They explained that when we have the light of christ in our lives, it purifies our soul. . . . and I can agree with that until they sat us down and told us to not say anything and just focus on our feelings. So we were sitting about 1 meter away from another person and they pointed their hand at us with their palm open and shut their eyes. Jo, the member we brought with us and Elder Gooch and I were curious to figure out what was going on. They then told us to turn around and they did the same thing to our backs. This is called Johrei. It is a japaneese word that means light of God. They apparently transmitted light of god into us through their palm with in essence purified our souls. The leader of Portugal was there to answer any of my questions, so without being rude for being part of a frankly ridiculous ritual, I asked him if Jesus Christ saves us. He said yes. Then I asked if Meishu Sama saves us (some japeneese guy that they really like) they said yes. I then asked why we need to be saved twice, and he told me my soul wasn't pure enough and I needed to do more Johrei so that I could feel how they both save us. And then he and another guy which is the leader of Coimbra started debating on why it was necessary, so I think it is interesting that I completely confounded their equivalent of an area seventy with a simple question, and I was actually just curious, I wasn't trying to argue. We then had a really cool lesson with them about the restoration and gave both of them a book of mormon.

So that about sums up my week, my soul was purified this week by a japaneese ritual and we baptized Celeste.

Elder Hope

Monday July 16, 2012

Dear family and friends:

So I don't know where to start, so I will give you a rundown of the week. . . I know, this will look like one of Jessica's letters

On Tuesday, We did a division and I got Elder Packard's greenie named Elder Rentaria, he is a mexican elder that is really cool. We tried to teach two romainian families in a Portugeese english mixture because they spoke very little english an even less portugueese and they spoke romanian . . . needless to say, it was fun to watch him try and teach them. He already speaks the language because he speaks spanish. I also had him contact a member.

On wednesday, we were to recieve 4 more elders from a city named Portalegre in preparation for the conference on Thursday. The problem was that Elder Rose was with Elder Packard, and I was with Elder Rentaria. So, we sent 2 with the other coimbra elders, and the other 2 were sent to help our bishop move houses (he is staying in our ward). It was great until 2 members called us for a division, so I sent elder Rentaria into an area without a phone for 2 hours with a member with a stack of references from the Area book, and I went with the other member, so that was fun to send the greenie into an unknown area, but he found a really cool family from Moçambique.

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference with our new President. He spoke mainly about the Doctrine of Christ, and tried to get to know the new missonaries. He then called Elder Rose and I into another room, sat us down and said, ok, I need some help, Which of the elders in your zone will be ready to be leaders this transfer, so he spent time talking about the different missionaries. We have 5 zone leaders, 1 branch president, and about 3 or 4 district leaders that are ending their missions next transfer. That night I had the oportunity to go to Viseu, back to my old area to do a baptismal interview for a man who had been to prison and was involved in an abortion ( of his wife ). The mission president sends the zone leaders to do those interviews because there are so many problems here, he can't do them all. With president Torgan it was the same way, but it was funny because when he called me in Setúbal to be district leader after being Zone Leader, he told me that I was alowed to keep doing those interviews because he trusts me.

On Friday, I set off to do something I had never done in Viseu . . . Mark someone for baptism . . . so before noon we had marked a young man named Carlos for the 29th of July, he went to church yesterday and told everyone he was getting baptized.

On Saturdy I did a division in Coimbra 1. I went with an elder named Elder Gooch. I asked if he had ever marked anyone on the road with a date, he said no, and I said neither have I, so we went out to look for the elect. It is interesting to note that in just 3 hours we found 8 new investigators and marked 3 of them. What a blessing! (generally in a day we find 2 or 3 new investigators)

All in all I only spent Sunday and monday with elder Rose last week, and I am really tired.

I have noticed very many tender mercies and the love of all.

Elder Hope

Monday July 9, 2012

Dear family and friends,

So Peter was a stud in the bible, when he gave a sermon and then right after he baptized 3 thousand people. So, we were teaching a man named Bhim from Nepal who goes to church every sunday but refuses to be baptized because he is Hindu and all of his friends gave him problems and talk him out of it. We had marked him a lot, but then flakes out on the baptism day, so we had a lesson with him and he was ready to be baptized, so he asked when, and Elder Rose and I looked at each other, and then at him, and said "in 20 minutes". So we ran downstairs and started up the font and started calling the members while the other one went upstairs and helped him get dressed. (Our chappel has 3 floors). So we can't get any members there, so we call the other elders in Coimbra and they come down. So we marked and baptized a guy in the same night. It was Tuesday night after I emailed the bishop. What was even better is that he brought 3 friends to his confirmation that don't speak Portuguese, only Nepaleese and English. So there are several members that are learning English so they can speak to these men. they are learning Portuguese too though.

I got my haircut today by a black guy from Guiné Bissau that has huge muscles, it worked, because we wanted to talk to his brother. A member cut our hair, but his brother is wanting to go to a church right now, but he doesn't know which. He is leaning to go to a catholic church because it is later in the day.

President Fluckiger is coming on Thursday to speak to our zone, it should be really good.

Elder Rose and I managed to have very few moments together this week. We went on a division with the members every day. So it is interesting that we have a lot of investigators that I don't know.

We are doing great here, God loves us and we are immensly blessed.

We had a really cool lesson with a less active lady named Luisa. We told her that Jesus suffers when she doesn't go to church, read the scriptues, or pray every night, and she said she would go to church so that Jesus doesn't suffer more. It is cool because in Portugueese, it says that Jesus suffers, and in English it says that he suffereth, which is old english, but it translates better.

Elder Hope

Tuesday July 3, 2012

Dear family and friends,

So I only have about 10 minutes or so to write all of y'all, but it was an interesting week. We have 5 people we are teaching that are really close to baptism, but they just are having that hard time taking that step of faith, it is interesting that the lord has given us the same problem with each of the investigators until we get transfered, or figure it out.

We had a zone leader counsel meeting yesterday and me the new president. He is great. He is a lot like President Walton, and is full of excitement. His portugueese is a little rough, but other than that, he is cool. He is teaching us the means that we must use to reach the ends. His approach is a lot better.

Well, we don't have much time, but I am still alive.

Elder Hope

Monday June 25, 2012

Dear family and friends,

In a nutshell, I don't have much time, but we have a very interesting week. We had the last zone leader council meeting of President Torgan, and we will have one with Elder Flukinger next monday, with that being said, I will probably be emailing here in 8 days. I get to be one of the first missionaries to meet Elder Flukinger, as he will be coming in Friday night.

Elder Packard is one of the District Leaders in my zone and he is Training!!!

Elder Rose and I were sad we aren't in a Tripla training, so we called two of the youth and told them that we are training them to work with us for the next 5 weeks, so it is close to training.

An interesting phenomenon happened this last week. . . The mission ran out of money because they sent home 24 missionaries and had to pay for their flights and bags, so we were completely out of money because we had an extra 100€ trip of going to lisbon that we were supposed to get money for on the 15th, but didn't get the money because the mission was out, so we ran out of money for food and everything. It is interesting to note that god loves us. On thursday we litterally had stretched ourselves to the max, and this group of Hawaiians came up and gave us food, they were members that were going to spain, but we found them in the train station, it was really cool, and gave us all of the leftovers, so then on Friday and saturday we ate the leftovers and sunday we had lunch with the members, and got our money today, so we are ok.

don't have much more time,

Elder hope

Monday June 18, 2012

It is transfer week again, and Elder Rose and I are staying together in Coimbra.

We didn't get the baptism this week that we worked for. There is a lady named Celeste that wanted to be baptized and we marked her for baptism. She fled from us the entire week, or so it seemed, but she was never home, but was always really nice on the phone. We finally got a lesson marked with her on Saturday, and we marked her for the following sunday. Everything was great. We taught her Tithing, which she accepted easily, the word of wisdom, which she said, but I drink a lot of coffee, but if god wants me to quit, I will, and so she promised to quit, and the law of chastity hand in hand with the restauration, which she already knew. So what happened is that she was super excited to be baptized, and was ready to go. Sunday she got to church, and said, Elders I lied to you, my boyfriend lives at my house, it was sort of a heartbreak, but at least she was honest. We went and spoke with the boyfriend, and he has agreeded to move out by the end of the month so that she can be baptized, it is pretty cool.

We are going to Lisbon tomorrow as Zone Leaders for the final, or the second final meeting with president Torgan. There is a rumor that an apostle will come to release President Torgan since he is in the seventy, and will have a meeting with the assistants and the zone leaders before he leaves, so that would be cool, but as of right now, it is a rumor, it hasn't been confirmed or denied.

I had an opportunity to go on a division this last week in Viseu. It was really weird to go back to my old area. I remembered a good part of the city, and where some of my old investigators lived, unfortunately, no one was at home, but they had a ward council meeting that night, so I got to see the majority of the members. I got a picture with Nela, the lady that bent over backwards to teach me portugeese, and dona cassilda was so happy to see me, but somehow, I missed another picture with her. I also saw one of the young women that went proselyting with us, her name was Ana. So I called her over, and told her she had 20 minutes to arrange a new investigator for us, so she looked through her phone and called one of her friends, and had him meet us at the chappel in roughly 20 minutes. He is actually a cool kid, and I hope Viseu will baptize him here soon.

Faith is a decision of action. When we pray we decide to trust god or not. We decide to do it our way or not. We decide to act or not. With faith we can move mountains or not. So it is interesting because we have spoken about how we can figure if we have faith or not. The first step is to look that the opposite of faith is fear and doubt, so in other words, if we doubt, or if we are afraid, we don't have faith in that principle. Doubt is unbelief, and it is interesting that in Doctrine and Covenants Jesus calls a man to repentence for unbelief. So, if we decide to do it our way, it is first off, dumb, but secondly it shows an untrust in the Lord, which too, is condemned in the scriptures. It is interesting to learn, that if we don't have faith, we are sinning, and if we sin we don't have the promise of the spirit. In all of my years as a member, this is the first time, I am truly understanding the principle of faith, it has taken countless discourses on faith from President Torgan, and several times in which he rips us apart for the little things, but it is what I am learning. I will miss him, but he told us that he will write us a letter of recommendation when he is Governor of Forteleza Brasil, for whatever thing we need, what a cool guy.

 

With love,

Elder Hope

Monday June 11, 2012

Well this week is just going great. Elder Rose poorly chose to trust me and had me cut his hair, needless to say Elder Way in the Coimbra 1st ward came to the rescue. I blame it on him moving his head, and me not knowing what I was doing. . . . good thing it grows back!

 

Elder Neilson and Elder Fry called me and let me know that José and Olga finally got baptized in Setúbal. They called and asked me to baptize them, I couldn't because I am really far from Setúbal, and it would take more than 5 hours by public transport to get there if I wanted to, but there are 2 more baptisms!!!

 

Elder Rose and I also baptized 2 people. One was named Virgílio and the other is Luis. Virgílio was an eternal investigator that was about 65 years old, that we found in the area book. The elders before us taught him and invited him for baptism 4 or 5 times and he never would accept . . . don't know why. So elder Rose and I decided to go in and give him the sunday as a date and see what he says. He told us to wait until July and he would be baptized in July, and then we said that it would be better for this weekend, he said, What time? we told him right after church, and then he said, If I can get done by 2:30 I'll do it, because I have an appointment at 3:00. So we baptized him. Frankly put, I don't know what his problem was, we never had any problems marking him for baptism, and all the elders in the past have been teaching him and said he won't get into the water. I don't know, he was more active than our bishop even though he hadn't come to church until we told him he was getting baptized. You should have seen the look on the members face when his name was announced, they couldn't believe it. The bishop bit his tounge to keep from laughing at the expression of the members, and the bishop asked us if we were serious.

 

The other guy is named Luis. I don't know why he was never baptized either. He just hadn't been to church in a couple of weeks and is the brother of a Recent convert from last transfer. He wanted to get baptized, so we helped him out. We have a guy named Moroni in our ward that is 18 years old and is a lazy bum all day. So we just do divisions with him all day, about 2 or 3 times a week. He taught and we let him baptize Luis. He came to church on nothing but adreneline. You could tell, because right after the baptism, he couldn't stay awake. It was his first person to baptize, and he didn't sleep last night because he was so excited. His mom told us how proud she was of him to baptize someone. He deserved it. We have so many youth in our ward that we have a goal that each one that can, will baptize or confirm at least one person since coimbra is a college town.

 

your friend,

Elder Hope

Tuesday June 5, 2012

Ok, so yesterday we had a zone conference in which Sister Torgan was crying because it was the last time she would see us, and president torgan said that he was really dissapointed because only 6 people in the old porto mission were baptized on Sunday, and that it needs to be better, but on the positive side, one of those 6 people was named Job. We baptized Job. He found a book of mormon and started reading it. He really liked what he read, and then the elders contated him a little while later. On sunday, he was baptized. He was marked earlier, but he was having problems with work on sunday, and didn't want to live the law of tithing, but wanted the blessing from it.

 

We had 2 really cool lessons this week, one with a guy named Virgilio, who we will baptize this transfer, and we talked about the atonement, and how he makes christ suffer when he sins, and then we told him to stop sinning and be baptized, he accepted the date, but aparently, he always accepts the date, and then flees right before.

 

We had another deep doctrine lesson with a recent convert, that has been comparing the book of mormon, with the bible, and the bible, with another version, it is quite interesting, I learned the the Lords prayer is translated differently in other bibles, so I am sort of curious how the catholics choose which lord's prayer to use, since they are both catholic bibles that this guy was using, his name is Jonathan.

 

I can't think of anything really cool that is going on, except that elder Rose got his ingrown toenail fixed, and they wouldn't let me watch the surgery, because I am not married to him . . . yes they think that way in Portugal.

 

a couple interesting notes from zone conference

 

if we follow up with another area, but don't try to help them, then there was no point to follow up.

 

the way for the church to prosper is through baptism (Helaman 3:26-30), it is clearer in portuguese though

 

we need to live up to our message, our message won't come down, so we must go up to the level of our message.

 

Love,

Elder Hope

Monday May 28, 2012

Dear family and friends,

 

This week ended really well. Our numbers were actually really good. We managed 21 member present lessons this last week!

 

It was interesting because we were doing really bad at church, we only had 2 investigators there and preisthood had already started. (sacrament is last). So we get there and our buddies from Nepal aren't even there. We have been teaching some hindus about baptism and the gospel. We marked them for baptism the second time we spoke with them, because that is what we are instructed to do. And they come running into the chapel and said, sorry we are late, we missed the bus, so we walked!!! So they came in. They are marked for this next sunday, but we will see, they said they don't want to be baptized yet . . . I think they are just scared, anyways that put us up to 4 people in church which is pretty good. Anyways, a guy named Job comes into sacrament meeting and says he wants to be baptized next week, so we are set up for another baptism next week, we also baptized a kid named Gonolo yesterday!!. We have a goal of 6 baptisms this transfer, an average of 1 a week.

 

I went on a division this last week and President Torgan has gotten onto us about marking, and that we need to be following what Jesus tells us to do in Preach my gospel and mark on the first or 2nd lesson. Elder Rose and I are trying so hard to do that, but anyways I went out to figueira de foz and we had a lesson with a guy named antolio. It was obvious that he had been taught a lot, but he asked us to cast out an evil spirit in his house. So we went in, and the elder I was with just wanted to cast it out, get him to church, and leave, I on the other hand, wanted to mark him for baptism. So I told him that the evil spirits are satan and the opposite of satan is Jesus Christ, and if he had the Holy spirit with him, he would never have to worry about evil spirits again because satan can't be in the same place as Jesus. He agreeded. So I told him that I wanted him to prepare to get the holy spirit and be baptized on the 3rd of June. We prayed he felt really good, and we left. The elder I was with was sort of frustrated that I marked his investigator for him since antolio smokes and drinks still. I simply told him that he can quit before his baptism and everything will be alright. It is interesting to see the faith of missionaries. Because it is by our faith that god prepares the people. If we feel something, and try do what is right, god will do his part, and Antolio hasn't smoked since he was marked, even though he was smoking 3 packs a day.

 

Abel got the preisthood yesterday!!!

 

I don't know where my time goes.

 

Elder Hope.

Monday May 21, 2012

Dear family and Friends,

 

Well, it was a long and fun week at the same time. Elder Rose and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out the new area, we did manage to mark 2 Hindu´s for baptism though on the second lesson that we had with them. President Torgan said that our baptisms will increase if we use the ´soft mark´on the first lesson and the date on the second lesson. We found 2 Hindu guys and taught them. The second lesson was during Gospel Principles class. They only speak English, so we translate everything for them, but during the second hour the stake president came in and taught with me in English while Elder Rose took care of the other investigators at church. He was surprised that we would mark someone with so little knowlege about Jesus Christ so quickly, but was very suportive and was also surprised that we would mark them during church, but I figured, what better time than during church? We have them planned for the 3rd of June. He later was speaking to me and asked me how we prepared them to accept the date on the second visit, and I simply said we didn't, the Lord prepared them, because truly that is what Preach My Gospel asks us to do.

 

We also went out to a less active house, and our GPS wasn't working, so we had to call some members to find out where they lived. The members wouldn't give us the address because they said that we don't know the situation and will make things worse. After insisting, they finally gave us the adress with a disclaimer that we are not allowed to tell the less active that this member gave us the address. . . . . . Long story short, we were well received and they were very nice people.

 

The other Elders called us and told us that one of "their investigators" actually lives in our area and has been going to church for the last several weeks and wants to be baptized. So, we are going to go and talk to him tonight to see if he wants to be baptized this weekend, he just has to quit smoking and breaking the commandment of chastity with a member, but hey nothing is too hard for God.

 

Faith is a hard thing to learn and build. It takes faith to tell someone they need to repent in very blunt words. It takes faith to talk with someone in the street and the first day you meet them tell them they need to be baptized and invite them to do it, but then again, it took faith for God to send Jesus into the world to die for us, and it took faith for Christ to ask forgiveness for those who treated him badly and then tell the parasises and sagesies that they were corrupting the law of Moses. It took faith for Jesus to give his mom to John, in all of those examples it took other christlike attributes, but it is interesting to see that what we are asked to do is nothing compared to what Christ had to do. It is hard, but it is worth it.

 

with love

Elder Hope

Monday May 14, 2012

Dear family and friends,

It was a good weeek that ended with us speaking to our parents for 1 hour and 4 more baptisms.

1. Sonia and her daughter Mariana were baptized. They are a family we found in the Area book in Setúbal and she called me to see if I could come back to see her baptism. She was super excited to speak with me and offered to let me and my family stay at her house if my family comes to pick me up from my mission.

2. Fabio was baptized in Setúbal as well. He was an eternal investigator that wanted to get baptized, but also wanted to break the law of Chastity. Finally, after a couple of lessons, he made the decision to move out until August, when he will be getting married to his Girlfriend. Fabio is someone who will be a great leader in the Church and understands the commandments.

3. Elder Rose and I got into Coimbra with challenge to baptise the first weekend after a whitewash. Well, we marked a guy named abel on Wednesday with only one problem . . . he smokes marijuana, so we told him to quit by Friday. On Friday we got there and he said that he was completely healed and doesn't want to smoke more . . . and he also didn't have any money to buy it, so he decided it was a good time to quit.

The lord has richly blessed us in all of these efforts.

It is true that the best gift we can give anyone is the gift of Salvation.

We love y'all tons

Elder Hope

Monday May 7, 2012

Dear family and friends,

 

Unfortunately, I don't have much time today, but I am being transfered to be a zone leader in Coimbra. I will be whitewashing. . . again. I am really sad to say that I am leaving 5 baptims this next week. Sonia and her daughter Mariana will be baptized, as well as Fabio, and Jose and Olga should be getting married and baptized (the parents of Viviana).

 

My new comp is elder Rose. He is from Seattle, WA and has been known as a really good missionary since the beginning of time, it will be a good transfer.

 

This morning I gave the tripla dad gave me to Sonia, it was a really cool time. I was saving it for someone really special. I found her in the area book and felt like I should call her, and so I did and she didn't want anything, but later that night, she called me, and told me that she felt like I had something imporant to say to her and invited me over to her house the next day. We went over there, and she asked me what the important thing was that we had for her, We told her that we were there to bring her eternal happiness through baptism, she listened and then told me that baptism wasn't for her, but she would go to church. She want church and then to the ward activity the next week and I just went up and asked her what is impeding her from being baptized, she said that nothing was and that she would talk to me about baptism the next time. I went there on a split with the members, and we marked her for the 12th of may, and now her daughter will be baptized too. It is interesting to see the spirit prepare the people. In a two week time, I have grown to love her as I loved Marta and Arlindo in Ermesinde, and gave her the tripla dad gave me before my mission. The only thing is that she doesn't speak english like marta and Arlindo.

When president called me to be a zone leader he said that he is proud that I always leave the area stronger than I found it. In the last year, in the area of Palmela (my area) the highest number of baptisms in a 6 week period was 2, I baptized 3 and have 3 more marked for this upcoming weekend that I will miss.

 

We hit a new record of member present lessons . . . 19!!!

 

Elder Hope

Tuesday May 1, 2012

Dear family and friends,

Yesterday was interviews so I will be writing a short email today of 2 cool things that happened.

Carina was baptized on Saturday and was confirmed on Sunday, she asked me to baptize her. It is cool to see how the lord prepares her heart. She said no to baptism that first day we met her, and then called us back and said she wants to be baptized, so we obliged.

Setubal really has turned out to be a place of miracles, since I have gotten here, the lord has prepared Sandro, Rosa, Viviana, Adriano, and Carina and we are working on 2 more this upcoming week for baptism.

José and Olga are supposed to get baptized this saturday coming up, if they will go and get married. They were supposed to go yesterday, but showed up late, so we are going to go with them tomorrow to see if they can still get married since today is a holiday in Portugal. Yesterday they fed us a very interesting sandwinch with Chick Peas, Spicy Sardines, Canned Hot Dog things (worse than SPAM), LOTS of Mayonaise on a little bread roll thing . . .YUM!!, they are so ready for baptism, it is hard to tell them they had to wait since they didn't keep the commandments of god. Viviana is their daughter (a recent convert)

we didn't have a lot of time, so have a good week.

Elder Hope

Monday April 23, 2012

First off, this keyboard is a pain in the neck to type, the keys are sticking really bad, but hey Come what may, and love it!

So first off, Viviana and Adriano were confirmed in Sacrament meeting!! Adriano is one of the Sister’s investigators that I taught and he asked me to baptize him, but it counted for the Sisters. I successfully marked another one of the Sisters investigators for this Saturday too!!! Her name is Carina, and she asked me to baptize her . . . I am going to try and get a member to baptize her, but we will see. I am not allowed to interview any one of those people because I taught them more than 2 of the 4 missionary lessons.

Vivianas parents marked themselves for this weekend, but we are just waiting on the marriage. They were legally married in the Gypsie culture, but not by Portugal, so it is sort of hard to explain, but they are going to go the city building today or tomorrow to try and sign the papers.

The only day on my mission in which none of the appointments fell through we had a member that walked around with us for some time, so we got 4 member present that day!!!! It was Friday.

We had 2 people come to church that we didn’t know, so that will be fun, friends of members!!!

We contacted a lady named Vanessa that said she would call us (generally those people don’t) but she did and so we went and met with her. She read the first pamphlet and said that she wanted the book of mormon to read and the restoration film. We gave them to her (it was a 5 minute lesson), and 2 days later, she came by (for 5 more minutes) and she had read to 2 Nephi 2!!! The only problem is that she doesn’t have any time for us at all.

Elder McLean and I did a division so I could do an interview for Elder McLean, but the interview went too long and Elder Packard and elder fry left to an appointment, and Elder McLean and I went to my area to eat. We went to café of a part member family that promised us a meal, and they gave us a francesinha. Well, I finished mine, but Elder McLean was having problems finishing his, so he asked me if I would take some of his food. I told him I would I he would call Elder Packard (his comp) and tell him he is a quitter, well, since we are so prideful, he couldn’t do that so he kept eating, and right before he just had enough I told our part member family the deal (they didn’t eat with us, we just ate at our own table, because they had to run the café) So we got all the people in the Café during a soccer game, which is a big deal, to crowd around elder McLean and start chanting "Acaba, Acaba, ..." Which basically means finish it, finish it Right after that we went to our gypsie family's place that offered to give us each 2 sandwiches. You should have seen Elder McLean's face, it was super fun. I am known as a missionary that seems to go and get fed. I mark dinners with people, tell them we will bring the Juice, and they agree. Most missionaries here get fed 1 or 2 meals a week by members, I seem to come and raise that number to 2 or 3 a week with members, and then another 2 or 3 a week with an investigator. I have no problem inviting investigators to eat dinner with us, and then when they ask where, I tell them that we can cook something in the chapel, and we can eat there, they don’t like that Idea because they don’t want to be in the chapel longer than they have to, so they invite us over to their house . . . It works!!!

 Elder Hope