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