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