Wednesday, June 24, 2009
This week was a really good and busy week. It kinda sucks but we just got a bunch of new elect investigators....right as Im leaving! Why couldnt they have come a transfer ago!
But we have this one girl that came to church 2 weeks ago named Ema. Shes 14 and was invited by a member to come to church. she loved it and came back the next week and brought her boyfriend and brother. Both of them loved it. and just yesterday we taught the 1st lesson and they enjoyed that. They freely expressed their questions and understood really well
Then we have Marisa. Shes this new investigator that we got last week. I think i mentioned her in my email last week about how her daughter was explaining everything to her in the lesson, cuz the daughter was understanding but she wasnt. Anyway, last sunday Marisa came to church and LOVED it. she made a bunch of friends and then there was a baptism after church at 4:30 and she came to that too and LOVED it. she stayed around after and helped clean up and everything. Then later that day we saw her daughter on the road and talked to her and she said how much her mom loved church and now the daughter next week wants to go. yesterday we taught both of them again and we talked to Marisa about church and she said "i really really like your church, but the members...." and i was like "great...she already has a complaint about the members" she continued "they dont do enough missionary work! if they were out doing the stuff you guys are doing that church would be HUGE. so you need to tell your members to start preaching the gospel!"
it was awesome. Shes really elect, same with her daughter. We left the Restaration DVD with them the saturday before and she watched it 3 more times...the daughter watched it 2 times in portuguese 1 in english and 1 in german (cuz she speaks all 3 languages)
so ya...then we have this one couple that has come to church the last 2 weeks in a row. the wife had quadruplets 2 months ago, but lost 3 of them...and now owes the hospital alot of money. so she went seeking help and talked to our bishop and now they´re coming to church and we're teaching them. its cool.
We also had a streetmeeting where I grafittied the plan of salvation! We got a bunch of paper a sheet of 4x2 meters and I grafitied it! it was really cool, drew lots of attention!
But this week was really good....my last time at church we broke the record for investigators at sacrament. we had 11 there! SO my last week as a missionary ended VERY well.
THe mission was awesome! Definately a good choice! haha. It sucks that Im leaving but it has to happen.
My testimony has grown a ton! I know that God really does live and he works everyday in our lives. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he died for all of us. I know for a fact that Christs church. his true and living church is on the earth at this time and is lead by a prophet that talks and communicated directly with God. I know that on that spring morning, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and the Son and that he was called to restore the church of God on the earth again.
of this I testify with love for the last time as a missionary in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love,
Elder Rhett Dustin Hildebrandt
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Walkin the green mile
So...this is my last week. Im walkin the green mile. its kinda like ripping off a bandaid really slowly....like i know it has to come off...and it will feel good once it does...but its painful....
anyway...update
We got some new investigators. Marisa and her 19 yr old daughter. we contacted Marisa on the street and then we went by her house to teach and her daughter understood everything really well, and even had to explain it to her mom who wasnt getting it very well. it was really cool. I could see them progressing alot.
Then we 3 new people come to church that members brought! its way cool that the members are catching onto the fire of missionary work. we´ll meet with those people soon
Then as far as our other investigatores, Afra, she isnt progressing that much so we kinda had to go over and tell her if she doesnt start reading and going to church more often, theres other people who are waiting to hear this message and we cant waste our tiem. Hopefully that will knock some sense into her.
Then we also had an interesting experiece come Armindo. This caboverdian we are teaching thats lonely and sick and away from his family to get medical treatment for diabetes here. But he doesnt pay attention in the lessons much and always has excuses for not doing stuff. But elder Thomas has a greenie puppy dog love for him and its like one of his fav investigators. Anyway, the other elders had a baptism this saturday and we invited him and told him we would meet him close by the church at the bottom of soem stairs 15 minutes before 5 (cuz thats when the baptism was) well we later find out that the baptism isnt untill 7, but it was already almost 5 so we wait at the bottom of the stairs just to tell him that its not at 5, but at 7. So we wait and wait and he doesnt show up. so Elder Thomas wanted to walk ALL the way up to his house to tell him it was at 7 even though he didnt show up at 5 (when he thought it was) so reluctantly i agreed and we walked up this huge hill to his house and told him we would meet him in the same place at 6:45. he agreed and we go back. well 6:45 rolls around and we go wait...and wait and wait. Elder Thomas with his puppy dog eyes looking up the stairs, waiting. It gets to be almost 7 and i was like "lets just go." So elder Thomas starts running up the stairs toward his house. Im like "no, back to the church" then he started complaining and wanted to go to his house to get him. I was like "he didnt come the 1st time...didnt come the second time...hes not gonna come if we go up there". but he insisted so we went ALL the way up there again. We get there and.....hes not even home. I could see Elder Thomas´s heart break. but we went back to the church, the baptism had already started. We walk in and who do we see, none other than Armindo sitting there! it was pretty cool. Elder Thomas was happy. but then we invited him to church the next day...and he didnt show up :( oh well.
And.....thats about it since friday!
well......ttyl!!!!! or soon!
-Rhett
Friday, June 12, 2009
Only 1 more full week!
Man, its ending sooooooo soon. CWAZY!
Anyway, onto this week.....
it was really good. Pday last week we went to the Zoo and I got kissed by a sealion :) it was really fun. Then this pday we went to Quinta de Reguleira....it was the 5th time that ive been there haha. but its a really cool place.
Elder Thomas had another greenie moment this week. It was raining and we were walking home for lunch and i was walking under the cover of the buildings cuz we didnt have umbrellas. He was in the middle of the road a little bit a head of me. I looked over and he was walking toward soem people at a cafe that were motioning him over, with a big smile on his face. One of the people was teasing him, asking him where he was from...and Elder Thomas stood there with a confused look on his face. didnt know what he was saying. I finally went over there to save him and the guy just was just messing with us. Making fun of us. So we left. I was laughing cuz i thought it was funny and Elder Thomas still didnt know what was going on and what the dude was talking about haha.
Also on sunday we were talking with one of our members named Irma Felix. And she´s a little crazy but she was saying how she gave out 10 book of mormons to her neighbors. So we set up with her so that we could go with her and she could present us to them. Anywho, we go over there and she takes us from door to door. I didnt expect many people to be interested cuz shes crazy and they probably just took the book out of sympathy. We knocked on the doors and the people that answered all said that they were busy and didnt want to hear anything. So we went to the last house, which is the house of her cousin. (and they actually lived in houses, in this neighborhood) We knock at the gate, and her cousins daughter comes out whos about 20 years old. Irma Felix tells her that we´re here to talk about Christ. The daughter pulled her aside and started talking to her quiet but sternly that she was sick of her coming over and talking about Christ and how she didnt want to hear of any of this and stuff like that. Then Irma Felix started yelling and saying that God was gonna curse the house and how everyone that lives inside is going to be cursed, then she X´d the house number. THen the daughter started yelling and SLAPPED Irma Felix across the face. the started attacking her! Pullign her hair, ripped her blouse, tore off her necklace, etc. it was crazy. We broke up the fight and she briskly walked away. We pulled Irma Felix off the ground who was crying now and walked her over to the other side of the road where the neighbors were watching. then the daughter came back and slapped her in the face again. She fell to the floor and cried again and the daughter ran off. One of the neighbors called the police and we waited until the police came. then the police talked to the daughter and Irma Felix. and we waited and waited and waited, thinking that they were gonna ask us for our testimonies or info or something. We finally just went up to them and asked and they were like "nah, we dont need it, if we need it in the future we´ll be in contact" so we said bye and left. It was really crazy. Then just 2 days ago, we saw another fight between 2 portuguese punk teenagers. it was hilarious cuz they couldnt fight at all. their punches were SOO weak and it was really funny just watching them try and fight haha.
In other news, we marked one of our investigators for baptism. Armindo. Hes a really a humble dude. So I hope it all goes well for him. We also got a new investigator that seems really golden. Her name is Teresa. Shes 40 years old, used to be a model or something, but now she has Multiple Sclerosis. When she was diagnosed her husband left her and now shes alone with a 10 yr odl and a 20 yr old. Its a really sad situation, but she has a really positive attitude and was really excited to read and pray about the BOM. we´re going to be passing by again on monday and giving her a blessing.
We still havent talked to the people whos friend died. Stuff keeps on coming up and they have to cancel the appointments.
But everyone else is doing about the same. Im sprinting until the end!
-Rhett
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Three more weeks
Sooooooooooo.....my week.......
Elder Thomas and I are getting along good. he still has all that greenie fire but hes getting more used to how everything goes here.
We had a really cool experience a couple days ago. We went and passed by this one brasilian lady that we had contacted on the road a couple weeks ago. and we knocked on the door and asked for her. The girl that answered the door went to go get her and inside i could see that there was alot of people. kinda like a party or something so i thought that our contact would just say to come back later cuz she had company over but she came to the door and was like "ya, sure, come in." so we went in and sat on the couch and started talking to her. There were about 4 other peopel in the room around a table talking and the contact (marlinda) told me that she had company over today cuz a good friend of theirs had just died suddenly. I told her that we could share a message that could help and asked if we could start with a prayer. One of the people around the table heard that and was like "hold on a sec, let me go get everyone." so he went and gathered everyone up in the house to hear the message. 8 people. We prayed and shared a message about the plan of salvation. Everyone was crying the whole time and they invited us back again. We´ll go there tomorrow.
But it was a really cool experience.
Also later that night we went by a member´s house thats from Sri Lanka to eat dinner. We actually went to his Indian neighbors house. and they cooked us some AMAZING indian food. it looked weird but it was really good. We ate with our hands and used these scone type things to eat the stew type thing that was made with chicken. also they brought out these full little fish that looked like they were chared, and you had to rip of the head and just eat it, it was actually really good. but the indian guy there kept on putting food on our plates! we were there witht he Zone Leaders and it was getting time to be home and the ZLs still had to catch a train, we were already stuffed, but the guy kept on putting food on our plates. it got to time to be home and we were ready to leave and they were like "but we have dessert!" and the member is like "you have to eat dessert or they´ll be offended" so we gobbled down the dessert and walked briskly home. i was STUFFED oh man....i almost threw up but it was really good. there was also a Bollywood movie playing. it was way funny. i loved it! haha
Our investigators are doing really well. We have a new investigator named armindo that came to church! hes this caboverdian thats here cuz of medical problems. hes a really humble guy.
Afra is about the same but doing good. the brazilian families we were teaching are doing good, except for one, Elizete. Her member freind said that we should back off for a little bit...so we are, but Alba is doing really well!
Then last night something interesting happened. We went over to a recent converts house Familia Agues and we got invited in Eneida (the wife) broght us into the kitchen and told us how her husband (whos a member) has been drinking alot lately and how hes ruining hte family. We had her call the bishop and he dropped everything and came over. Then the husband came in and he was so slobbering drunk he couldnt even function. it was way sad. I hope things get better for them.
and thats about it!
Tchau!
-Rhett
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Lost Son
It didnt feel as weird as i thought it would be. It felt like a normal zone conference. I guess the reality hasnt really hit me. Hopefully its like that until i get home.
Oh, so last pday. I lost my greeny. We were hiking up to this castle and we decided to go off the trail like we have done before and hike up the face of the mountain. Well...i was trailblazing and then i decided to stop and wait for everyone else. And one other set of missionaries catch up then the companion of another missionary (elder smith) in my district that is training also. But my kid (elder Thomas) and elder Smiths kid (elder Bryant) werent theree. I asked where they were and they said that they decided to go on the trail to the castle. Well thats all cool, except for 2 reasons. 1, it would take us 4 times as long to get there as them (it would take us like 40 minutes and them 10) and 2, they didnt have a phone. so we get up to the castle and spend an hour looking for them, to no avail. we decide to go down the trail cuz maybe they´re waiting on the trail head. we go down and theyre not there. we got a call at that moment from Elder Bryant. He said that they went back to the chapel and were waiting there. So they hiked all the way down the mountain, caught the train and walked to the chapel to use the phone. We climbed down the mountain, got some lunch then met up with them.
So that was an adventure.
Then yesterday we were coming back from Zone conference and we got into our building and went into the elevator. and teh elevators here are a little different than the states. here they dont have a door that closes, so you open the outside door and the elevator goes up and you can see the wall passing by, even touch the wall. And elder thomas is a jumpy guy and is petrafied of the elevators. So I was wearing a backpack and i get in with my back to the door of the elevator and we start going up. I act like i get my back stuck in the elevator and start getting dragged down and elder Thomas FREAKS OUT. it was hilarious. I did that with elder gray and he just laughed......
Our investigators are doing really well. We are teaching a couple of brazilian families that are all friends. Their kids are awesome and coming to church every week with soem member friends. the parents are doing well but need to come to church. We got invited to one of the kids birthday parties and we played tag with them and ate cake and shared a message with TONS of people there.
Then Afra is doing really well...except she wont pray to know its true..sadly.
Elizabete and Edivaldo are doing well also and we´re finding lots of new investigators :D
Things are doing really well here and i´m keeping going untill the end!
Have a great week everyone!
-rhett
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
And his name shall be know throughout his life and upon the record of the church as...
My new comp...my new son is named Elder Thomas from huric´n (hurricain) Utah. Hes pretty cool. Quiet. but I think hes warming up though. Hes pretty green too, like the other day the zone leaders called and one of our zoneleaders is brazilian and doesnt speak much english. So he answered the phone and the brazilian was on the other line so he was talking to him in portuguese. And i was in the bathroom taking a shower so he wanted to tell the Zone Leaders that I was in the shower so he said Elder Hildebrandt...uhh....eu.....uhh...limpar seu corpo. (which is to be interpreted Elder Hildebrandt.......uhhh....I.....uhh.....clean his body) he brazillian laughted and laughed and laughed and i got outta the shower and got on the phone and they told me...it was pretty funny. But hes getting better and hopefully at the end of the transfer, he´ll be a pro!
Last week, we went to Fatima. Which is where a few decades ago, 3 kids claimed Mary appeared to them. And now they have a HUGE sancuary there and when we went was on the aniversary of the appearance of mary so there were TONS of people there! it was insane. Everyone was staring at us. We saw people burning candles to have their sins forgiving, people walking on their knees for blessings and people with bloody shoes who have been walking forever to get to fatima to show their faithfulness. It was all in all very apostate.
But as far as the work this week, it went really well. Elizabete´s kid is marked for baptism for the 18th of July (she wants him to wait till schools out) and Elizebete says that she has recieved more answers...but is really quiet about her answers that shes recieving. but she says they are good.
We had a lesson with this investigator named Ester and a member named Sergio was helping us. Hes this really humble type guy, really simple, big african dude. anyway, we go over to her house and her Aunt who lives wiht her said that she wanst home but went to go visit a friend. and she said that her friend lives in building Nº48 on that road. We said thanks and left, we got to building 48 only to realized we didnt get the floor or door number. and there were 7 floors with 3 doors on each. So i was like....well....we can guess. I asked sergio to give me a floor number and right away he said 5. then I asked for the door, and he said left. So i rang it. and it opened. WE went up and knocked on the door that let us in, while we were knocking Sergio said he doesnt think it is that one but the one across the hall. Someone answered the door, she wasnt there, so we thanked him and left to go try the door across the hall. We knock on the door, and some lady answers. We ask for Ester. and who comes to the door, none other than ester! i was shocked that sergio guess like that.....i think hes psycic. But we had a lesson with her and it went really well.
Oh and the other day, we went and had a lesson with that one brazilian family again. We went over there and they had a friend over that was giving the mom a pedicure. We talked about the plan of salvation and it went really well. Everyone understood VERY well. then we invited them to church. they all came up with excuses except for hte friend that wasgiving the pedicure. And then on sunday. She came and broght her whole family! Shes way cool and i think has alot of potential.
Then just 2 days ago. All of our appointments fell through...even the ones that NEVER fall through. So we decided to go by this romanian guy that we contated a couple days ago and give him a romanian book of mormon. WE called him up and he said he was home and for us to come over. We go over and ring his bell from outside and no one answers. We try calling again and he doesnt answer. Then i just though....Ill just ring his neighbors door so we can get in and knock straight on his door. So i ring it. his neighbor opens. We go up and start talking to the neighbor. I just did a very bland door approach so we could leave a pamplet or a card or soemthing and just move on to see this romanian guy. but surprisingly, this younger african man let us in. We entered and taught him the 1st lesson. We were showing him scriptures from the book of mormon that lots of the time are hard to understand. like from the isaiah chapters. But he was understanding very well. And at the end he prayed to know if it was true! it was really cool!
Umm.....and thats about all that happened this week that was exciting. We went to the Japanese restaurant yesterday and Elder Thomas tried sushi for the 1st time and almost threw up.....oh well...his loss...more for me :D
Oh and about the family of the boy, we found out that the house that was for sale was actually their neighbors house. But we went by a couple days ago...and no one was home. we´ll keep on trying.
Well......i´m gonna keep on running on the home stretch!
-Elder Rhett
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Hey my fellow blogguers
We went by the families house of the little boy that died. When we got there, we noticed a for sale sign on the window. They had already moved out :( We´re planning on going back and talkign to the neighbors and maybe seeing if we can find out where they moved to.
We had a good lesson with Elizabete and her son Edivaldo yesterday. We asked her if shes recieved an answer from the fast she did with us on friday. and she said she did on sunday. We asked her about it but she kept really quiet and just said it was good........so hopefully it is good. but then her son, who we asked to think about baptism said he wanted to be baptised!!!! Hes been reading in the book of mormon and loving coming to church. So maybe we can get him baptised and then hopefully elizabete and her bf will be more willing to be baptised.
We also had a baptism this week. Kinda. Its this 8 yr old boy and his parents wanted us to teach him the discussions. so we did and he was baptised last saturday. It went really well and they invited alot of non members who LOVED the baptism. And after we had a ward party and the people stayed for that. it was fun. I got my groove on! haha. It was a good day.
And thats about it for the week. Today we´re going up to fatima. Its this city where like 80 yrs ago, 3 kids claimed they saw the virgin mary, who told them 3 secrets that they cant reveil. And now every year there is a huge migration of people the crawl on their knees to pray to Mary. And today is the migration day. so it should be pretty crazy!
Ill take lots of pictures!
Have a great day!
-rhett
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
A series of interesting event
Also, something really interesting happened this week. On friday night, we were teaching a member and as we were talking, we heard a commotion outside. We looked out his window and saw a bunch of people grouped around on the sidewalk. A few of them were crying and yelling. We went outside to see what was happening, only to find a little african boy, about 3 or 4 years old, laying on the ground, not moving. He apparently had fallen out the window of the 4th floor, and was dead. He was at his aunt and uncles house and his aunt was screaming and crying and his sister (prolly about 16) had to be held back by 2 people cuz she wanted to go to him... The whole neighborhood was gathered around and then the amublance came. They tried recessitating him for like 5 minutes...to no avail. THey put the sheet over his head and it seemed like all hell broke loose. the sister started crying and going crazy again, same with the aunt. His uncle just fell to his knees and sobbed. His brother (maybe) who was prolly about 20 turned violent and started pushing people around trying to get to his brother, people tried to hold him back but couldnt. He was violently flailing around, they eventually pulled him away and he just sobbed. It was a very different experience.....very sobering. It was interesting how everyone reacted to death. His mom finally showed up, and she saw the body and lost her mind, litterally. went into shock and wasnt there in the head...she kept on just muttering and stuff. I went and talked to the grandfather, who was probably the only one who was sane at the time and expressed my condolances. I told him if there was anything we could do, they could call us. We have plans to visit them next saturday. But it was a very very different experience. I feel bad for the family and wish everyone could know the beauty of the plan of salvation....but I guess thats why Im here.
But onto more light matters. We tried the sidewalk chalk idea again where we draw out the plan of salvation in a more secure place. and it worked AMAZINGLY. in 1 hour we talked to probbaly 30 people or more and set up a bunch of appointments. it was really cool
Also we put the Kites that you sent to good use. We flew them in the park and invited kids to coem fly (because they are a rare thing here in portugal) and then we talked aobut how if we cut the string of the kite, it wont fly away but fall and related that to obedience to the commandments, about how some people think that the comandments keep them tied down, but really its what keeps them flying up.
We also got a really cool new brazilian family as investigators. They are friends of a brazilian family that moved into our ward. We went over to their house and they were really receptive. Then their 2 9 yr old twin daughters came to church! we have a bbq with them tomorrow :D
As for the rest of our investigators, they are doing great. Afra came to church and she and her 3 little kids LOVED it. so shes doing really well. And all the rest of our investigators are still doing really well.
and thats it.
ttyl todos!
-Rhett
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
I dont like the cold...
This week was a...different week. I wasnt in my area for 3 days, last pday we stayed at Rio De Mouros house cuz on thurs morning Elder Gray has to go to lisbon to renew his visa. So i stayed and worked with Elder Willardson and the other Elder Gray. He got back at like 8:00 and soemthing had gone wrong so he had to go back on friday too. So i stayed at Rio De Mouro again...and he was gone all day friday. Then we stayed the night friday night cuz he got back so late, and went home on saturday. It was crazy.
On friday, we had an appointment with our investigator named Afra. Shes doing really well....so i really wanted to go to the appointment and not cancel it, but rio de mouro had a dinner appointment at the same time....so i called up a member and took the train to Cacem alone, met up with the member and we had a lesson with her. It went really well. But then i used the members phone to call up the elders in Rio De Mouro. THey said they were finishing up wiht dinner and could meet me at the train station in like 15 minutes. So i hopped on the train and went back to Rio de Mouro....where I waited, and waited and waited and waited. I waited for almost an hour for them....finally they show up and were like "sorry but they talked alot" it was kinda annoying waiting there for so long...and it was cold and i didnt have a sweater..... but oh well.
Also, i have finally beaten the flea invasion i was having (i dont even know if i mentioned it) for the last 2 weeks....i kept on getting flea bites. I washed my sheets everyday,a nd my quilt and all my clothes and sprayed the house with bug spray thats supposed to kill fleas and put baby powder all over which is supposed to kill the eggs....and i still kept on having fleas. So i had to spray the whole house again and use baby powder...and did that about 3 times...but im happy to say that the last 2 days i havent gotten a new flea bite! I HATE fleas.......gah!
Also, something really cool happened on thursday. Our old investigator Dias moved to Rio De Mouro´s area...but he didnt give us his address and right when he moved his phone stopped working. so for 3 weeks, we had no idea where he was and couldnt contact him. But on thursday, when Elder Gray was comming back from Lisboa, he sat ont he train and who happens to waltz in, none other but Dias! Elder gray talked to him, got his address and then me and the Rio De mouro elders went over and taught him on friday. It was really cool. He was kinda depressed and the light he was developing was deminished cuz he hadnt talked to us or read in 3 weeks....hopefully they can reignight the fire.
Our other investigators are doin really well. Elizabete and her son Edivaldo are loving church and loving our visits. Were gonna be fasting wiht them on friday to help them figure out what Elizabete should do with her boyfriend situation (cuz shes living with him)
Also, theres a member in our ward whos a bee keeper and the other day, after he helped us out with an appointment, he randomly took us to see his bees. It was really cool. 10 honeycombs are worth 160 Euros! that would be a good side job to help me through school i think....and help me fund Turtle Kabab :D
And....thats about it.....
Ate proxima semana!
-Rhett
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
B=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=B3fia!?=
This week was kinda a calm week. Nothing too exciting happened. Kinda same old same old. Besides yesterday I got in trouble with the police. That was fun :S We went to Sintra to do a street meeting (make contacts with my whole district in one location) and we decided to do something that our ward mission leader did on his mission, that is to draw out the plan of salvation on the ground with sidewalk chalk. So we started doing it and we were contacting tons of people. We drew about half of it (it was detailed so it was a good 30 minutes of drawing) and a police car comes driving up the street, sees us, turns on his lights and comes over. He was cool about it though, just said we cant be doing this here and that if we want to weºd have to go to the City Center and get permission. So we prolly will do that later, and do it again, cuz it was really fun.
Also, our investigator Afra came to church last sunday, with her 3 little kids. It was cool. I think she liked it.....even though we we asked about it she just said it was different.....But i could tell she had a good time.
We had a heart to heart with Elizabete (the lady who has been progressing alot, going to church and everything, but lives with her boyfriend so she cant be baptised) she said that shed pray and fast about getting married and gettign baptised. Hopefully everything will go over well.
All of our other investigators are doing really well and slowly progressing. Most of our investigators are really new so it takes some time for them to warm up.
But last week, my district had the best numbers theyve had in years. it was really cool. as a district we got 27 new investigators! cool huh! so things here really are going well.
Well....have a great week everyone!
-Rhett
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
YO
So this week started off with last Pday. We stormed the Castelo Dos Mouros in Sintra. Its this castle ontop of this HUGE steep mountain hill thing. Thats covered with dense trees and HUGE boulders. We climbed up the face of the mountain and climbed the castle wall and raided the castle! it was way fun. Lot of hard work too...i was exhaused!
Our investigators are doing really well. Except i have some bad news....so i´ll start with that. Our chinese investigators are no more. They started talking with the Jehovas Witnesses again....and.....they dont want us to pass by again....sigh...oh well.
But we have some cool new investigators. Like Sabastian. hes 21 yrs old from Senegal. Hes really cool and nice. Hes a DJ too! its been cool talking with him and teaching him. He has a great desire to learn.
We also have this brazilian named Wallace that works for the Post office. Hes really cool and really humble. Hopefully things go well with him.
I also have a cool story that happened this Saturday. The elders of Mafra were having a baptism so we decided to take our investigator Elizabete to see. (Shes doing really well by the way....we still are trying to work with her boyfriend that shes living with.) But anyway, we get to the baptism and i shake hands witht he person getting baptised, its this middle aged brazilian lady and I recognised her. I sat down and then it hit me! I found and taught her when i was in Oeiras! I went back to her and asked her if she lived in Oeiras, she said ya. Shes this Investigator named Maura. She worked as a maid person for this big house in Oeiras and we were teaching her and even invited her to be baptised but she wouldnt cuz of her husband who was living in Mafra. We got the addresss of her husband and sent it to Mafra, but nothing came of that. She went to church a couple times...but then stopped progressing and we eventually dropped her. Well i guess she moved to mafra, and the missionaries passed by her again and now she got baptised! it was a really cool experience seeing someone that I had taught 1 and a half years ago finally get baptised!~
Also this week we tried to get a bunch of people at church cuz we were havign a special missionary/easter sacrament meeting and Pres Terry was going to speak. So we invited 5 inactive members that havent been to church in a while, and.....they ALL came! it was awesome.
Also, after church we went out and made contacts in the street with the members and one of the inactive members was making really good contacts and is really excited for missionary work now! its really cool!
and thats about it
Tchau
-Rhett
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Dog Bite!
Our investigators are doing well. Omid (whos marked for baptism) is being a slacker though. Hes too busy and is having a hard time making time for us to come teach him and go to church. we havent taught him in over a week. I think next time we talk to him weºll talk about getting his priorities in order. Cuz he really does have time, he just gets too involved with his Karate and other stuff and doesnt have enough time for us. Weºll talk about what Elder Bednar said when he came here. He said Everyone has the same amount of time in the day, 24 hours. So the excuses of "i didnt have time to read, or I didnt have time to have family night" are not good excuses. You really should be saying "I dont value scriptures enough to read them and I dotn value family night enough to have it." it was really cool. Hopefully heºll realize whats really important.
As far as our Chinese Jehovas Witnesses...they are doing really well. WE had a lesson with them and taught them the plan of salvation. We read alot out of the book of mormon. We gave them verses and they read them together in chinese. It was really cool seeing them really read to understand whats inside the verses. They read, discussed amoung eachother, read again to really make sure they understood it. Thats something that just doesnt happen lots with other people. But the bad news is that when we were teaching, alot of the JW beliefs came out. Like they belive adam was a horrible man and screwed up the plan of god. And the one big one Jian Ke has a problem with is that our soul just doesnt die with us when we die, that it keeps on living. The JWs believe that when you die, you are DEAD untill the ressurection...when only the righteous will live on the earth. But we told them they just ahve to read and pray about it. Hopefully they will.
Oh and this week, i got bit by a dog! Finally i get to have a mission story about a dog! but its not very exciting. We were at a members house and they have this little puppy, and we ate over there and were cleaning up and the puppy kept on trying to open the trashcan to eat the chicken bones. I kept on shewing it away and i shewed him away for the 3rd time and he nipped at me. Bit me on the knuckle of my middle finger. It started bleeding...but it isnt bad at all, just a little tiny mark. haha. And we also gave that dog a bath before that, cuz we´re doing a service week.
Also, another funny story. We were walking down the street and there was this dude that was like "OHH ELDERS!! HI!" making fun of us. he continued "how are you today with your little ties and shirts and name bags. haha, your not understanding a word im saying" I was just staring at him the whole time, then responded, "actually, i understood everyting you said." that caught him by surprise "oh....well....i see....how long have you been here?" "a year and 9 months" "oh...so I guess you do understand a little....well....it was good talking to you, bye" and he left. it was really funny. Stupid people..... :P
Also, conference was really good. I, like my mom, really enjoyed elder Hollands talk. Hes my favorite speaker of the Apostles. I really liked it. I also really liked Pres Eyerings talk about Man Down. He told the story of the movie blackhawk down.
But all in all it was a good week.
Have a great Easter this Sunday! We wont be able to color eggs, cuz the eggs here are brown! haha
Keep it real and remember to ease it like a sunday morning!
-Elder Rhett
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Livin in a Gangstas Paradise.
So last night, we were walking home from an appointment that got over kinda late...so we were late getting home. It was already almost 10. And Cacém here is kinda a ghetto area, so lots of the time at night its not good to be out and about. But anyway, we were walking and we heard some shouting, we look over and right by some stairs there were these 2 black kids (about 16 or 17) beating the crap out of this other kid. He was huddled over on the ground as they were kicking him....bloody all over. I yelled at them "hey! what are you doing!!?" (in portuguese of course) they looked over and one of the kids starts yellin "what?! what!?" and they left the kid on the ground and started walking toward us. We could tell they were drunk...especially when they got close. We stood our ground and the one kid kept on yelling right in my face as I just stared him down. Then he pushed me and Elder Gray jumped in and pushed him back. The black kid threw a punch at elder gray, it was pretty weak, elder gray dodged and swung right back at him hitting him in right in the mouth. He stumbled back and started cussing up a storm in english and portuguese. I told them they better get outta here or we´ll call the police. The one kid was like "police? what are the police going to do?" I pulled out the phone and started dialing. The other kid that had stayed back most of the time was like "lets go..." so they started leaving with their tails between their legs, swearing at us as they left. I called the cops, told them that there was a kid here that had been beat up pretty bad. I told them the street and everything. They said they´d send an ambulance. We went and talked to they kid, he was pretty messed up, blood all over his face, his mouth had blood all inside and his nose was pretty messed up. He was conscience but in alot of pain. We kept him company untill the police came. They started questioning us and we told them all what happened. then the ambulance came and cleaned up the kid and loaded him into the ambulance. We gave the police our contact info and they said they´d be in touch with us....so it was a pretty crazy night. WE didnt get home untill aobut 11:30, we called president and told him all the happened..... So, im pretty tired today cuz of all that....but its all good now. Im pretty sure the kid will be ok.
But as for other stuff not as exciting that happened this week,
We marked Omid for baptism on the 2nd of May. Hes really excited. So are we.
Our investigators are doing really well. We met again with the Chinese Family and watched the restauration in Chinese. I think they understood the importance of that story more than portuguese people. We gave them a chinese book of mormon and they were really excited to start reading. Jian Ke was flipping through it the whole time. We also found out that he used to be a missionary for the Jehova´s witness, but left that church for some reason. But they seem to be really receptive. Im excited for when lili offers us to eat chinese food over there :D
Then we have another really cool new investigator. Her name is Afra. shes 28 and has 3 kids...recently divorced. We taught her about Joseph Smith and she told us a story about how she had a similar experience of searching for the true church, but eventually thought it didnt exist and gave up. so the first lesson went over really well with her. Shes hopefully gonna be watching conference this week.
As for the rest of our investigators, they are doing really well. We lost Dias though, he moved to a different area, so we helped him move. He was really greatful. Im also really greatful for the easyness of moving out of a house rather than an appartment building on the 4th floor.....its hard! haha.
We started teaching Elizabete´s husband boyfriend dude (shes the one that is really interested but cant get baptised cuz shes living with a boyfriend) he seemed interested...so maybe that will help. They´re a cool family.
Oh and yesterday was transfer calls day. Me and Elder Gray are staying together. But i decided to pull a prank on one of the elders in my district named Elder Willardson. Their phone ahs been having problems so I called them up and told them that president called me cuz their phone wasnt working and that they are combining their area with the area of mem martins. (another area in my district) and he bought it HARDCORE. with turned out to be bad, cuz right after he called the office...who talked to president...who was very confused about an area combining that he didnt know about...who called me to ask me about how it all came to be......so i got told that I shouldnt be making pranks about transfer calls even though april fools day is tomorrow....But he wasnt mad...so it was ok. He also said that I shouldnt write stories in emails tomorrow about us seeing some guy getting beat up and having to talk to the police, when it didnt really happen. But he said if I did to tell them APRIL FOOLS!
hahahhahahaha
Gotcha ;)
Well, that was about all in my week.
Happy April Fools everyone! Play tons of pranks!!!!
-Elder Rhett
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Coincidence?
To start out, our investigaters are doing great. Dias (the man that got his boy recently from Guine buissau) is doing really well. We invited him to be baptised, but he kinda beat around the bush. I know he has a testimony, especially cuz of the way he talks about the story of joseph smith, but hes scared of baptism or something.....But heºll come around. But sadly hes moving into a different area this week....so hopefully other missionaries can help him out.
Then we have Elizabete. Shes doing really well too...but still has a problem that shes living in with a boyfriend.... :S man thats such a problem here! but weºre making efforts to start teaching her boyfriend...maybe he´ll come around. Also we started teaching her son. hes really cool..... 11 yrs old.
Also this week we went to an Evangelical church. It was a sermon for Young Adults and there was a band there and they played Christian Brazillian Rock, and everyone was dancing and jumping around and singing...it was way fun. I was dancing around and everyone thought it was hilarious. Elder Gray didnt feel like it haha. but we met a bunch of cool people from there and they were all really nice.
And on monday, I had one of the most amazing days on my mission. The day started out with Interviews by president. He came to our chaple to interview all the missionareis in my Zone. Also we scheduled an interview for one of our investigators named Omid...whos from Iran. and theres new mission rules that all Muslims need to be interviewd by the mission president before getting taught. Omid is a really cool guy and was taught in the past, and really has a good testimony. He was interviewed and after the interview, president came out and was like "so when is he getting baptised" we told him we didnt have a baptismal date for him. and president was like, well get on it. It was a great interview and both president and Omid really liked it. So hopefully we can get him marked for baptism soon. After that we went to the post office to send off some letters and on our way back, we saw this one brazillian girl leaving her work (she works at a chinese store, we had gone into that store before and she helped us find tape...haha, and also we saw her at the one evangelical church we went to....) so we saw her leaving and we were walking behind her and we decided to go visit some people we had met while knocking doors, so we start going to that building....and we are still following this girl (she prolly thought we were stalking her or something) but anyway, we end up stopping at the same building, she goes in, then we go in....we get on different elevators, and we go to the 4th floor to visit this african family...they didnt have time or interess, but then we went to the 3rd floor to talk to this brazilian dude we met, and this old brazilian lady answered the door, we asked for Silvio, she said he wasnt there, and we look back and we see that same brazilian girl in the kitchen. We talked to the lady and she seemed interested....we set up an appointment to go there on saturday I think. Coincidence?
Then after that we went and visited this one kid named Loriano. hes an ex investigator, 15 yrs old. and on sunday we went and visited him and talked with him and 2 of his friends. they were way cool and wanted us to come back on monday, so we went back on this day and talked to them again..and there was 1 more of his friends...so because of this ex investigator, we have 4 new investigators! so then after we went to go visit this family, Henriques.
A few weeks ago, we were at Pizza Hut and we met this inactive family. they said they wanted us to come by...but after we got home, we kinda forgot about them. Then about a week ago, this one guy named Scott Milling called us. hes from UT, served here in portugal in 87, and wanted a number for a family here. WE didnt have the number but we had the address, so we told him wed go over to get the number for him. so we did a few days ago, and there was a kid that answered (14 yrs old) and he said to come back on Monday. And that teenager looked really familiar....i didnt know why though. And it wasnt until we were on our way back to their house on monday that I realized that it was the same family that we met at Pizza Hut. We knocked on the door, they let us in and told us that they want us to start teaching their 14 yr old son, cuz hes not baptised. So we taught him a little and left. Coincidence?
Then we went by this other contact we made the other day with a chinese lady. We set up to go by their house on monday. So we went by and they let us in. They are a young married couple. Lili and Jian Ke (Jack) and they have a little 2 yr old boy) We watched Finding Happiness iwth them in chinese. They loved it. Then come to find out that they are already christian....and they belong to Jehovas Witnesses!!!! AHHH!!! but they seemed receptive and wanted us to come back wiht a book of mormon in chinese. So that actually acomplished 2 of my mission goals. To get a chinese investigator and also to have a JW investigator!!! yay!
then after that we were hungry, but we were low on money...so we decided that if we had any money in our accounts we would go get pizza. We tried, not really expecting anything and we had 20euros! so we got the money and as we were doing that, who do we see but our friend Negrinho. He said that he has been trying to talk to us but no one was at the chapel! we explained that its usually only open on sunday...but he wanted to talk with us so we set up an appointment on thursday. The we went into this little shopping center to get pizza and who do we see, but Maíne (thgat one brazillian that saw us race cars) we talked with her for a while and told her about what we do as missionaries. She was amazed with our life style and we told her about the book of mormon and gave her a copy. We have an appointment to see her today! And if we werent hungry, we wouldnt have gone to the ATM...and we wouldnt have seen Negrinhno, and if we wouldnt have stopped and talked to him, we would have missed talking to Maíne....coincidence? Then we finished off this awesoem day with some Pepperoni Pizza from Pizza Hut! :D But it was an amazing day
And thats about all for my week!
Everything else is goin great here. I like this area, and i think ill end my mission here. I dont want to be transfered again, transfters are a pain.
well, Ate proximo!
-Elder Rhett
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Alternative finding?
This week was good, except for on Friday the 13th. That day it seemed EVERYTHING went wrong. All of our 7 appointments fell through and it seemed like noone wanted to talk with us. Then when we were walking home at night we realized it was friday the 13th and then it all made sense haha.
Oh and last week, well 2 weeks ago, (in not sure if i already shared the 1st part of this story but whatever) Me Elder Gray and 2 other elders from my district went to go eat at the japanese restaurant. and as we were leaving we noticed in the window of a store this really cool toy trucks, that only cost 5o cents each! so we each decided to buy one then race them. So we each picked out one, went to this really big hill that has a raingutter going down it and raced them for a few minutes, and mine won everytime!
anyway, fast forward to last pday after i did emails. I was sitting here in the library waiting for elder gray to be done with emails and this girl (in her 20s...and if i wasnt on a mission, i would say very cute :P) leans over to me and was like "are you the mormons?" and i said....ya..... then she said "i saw you racing toy cars the other day, i was sitting in my window laughing the whole time!" It was cool! we started talking, but then we had to go and i gave her a passalong card with our number on it and told her to call us.
Well, a few days passed and we went to go visit an inactive member, and on the way home we were crossing an overpass and who do we see, none other than that one girl and her sister! we talk for a little and they asked when church was and where it was. We told them. They siad they couldnt make it this sunday cuz they were going to Coimbra but wanted to come. WE told them about english class which is on wednesdays and they wanted to come. So its all set up for them to come to english class tonight, hopefully they turn into good investigators, they seem pretty interested....(hopefully its not JUST in me :P)
We had an appointment with a really cool active family named Familia Andrade (Irma Isabel was baptised about the time when dad was on his mission and Irmao Andrade went on a mission about the same time as dad, i think it might ahve been a year before.) but anyway, we had dinner with them and their little daughter 10, or 11 years old, named anaisabel had a friend over named Veronica. And her story is really cool. They go to school together and Veronica started asking Ana Isabel questions about why she did stuff differently and why was acted differently. Well she explained and little by little started telling her about the church. Veronica is part of an Athiest family, and she didnt even know who Jesus was. So they had talked a little and veronica was really curious and REALLY wanted to go to church. So last weekend, they were assigned to do a school project together and they set it up so they could have a sleepover on saturday to sunday. But the real reason for the sleepover is cuz she wanted to go to church. So she went to church and LOVED it. then we came over after and ate lunch iwth them then taught about the apostacy with cups...building the cup pyramid. She loved it and at the end we gave her a book of mormon...and wow....i have never seen someone so happy to have a copy of the book of mormon. She was surprised we were giving it to her and said thankyou very sincerely. She just stared at the book for a while then started flipping through the pages. It was amazing. She looked through the pictures and asked about them and she really wanted to read and pray about it. Now i really know what the scriptures mean about being childlike. Watching her have such a great love, respect and excitement for what we were saying and for the book of mormon really is beyond discription. Just seeing how pure of mind she was and humble enough to put aside all the teaching of her past, because she really felt something about this. I wish everyone could be childlike.....the mission would be so much greater....but sadly its a very rare thing....too many people are hardened and confused by the world. They arent pure enough to really tune into the spirit.....but thats what we have to work with. But ya....that was an amazing experience.
This week I also made a skate video! I was walking in another area and there was a skatepark, so i decided to do a run, Elder smith took my camera and sang an ACDC song as i ran down the halfpipe, off the jump, did a grind, stalled on the other quarter pipe, did a grab off another jump, went on the last rail and RIGHt at the end of the rail, i ate it hard! haha. it was great. all on video too....iºll have to practice my extreme runnign skills haha.
As for our investigators.....weºre having to drop like all of them. This area is good for people to listen to us...but there are lots of lazy people in this area, so weºre dropping the people who arent doing what they need to so we can find those that are really ready. Its a really tough thing to do...but it has to be done. We do have a few investigators that are doing really well, like Dias. Hes preparing to be baptised. Hes really cool. just hasnt recieved an answer yet. then we have elizabet. Shes really cool, she just needs to know what to do with her live in boyfriend situation. Then we have Vany-whos a daughter of the family that got baptised my first week here. And we have a few other cool investigators....like Negrinho and Omid...and others.
Anyway, thats aobut my week.
ficam bem!
-Rhett
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
the weathers getting better!
Also, this week i made some AMAZING maple bar donuts....i really perfecting the recipe. mmm more reason to be happy
BUt as far as investigators, a few cool things have happened.
Our investigator Dias has been trying to get his son from Guinee Bisau for 9 years but the Govt wasnt letting him. and hes been praying and meeting with churches and stuff. But he said it wasnt untill he started meeting with us that finally the govt let his son come and now his son is here living with him. Its cool.
Also, our new investigator Clayton that i talked about last week....we went back over to his house and he was really depressed cuz his wife (who hes separated from) stole his daughter and fled to spain. and he was really depressed about it. We talked to him and helped him out a little, but then we came back a few days later to see how he was doing. and when we were there his wife and daughter showed up! it was the first time he saw her since the first time we were there, cuz it was that night when we found him that his wife and daughter disappeared and it was that night when we were there that they came back. Another cool thing.
But this week has been going really well, it has been a happy week. Today weºre playing soccer...hopefully Ill be good enough to take on Aisha when i get back! haha.
Ease it like a sunday morning!
-Rhett
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A week of miracles
A few days ago I was on division in Mem Martins (which is like the actual city of Sintra) and we were knocking doors and not having much success. SO we decided to say a prayer and ask what we should do. Well we decided to keep on knocking. THe next building, no one even let us in to enter the building from the intercom, so we went to the next building and there someone was leaving, so we walked right in. We went to the top floor (floor 5) and started knocking. Thats when the miracle started i guess. We were just having a good time, joking around and knocking and in that building at least 1 person from each of the 5 floors (including the ground floor 0, so 6 actual floors in total) answered the door and all 7 of the people/families we talked to had smiles on their faces and all of them wanted a return appointment. We even got to save someone who was stuck in the elevator in that building and that wanted a return appt. It was really cool to see what following the spirit plus a good attitude can do! haha.
Another really cool thing happened last sunday. It was fast sunday and I was fasting for my district to get new progressing investigators. And that day we went by a potential investigator to see if we could teach her. No one answered. But i heard someone home in the apparment behind us on the other side of the hallway. So I decided to knock it. A brazillian guy answered the door with his little 2 yr old girl. We introduced ourselves and he let us in to teach him. Turns out that his wife just left him and his daughter and they are looking to get a divorce. so we started talking about the restoration and how the gospel blesses families. Then his nephew came in hes 15 years old, and we started teaching him. At the end of the lesson they both wanted us to come back, so we are, this friday. So thats 2 new investigators. Then later that night we went by an inactive member, to teach her. She lives with her sister. So we went in and invited her sister who isnt a member to listen in. Her sister was interested and wanted us to come back, so that was a total of 3 new investigators in one day. IT was really cool. God is a cool dude. :P
~Yesterday we didnt have much to do in the afternoon, so we called up this 20 yr old dude that came to our english class the other day to see if we could talk to him and hear him play guitar (cuz he told us he played) he was like SURE so we met up with him, went to a park and he played guitar, the only song we all knew was Celine Dion- My heart will go on, from titanic. So he played it on his guitar and we sang in the park haha, and some other guy listened in and came over and was like "I really like that music..." so we started talking to him, and now weºre gonna teach him later today!
So thats about all the cool things that happened this week. Well there were more I guess....like we got fed by Familia Martins (a fam my dad baptised) and they love me cuz of my dad so they want to feed us everyweek haha. Thanks dad! :D~
Well have a good week everyone!
Till next time!
Signing off!
-Elder Rhett
PS Rainly Pdays suck......
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Greetings from Cacem
Some other good news, I walked into 2 baptisms! haha. A mom and son, the dad is already a member. They are a really cool family and its fun helping them get accostomed to church, and doing family night and family prayer and stuff. theyre names are Eneida and Yuri.
Theres also quite a few investigators here that are cool. We are teaching a guy from Iran, that seems really promising. Except cuz hes muslim, he has to have an interview with Pres Terry before we can really continue progressing with him.
Oh and this week, a funny story happened. We were passing by potential investigators and we were entering a house and there was a lady smoking infront of one of the appartments we were going into. I started trying to talk to her but she didnt want anything and was very vocal about it, didnt even let me talk. Wouldnt even accept a pass along card So we just left it and went into the apparment and knocked on the door of the potential investigator, they werent home. Well we left the building and there were some people loading a couch into a truck. We asked if they needed help and a voice said they did. I looked around and it was the rude lady that was smoking infront of the building. So we told them we could help move and she was happy about it. The 2 guys that were there werent too happy about it and were like "the furniture is really heavy, i dont know if you really want too" i told them that we do exercises every morning and we would love to help." so we ended up helping these people move, from the 5th floor. it was cool. And at the end, we gave them a passalong card! so, sometimes it just takes a little more work to do the work of the lord haha.
Oh and good news, theres a japanese restarant in my district! we went there yesterday! it was good :D
Long live Japan! ahha
-Rhett
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I saw Elder Bednar
So guess what!
Im getting transfered! crazy! Its weird leaving this area, ive been here for so long! but Im going to one of Dads old areas (i think) Cacém! Im excited. Except im not going Zone Leader. I was kinda bummed about that, cuz that means almost for sure i wont go Zone Leader the rest of my mission. Oh well. Cacem is gonna be really cool. Familia Martins lives there and they love me cuz of dad haha.
But the transfers were crazy this time. So many crazy things happened. like a bunch of Zone Leaders changed to Senior Comps, which almost never happens. And a bunch of people got changed around and just a bunch of unexpected stuff happened.
Oh and some other good news Elder David A Bednar came to Lisbon this week and we had a bunch of cool meetings with him. On sunday night there was a general meeting with him. It was at a stake center in Oeiras, and there were TONS of people there. all the sacrament room and cultral hall and every single room and all the hallways were PACKED. It was crazy. And it was a question and answer session. It was awesome. Then monday morning all the missionaries in the mission got together and we got to have a Question and answer session with him and got to shake his hand and everything. then on monday night there was another q and A session for all the young single adults and that was really cool too. I was soooo exhausted after everyting. I can only imagine how JS felt after seeing Jesus and God. I was out of it just spending a few hours with an apostle. haha. But it was really spiritual and i learned alot. Definately an experience I wont forget.
Oh and crazy story of the week.
We were at the mall eating at a foodcourt last pday and we were walking out and we heard this lady screaming. I turn around to see this little 4 yr old kid hanging onto the railing on the outside of an escalator and going up. An old man on the escalator grabbed him and made sure he wouldnt fall but as he got higher, the ceiling was coming up, So the kid started gettign smashed against where the escalator meets the ceiling. luckily someone pressed the stop button and he dropped a couple feet onto the top of a restarant in the foodcourt, that had a very slanted roof. I ran over to the bottom of that restarant so someone was there if he fell. Luckily he didnt and his dad ran up the escalator and pulled him up to safety. But it was pretty intense.
But thats about it. I our investigators are doing well, we had a bunch of them come see Elder Bednar, so thats good...pretty soon a bunch will be baptised here! :)
Oh, my new address in Cacém is:
Rua Almeida Garrett
Nº4 2ºA
2735 Cacém
Portugal
Have a good week!
-Rhett
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Im famous by association
its alot colder than last winter and has rained TONS more...it has rained at least once every day for 2 months or something...a long time. Im excited for spring too. today has been a good day so far. nice and sunny,....of course that doesnt mean much, it is very possible that it could turn cloudy and rain like it has done.
Things are doing well....except i have bad news......we lost half our area and almost all of our investigators.,.....Last sunday they moved our ward boundary and about 10 very cool very active members have to go to a different ward. Including Luzie (one of my baptisms) her fiancee (irmao boaventura) and a bunch of other members. AND we lost Milton and a BUNCH of new investigators we had. 8 of them. Now the Irmas of the other ward are gonna get them. they´re happy....but it took away everything from us. Luckily we still have Welton, whos marked for baptism, and still have a few investigators. but weºre gonna have to get to work. But we worked alot in the area that was cut from our ward...it was a very good area, very ready, but now we cant work in that area....so we have to branch out.
But something cool, there is a portuguese TV sitcom show (mainly for teenagers) here called Morangos Com Açucar (Strawberries with Sugar) and we were on the metro with a member, and he pointed out this one teenager and said --that kid is an actor, from Morangos com açucar. I didnt believe him at first, but then i saw a group of girls looking over at him and whipering to eachother and giggleing....so that helped me believe him. ahah
so we get on the metro and hes standing right by me, listening to music and i lean over to him and say "so my friend over there says your an actor" and he said "ya, from a sitcom here called Morangos com Açucar." I told him i had never seen it....then he said i should watch it...then we just started talking, i asked him how he liked bein an actor, told him i studied cinema..stuff like that. He was actually a pretty cool kid, i ended up giving him a restoration pamphlet. haha His name is Raul, But i dont know if thats his characters name or his real name.....haha
And actually earlier that day, we went to lunch with that same member and we left lunch and we saw a fight...5 teenagers against 5 security guards. Now you might be thinking "oh that cant be too much of a fight, the security guards can handle 5 teenage punk kids" but then you have to realize.....that Im in portugual. 1. Everyone here is a wimp and normally yell and act tough, but dont throw blows.... 2. when they do...its very not affective. The security guards and the kids were pushing eachother yelling...the security guards even acted less mature than that kids they were trying to get the kids out, one short stalky security guard was very firery and had to be separated from the kids...it was a mess....a joke. The short security guard kicked one of the kids, it looked funny and didnt look liek it hurt at all haha...but finally the kids just left and the security guards felt very cool. haha. I dont feel very secure in this country. Be greatful for the good public services that we have in the USA, all public services are a joke here. So even if the police pull you over and give you a ticket you dont agree with, be greatful that they are actually working, unlike many of the police here.
Nothing else really exciting happened this week.....oh i did get to see a picture of my house. that was cool. we were at a members house and he was on Google Earth and he wanted to see where I lived. So i gave him the address and i didnt know that in the newer google earth they have pictures of the streets...like panoramic pictures! so i got to see my road and a front view of my house and other sites around.....it was cool...the member enjoyed seeing where i lived.
And thats it
Till next time
-Elder Rhett Hildebrandt
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Hey everyone!
But our investigators are doing really well, Milton is going to give us a baptism date tomorrow. He said he wont let febuary pass by w/o him getting baptised.
Fabio is doing really well. weve just been his friend, which is what he needs. Everyone else in the church just pressures him to do stuff...and he doesnt have good friends so they yell at him for that. But weve started being his friend and teaching him and havign him change his life. Like last night we went to his house and talked to him for a while, then we talked about how people are happier if they obey the commandments and then by himself he said that he needs to stop smoking, so now weºre helping him stop! its cool.
Oh and on monday, we got to watch the SUPERBOWL! yay! we had a family night with Welton (panda) Pepi and Franciel and watched the superbowl iwth them cuz Franciel recorded it. It was fun trying to explain what was happening the whole time. It was awesome how the cardnals came back at the end....and with 43 seconds left in the game....the recording ended!!!!!!!! so as far as I know...the cardnals won ahah... (but i already heard that the stealers came back and won.)
Ummmmm and thats about it for my week. It was a good week overall.
have a good week todos!
-Rhett
PS....im sick of rain.....(and ignore last weeks PS...:P)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Famous Elder Hildebrandt
we didnt quite make our goal of new investigators.....we only got half....but weºre keeping on trying...its harder said then done haha, but weºre working hard, and i think here soon weºll get some good investigators. We went by a university the other day and talked to some people. Weºre gonna try to get a conference or presentation going there. Thatd be really cool. The assistants did really well with new investigators... they blew the goal out of the water and got 14! not i have a new thing going that if anyone in my district beats the APs Iºll buy them lunch. Hopefully it inspires them haha.
But we do have some good news, we have an investigator thats gonna be baptised on the 28th of feb! :D hes this brazilian (a roommate of a member) that is a new investigator of last week. hes been reading the book of mormon, and i asked him about it and he said that hes really mad and i asked why and he was like "cuz laman and lemuel are so stupid! they wont listen to anyone!" haha. hes awesome. We taught about the plan of salvation and about how everyone has a mission on earth and he said " well i think Franciels (his roommate) mission was to introduce me to the church and my mission is to bring it back to my family!" So even though we didnt make our goal of 10 investigators, 1 golden one makes up for it :D
Weve also been working with Fabio (i think i mentioned him in my last letter) hes doing really good. improving every day. we were going to go to a family night in the institute and we decided to swing by his house unanounced and see if he wanted to come. We got there and he was really excited to go so we went and he had a good time! So things are going good with him.
Then with Milton...hes still having troubles deciding if he wants to be baptised. he likes church and has a testimony of hte book of mormon, but we found out yesterday that he is having troubles believing Joseph Smith. So we had a good lesson with him, cuz I dont know if you guys even knew this, but i had doubts about Joseph Smith before the mission...but i knew the book of mormon was true...so i forced myself to beleive in him....but it wasnt untill the MTC that i really got a STRONG testimony of JS...instead of a forced one. So i shared that with him and i think it helped.
OH! guess what! this week, i was in the newspaper! Its this news paper called the Metro, and its daily for free in all the Metros here in Lisbon, so its a pretty widespread newspaper and me and few other elders were in it! they did an article on this Aquarium (almost as good as that aquarium we went to befoer my mission....almost :P) here in lisbon...and we were there last PDAY and we got our picture taken looking at otters and it was put in the paper! One other elder called us up and was like have you seen the metro today? and i was like...noo... and he was like...go get one right now! so we went and got one and we were in it! it was awesome!
I dont have any funny expericences this week...at least none that i can remember.....but it was a really good week. I really like this area, i know how to work it really well...so it makes work alot more enjoyable. Today weºre gonna have a fun Pday, its rainy so weºre gonna have a rainy day pday, play board games, watch best 2 years, etc with a bunch of elders. it should be fun.
And thats about it!
Untill next week!
-Elder Rhett
PS This coldplay music video is TRIPPY...it has paper butterflies and lazer pens and fireworks and whoa......(not that im watching it...cuz that wouldnt be good.....even though its in this internet cafe and right infront of me.....:D)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Bom Dia Todos!
I just got done with a 2 day division. I was out of my area for 2 full days doing divisions with other elders in my district, and i realized how attached I am to Campo Pequeno. I felt out of place in the other areas and wanted to get back to my area.....man...i didnt realized how good this area is.
While i was on division, we went to go visit an inactive member named Antonio Alves. He had sent us a text saying that he had a dream that he died and hes suffering alot (he has psycological problems, so he says interesting stuff alot) So we went to visit him and we opened the door to his hallway (its kinda like a Motel hallway, outside and then has doors to go into the individual appartments) and he was at the end laying on the ground. We go over to him and ask him whats wrong. He said he fell 2 days ago and dragged himself outside to get help, but hes been there for 2 days. and said he feels a pain in his bones all over his body. we called an ambulance and then gave him a blessing. then the medics came and checked him out. He was fine physically but just mentally he was a mess. He hadnt been talking his medication, so they took him to the hospital to visit with his doctor and get medication.
Then they went back (after the division) to clean his house cuz he left us his key while he was going to be in the hospital. and the front door had a hole in it. Apparently he was only in the hospital for a few minutes cuz his doctor wasnt there and he came home and just broke a hole in his door to go in. it was a pretty interesting experience.
I heard about Barrack Obama, and that he messed up on the oath. I found that funny that this man, that is pretty much a god here in portugal messed up. haha.
We got challenged in Zone Conference to get 10 investigators a week, so weºre striving to get that. and we have gotten 7 so far and 5 of those is from 1 member. This brazilian named Francel. he just started being active again. Heºs 26, served a mission and is married with a little girl but they live in brazil and hes here to work, but we went over to his house and we taught his roommate, his roommate loved it and even came to church the next day. Then after church we went to his house to eat and he invited TONS of his friends, so we got 4 new investigators from him. it was a fun dinner..and they want to go to this brazilian buffet with us sometime :)
We also have been working with this inactive kid named Fabio. Hes 20, has no job, or school...pretty much stays home, playing videogames, or goes out and smokes weed with his friends. But we started teaching him more and hes opening up more. so thats good. hopefully we can continue to help him.
now on to some bad news.....Elder Tuckers new comp (that he was training got sent home a few days ago. I dont really know why but Tucker said he was having problems. so that was sad....weve had 3 people go home early in the last few weeks...its been tough.
And Elder Watkins was sick with a fever for 2 days...that was killer....cuz we just stayed in for most of the day.......i was bored outta my mind...one day we played Settlers of Katan for like 3 hours straight....gah. we got to go out for a few hours each day and those hours felt so good.
And some bad news about Madelena. We were having a hard time marking and appointment with her and she didnt come to church. At church we talked to her friend whos a member and she said that she doesnt want to meet with us anymore....maybe sometime in the future, but not now.....so that was kinda hard....
but whatever...the work goes on and its still great here!
have an amazing week everyone
-Rhett
------- <<< No PS today.... :(
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Hey peeps
Weºve also been helping out a member named Alcidio find and apply for work in Ireland. He is limited in english, but wants to learn...so hes going to ireland to work and learn english. But if you guys know of any good job that would hire someone that speaks limited english but would give him achance to learn, lemme know.
Weºve also started to teach pepiºs mom, We watched the testiments with him her and her boyfriend the other day and they really liked it. Afterwards we had a good question and answer session. Hopefully she shows more interess. I also had a division with one of the APs (elder Allen) luckily this transfer we have 2 very good APs, in contrast to the 2 not so good ones we had last transfer haha. We got alot of good ideas together on how to make the work go better. its gonna be a good transfer.
We also have a new investigator (i might have mentioned her already before) but her name is Madelena. Shes a neighbor of a member and we met her when we went to the members house for christmas. Buts shes come to church the last 2 times and loves it. We watched the restoration on saturday and invited her to pray. i asked her about it on sunday and she said she prayed and all she could think about was the movie! yay!
Things are going well with Elder Watkins. weºre getting along well, although im sick of playing Magic.....haha...he wants to play for almost every dinner break. But we get along well and its been really fun. He says hes from Scotsdale AZ, but really only lived there for 3 years...I say hes from smithfield UT...where hes lived longer.
Ive started writing more in my free time, like i used to in Jr high, cuz one of my APs talked about how he writes...so i started, mostly gospel based stuff (ya know...cuz im a missionary and stuff haha...) so thats been good.
My parents told me that guy with a claw hand was a hereditary disease.....but i think thats just a cover for the aliens we have among us :P haha
anyway....ate mais!
-Elder Rhett
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEARS!
heres what has been happinin lately
things here.....are great as normal. I have my new comp, elder Watkins. Hes not as bad as other missionaries have said, we get along pretty well. Hes pretty nerdy (remember, geeky is good, nerdy is bad...geeky means you like computers and stuff but still have a social life and are not obsessed with stuff like that, nerdy is you would rather play on the computer instead of go on a date. haha) but we can connect with things like that. Ive been sick the last few days (dont worry, just a cold and its already passed...and it wasnt that bad) so we had to stay in a bit, so I spent the time either sleeping or we played Magic the card game or Settlers of Zarahemla (its this game like Settlers of Katan.,.a board game, but the mormon version. He actually bought it in a popular Media (movies books cds etc) store here called FNAC, i was amazed they had it) But i beat him at both games quite a bit, more than lose...he didnt like that haha, cuz i ddint even know how to play Magic at the start but last night I beat him pretty bad (ok...now i might be getting a little nerdy...bragging about beating someone at magic...haha)
Everyone was pretty surprised at me being in church...they were like....ummm what happened....i just had to tell them that im here for another 6 weeks! haha, everyone was happy at that though.
Oh the other day, Elder Watkins and I were waiting for a bus, and there was a guy in a parked car talking to some people outside of his car, and the guy in the car had claws for hands! and not like mechanical claws cuz his hands were chopped off, his hands were litterally claws, like the shape of a crab claw and they were big. it was INSANE i think it was an alien. Im pretty sure it was, cuz i couldnt see his face, he was wearing a hood, and had claws....definately and alien.
See, there are all these cartoons on TV and you watch them and all the cartoon characters have very exaggerated features, like big noses, long necks, etc...and you think...these characters are pretty crazy, but fake. WRONG, they are crazy, but im pretty sure that everyone that has made a cartoon got their inspiration from some people here in portugal! haha. Ive seen people here with perfectly round but huge noses, weird cartoon eyes...there are tons of cartoon characters here! haha, i love it here
A few nights ago we had an appointment with a member, but it got over early so we still had about 30 minutes to do something before heading home, so we decided to knock doors. Its about 8:30 and we start on this one building....and EVERYONE in that building got mad at us, they were yelling at us through the intercom and 3 people came out the windows and were yelling at us, 1 stayed out the window and yelled at us till we left that we cant be knocking all the doors and were disturbing people etc. It was funny how everyone was so mad, at 2 well groomed, and very handsome (at least on my part :P) young men trying to talk about Jesus Christ. Its a crazy world we live in. But we kept on going untill 9:00 where we decided to head home. While we were waiting for the bus, i started talking to this one lady that was really nice and we talked at the busstop, got on the bus and talked the whole way home. It was really cool, she was really receptive and hopefully she turns into a new investigator. It was just an interestign contrast in a matter of 30 minutes.
Our investigators are doing well, weºre still working with Milton, we invited him to fast and pray about getting baptised, even if its against his mothers wishes. We told him that if he gets baptised his earthly mother might be offended, but if he doesnt, his heavenly father might get offended. That put things in perspective for him.
Weve been working with Pepi alot, taking him to lessons and stuff. hes amazing. We had a lesson with his girlfriend in Brazil via webcam. And we invited her to find the missionaries and get a book of mormon. 2 days latter we were talking with pepi and he said that his girlfriend found the church closest to her, which was all the way on the other side of her city, she walked there only to find it locked shut. she waited a little but no one came, so she wrote on a note that she wanted a book of mormon with her number and her address and then threw it behind the gate, then she was looking at the note and thought.,..hmm that will probably blow away, so she went around back, jumped the fence, got her note and slid it under the chapel door and went home. On her way home the bishop called her and said that hed send the missionaries over with the book! its really cool...hopefully she gets baptised, pepi can go home marry her, create a nice little brazilian mormon family, etc.haha
We went to a members house here and he had these gel packs..from provo, a company called Agel. it like protein supplements and energy boosters etc. The purple on I had was good...the red one was disgusting, but had 10 grams of protein. have you guys heard of these...im guessing its prolly soem piramid scheme in utah, haha.
things here.....are great as normal. I have my new comp, elder Watkins. Hes not as bad as other missionaries have said, we get along pretty well. Hes pretty nerdy (remember, geeky is good, nerdy is bad...geeky means you like computers and stuff but still have a social life and are not obsessed with stuff like that, nerdy is you would rather play on the computer instead of go on a date. haha) but we can connect with things like that. Ive been sick the last few days (dont worry, just a cold and its already passed...and it wasnt that bad) so we had to stay in a bit, so I spent the time either sleeping or we played Magic the card game or Settlers of Zarahemla (its this game like Settlers of Katan.,.a board game, but the mormon version. He actually bought it in a popular Media (movies books cds etc) store here called FNAC, i was amazed they had it) But i beat him at both games quite a bit, more than lose...he didnt like that haha, cuz i ddint even know how to play Magic at the start but last night I beat him pretty bad (ok...now i might be getting a little nerdy...bragging about beating someone at magic...haha)
Everyone was pretty surprised at me being in church...they were like....ummm what happened....i just had to tell them that im here for another 6 weeks! haha, everyone was happy at that though.
Oh the other day, Elder Watkins and I were waiting for a bus, and there was a guy in a parked car talking to some people outside of his car, and the guy in the car had claws for hands! and not like mechanical claws cuz his hands were chopped off, his hands were litterally claws, like the shape of a crab claw and they were big. it was INSANE i think it was an alien. Im pretty sure it was, cuz i couldnt see his face, he was wearing a hood, and had claws....definately and alien.
See, there are all these cartoons on TV and you watch them and all the cartoon characters have very exaggerated features, like big noses, long necks, etc...and you think...these characters are pretty crazy, but fake. WRONG, they are crazy, but im pretty sure that everyone that has made a cartoon got their inspiration from some people here in portugal! haha. Ive seen people here with perfectly round but huge noses, weird cartoon eyes...there are tons of cartoon characters here! haha, i love it here
A few nights ago we had an appointment with a member, but it got over early so we still had about 30 minutes to do something before heading home, so we decided to knock doors. Its about 8:30 and we start on this one building....and EVERYONE in that building got mad at us, they were yelling at us through the intercom and 3 people came out the windows and were yelling at us, 1 stayed out the window and yelled at us till we left that we cant be knocking all the doors and were disturbing people etc. It was funny how everyone was so mad, at 2 well groomed, and very handsome (at least on my part :P) young men trying to talk about Jesus Christ. Its a crazy world we live in. But we kept on going untill 9:00 where we decided to head home. While we were waiting for the bus, i started talking to this one lady that was really nice and we talked at the busstop, got on the bus and talked the whole way home. It was really cool, she was really receptive and hopefully she turns into a new investigator. It was just an interestign contrast in a matter of 30 minutes.
Our investigators are doing well, weºre still working with Milton, we invited him to fast and pray about getting baptised, even if its against his mothers wishes. We told him that if he gets baptised his earthly mother might be offended, but if he doesnt, his heavenly father might get offended. That put things in perspective for him.
Weve been working with Pepi alot, taking him to lessons and stuff. hes amazing. We had a lesson with his girlfriend in Brazil via webcam. And we invited her to find the missionaries and get a book of mormon. 2 days latter we were talking with pepi and he said that his girlfriend found the church closest to her, which was all the way on the other side of her city, she walked there only to find it locked shut. she waited a little but no one came, so she wrote on a note that she wanted a book of mormon with her number and her address and then threw it behind the gate, then she was looking at the note and thought.,..hmm that will probably blow away, so she went around back, jumped the fence, got her note and slid it under the chapel door and went home. On her way home the bishop called her and said that hed send the missionaries over with the book! its really cool...hopefully she gets baptised, pepi can go home marry her, create a nice little brazilian mormon family, etc.haha
We went to a members house here and he had these gel packs..from provo, a company called Agel. it like protein supplements and energy boosters etc. The purple on I had was good...the red one was disgusting, but had 10 grams of protein. have you guys heard of these...im guessing its prolly soem pyramid scheme in utah, haha.
And thats about it! have an amazing week everyone!
-Elder Rhett "Dark Dungeon Ice Master" Hildebrandt! :P