Coincidence?

This week was awesome....full of "coincidences"
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

Alternative finding?

Another week gone by, time really does to seem to be flying.
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

the weathers getting better!

Man its sooooo nice to have better weather. It seems liek all of portugal is lightening up with the weather. Im wearing a short sleave shirt now!!! :D
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

A week of miracles

Things here are going great. Me and Elder Gray are getting along good. And the work here is really fun. A few cool things have happened this week:
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......