So i have good news, especially for my Dad. Last saturday, i went and had lunch with Sergio Torrão and his family! (my dad baptised their family when he was on his mission) it was really cool seeing them. He actually married one of the Martin´s (another person my dad baptised) and they have 3 kids...and live in the building that used to be the old chapel in Amadora! Also they invited over the Grilo´s (my dad baptised the wife of that fam). So it was really cool seeing them too. Patricia lives above them, and i went and said hi to her as we were leaving. Shes pretty inactive....and seemed like she didnt want to talk much :S But Sergio says she still knows the church is true.
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 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
B=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=B3fia!?=
10
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
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
This week:
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
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!
Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the april fools joke last week! now moving on to this week!
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.
Man, you thought last week was cool, wait for this week....well its cool but in a different way.
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
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
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