RhettSpace

2009-06-24T02:08:00.001-07:00

Well....its finally happening, Im coming home. Funny, cuz it seems like Im leaving home. (stolen from the other side of heaven) haha. But actually.....my feelings about coming home arent really anything. It hasnt really hit me I guess. Like Im sitting here typing my last email, but it seems like Im just going to wake up tomorrow and do missionary work as normal. So to answer your question...i feel normal.... I did say my goodbyes, but it really didnt feel like i was saying goodbye. Just seemed like a goodbye when i get transfered or something. So maybe it´ll really hit me when im actually LEAVING the country. but I dunno.
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

Walkin the green mile

2009-06-17T02:01:00.001-07:00

1
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

Only 1 more full week!

2009-06-12T04:00:00.001-07:00

2
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

Three more weeks

2009-06-03T02:04:00.001-07:00

3
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

Lost Son

2009-05-27T04:03:00.001-07:00

Its so crazy that I have less than a month left! after today Iºll only have 4 more Pdays! Yesterday I had my last zone conference and i gave my last testimony. I think it went over well. I quoted Lion King, Mulan, and Boy Meets World. haha. :D
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

And his name shall be know throughout his life and upon the record of the church as...

2009-05-20T03:30:00.001-07:00

5
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

Hey my fellow blogguers

2009-05-13T02:02:00.001-07:00

Theres not much news....umm last week Elder Tucker stayed with us for a few days cuz of Zone Conference. So he came up last wednesday and stayed untill saturday morning. That was fun seeing him again. Also on thurday we had a bbq with the new brazillian family we´re teaching. They are way cool. We played tag with the kids for a long time! it was a blast! we have an appointment with them on friday, im really excited for them.
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

A series of interesting event

2009-05-06T11:05:00.001-07:00

This week was a great week. I bought my suit! its really cool, right now a member is fixing it for me (sleaves and pant legs). I really like it.
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

I dont like the cold...

2009-04-29T03:33:00.001-07:00

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

B=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=B3fia!?=

2009-04-22T01:49:00.001-07:00

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

YO

2009-04-15T03:56:00.001-07:00

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

Dog Bite!

2009-04-08T03:41:00.001-07:00

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

Livin in a Gangstas Paradise.

2009-04-01T03:25:00.001-07:00

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

Coincidence?

2009-03-25T04:56:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-18T04:54:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-11T05:43:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-04T03:46:00.001-08:00

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......

Greetings from Cacem

2009-02-25T04:23:00.001-08:00

So Im here in Cacém now. Its a cool area, it reminds me of Barreiro, but a little nicer. Theres a high african population here. And in my ward I have President Martins, his wife and 2 of his sons, Daniel and Simão. Its cool getting to know a family better that my dad knew. I dont know if he really even knew Simão. And if he knew Daniel, he would have been just a little kid. Also Ive met some other members that knew my dad, so its pretty cool.
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

I saw Elder Bednar

2009-02-18T03:55:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!
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

Im famous by association

2009-02-11T04:17:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!
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

Hey everyone!

2009-02-04T03:52:00.001-08:00

This week was awesome! it felt really good. We ALMOsT reached our goal of new investigators. we got 9. It was sweet. They all seem pretty cool. It was a pretty cool story getting 3 of them. We had an appointment with Panda (the investigator thats marked for baptism) But we called him right before and he canceled....and we didnt have anything else planned for the night cuz we were pretty sure on that appointment going through. And its pouring rain...and we didnt bring umbrellas....getting soaking wet.....so we decided to pass by this guy we contacted on the street the other day. We get to his road...and start searching for his house, come to find out his house # doesnt exist....so now were even more out of ideas...so I decided to just start knocking. We go to the last building on the street and go to the 7th floor, and knock the first door. They answer, a HUGE family, but they didnt want anything. 2nd door doesnt answer...then we go to the third door and this old lady answers. Usually old ladies dont ever want anything but she wanted to talk. We asked if we oculd come in and teach her and her fam, but she said just talk to her cuz her family doesnt want to listen. So we go in to the living/dining room and her 40 yr old son is eating dinner, we greet him and hes really nice. WE start teaching and hes participating, the old lady is listening, then her 16 yr old granddaughter comes in the room and listens! it was really cool. So we got 3 new investigators. God was like "im sorry your appointment fell through and its rainign hard...so heres 3 new investigators" God is a cool guy.
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)

Famous Elder Hildebrandt

2009-01-28T04:07:00.001-08:00

Ok...ill start off with the bad news and then get to the better:
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)

Bom Dia Todos!

2009-01-21T04:15:00.001-08:00

heres the update for the week
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.... :(

Hey peeps

2009-01-14T04:43:00.001-08:00

This week....hmm....we had zone conference yesterday. That was good...its always SOOO LONG gah. I mean its really cool and i learn alot...but by the end im so brain dead i just want to sleep haha. Its really crazy that I only have 3 more Zone Conferences! the mission is too short...
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

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

2009-01-07T04:14:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a great newyears....mine was kinda...nothin special, but whatever!
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

FELIZ NATAL

2008-12-30T07:56:00.001-08:00

Sorry I didnt update this week, but im updating now.
So, i think Im just gonna stop guessing about transfers...like my mom said, i was wrong again.....the thing is that the Zone Leaders do this thing called indicaçoes that tells president what everyone should do for transfers...and since ive been in the district with the Assistants, nothing has happened as the zone leaders have said. They have been saying for 5 transfers that i should go Zone Leader...but i dont think the assistants like me cuz i treat them like normal missionaries, and not the gods they think they are haha. but Im staying here in Campo Pequeno. Elder Wilson is leaving to one of dad´s areas, Estoril. My new comp is going to be Elder Watkins. Hes a transfer older than me and....not many missionaries get along well with him from what ive heard....but we´ll see. I wasnt really expecting this at all and already said my goodbyes to everyone. Everyone is going to be surprised when I show up to church again on sunday haha.
This whole week, nothing really exciting happened. Christmas was good, we just spent the day with other elders, it was fun.
Christmas eve we were invited to a members house to eat. We didnt start eating till late, adn we had already eaten at chilis a few hours before so i wasnt hungry. First they brought out shrimp(still in the shell with eyes legs and everything..thats how they eat it here) and bread and cheese, I didnt really eat much, I dont really mind shrimp but i dont like taking it out of the shell and it looks disgusting. Elder Wilson LOVED it. he ate soooooo much, probably a couple pounds of shrimp. Then they brought out Cod Fish (which is traditional christmas food here) Elder Wilson didnt know there was more. But he loved it and ate tons of cod fish. I usually like how they prepare the cod here, but this was just grilled and it was really chewy and boney and yuck...it wasnt that good. Luckily it was late so we used the excuse that he have to be home on time, so we left. and went to the other elders house, slept there and had christmas in the morning.
The rest of the week I visited lots of members cuz i thought I was leaving....it was fun though.
Elder Wilson has been freaking out all week, first cuz i was leaving and he was scared of how he was gonna be when I left...then even more when he found out he was leaving and didnt say goodbye to people. This morning he packed....it was one of the most funny and enjoyable things ive ever seen just watching that kid pack. It was a mess! i just sat back and chuckled to myself as he frantically did everything.
We taught a lesson with pepi to another investigator (cuz pepi is a member now so he helps out with the missionaries) He teaches REALLY well. I was just sittign there thinking, "wow...i never taught him how to do that" or "I dotn remember teaching him that" but he teaches better than me, i was very impressed. Then we went to his house and taught his girlfriend via webcam in brazil. He was very sincere with her, he really wants her to get a book of mormon and read it and he really wants to marry her in the temple. it was cool, shes a good girl too, I think she wont have a problem finding out the truth.
And thats about it this week.
I hope everyone has a good new year! I dont really have any plans but...meh
Tchau todos!
-Elder Rhett
PS. I hope my christmas presents got to everyone...and there is more christmas on the way! ;)

1 week to go

2008-12-17T04:03:00.001-08:00

hey everyone! so......im done with another week cool huh! Its crazy, I hit my slump day in 3 days....Ive been on the mission for 18 months! whoa!
But.....
The week was good. Its been cold here....not as cold as there, but its humid and im used to the warmer weather here now so im always freezing. It stays around 9ºC. and its been raining nonstop for about 1.5 weeks.
Elder Wilson LOVES the cold and wet weather and is always like making fun of me for not liking it....and that gets annoying....Its been a very annoying 2 transfers. I love the kid, and hes a very nice kid and we get along alright, just every day I wake up and want to hit my head against the wall haha just kidding. One particuarly rainy and cold morning we had a streetmeeting schedueled. (streetmeeting is where we get together as a zone in one area and contact people) well Elder Wilson was estatic that it was raining and said he had been praying for it, but because of the rain, the streetmeeting was canceled right before we had to go out after our studies and we didnt have anything else planned that day. So needless to say i wasnt too happy. Cuz i didnt want to go get soaked in the rain trying to contact people on the street that wouldnt listen cuz it was raining or knocking doors that no one would open cuz its morning. But i decided to visit this guy named Arton that we passed by a week or 2 ago and left a christmas message. Hes a nice guy from Sao Tome Principe, and has a friend named Cristino that lives with him, and also a daughter named susana. So we went over there and i was getting annoyed by everyhting Elder Wilson was doing (which is not normal for me to do with anyone else....he just knows how to hit all my buttons wrongly) but we went to this guys house and luckily he was there. So we went in, waited for him to finish somethin in the kitchen and while we were waiting, his friend Cristino comes in and starts talking with us. He said hes feeling sickwith his back and leg. and wanted to know if we did prayers for the sick. We told him we could give him a blessing after the lesson.
Arton came in and we taught them a good 1st lesson and watched the restoration. They both had really good questions and his daughter was in there to watch the movie! they were really interested and after the lesson we gave Cristino a blessing, and it was really cool, the spirit was awesoem. Then we left and went to a ward party and dinner at Pepis (which was really good. We go tto teach his mom and his moms boyfriend) At the party Elder Wilson realized he left our keys at Artons house....so that night we had to go back to get the keys, we got them and invited him again to church the next day. He said maybe. Well at church the next day, durring sunday school, arton shows up. and then in sacrament it ewas the primary program, he loved it. then just last night he showed up to aulas to ingles!
And then on division the other day, Elder Wilson and Smith stayed here and went and taught Cristino again cuz he wanted another blessing. And things could be really good with this family, im excited. So it was a good ending to a day that started off really bad haha.
Also we have an investigator named Laurinda. A really old lady that has been coming to church for years but doesnt want to be baptised and is kinda senile. But she loves the Elders and has started warming up alot to us. I think she likes me alot. But yesterday, she committed to be baptised finally! She still needs to understand about...everything cuz its hard for her to grasp all the contents of the lessons, even when we teach them simply. But at least shes making progress!
We had a good ward christmas party. We put on the nativity and I was an angel! haha. Me and Elder Wilson and Pepi also performed the Little Drummer Boy song in portuguese! it was awesome! I played the Bongos, Pepi played guitar and elder Wilson sung. sadly, we didnt get that on camera....but it was awesome. Pepi is an awesome member.
Lets see...what else happened.....
Oh I got a letter from that brazilian family that I taught in Olhao, Juliane Gessyca and Manuela. (gessyca is the one that looks like sister sister) that was really cool! they said that they are all reading the book of mormon and listening to the elders. I dont know if they jsut said that to make me feel good, but at least they are thinking about it haha.
Well.....next week is christmas, so everyone prepare...i would not decline any letters or packages sent to me :D haha jk
(Elder Rhett Hildebrandt
Rua Jorge Barradas 14.c
1500 Lisboa
Portugal) haha

Th-t-th-thats all folk!
-elder Rhett

I never want to get hurt in portugal

2008-12-10T04:30:00.001-08:00

Its been a crazy week this week. believe it or not....Wilson did it again, We were moving furniture around in our room and he goes to lift a little night stand thats by his bed...and a window....he lifts and his shoulder goes through the window...shattering it. So now wilson has a grand total of 2 windows broken, and he still doesnt ahve any personal money....Luckily he sent for his card last week and should be getting it soon....and ill make him pay me back...there is no way im leaving without money cuz ive been jipped lately. Wilsonºs a good kid, and a really nice kid, and he doesnt try to be malicious in his doings...hes just kinda......doido (dad will know what that is) This week he also broke an old oil lamp that was in our house cuz he hit the coat rack it was on really hard and it fell and shatterd the glass and broke the metal...ANd he broke a chair at Pepis house just by touching it...and pepi was sitting on it...wilson touched the chair and pepi fell cuz the legs came out under him and broke....AND our neighbor (this old lady) on the 1st floor has a broken window cuz she said glass fell from our window, hit her window and broke it. That one im not buying at ALL. 1st of all its very unlikely that a piece of glass could break a window, and 2...the window that was broken on her isnt the one directly below the window wilson broke....its to the left and AROUND a corner...so she just wants money or something, i already told her that it wasnt our fault and not paying....but wilsons bad luck is INTENSE.
Something else exciting happened yesterday, I was on a division with another elder in my district and we were walking home, I passed a parked car and thought I saw something, i stop and walk back and theres an old man laying on the ground with his coat over his head...right onthe street, not moving. I looked up and there were 2 girls and some other people gathered around. I asked what happened and they said that they think he fell and heºs bleeding from his head. I asked if they checked his pulse and they said hes been moving a bit and that they called an ambulance about 30 minutes ago. I think and im like well, we need to keep this guy awake. I look at the guys head, and its hurt and bleeding, not bleeding really bad but his forhead had a nice bang on it. Then i start talking to him, tell him to stay awake, dont sleep. One of the girls said that he only responded to her in english, so I started talking to him in english, telling him to stay awake, asking his name but he wouldnt say anything. But he did move around some. Turns out its an old Ukranian guy that lives around there. Finally after a few minutes, the police show up, a female cop gets out of the cop car and comes over, she takes off the guys coat and starts asking him questions. The girls say that he doents respond to english, then the girl cop puts the coat back on the guys head and starts asking what happened and stuff. The girls says and then she just stands back and tells everyone not to touch the guy cuz no one is a registered medic. and then the cop doenst do anything,
Then an old lady from the window comes out and says "oh that guy is still there, i saw him get knicked by a car and fall down about an hour or so ago" and then one of the girls snapped at the old lady "and you didnt tell anyone or call the ambulance!?" then the cop tells the girl to calm down and the girl is like "sorry, its just a stressful situation" then takes out a cig and starts smoking. Then another old lady comes walking by and is like...oh an ambulance already came and looked at this guy about an hour ago... and the girl was like "and they didnt do anything? thats unbelieveable" and lthe cop is like "well if he doesnt have any documentation, they cant do anything". Well then the girl cops partner comes...and he is the BIGGEST jerk ever. he goes over to the guy and takes off his coat and starts just joking with him and poking him. then puts the coat back over his head and was like "oh just let him sleep, hes just drunk" and then the whole time he was just making fun of this guy...then he starts brutally rummaging through the mans pockets for ID and the man starts freaking out. I keep him calm and the girls start yelling at the cop cuz hes hurting the man more. He finds a wallet and starts going though it, while im still trying to talk to the man, keeping him awake. Then i realize that this guy is in shock and hes shivering....so me and Elder Smith decide to go get a blanket from our house cuz the ambulance isnt showing up. So we run home (it wasnt far) get a blanket and run back, but by that time, an ambulance had already shown up and was taking the guy in. The police officer came over and thanked us, but still in avery lighthearted way.
I never want to get hurt here in portugal. It was RIDICULOUS! they could have cared less about that guy...except for the girls that were there. It was horrible. I hope the guy is alright, I wish i did more, thinking back there is tons I could have done that i didnt. It was really an eye opener.
Well....on to better stuff, A few days ago, we had a conference with Elder Causee of the 70. He gave a talk in last general conference. The french guy. He was really good. I enjoyed it alot and i learned alot.
Our investigators are doing well, Milton (the nephew of a member) told us yesterday that he knows the book of mormon is true and hes scheduled to be baptised on the 3rd! the only problem is that his mom is against it. So hes going to have to talk to his mom. We cant talk to her cuz shes still in Cabo Verde. So weºll hope that his mom permits him.
Pepi is still doing awesome....weºve found a couple of families and taught them, they might have potential, weºll see. But the work is going relaly well.
Oh and a little post mission stuff... I was talking to some people about rooming with them at BYU after the mission, we have me and 3 other people that want to start a turtle house. Have an apartment or smaller house and weºre gonna decorate it with turtle stuff and then also each of us have a turtle...so itºll have to be soemthing that allows small pets. its gonna be awesome!
And that was my week!
Keep it real!
-Rhett

28 days later....divided by 4....

2008-12-03T04:19:00.001-08:00

So my week was pretty cool. heres what happened!
Thanksgiving went REALLY well. I cooked a turkey, ham, stuffing, candy yams, apple pie (all of which i had never made before), mashed potatoes, gravy, jello, salad, pudding, and I think thats about it. But it all turned out DELICIOUS! there were 14 people i cooked for and everyone loved it. Everyone played soccer while I cooked then we all came in and ate and shared stories and stuff. it was a really good traditional feeling thanksgiving.
Sorry, i dotn really have any big Elder Wilson stories....he always starts very awkward situations....like we (me and a couple elders) were talking about old people and funny stuff they do and then randomly he says he grandpa died a year ago....talk about a conversation kill...stuff like that happens often lol. Oh and the other day we were leaving from Pepis house and it was dark, pepi lives on the 3rd story so we have to go down stairs and when we were leaving pepi says "Elder Wilson, be careful going down the stairs" cuz Pepi knows how clumsy he is. well sure enough weºre going down the stairs, elder wilson slips on a stair and twists his ankle. haha, it wasnt anything bad, he walked it off and was fine but it was funny.
As for the work, we had a lesson with this inactive member we found from cabo verde named Maria. and we thought her 12 year old daughter was a member, but shes not, but shes really cool and really funny....a perfect girlfriend for shea hahaha :P but we taught maria and her daughter and maria invited her boyfriend over and we watched the restoration video and they all liked it. So we got 2 new investigators through maria!
Also on sunday when we were waiting for the bus to go to church, a guy came up to us and asked us where an address he had written down on a paper was, we looked at it and it turned out to be the address of the chaple. WE were like, ya, weºre going there right now. Then he recognised us as the elders and he came with us to church. hes an inactive member from brazil who moved here, never really went to church, he and his family were baptised when he was 12 (hes 26 now) but he never really went to church, but randomly he came back and really liked it. His names Rinaldo.
Pepi got to pass the sacrament at church last week, it was amazing. He didnt own any white shirts or ties, but the 1st councilor gave him a white shirt and 2 ties and then he went and bought slack and new dress shoes. He looked sharp. It was really cool. Before his baptism he asked about wearing white shirt and tie. I told him it wasnt NESSECARY but he always should try and look his best. And he really didtn want to wear it cuz he doesnt like it. but after his baptism he really wanted to wear a white shirt and tie...it was cool, hes also been trying to share the gospel with people. Hes been calling us up with doubts people have that he doesnt know how to respond. Its really cool seeing him progress. WEve been teaching him about the temple and hes really excited togo when possible.
I had to do something I didnt like doing last monday at district meeting. I had to lay into my district and repremand them, cuz we have to report numbers every week, like lessons taught, new investigators, baptisms, people marked for baptism, etc. one of the things we have to report is the number of hours of prosylliting we do int he week (time outside of lessons when we are knocking doors, making contacts on the street etc) normally in a week a companionship gets around 15 hours. well last week, my district got 10.5 TOTAL. and me and elder wilson got 8 of those hours. So I had to really lay into my district cuz they were slacking off, especially the assistants to the president. Theyre supposed to be the example for the mission and they didnt do anything last week. I didnt like doing that but it needed to be done.
Hmm....i cant think of anything else exciting that has happened. So that was my week.
Talk to yall later!
-Rhett
PS. Keep Smilin´ or whatever else you feel like doin! haha

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T03:58:00.001-08:00

So guess what?! weºre having thanksgiving today!!!! Im cooking everything! its crazy! i already made 2 pies, the turkeys in the oven, we have a ham gonna make jello, already made stuffing, gonna ahve salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and other stuff...its kinda crazy, now i know how my mom feels. I kinda wish i was back just playing football haha. the turkey weºre having isnt a full turkey...well it is but its already cut, cuz we went to a butcher shop and they didnt sell full turkeys, but they said that we could order one and theyd kill it and keep it whole for us and have it ready by this morning, well.....they didnt have it ready. so we just had to buy it in parts as they had, breast, legs, wings, etc and build our own turkey haha. hopefully itll be good.
We found out about transfers. Elder Wilson and I are staying together for another transfer! Yay!....kinda....its gonna be hard....hes a really good kid, just does dumb stuff...and some of his habits are really annoying...but weºre fixing that haha. itºll be a good transfer...hopefully.~ He still does...."interesting" things everyday...like he likes touching stuff...adn there was a beer bottle that was on the wall around the stairwell for the metro...and without thinking, he just touches it, sending it falling down the metro stairwell, shattering on the bottom, almost hit someone...sigh..... but ill just have to learn more patience.
We have another baptism marked on the 20th. a kid named Milton. Hes from cabo verde, the nephew of a member. so that should be good.
Pepis baptism was amazing. He was stoked and love it. his mom liked it too. He bore testimony after the baptism and the spirit hit me like a brick wall...it was STRONG...the only time i felt the spirit like that was when Elder Holland was talking the the MTC. Then on sunday he got confermed and recieved the priesthood! next week heºll be blessing the sacrament! cool huh!
Weºve got a couple new investigators....non really seem extremely promising but weºll see. We found this crazy romanian lady that thinks she knows where Maddie is (a little english girl that got abducted in the algarve a year or so ago) then also a member presented us to her neighbor. her neighbor listened, so weºll see where that goes.
Also, we did a deep clean of our house. its really nice! we got new showercurtain that has little ducks on it! its awesome!
And that was my week!
Ate mais
-Elder Rhett

Theres a pigeon in my soup!

2008-11-12T04:22:00.001-08:00

So, the other day, we came home for lunch, and we walk in our room and there was a pigeon in there! It started freaking out and flying all around, it kept on trying to fly out the window, but the window was shut so it kept on just flying and smaking against the window! haha. I have a movie of it, maybe if possible. But we opened the window and it flew out. it was hilarious though. elder wilson didnt think it was very funny though...cuz it peed and pooped on his stuff. haha, but it was great for me.
Oh, and exciting news, we have a baptism this sunday! Luzie, the girlfriend of the member, shes doing really well and excited for baptism.
Hopefully after the baptism, they get engaged. Theyre pretty serious and the members kids love her. So weºll see-
Then pepi is doing amazing. the other day we were talking about reading the scriptures and i shared that one thing i like is that lots of time if you have a problem you can just open up the book of mormon to anypage and start reading and it can help you. then he showed us a list of scriptures that he found while doing just that when he was wondering if he should be baptised. and the scriptures that he randomly opened to were scriptures like Alma 34:32, Alma 32:28, 2 Ne 31, Mosiah 2, 1 Ne 3:7, etc scriptures that are like famous amazing scriptures. How cool is that.
Hes doing really well and going to be baptised on the 22nd.
Oh, this sunday, we had a returned missionary come to church, Brother Bangeter, from Highland Utah. He served here 30 years ago, his dad was the 1st mission president. and his uncle is the man of the bangater highway. He gave an awesoem talk in sacrament meeting about the start of the church here in portugal. it was really interesting. I liked it alot. I dont know if dad know this, but before this portugal was dedicated, it was open for missionaries. cuz right after the fall of salezar they opened it up. but they were doing an election and one of the parties running wouldnt let the church in and the missionaries would have to have been pulled out. Well right before the elections, Pres. Bangater called Thomas S Monson who was in europe at the time to have him come and dedicate portugal. Elder monson didnt know if hed have time, so he couldnt promise anything. well Elder Monson decided to drop what he had planned to come to portugal and he dedicated it. Well the elections which were just a couple days away, they went well and missionary work was able to continue. it was a cool story.
Oh and another cool experience happened. we had a lession schedueled with an investigator, but when we got there, he wasnt there. so we walked down the stairs and stood int he entrance way of the building, I didnt want to go out cuz we didnt have anything planned and i didnt want to make contacts in the cold. And i just felt really bad about going out...i really just didnt want to. Well I kinda stalled a little bit inside and right when we were gonna leave, in walks an inactive member and her daughter. I had talked to her daughter the other day, but she gave me a faulty address so we couldnt find their house. But they were excited to see us, invited us up to talk with them, we taught a good lesson and they are comming to church with us this sunday! If we would have just left without me stalling and not wanting to go out into the cold we would have missed them! cool huh!
Well thats about all thats happened this week. Im taking my greenie to a castle today. I bet heºll like that.
That was my week.....Arent i good...updating my blog 2 weeks in a row... Ill try to make it a weekly thing....basically i just copy the stories i send my fam....so thats cool...right?
-Rhett

Another week

2008-11-05T03:52:00.001-08:00

So....here was my week this week. Im gonna try to update my blog more often. so here you go
Halloween was fun. they dont really celebrate Halloween here...but we had a little party for our English class that we teach. I dressed up like a pirate! haha. I also made really really good brownies...they were really chocolaty. mmmmmmmm
Then the day after Halloween, they ahve a holliday here called All Saints Day, its a catholic holliday, where they worship all the catholic saints they have. But people also go to the Cemetary to pay respects to the dead. so we went to the cemetary and talked to people there. The cememtary was HUGE!!!! and its alot different than in the states, They have these mini houses that they keep the caskets in, that are like sculpted and really intricate. they also have huge filing cabenate type things that they keep coffins in...but we got lost in the cemetary and there were alot of cool gothic statues and ya...it was awesoem. We also talked to a bunch of people about death and the plan of salvation....lots of people cried and stuff...but we helped them out.
Then we have pepi. Hes doing good. He hit a portuguese kid the other day. cuz he was doing his work (he puts pamphets on cars) and this portuguese kid and his girlfriend start making fun of him. Pepi ignored them, then The portuguese kid pushes pepi in the back, and pepi turned around and BAM socked the guy in the face, putting him on the ground. then the guys girlfriend started hitting pepi then pepi just walked away. hes so cool. He apoligised to us for hittin the kid...saying it was wrong and stuff. I was like YA PEPI! WAY TO GO!!! WHOo HOo! haha.
oh and a cool experience happened the other day. We had a ward party and we had a bunch of investigators there....except for pepi, cuz he had work. but the party ended at 730 and we were gonna talk to an investigator afterwards for the rest of the night, basically. we didnt have anything else planned. so we had the party and right afterwards...all of our investigators left.....so we helped clean up...but then it was 745 and we didnt have anything to do...and it was cold...and dark.....and we didnt feel like we should make contacts int he streeet...and at that time, it isnt a good time to knock doors. so we sat in a train station thinking of what to do. Then I had the impression to go to this one park. so we started to go, and on the way we found Pepi talkign to this guy that he said he had been talkign to about the gospel. So we talked to pepi and the guy a little, then we left with pepi to his house and had a good lesson with him. it was just really cool how following the spirit lead us to somehting good that we could do.
Oh and i found out about the elections.....Obama won.....dang......I might just have to stay here in portugal...haha
And that was my week.

Its a boy...again!

2008-10-22T05:00:00.001-07:00

so yess...im trainign again a brand new missionary
Things are going great. My second sonºs name is Elder Daniel Wilson. hes a great kid. Kinda a bigger kid but way nice and has a great heart. But he is VERY green. oh man....its been a very entertaining week so far. Ill let you in on some comical greenie stories. Well the friday after he got here we had to go get him his Metro/Bus pass in a place called Belem, Which is about 45 minutes away. So we meet up with Elder Tipton and his new comp, elder Smith from my district (cuz Smith had to get a pass too) and we eat at japanese. Well, Elder Tipton, he had served with a bunch of brazilians on his mission, so he has a strong brazilian accent. So they decided to play a joke on Wilson. Tipton said he was brazilian and elder smith acted like a COMPLETELY lazy and apostate missionary. Elder Wilson was lecturing elder smith the whole time. it was funny, but good that he knows the importance of obedience. But it was hilarious watching him lecture smith the whole day. so then after we go to belem to get his pass. To get the pass, you can either go to belem and get it right then, or you can put in a form at almost any metro station, but that takes a few days. and travel costs ALOT if you dont have a pass...so it was the best to get it right away in Belem. Anyway, we get there and come to find out he didnt bring his passport, which is necissary to get the pass, even though he was told by the office elders that the reason they were letting him keep his passport (instead of letting the office guard it like ususal) was for the pass...and i told him RIGHT before we left.....sigh.....so he didnt get his pass then and we had to go back, get his passport, then go to a metro station near by and submit for a pass which we got on monday. But on the way back, on the metro, i was sitting with Elder Tipton in one set of seats and Wilson and smith were on the other side of the isle. There was a couple people sitting in front of us, an old guy and a young girl. And elder Wilson likes to talk in portuguese...which is really good..,..but he thinks hes fluent cuz he was the best in the MTC....and hasnt realized that he still cant talk very well (he can talk better than ive seen any greenie, and can understand TONS which is amazing..but,...)so he was talking LOUD (as usual) to elder smith and the girl across from tipton and I starts laughing...it was pretty funny. Hes an awesome guy but he has had some GREEN moments....(and it would take to long to write the rest of stuff thats happened)
And he just does some things that I cant figure out. I woke up and took a shower one morning then went to eat breakfast I open the fridge and...and in my oreo mug....there was mashed potatoes...I was like....ummmm ok....i guess elder wilson made mashed potatoes. Well we get ready and go out then come back from lunch. I go to take off my tie in the other rooma nd hear elder wilson getting somethig to eat in the kitchen. I yell in the kitchen "what are you eating?" cuz i was gonna make some food. and he was like Oh...just some leftovers i found in the fridge. Then i was like What left overs? Him- Oh some rice or something. Me-oh I wouldnt eat that...thats been in the fridge for a while. I started walking into the room. and he shows me the mashed potatoes...and i was like...umm i dont think thats rice...it looks like mashed potatoes...where did you get that? him-oh it was in the back corner of the fridge. me-ya? hmm...ive never made mashed potatoes. him-oh maybe it was your other comp....me-ummm I dotn think so cuz i just used that mug last night. Him-oh...well i dont know...unless i made it and didnt even know, that would be wierd. and i was like....umm ya...that would be....and he ate his mashed potatoes.....i dont quite get him ahha.
And...this is going to amaze you, but I (Rhett Dustin Hildebrandt) am saying that he is a slob...which you can only imagine from the way I am haha (but ive cleaned up on the mission believe it or not)
So I got my work cut out for me to train this kid into a amazing missionary. Hes got the spirit and the desire and the work ethic and all the spiritual stuff...but i get to help him to be less awkward and focus the amazing attributes he has haha.
Yesterday, something really cool happened. We got to do service at a catholic church that was built in the 1500s! it was AWESOME! we got to go in all these back rooms...walk through these places that were falling apart...like this staircase that was being held up by peices of wood. We go to hold a SOLID GOLD figurine thing that they had there...it weighed SOOO much, and was really detailed...it must be worth a TON. AND we got to go into the caticoms under the church. They used to bury people under the churches before the earthquake in the 1700s...and we got to go down there and see all these skeletons and stuff. And i got to hold a Skull of a priest!
Also the first person to die a Stiphulus was burried there.......go figure haha.
Umm what else has happened. Oh we invited Luzié to be baptised. Shes the girlfriend of a member. Shes gonna be baptised on the 23rd of Nov! Then Pepi he really wants to be baptised...but hes praying right now to see if he should be baptised before his girlfriend and get the priesthood instead of getting baptised with his girlfriend in Jan. like he was wanting to. So weºll see what happens.
Oh and today right when we were coming to do internet. We have to walk down this HUGE cobblestone staircase to go anywhere, and there was this old lady that had fallen down on the stairs....so I got to help her out and she said her leg was broken but she was walking fine and I really dont think it was...she was just hurting a little...but we walked for a little and she was fine and thanked us and gave me Beijinhos....and yes...she had amost a fullblown mustache. haha.
and that was my week
so ya.
tchau
-rhett

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

2008-07-23T04:24:00.001-07:00

so I just wanted to update my blog really quick to say im getting transfered! Im going to the heart of the mission! Right in the middle of Lisboa. Campo Pequeno! Im so excited! Im gonna be the District Leader, over the Elders in Olivais (Where my old comp elder Kapp is...Im way excited about that cuz me and him got along really well) and also the Assistents to the President! so im pretty much the most powerful elder on the mission now cuz I control the APs haha. Just kidding.
But ya...Im excited but sad at the same time.
My new address is

Rua Jorge Barradas 14-c
1500 Lisboa
Portugal

Im really gonna miss Olhão. a big part of me wanted to stay...but It was time to move on. Things are starting to pick up alot here, our investigator Marcos is marked for baptism on the 16th of August. Our investigator Nelson is doing amazing...hes actually driving me up to lisbon on thursday! And he wants me to baptise him when hes ready (which will be pretty soon...I think hes just waiting for his wife to accept...which weºre working on)
Then we have Eunice who has been investigating the church for 4 years and has an AMAZINGLY strong testimony...but she is living with a boyfriend and it is a really difficult situation, but last week she finally decided that she was going to leave him...which is taking ALOT of faith on her part...she had been living with him for 5 years...but she knows its for the best....so pray for her.
Then we have a member Paulo (who is the DJ) hes cool but has a sickness that has really been depressing him lately...but last week he decided he was really going to dedicate himself to the lord! so the next elder coming here better not mess it all up! haha
Well have a good week everyone!
Till next time
-Rhett

Im a daddy!

2008-06-18T04:05:00.001-07:00

So...Im training now. I got a greenie of my own fresh off the plane. His name is Elder Muns...from Nevada. Hes cool and its fun to be like a God to him....acting like I know everything haha.
Im still here in Olhão and loving ever minute of it. ...well except for lately weve been knocking alot of doors....sigh...that hasnt been fun....but it has to be done.
well Im almost out of time. So Ill update this later
Tchau

Sorry for taking so long to update....but its been cool

2008-04-23T08:22:00.001-07:00

So...i cant remember last time I updated....i dont know if ive said that im in a new area...Olhâo. Its the southern most part of portugal. really cool, really warm. I have3 2 islands in my area that we go to on pday to hang out. its awesome.
but heres some storys that have happened recently.
accomplished one of my mission goals. THat is to ahve a actual lesson with a TJ (Jehovaºs Witness) well...ok, it was half accomplished. In Tavira (the area neighboring us) our DL found a TJ that was really cool and wanted to meet and talk to us, jsut share beliefs in a nice way, and he schedualed the appt when I was going to be on divisions with him. So we met the TJ in a park and at first it was really cool, he shared stuff, we shared stuff and it was going good, and he was really nice. But then we got on the defensive side....and thats when the spirit was lost...he tried to show us that there isnt a spirit world (he found a list of Book of Mormon scriptures that "contradict" the bible.) and we tried proving our point right with scriptures but I dont know the bible as well as he did, so we jsut got on the defensive side and it wasnt good, but then my DL Elder Nelson asked him aobut how he knew the bible was true. The TJ laughed cuz Nelson asked that question last time they talked and he didnt answer last time. and this time he avoided the question. We tried to show him James 1:5 but he kept on trying to change the subject until we were out of time and had to go to another appointment. But he was really cool and gave us a ride to our next appt. Maybe Ill get a chance to talk to him again.

AND....a few days ago was one of the most interesting nights of my life...if not THE most interesting. We got a reference from Faro, that was this guy from Russia and he was supposed to be a "Golden Reference" They set up an appointment with him and with a member of faro that knew how to speak russian (cuz he didnt speak portuguese very well) So we met up with the member and went over to this investigators house. He met us outside with his wife. They were really nice. Hes in his late 50s early 60s and his wife too. They walked us up to their appartment. We started talking (the member was translating for us) he brought out a book of mormon and D&C in Russian and said it was revealed to him that they are the word of god and that they dont contradict the bible. and we were thinking, WOW this is awesome, this guy is elect. He had been studying it for 13 years and then he opened up to Alma 32 and said that there is one thing that he doesnt agree aobut with our church, then he read aobut the Talking int he language of angels. He said that we dont do that. Our member explained to him that its more of speaking in language that you dont know...like spanish if you dont know spanish. he didnt agree. He said that it was the language of God and a way to communicate with god more purely...then I was going to say something but the member stopped me and reminded me that we need to say an opening prayer. So we all kneeled down and our member offered a good prayer. then....it was the guys turn...and he offered a prayer in russian...it seemed kinda intense...but I didnt understand it. Then it was the wifes turn and she offered another prayer that i didtn understand...that was pretty long. Then after she asked us if we understood the last part of the prayer....that it was in English...and we were like...ummm noo....then the husband was like "she wasnt speaking russian...she was speaking in tounges" then he had her say the prayer again. and I listened to try to pick out english..but the only thing I recognised was Halleluja. It sounded like some german, some french, some russian, some italian, and I heared a few words that sounded portuguese. Then after the prayer, they guy said that he interpreted what his wife said and recieved revelation for us that our minds and hearts arent open enough. that we need to be more open.
Then we sat down again and he went on to explain that he was called of god to be a prophet and has been sent all over the world because of revelations. he was sent to portugal to build up churches. but also he said alot of things that were true doctorine. He talked about faith and listening to the promptings of the spirit and most of what he said was very true and almost exactly with our teachings. He believes in Joseph Smith. I asked him if he believes he has the priesthood. he said he recieved the aaronic preisthood, Jesus had revealed to him that he has the aaronic priesthood. I told him about authority and I flat out told him that He DOES NOT have authority to recieve revelation for me. I explained about the prophet of the world and how he is the only one that can recieve revelation for the world. He said that he doesnt know much about Thomas S Monson but he beleives that he is the International Prophet but he was chosen like Joseph Smith was, to be another prophet. He was disappointed that I didnt have a heart open enough to believe. I told him that I would pray about it. and he agreed, cuz that is the way to recieve revelation. He also said that he recieves revelation from the Devil and he has to be able to discern the spirts.
I prayed last night and I know for a FACT now that he was not called of god. When he and his wife were praying I felt really uneasy, and if they were really speaking int he language of god....Im pretty sure that I would ahve felt the spirit. overall....It was kinda freaky.........
But other than that, everthing is going good. haha. It was a big testimony builder last night.
and thats about all that I have time for.....
Tchau todos!
Rhett

BIG NEWS

2008-02-06T03:51:00.001-08:00

BIG NEWS!
Im getting transfered! to Olhão in the Algarve! im leaving tomorrow. I dont know the address there yet so ya..... but Im excited. Im really gonna miss this area and the ward. I love this area...but thats the life of a missionary. Im gonna be serving with Elder Parkinson. Hes in my MTC district and we shared a room at the MTC and were in a tripla together for like 4 days, after Elder Wangaman left. It should be fun. I love the ocean and its right by the ocean. The only down side Ive heard is that it smells like rotten eggs cuz its right by some sulfer fields lol. So if you have any letters to send to me....hold off for a little lol.

Oh and guess what! I have a good food story this week.
One member (thats fithy rich) named Ana took us to a restaurant called the Fondue. And guess what I ate.........Camel. and I ate Ostrige and Bison and Zebra and Kangaroo and even Octopus! AND i liked all of it. Camel had the best taste but its really tough, Kangaroo tasted good and was really tender. I liked that alot. Ostrige tasted like chicken mixed with beef, bison tasted like....steak but was a little different and tougher, and zebra was kinda bland but good. and octopus.....it was actually really good, it was an apitizer...i ate tenticles. the texture wasnt that great...chewy, but wasnt bad...it was seasoned very well. then for desert we had chocolate fondue. mmmm. she dropped $120 on us..... :S

WEll thats it....talk to yaºll later
Rhett

Sorry its been a while

2008-01-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

I dont even know when my last blog post was....seems like its been a while....like before christmas or something....i dunno.
But Christmas was really fun...for christmas eve we hung out at a members house...had dinner and stuff....christmas morning we opened packages then went to another members house for lunch. It was really good. then I got to talk to my fam over the phone. It was really sweet to hear them again.
For new years eve...it was pretty much like any other day...we had dinner at a members house...and there were a bunch of people there getting drunk....trying to forget the previous year lol.
Ive already hit 6 months! isnt that crazy! im close to 7. Its flying by.
We have a baptism scheldualed for the 26th of this month and one for the 7th! im way excited! they are 2 cousins. way awesom.
Anyway...things couldnt be going better for me!
Tchau todos!
Rhett

Transfer Maddddddneeeesssss

2007-11-28T04:34:00.001-08:00

So the elder in the Neighboring area of me was transfered out to fill another elders spot in Lisbon cuz he had to go home sick. So they grouped me and Elder Gasser up with the elder that stayed, Elder Garner. So we are in a tripla now...covering 2 areas. Its INSANE! but fun at the same time. No really big stories have happend...but Im still loving the mission. Ive like never been happier in my life...and I was pretty dang happy before the mission. Crazy no?
anyway, Fica Fixe
Rhett

As I Walk Through The Valley Of Shadow And Death...

2007-11-21T04:05:00.001-08:00

So Im in a new area! Its so different than Oeiras....Oeiras was like ritzyish....here its so ghetto GH-E-To!
but I LOVE it here. I feel so cool walking around here. Like im staring down the face of danger every day...even though its not very dangerous here anymore
but my new address here is
Rua Abel Salazar
Lt. 1 3º Dto
Baixa de Serra
2835, Baixa De Banheira
Portugal

No really cool things have happened here yet....we get fed by members often...so thats good. I tracked into a really really hot girl...that...is not so good at this moment in time. It rained REALLY REALLY hard the other day and our small little apt got FLOODED! that was fun.....mostly cuz I wasnt there...I was on divisions...but my comp had alot of fun that night staying up till 3 cleaning up lol.
well....Ill post later when I can
Paz Fora!
Elder Hildebrandt

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T04:58:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody!
Happy Halloween! Even though they dont really celebrate it here in Portugal. This is kinda funny, im writing this letter in Microsoft Word….then Im going to paste it and email…but since its in portugal, its marking all the words I write as misspelled! LOLZ! But everything is still going awesome!
We have 2 people marked for baptism. Mara and Vosco. Both are going to be baptised on Christmas day! AKA my Bday. Fixe huh?!
Sad news…I cant upload pics to the FTP site anymore…but ill be emailing my parents some and they'll add them…so maybe you can see some new pictures today. I only have a couple more minutes to write cuz im going up to sintra today! It's a cool place. Has a lot of history.
Umm….It seems like there was something else I was gonna write…but I cant remember. Oh well.
Vos Amo!
Elder Rhett

I=?UTF-8?Q?=C2=B4ll_trade_you_a_Book_of_Mormon_for_that_chicken_there.?=

2007-10-17T03:44:00.001-07:00

Things are going good in Portugal! Im still loving it here.......and I havent really felt sad or depressed the whole time here! its all happiness!
But a good story happend this weekt hat i thought I should share.

So It was Sunday, and we were walking around making contacts. And there was this meat shop that sells meat...but cooked....and we saw this chicken on a roticery grill and it looked really good....and we were like...dang too bad its sunday or else we would get some. But we looked in and the store owner was in there alone, so we decided to go in and make a contact with him. We started off like we were gonna buy something...we asked how much the chicken cost. he said 6,50 then we acted like it was too much and were like...ummm well come back another day...but then we asked if we could do a survey with him (just a fake survey to start teaching him a little) we asked things like "do you belive in god" and "do you think god still could talk to man" things like that. Then people started coming in and he helped them while we were waiting. after all the people left, he came to us and had chicken in a bag, and gave it to us. Hes like..."my life is going kinda bad right now, but you guys are out here teaching about god and its a great thing...etc etc" so he gives us this chicken. and AS he was giving us this chicken, one of our investigators that weve been teaching heavily on keeping the Sabath Day holy, cuz she works on sunday and doesnt go to church, comes out of the back room...and was like HEY ELDERS!....as we were accepting this chicken from the store...and we were like"umm...hey" and then she went back in to the back room after she got a strange look on her face looking at what it seemed like 2 elders buying chicken on sunday. AND to put the Icing on the cake, I turn around and see an inactive member that we have been trying to get to church for a while is there...looking in the window, she hurries and looks away and keeps on walking.....weºre like....oh GREAT! but we accepted the chicken cuz he insisted...then we gave him a book of mormon and taught about it and he was very greatful...well go teach him again at his house....it turned otu to be a really good contact. besides the fact that we had to go by the investigator and less active members house and explained waht happened....but its all cool now. I guess the moral of the story is that you can get free chicken from teaching the gospel :D

Well I hope you enjoyed the story. Stay tuned for more "BLOG POSTS FROM THE GUY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD"
-Elder Hildebrandt

Short post.

2007-10-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Things are going well. -stop
The mission is great. -stop
Loving every minute of it. -stop
Its the end of my 1st transfer. -stop
My comp is getting transfered. -stop
Im going to be with Elder Hawkins -stop
fica bem todos -stop
love -stop
Elder Hildebrandt -fim

Short post

2007-09-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

Yo everyone. things are going awesome in portugal
I updated some new pictures. and i started to organize them, by date, or place. so in http://www.ctrhomes.net/Img

theres a folder called Quinta_Da_Reguleira and i have pics from there. and then I had some from other places in 26_09_07
so iºll start making new folders for each date i update pictures.
The church is true and God answers all prayers!
-Rhett

3 mo. anniversary!

2007-09-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Its my 3 month anniversary. 7/8 left to go on my mission! its so cool here I love every minute. Hopefully my family will update the blog with some stories ive shared with them...cuz i dont have alot time to do that kinda stuff. Ill be putting some pictures of Quinta da Regaleira up next week ( http://www.ctrhomes.net/Img) that place is AMAZING.
Things are still going really well here and Im loving teaching the truth restored to people and seeing their lives change for the better!
well, i gotta go
Love you all!
Elder Hildebrandt

From Portugal!

2007-08-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hey so its my first message from portugal! Iºm really loving it here. I feel so at home, even from the first day i got here. I dont understand like anyone, but thats ok...Im learning....and i dont know how to put apostraphies using this portuguese keyboard...so i wont. Anyway, My first week I had a baptism!!!! yay! his name is Fredrico, hes 19. Hes a really cool guy. We have 1 investigator thats gonna be baptised this friday too! AND theres this brazillian couple (theyre really funny, i like them alot) that are going to be baptised soo (i hope) they just have to go to church 2 more times....they have a hard time waking up for church....its not a good excuse, but thats what they say. the wife is having a hard time cuz her mother is having problems with her gastric or whatever in her stomach, so were fasting for her and shes fasting for her. It was really cool when she told us about that and we told her about fasting. Really spiritual.
And in other news, yesterday something really cool happened. We were walking down the street, and we hear this guy say "O elder" so we turn and wave...because Helder is a portuguese name and the portuguese think its fun to yell O HELDER at us...cuz its like someone walking around with the title of John or something. So anyway, we turn and wave. and keep on walking but then he was like "espara! espera!" So we turn and he runs over to us, and hes in tears. He said something like "you guys always show up at the right time, my life is horrible I dont know what to do, everything is just so hard, etc. and i need to know if god loves me" So, we talked with him for a very little time...cuz he was in a hurry for something. But were going to visit him tonight, It was a really awesome experience.
The last few days have been really good for contacting too. We have about 5 new investigators! I dont really do much of the talking cuz i dont understand much of whats said...but i do sometimes...bear my testimony or whatnot. And one time i did teach the first lesson...or atleast about half of it.
But everything is going good, Im loving every minute here. And Im uploading some picture here:

http://www.ctrhomes.net/Img/

I dont know how many I can actually upload cuz the internet here is kinda slow and pictures are kinda big and I only have about 20 more minutes...so well see.
I love you all and cant wait to hear from you
BTW, my address here is:
Rua dr. Manuel Fernandes Duarte,
nº5 r/c Dro,
2780 Oeiras, Portugal.
oh ya...and my companions name is Elder Petty...Hes reallly cool. we get along really well, and hes been in the mission for 1.5 yrs and hes from Kansas. and like my address says, my area is Oeiras. Its really pretty here, I love it.

ULTIMO SEMANA!

2007-08-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

so I only have 4 days before I'm gonna be in portugal! thats so crazy. This week was the semana de missionario. We had to set up and teach 5 lessons a day to other missionaries, acting as investigators. It has been so fun! prolly my most fun weeks here at the MTC. But also this week has been kinda bitter-sweet.
We lost 2 people in our district. Elder Pruyt had to go home because he needed surgery on his shoulder. I admired Elder Pruyt alot cuz he had a really hard time with the language, but he still pushed forward.
AND my good friend Elder Wangamen left for personal reasons, but its for good reasons and I'm almost certian that he'll return. So thats all good.
If anyone wants to send me some dearelder.com letters before I leave this will be your last chance to do so!!!!!!
Love you all! and I cant wait to bring the happiness of the gospel to the people in portugal!
PAZ FORA!
-Rhett

Ta'se Bem everybody!

2007-08-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!! I leave on Aug 21. I leave the MTC at 6:00 and I leave UT at 10:00 so i'll prolly call at like between 9 and 10. but then I go to Phili, arrive there at 4:35 Pensylvania time. I leave Phili at 6:55pm, arrive In Paris at 8:35 am paris time. then I leave Paris at 12:45pm and arrive in Portugal at 2:15pm Pretty cool.
I'm way excited to leave but i dont think I know the language well enough...infact I know i dont...but it will all come with time in portugal.
In the RC this week, i talked to 6 people, and 4 of them wanted copies of the book of mormon and missionaries!!!! it was awesome...the other 2: one was getting a haircut and wanted us to call back tomorrow, and the other, the reception was really bad and it cut out. Anyway, it was still way cool. I'm excited to get out in the campo and teach everyone and bring to light the truths that everyone needs!
anyway...I'm done.
Love you all!
-Elder Hildebrandt

2 MORE WEEKS!

2007-08-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

yes 2 more weeks here at the MTC. I cant wait. I day from today i get my travel plans! i'm so excited!!!! i cant wait to get to Portugal!
The MTC seems like home now, i'm used to the whole routine (sp?) Oh! and now my district is the oldest district in our zone! we're the Velhotes (old farts) now! its so cool. I dont think I know that much Portuguese, but i guess the new district thinks we do. its crazy.
Me and my companion have a new rule now, for every english word we say, we have to do 10 pushups....we started this 3 days ago...ive had to do 200 pushups so far! lol
um...what else has happened.....No really big RC story this week. I did have a good time this thursday. I talked to 3 different people and all 3 accepted a copy of the book of mormon and representatives to visit them. One was a lady that had just lost her daughter, and 4 other people in the last year. I had a good conversation with her, she was pretty sad and had been relying on the lord alot. Another was this guy, when i called him to confirm that he got his DVD he ordered, he said that he had already been called 6 times about it. I appologized, bore my testimony, shared a short message about the restoration and asked if some missionaries could drop off a book of mormon. He seemed very intelectual and said he was content with his faith, but wouldnt be opposed to learning more. so he accepted. it was cool! and the last one was this lady who had ordered TONS of things before, she ahd a list of about 10 different items she had called and ordered...and each one she didnt want a missionary visit. But i talked to her about the most recent item she ordered, then told her about the book of mormon and asked if she wanted a copy, she said yes and she wanted missionaries, but she slept durring the day so she didnt think they could come, but i told her that they could work around it. it was cool....so i guess my RC experiences were good this week. lol
anyway. Umm...Meu pai wanted me to write something in portuguese this time, but since i dont have much time, i'll just bare my testimony.
Eu sei que esta igreja, a igreja de jesus cristo dos santos dos ultimos dias e' verdadeiro. Eu sei que o Livro de Mormon e' as palavras de deus. Eu sei que todas pessoas que le'em o livro de mormon e oram sobre o livro vai saber-o e' verdadeiro.
em nome de jesus cristo amem

Tchau Everyone! Amo-vos!
-Rhett

Ola!!!!

2007-07-27T09:17:00.001-07:00

So nothing much happened this week, and i dont have much time to post this blog. Um....I got a haircut...its REALLY short. Like military style!!!! woooo!. One of the elders who had been waiting for his visa for 5 weeks to go to brazil finally got his visa...and he's gone. We all miss him. Umm...pioneer day was this week...and that was just a day without mail. lol.....
oh, I was watching the Joseph Smith Movie after the sunday devotional....and i was sitting by a cute sister missionary with THE BEST smelling perfume on...it was torture...cuz i cant think about stuff like that anymore,.....que triste...
Another RC experience this week. I talked to this lady whose husband is in prison. She had ordered a bible for him. She loved jesus and the bible and stuff.. I told her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and I told her the benefits of the Book of Mormon and she was like....well it sounds like that stuff is in the bible, Why do I need the book of mormon. That question has stuck with me all week "Why do I need the Book of Mormon?" I explained that it contained the fullness of the Gospel of Christ and that it was evidence that the true church had been restored on the earth. but she didnt take it...i challenged her to receive a copy and find out its truthfulness for herself...she said no...Then i said that if she ever felt that something was missing in her life...or she wanted to find some further happiness, call back and get a book of mormon cuz it will help you with everything. She said ok..and that was it. It was kinda frustrating cuz I said everything Preach my Gospel says about the book of mormon, and I bore testimony, and i felt the spirit...but she still didnt have a change of heart i guess....oh well, acontece. Well, my time's up on the computer
Tchau everyone!
-Elder Hildebrandt

Hello everyone in the real world!

2007-07-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today is my 1 month mark out on my mission! yay!!!!!!!!!!!! its seems like time has gone by fast....yet it seems like ive been here forever! i saw a newspaper the other day and it looked strange...i have no idea what is happening in the outside world.....its like a prison here...but prolly the best prison on earth. lol. The Spirit of God is soooooo strong here. I'm learning alot too. This week also marked Fala sua lingua (speak your language) so i have to speak portuguese sempre(always) Its really helped alot. I can read most anything and at least get the idea of waht its saying...and i can carry out conversations......although really slowly. lol. Conjigations are the hardest for me right now....just thinking of the right endings for the word. but all in all its really cool. I had another great experience in The RC. I called this old lady, She was really awesome. She had been studying every single religion since she was 19, cuz she had a near death experience. She had read the book of mormon and said that there wasnt anyting in there that would make it not true. so i commited her to read in it, specifially Moroni 10:3-5, and pray about it. She said she would. I testified that she would know of its truthfulness. she said she would have liked for missionaries to visit here, however, because of heath problems, that wouldnt be possible. But it was still really cool just talking to her and bearing my testimony. When our conversation finally ended, i looked at my watch and i had been talking with her for almost 30 minutes! lol its was cool. anyway...my time on the computer is runni g out. I'm sending pictures home today..so they should be posted within the next week or so!
Love you all
Paz Fora
-Elder Rhett Hildebrandt

Woot for another week

2007-07-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ola!
Um.....nothing much exciting happened this week. Followed the usual schedule. The language is coming along very well. And I can really feel the Lords influence in everything I'm doing. I still am kinda homesick...but I try not to let that get in the way of the work. Umm...no really interesting stories this week....I got attacked by a robin...that was cool. I hit the tree that its nest was in with a frisbee...and it swooped down at me....there were 3 babies in its nest too! I named them Batman Catwoman and Mr Freeze! (get it...cuz they're robins! lol) anyway....umm...I did have a good experience when I was in the Referal Center (The place that answeres the calls people make when they see the TV advertisements for the free bible or Book of Mormon or such.) She wanted a free bible...so i got all her info, then i started telling her about the book of mormon and how it is a companion to the bible. She thought it was like a Bible dictionary..then went off about how she really wanted a bible dictionary. I explained that the free bible didnt come with one, but we could send Representatives (missionaries) over to give her one and share a message. she declined and said she could just borrow one from her brother. I said ok. Then I went on to bare my testimony of the truthfullness of the gospel and the Book of mormon, then i invited again if she wanted to have representatives over to tell her more about it. she accepted! it was awesome!
anyway...my time limit on this computer is almost done...so I better hurry and post this. I miss you all! Do good!
-Elder Hildebrandt

2 weeks in the MTC

2007-07-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody. This is Rhett....posting on my blog for the first time since ive been gone. I've been in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) for like 17 days now or something. Its beginning to be more normal. The schedule here really got me at first. Wake up at 6:30, get ready, go to class, go to breakfast at 8:15, go to class again till lunch at 1. Go to gym after lunch, class from 3 to dinner at 6. Then from dinner to 9 it is personal/companionship and language study time. w00t! then Daily Planning for tomorrow and get ready for bed, quiet time at 10:15 and lights out at 10:30. Pretty crazy, but Ive learned ALOT here. I'm almost semi conversational. like maybe i could carry on a conversation with a 5 year old native child from portugal lol. Its hard work, but its fun also. My companion is pretty cool, though my knees are getting a work out cuz of his long prayers...i think the shortest one he's said is 3 minutes....longest maybe 10. But its good. I'm learning alot how to teach and have daily teaching scenarios. They are cool. The MTC is changing up their syllabus, we now only teach the first two lessons (The restoration of the church and the Plan of Salvation) in the practice scenerios....the other lessons we wont get to actually practise until i'm out in the field.
Anyway.....time is running out...i only have a 30 minute time limit to type email here......and i'm not able to view the blog...just post through email
I'll post prolly next friday!
Paz Fora!

One week, one letter.

2007-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Rhett has officially been out for one week. My mom kept pounding us to write him a letter ever hour. I assured her Rhett would be getting plenty of letters and not to overload him his first week out. He says that things are going well. He already knows over 80 words in Portuguese and recognizes lots more because, "I've heard my Dad say that." His companion is Elder Clark who hails from Garland, Utah. Yeah, I didn't know where that was either. There are 16 missionaries in his district, and 60 in his zone. So within the next 9 weeks there will be 60 more missionaries going to Portugal. Lots huh? Portugal will be the next Utah!
He says the MTC is definitely not what he is used to. He says he can't be lazy (THANK HEAVENS!!!!!!) Unlike most missionaries, half of his letter was him asking for us to send him stuff that he forgot. Rhett is still Rhett! He is adjusting to Elder however and seems to be having a good time.
He wanted to me to tell about dearelder.com. It's a great missionary website and makes it very easy to send letters and the such. So if you're want to write him, (and of course everyone does) then go there.
Rhett is on his way to becoming a wonderful missionary. He'll be my and my families prayers and I know he'll have the best experience ever!

MTC Goodbye

2007-06-20T16:40:00.001-07:00

MTC

Well the day finally came. My big brother Rhett Dustin is off on his mission. We said a tearful (well, tearful for my momma) goodbye today and watched him walk out the missionary exit while we went out the family exit. His adventure has started! I, along with everyone, will miss him very much. But he's going to be amazing and have a great time!

Farewell talk

2007-06-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of my farewell talk!!!
(the things between the * * are stuff Iadded after Ityped it up...I didnt add everything...just some things I remember

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. First off i'd like to start with a disclaimer for my talk. I'm going to be quoting some copyrighted material during my talk, however, i am not going to cite the actualmaterial, because I want all of you to focus on the message. And if any of you are from the MPAA or part of the RIAA and want to sue me for copyright infringement, i'd just like to tell you now that i'm fleeing the country to lisbon portugal for two years, so you cant get me!
When I was picking out this suit while suit shopping, i thought of the words of agent K "Its time to put on the last suit you'll ever wear" but "You know the difference between you and me...I make this look GOOOD"

Its pretty crazy thinking i'm going to be in another country teaching a foreign people the truths of this gospel for two years. Part of me is extremely excited, part of me is deathly scared, so they kinda canceled each other out into a happy neutral medium. Honestly if there was a mission alternative....like....”hey u can go on a two year mission ....OR you can go on a two week cruise to the Bahama's, and either way you will receive the same blessings and the same amount of the lords work will be accomplished.” Heck, i'd jump on that cruise. Its probably the same way with all of us and tithing, if we were given an alternative, like instead of paying 10% of our income, we have to give the bishop a plate of cookies each month, the bishop would be a VERY fat man. But, we aren't given these alternatives, it is all in the law of sacrifice.

In the october ensign of 1998, Elder Russel M. Ballard said:
“The law of sacrifice provides an opportunity for us to prove to the Lord that we love Him more than any other thing. As a result, the course sometimes becomes difficult since this is the process of perfection that prepares us for the celestial kingdom to “dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever”

So i guess if i have the oppertunity to give the lord 10% of my life thus far by going on a mission, for the blessing of “dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever”... Heck, i'd jump on that mission. My life hasn't been the easiest thing i have ever done, as it is with all of us. Not to say its been horrible, but defiantly ive have some hard times. But in those hard times is when i think of the wise words of Eric Matthews, “Life's tough, get a helmet.”
I've had many people i've used as a helmet, friends and family...but my strongest helmet has always been my dad (you guys were probably wondering when I'd get to the topic of fathers, on this, the day of my fathers day)

There are many stories about fathers (many of them in the church are told about people that lived in the 1800s...i dont know why that is) But i would like to share a story of a son who was in his senior year of high school, named Cory Matthews. he was in a museum and there he met an artist of one of the paintings. Now, the unique thing about this artist is that she was only 13. Cory doesn't understand how she can be so young and talented while he is just an everyday regular guy. Cory realizes that he's never really been good at anything, and he comes to the conclusion that it's his "average" fathers fault. One day Cory confronts his father about never raising him to be good at something. He tells his father that he is doomed to an average life because he is average. Cory quickly regrets his comments because he knows it hurt his father's feelings. He later goes and talks to his friends about it. He says that he did mean what he said, but he does want to apologize for the way he talked to his father. Just as he opens the door to go apologize, his father is standing there. He takes Cory to a dark, boarded-up warehouse. He explains to his son that this is the place his father worked for 40 years. His father worked his hardest there for his family, just to make ends meet. He then turns to Cory and says:
"Why are you so ashamed of being average? Look at this place, touch it. Get some dirt on your hands. Try and see what average looked like from here. To me average, average was a dream."
Cory then realizes that his father really had given him a lot. And that it is up to him to make his life something he's proud of, like his father did.

Now, I don't think my father is average by any means. He has provided with me with SO much. He built upon the life that he grew up in and made it easier for his children. And made it possible for us to grow up and build more. He didn't even have running water growing up (at least thats what he told my mom when they were dating...my mom later found out that that was not true AT ALL)

My dad is a pretty cool guy. *He even went on the same mission as i'm going on. show nametag that he wore...that i'm wearing*
*share feelings of dad*

He has taught me how to live my life. He taught me life lessons.
My mom was like Thumper's mom when she said said:What did your father tell you this morning? And Thumper responded: If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all.
And I know he's always there to guide me, and i always think of him in that beautiful moment between young Simba and his dad. When they finish wrestling,
Simba says: “We're pals, right?
His dad responds: “right.”
Then simba asks: “And we'll always be together, right?”
and Mufasa shares his wisdom: “Simba, let me tell you something my father told me. Look at the stars, the great kings of the past are up there, watching over us. So whenever you feel alone just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you and so will I.”
I know the great kings of the past like my father in heaven and Jesus Christ, along with my dad are always there to guide me and watch over me. It is very comforting thinking about how we're always being looked after. no matter how bad we are acting, we always have countless mulittudes of angels watching after us, and we have at LEAST our parents on earth that will always love us.

I had a great experience with my father's both earthly and heavenly when i went through the temple for the first time. It was great having my father be right by my side the whole time and help me on the way, it was just like he had been my whole life. Sitting in the Celestial room, I thought of how blessed i was to have such a great father. Some say that the temple is the closest you can get to heaven on earth. I believe that to be so. While i was there, it was amazing to me because I was close to my earthly father and my heavenly father the whole time. Both were there guiding my way.
I know if my dad were Peter Pan, the final words of Rufio would not change. He would say: “You know what I wish?”
Peter Pan would ask, “What”
Then Rufio would point to me and say: “I wish i had a dad, like you”
I am so blessed to have a dad like mine, he's even greater than Peter Pan.
I would like to thank everyone for coming today. I would like to thank all my friends that are here. I think Mr. Feeny had it right when he said “Friendship for example, is a real gift. It's given with no expectations and no gratitude is needed, not between real friends.” So I would like to thank everyone that has been a real friend to me up to now...and know that our friendship will continue after my mission. *talk about friends leaving on missions the same time as me, how cool it is...like alma and sons of mosiah*

And I would like to recite a song, which i changed up a little to bit, and rewrote the last verse.
I arrived just the other day,
I came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
I learned to walk while he was away.
And I was talking 'fore he knew it, and as I grew,
I'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

I turned ten just the other day.
I said, "Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let's play.
Can you teach me to throw?" He said, "Not today,
I got a lot to do." I said, "That's ok."
And I walked away, but my smile never dimmed,
Said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

Well, I came from college just the other day,
So much like a man my dad just had to say,
"Son, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while?"
I shook his head, and I said with a smile,
"What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

Time has passed and now I'm going away.
Leaving to Portugal on a two year stay
My dad told me stories of mission time
He said, "You'll have to eat fish, of ever kind
I said, “Online it says there's 100 Mickey D's now”
He stood stunned and mouthed the word “wow”
But he continued to tell me stories of when he was 19
And as he read me his journal, it occurred to me,
He'd grown up just like me.
My dad was just like me.

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

First Post and Missionary Farewell

2007-06-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is a blog for Elder Rhett Hildebrandt. You can see how I'm doing in Portugal from here!
I'm not in Portugal yet...or in the MTC...but i leave in a little over two weeks. My farewell is soon, and everyone should come.
June 17
1pm
Chapel in Cedar Hills, on the corner of Canyon Road and Box Elder Drive.