A series of interesting event

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...

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

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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

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!

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.

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?

This week was awesome....full of "coincidences"
To start out, our investigaters are doing great. Dias (the man that got his boy recently from Guine buissau) is doing really well. We invited him to be baptised, but he kinda beat around the bush. I know he has a testimony, especially cuz of the way he talks about the story of joseph smith, but hes scared of baptism or something.....But heºll come around. But sadly hes moving into a different area this week....so hopefully other missionaries can help him out.
Then we have Elizabete. Shes doing really well too...but still has a problem that shes living in with a boyfriend.... :S man thats such a problem here! but weºre making efforts to start teaching her boyfriend...maybe he´ll come around. Also we started teaching her son. hes really cool..... 11 yrs old.
Also this week we went to an Evangelical church. It was a sermon for Young Adults and there was a band there and they played Christian Brazillian Rock, and everyone was dancing and jumping around and singing...it was way fun. I was dancing around and everyone thought it was hilarious. Elder Gray didnt feel like it haha. but we met a bunch of cool people from there and they were all really nice.
And on monday, I had one of the most amazing days on my mission. The day started out with Interviews by president. He came to our chaple to interview all the missionareis in my Zone. Also we scheduled an interview for one of our investigators named Omid...whos from Iran. and theres new mission rules that all Muslims need to be interviewd by the mission president before getting taught. Omid is a really cool guy and was taught in the past, and really has a good testimony. He was interviewed and after the interview, president came out and was like "so when is he getting baptised" we told him we didnt have a baptismal date for him. and president was like, well get on it. It was a great interview and both president and Omid really liked it. So hopefully we can get him marked for baptism soon. After that we went to the post office to send off some letters and on our way back, we saw this one brazillian girl leaving her work (she works at a chinese store, we had gone into that store before and she helped us find tape...haha, and also we saw her at the one evangelical church we went to....) so we saw her leaving and we were walking behind her and we decided to go visit some people we had met while knocking doors, so we start going to that building....and we are still following this girl (she prolly thought we were stalking her or something) but anyway, we end up stopping at the same building, she goes in, then we go in....we get on different elevators, and we go to the 4th floor to visit this african family...they didnt have time or interess, but then we went to the 3rd floor to talk to this brazilian dude we met, and this old brazilian lady answered the door, we asked for Silvio, she said he wasnt there, and we look back and we see that same brazilian girl in the kitchen. We talked to the lady and she seemed interested....we set up an appointment to go there on saturday I think. Coincidence?
Then after that we went and visited this one kid named Loriano. hes an ex investigator, 15 yrs old. and on sunday we went and visited him and talked with him and 2 of his friends. they were way cool and wanted us to come back on monday, so we went back on this day and talked to them again..and there was 1 more of his friends...so because of this ex investigator, we have 4 new investigators! so then after we went to go visit this family, Henriques.
A few weeks ago, we were at Pizza Hut and we met this inactive family. they said they wanted us to come by...but after we got home, we kinda forgot about them. Then about a week ago, this one guy named Scott Milling called us. hes from UT, served here in portugal in 87, and wanted a number for a family here. WE didnt have the number but we had the address, so we told him wed go over to get the number for him. so we did a few days ago, and there was a kid that answered (14 yrs old) and he said to come back on Monday. And that teenager looked really familiar....i didnt know why though. And it wasnt until we were on our way back to their house on monday that I realized that it was the same family that we met at Pizza Hut. We knocked on the door, they let us in and told us that they want us to start teaching their 14 yr old son, cuz hes not baptised. So we taught him a little and left. Coincidence?
Then we went by this other contact we made the other day with a chinese lady. We set up to go by their house on monday. So we went by and they let us in. They are a young married couple. Lili and Jian Ke (Jack) and they have a little 2 yr old boy) We watched Finding Happiness iwth them in chinese. They loved it. Then come to find out that they are already christian....and they belong to Jehovas Witnesses!!!! AHHH!!! but they seemed receptive and wanted us to come back wiht a book of mormon in chinese. So that actually acomplished 2 of my mission goals. To get a chinese investigator and also to have a JW investigator!!! yay!
then after that we were hungry, but we were low on money...so we decided that if we had any money in our accounts we would go get pizza. We tried, not really expecting anything and we had 20euros! so we got the money and as we were doing that, who do we see but our friend Negrinho. He said that he has been trying to talk to us but no one was at the chapel! we explained that its usually only open on sunday...but he wanted to talk with us so we set up an appointment on thursday. The we went into this little shopping center to get pizza and who do we see, but Maíne (thgat one brazillian that saw us race cars) we talked with her for a while and told her about what we do as missionaries. She was amazed with our life style and we told her about the book of mormon and gave her a copy. We have an appointment to see her today! And if we werent hungry, we wouldnt have gone to the ATM...and we wouldnt have seen Negrinhno, and if we wouldnt have stopped and talked to him, we would have missed talking to Maíne....coincidence? Then we finished off this awesoem day with some Pepperoni Pizza from Pizza Hut! :D But it was an amazing day
And thats about all for my week!
Everything else is goin great here. I like this area, and i think ill end my mission here. I dont want to be transfered again, transfters are a pain.
well, Ate proximo!
-Elder Rhett

Alternative finding?

Another week gone by, time really does to seem to be flying.
This week was good, except for on Friday the 13th. That day it seemed EVERYTHING went wrong. All of our 7 appointments fell through and it seemed like noone wanted to talk with us. Then when we were walking home at night we realized it was friday the 13th and then it all made sense haha.
Oh and last week, well 2 weeks ago, (in not sure if i already shared the 1st part of this story but whatever) Me Elder Gray and 2 other elders from my district went to go eat at the japanese restaurant. and as we were leaving we noticed in the window of a store this really cool toy trucks, that only cost 5o cents each! so we each decided to buy one then race them. So we each picked out one, went to this really big hill that has a raingutter going down it and raced them for a few minutes, and mine won everytime!
anyway, fast forward to last pday after i did emails. I was sitting here in the library waiting for elder gray to be done with emails and this girl (in her 20s...and if i wasnt on a mission, i would say very cute :P) leans over to me and was like "are you the mormons?" and i said....ya..... then she said "i saw you racing toy cars the other day, i was sitting in my window laughing the whole time!" It was cool! we started talking, but then we had to go and i gave her a passalong card with our number on it and told her to call us.
Well, a few days passed and we went to go visit an inactive member, and on the way home we were crossing an overpass and who do we see, none other than that one girl and her sister! we talk for a little and they asked when church was and where it was. We told them. They siad they couldnt make it this sunday cuz they were going to Coimbra but wanted to come. WE told them about english class which is on wednesdays and they wanted to come. So its all set up for them to come to english class tonight, hopefully they turn into good investigators, they seem pretty interested....(hopefully its not JUST in me :P)

We had an appointment with a really cool active family named Familia Andrade (Irma Isabel was baptised about the time when dad was on his mission and Irmao Andrade went on a mission about the same time as dad, i think it might ahve been a year before.) but anyway, we had dinner with them and their little daughter 10, or 11 years old, named anaisabel had a friend over named Veronica. And her story is really cool. They go to school together and Veronica started asking Ana Isabel questions about why she did stuff differently and why was acted differently. Well she explained and little by little started telling her about the church. Veronica is part of an Athiest family, and she didnt even know who Jesus was. So they had talked a little and veronica was really curious and REALLY wanted to go to church. So last weekend, they were assigned to do a school project together and they set it up so they could have a sleepover on saturday to sunday. But the real reason for the sleepover is cuz she wanted to go to church. So she went to church and LOVED it. then we came over after and ate lunch iwth them then taught about the apostacy with cups...building the cup pyramid. She loved it and at the end we gave her a book of mormon...and wow....i have never seen someone so happy to have a copy of the book of mormon. She was surprised we were giving it to her and said thankyou very sincerely. She just stared at the book for a while then started flipping through the pages. It was amazing. She looked through the pictures and asked about them and she really wanted to read and pray about it. Now i really know what the scriptures mean about being childlike. Watching her have such a great love, respect and excitement for what we were saying and for the book of mormon really is beyond discription. Just seeing how pure of mind she was and humble enough to put aside all the teaching of her past, because she really felt something about this. I wish everyone could be childlike.....the mission would be so much greater....but sadly its a very rare thing....too many people are hardened and confused by the world. They arent pure enough to really tune into the spirit.....but thats what we have to work with. But ya....that was an amazing experience.
This week I also made a skate video! I was walking in another area and there was a skatepark, so i decided to do a run, Elder smith took my camera and sang an ACDC song as i ran down the halfpipe, off the jump, did a grind, stalled on the other quarter pipe, did a grab off another jump, went on the last rail and RIGHt at the end of the rail, i ate it hard! haha. it was great. all on video too....iºll have to practice my extreme runnign skills haha.
As for our investigators.....weºre having to drop like all of them. This area is good for people to listen to us...but there are lots of lazy people in this area, so weºre dropping the people who arent doing what they need to so we can find those that are really ready. Its a really tough thing to do...but it has to be done. We do have a few investigators that are doing really well, like Dias. Hes preparing to be baptised. Hes really cool. just hasnt recieved an answer yet. then we have elizabet. Shes really cool, she just needs to know what to do with her live in boyfriend situation. Then we have Vany-whos a daughter of the family that got baptised my first week here. And we have a few other cool investigators....like Negrinho and Omid...and others.
Anyway, thats aobut my week.
ficam bem!
-Rhett

the weathers getting better!

Man its sooooo nice to have better weather. It seems liek all of portugal is lightening up with the weather. Im wearing a short sleave shirt now!!! :D
Also, this week i made some AMAZING maple bar donuts....i really perfecting the recipe. mmm more reason to be happy
BUt as far as investigators, a few cool things have happened.
Our investigator Dias has been trying to get his son from Guinee Bisau for 9 years but the Govt wasnt letting him. and hes been praying and meeting with churches and stuff. But he said it wasnt untill he started meeting with us that finally the govt let his son come and now his son is here living with him. Its cool.
Also, our new investigator Clayton that i talked about last week....we went back over to his house and he was really depressed cuz his wife (who hes separated from) stole his daughter and fled to spain. and he was really depressed about it. We talked to him and helped him out a little, but then we came back a few days later to see how he was doing. and when we were there his wife and daughter showed up! it was the first time he saw her since the first time we were there, cuz it was that night when we found him that his wife and daughter disappeared and it was that night when we were there that they came back. Another cool thing.
But this week has been going really well, it has been a happy week. Today weºre playing soccer...hopefully Ill be good enough to take on Aisha when i get back! haha.
Ease it like a sunday morning!
-Rhett

A week of miracles

Things here are going great. Me and Elder Gray are getting along good. And the work here is really fun. A few cool things have happened this week:
A few days ago I was on division in Mem Martins (which is like the actual city of Sintra) and we were knocking doors and not having much success. SO we decided to say a prayer and ask what we should do. Well we decided to keep on knocking. THe next building, no one even let us in to enter the building from the intercom, so we went to the next building and there someone was leaving, so we walked right in. We went to the top floor (floor 5) and started knocking. Thats when the miracle started i guess. We were just having a good time, joking around and knocking and in that building at least 1 person from each of the 5 floors (including the ground floor 0, so 6 actual floors in total) answered the door and all 7 of the people/families we talked to had smiles on their faces and all of them wanted a return appointment. We even got to save someone who was stuck in the elevator in that building and that wanted a return appt. It was really cool to see what following the spirit plus a good attitude can do! haha.
Another really cool thing happened last sunday. It was fast sunday and I was fasting for my district to get new progressing investigators. And that day we went by a potential investigator to see if we could teach her. No one answered. But i heard someone home in the apparment behind us on the other side of the hallway. So I decided to knock it. A brazillian guy answered the door with his little 2 yr old girl. We introduced ourselves and he let us in to teach him. Turns out that his wife just left him and his daughter and they are looking to get a divorce. so we started talking about the restoration and how the gospel blesses families. Then his nephew came in hes 15 years old, and we started teaching him. At the end of the lesson they both wanted us to come back, so we are, this friday. So thats 2 new investigators. Then later that night we went by an inactive member, to teach her. She lives with her sister. So we went in and invited her sister who isnt a member to listen in. Her sister was interested and wanted us to come back, so that was a total of 3 new investigators in one day. IT was really cool. God is a cool dude. :P
~Yesterday we didnt have much to do in the afternoon, so we called up this 20 yr old dude that came to our english class the other day to see if we could talk to him and hear him play guitar (cuz he told us he played) he was like SURE so we met up with him, went to a park and he played guitar, the only song we all knew was Celine Dion- My heart will go on, from titanic. So he played it on his guitar and we sang in the park haha, and some other guy listened in and came over and was like "I really like that music..." so we started talking to him, and now weºre gonna teach him later today!
So thats about all the cool things that happened this week. Well there were more I guess....like we got fed by Familia Martins (a fam my dad baptised) and they love me cuz of my dad so they want to feed us everyweek haha. Thanks dad! :D~
Well have a good week everyone!
Till next time!
Signing off!
-Elder Rhett
PS Rainly Pdays suck......