Happy Halloween

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

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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.

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!!!

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