That's right, 6 months ago yesterday i wandered into the MTC having pretty much no idea what i was doing. Now i have a beautifully vague idea of what i'm up to, and happily, so do you:
This week was good. Today we went to Almada do visit an old investigator of Elder Oram who got baptized. It took a long time, but i got to write a few letters and ride on a boat, which reminded me of boston. I wonder how many cities there are in the world with a boat included in their public transportation.
This week we moved to the new house. It's quite a bit nicer, all though there's tons and tons of random things from the donna everywhere that makes it easy to get cluttered (because we don't have anywhere to put our things) but it's in the center of mafra so we don't have to walk so far everyday. Also this week, appropriately at my 6 month mark, i decided to revamp some goals and such. I become a bit too laid back in the work in mafra, helped in part by my week of not getting to work consistantly, but i think i talked about that last week, anyway, all this too say i made a bunch of goals and am going to try to not become lazy or sloppy in the work. I also bought a sweet new study journal with lots of paper, my studies have gone way down since i ran out of paper to think on.
This week we realized that April 4th won't work for Maura's baptism, due to general conference (which i am way excited about), so she got pushed back to the 11th. Manuel and Wanderlay are also choosing a date this week, so it's pretty exciting. Hopefully after general conference we'll be out in São Pedro da Cadeira (if i haven't talked about that yet, we're moving the chapel out of mafra, which makes some things a bit simpler, and lots of things a lot more complicated). General Conference will be cool, all the missionaries watch it together in english, i'd kindof like to watch in portuguese, but i'd much rather hear the real voices and understand everything well. This will be my second General Conference on my mission, i expect to get a lot more out of it than last time.
So, others news: Transfers are coming fast, it'll be weird because one of us is almost definitely going to be transfered, things change so much in missions, it becomes so normal to have everything change every 6 weeks, i imagine real life must be extremely slow.
This week we had some cool experiences. We contacted this lady as we were walking back from Vila Velha, talked to her a bit, and testified about how she has a heavenly father that loves her. She works in Swissa (switzerland, i'm pretty sure) and is hardly ever here, so we couldn't set up an appointment, but we left her a pamphlet with our number. Later that night she sent us a text message that said “Thankyou for making me feel that i am finally not alone, I have God with me” It was definitely one of the most meaninful text messages i've ever gotten and it is so incredible to actually be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
We also had a really good Sacrement Meeting this week, lots of people showed up, including Maiery, whom i need to talk about. This is the goldenest investigator i've ever seen. She read the introduction and beginning of the Book of Mormon, took detailed notes, and prayed about it before our second lesson, she also answered all the questions in the 'addition study' in the back of the restauration pamphlet. She went to family night at Francisco's house, and went to seminary last night. She's 17, and wants to serve a mission when she's old enough. We met this girl a little over a week ago. It's great, and we're hoping it's not too good to be true, sometimes it feels like your getting set up, but since i'm all about faith, hope, and charity, i believe she's as incredible as she seems.
Anyways, i would like to right more, but as it happens we have some shopping to do before p'day ends, so Ficem bem todos, leiam as escrituras, orem, e desfrutem a primaverra. Faz seis meses que estou cá, sem voçés, então eprero que não me esqueçam, nem tenham tantas saudades minhas. Pronto, tenho de ir. Obrigado pelas orações e apoio. Até Proxima Semana.
Um grande abraço,
Élder Ammon
