This week was good. On the last day of february portugal remembered that it was winter and decided to make the most of it, so we've had chilly and rainy days, but that just means more time before we get bored of beautiful weather. Yay opposition!
I just got my second haircut in portugal, i meant to make a big deal about it the first time because it was the first time in my life i paid for a haircut. I spent a whole thirty seconds today with a faux-hawk. Good times.
So yeah, on to my week, several exciting things happened this week. First of all, we got up way early friday to take Daniel (which, by the way, in portuguese is pronounced like the girls name) to Malveira to catch a train. Several things happened, and in the end we wound up driving to lisbon where he had to leave his dog, Jesse, with some guy he found out there because they wouldn't let him take it on the train. But he got to his home without any complications and so that was good. We moved out of our Chapel this week, at the moment we're meeting in the Casa do Povo, which as it turns out is a beautiful building. Last week we didn't have a piano, but lots of people showed up (we had 8 investigators!) and the testimony meeting was great. We had Maria da Graça, who quit her job so that she can continue going to church. Her faith is incredible. Jobs are not easy to come by here either. I ended up getting called by President Esteves to lead the music, which, when you lack a piano, is a lot harder, as it includes picking the first note. Standing infront of forty people and awkwardly decided what note on which to start Vinde Ó Santos is one of those things i didn't plan on doing in my life. They sung beautifully however, and it made me feel like we were pioneers or something, it was cool.
The branch out here really is incredible. They're always happy to give there little bits of spare time to help the missionaries teach, which is good, because we teach here quite a bit. This week we adopted all the Irmãs investigators, which is complicated. When we had the irmãs here, whenever we had a woman that we couldn't teach alone we would give her to them, and they ended up finding a bunch on their own too, and so now we have several single women that are amazing but sort of difficult to teach since we always have to find members. One of them is Maura, who is brasilian and the very definition of golden. She lives in this tiny house/shack out an the edge of Seixal with her husband and son. She's marked for baptism and is way excited about it. Her husband and son hadn't showed much interest in learning about the church, although they never opposed her, but earlier this week we taught the husband and he liked it alot. He wants to learn more, but he can't read, so Maura has started reading the Book of Mormon to him. A couple days ago we watched 'The Prodical Son' (which is so wonderfully nineties, and even better in portuguese) which really touched her, and even more Isabel, who was there with us, as she has a son who is a bit rebellious and doesn't want much to do with the church. The son watched it too, and said he liked it a lot when the father and son prayed together at the end. She told us yesterday that that night he read the book of mormon with his dad. These people are so great!
Lets see, other news. Rogério is probably going to move up to the north this week with family, at least for a while. It's a complicated situation that i won't try to go into detail about it now, but he's doing great. You know a recent convert is doing well when they read jacob 5 and have a pretty good idea of what it's talking about.
Oh yeah, i carried a piano down two flights of stairs this week, that was fun. Yesterday we were teaching this family that is from Cape Verde and is pretty cool, when there's a knock at the door. We assumed it would be the mother, but as it turns out, it was the other dupla of missionaries. They had scheduled an appointment with him at the same time. So we had a little lesson with four elderes. I think we need to get together and coordinate a little better. They're searching for a house out in Torres Vedras, but in the mean time they're also working in Mafra, where they don't really know anybody or have any where to start from, so it's a little sketchy.
Fun fact:
Did you know that the city of Ammon (now called Amman) in the old testement was eventually conquered by the greeks and given the name Philadelphia, which, as it happens, is the place where i was born.
Other things...theres a word in portuguese for the color the sky makes at sunset. This week we tought some lessons with Gonçalo, the little brother of Filipe Esteves who is currently in Brasil waiting to head off to Moçambique. He's cool. We taught Wanderlay, who said he wants to be baptized, so that's fun. The work in Mafra is incredible. It's hard to believe i've already been here 3 months and i'll probably be here 3 more. Wow, that's a lot of time in Mafra, but the it's a great time to be here, and it's a nice place to spend a quarter of my mission.
Anyways, i'm out of time here and Elder Oram i think is kinda bored of internet, so we're going to head off. I'll try really hard to write some letters today, there's a growing pile of peole i owe letters, so we'll see how it goes.
Anyways, Obrigado pelas orações e apoio, ficem bem, todos,
Até proxima semana, Abraço
Elder Ammon
