May 20, 2009

Olá! Today i am, in fact, writing a bit later than usual because we’re up in Torres Vedras today to do some things with the other Elders. This last week seemed really long for some reason, probably because it was substantially different from the past 6 months, but yeah. Working with Elder Carter is an adventure and a half. He’s a good guy, and a hard worker. He’s still pretty new (I’m still pretty new!) he’s been in the country for 3 months, so his Portuguese is not quite good enough for him to teach a whole lesson while I hang out, sadly enough. So it’s been a lot of growing, a lot of praying, and humility this week.

Thanks for sending Ben’s thoughts, it was nice to read. Sad week in terms of news from home. Those pictures of the chapel were intense. They reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It’s weird how history is so fragile.

In Mafra news, things keep going, despite the lack of Elder Oram. Last p-day night we didn’t end up getting home until very late, because of a series of unfortunate events relating to getting rides, so I didn’t get enough sleep the night before transfers, then we had to run to catch the bus (we ended up missing it anyway) Those who know me will know that sleep deprivation and over exertion are not kind to me, so I ended up throwing up in a café bathroom, but I felt a bit better after that.

In people news, Rogério, who got baptized back in January, has been really sick lately, so he hasn’t been able to get to church. He’s always been pretty sick, but usually he managed to get to church, but with it being so far away it’s been rough for him, but he’s doing well, all things considered. He finished the Book of Mormon this week for the second time, which was impressive. Ezequiel is doing well, he was interviewed and he’s all ready for getting baptized. Francisco, who I’m sure I’ve mentioned before as being awesome, will be doing the baptism. Maiery is also doing well, and she asked that I baptize her, so that’s exciting. We had a ward activity barbeque on Saturday, which was great. Maiery’s brothers and cousin came, as well as Maura’s son and his friend. It was great to see them create some friendships with the church. I had to give up playing soccer for the first time on account of my epic acl, mcl, bone breakage last year. It was sad. Add that to the list of things I regret happening, but oh well. I’ll ask the new mission president his thoughts about playing futebol.

Sunday was good, we didn’t have too many investigators in church, which was sad. We’re sort of running out of progressing investigators, which is tough. Most of our progressing investigators have turned into members, which is great, but it makes it difficult to get new investigators to church because of the ride situation, but I’m sure it will all work out. We just need to buy a bus.

One thing I’ve had to do that I wasn’t used to doing is talk on the phone. I don’t like talking on the phone in English, and talking on the phone in Portuguese is a whole different adventure, but I’m getting used to it, although I don’t expect it’ll be something I look forward to anytime soon.

We’ve been getting a lot of support from the members over here, like always, but it’s sort of a different sort of support now that Elder Oram is gone. Elder Oram was good at working with members and setting up lessons with them and such. I’m not that great at it, and I think people recognize that, so they’ve been going a bit out of their way to talk to me and ask how they can help. I think they may also recognize that I’m in way over my head here. Missions are cool like that.

As far as copied CD’s, I’ve never heard any rules against it, so do what you like. I think if you buy it online it’s legal to burn things to CD’s, at least it is with I-Tunes. I dunno about echinacea, I still say it’s more of a placebo type thing, but the people here swear by lemon tea. It cures anything. It is actually pretty good though.

It’s good to hear isaac’s forays into science are going well. It’d be nice to have one of us actually become a scientist. Just watch out for worn out middle school science teachers.

So that’s about all from here. We’ve been pretty busy with teaching and such. We has an investigator pray about the Book of Mormon and described his response as feeling good. In zone conference the Area Authority encouraged us to ask people to be more specific, so we did, and he described it as a ‘free’ feeling, and joy. So that was cool. We went past there the other day and he’d been reading the book of mormon and praying. I’m starting to gain much more respect for the slow and steady investigators than those whose progress is an intense roller coaster. Wanderlay was one of those, steady I mean. He read the Book of Mormon and prayed and went to church and started keeping the commandments and then got baptized. I think those are the real ‘elect’ people. A lot of times as missionaries we like finding the people that have miraculous stories and talked about how they’ve been searching for truth and how we were answers to their prayers and who immediately want to know what they have to do. They’re nice to. But I’ve decided I like the ones more than let you in, listen, and accept return appointments, and keep commitments. You don’t need impressive miraculous stories to be a golden investigator. You just need humility and a desire to learn.

We taught Maiery’s uncle for the first time this week. Maiery has several uncles, with varying degrees of acceptance to the church. I liked this uncle a lot. He was, based on his understanding of the bible, not in favor of her being baptized, but he respected her ability to choose. When we talked to him he listened and didn’t argue. He showed why he believed she shouldn’t be baptized (It wasn’t that she shouldn’t be baptized, it’s that she shouldn’t be baptized again. “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism”) I explained why she would need to be baptized again in our church, and he listened politely and Said, “ok” basically. I’m not doing a very good job explaining why he was so awesome, but I just liked him a lot. He’s one of those people you just want to see in the church because you know they would be so happy there.

Anyway, I kind lost track, but I think my hour is about up. Everyone have a great week, abraços, beixinhos, até próxima.

~Elder Ammon

May 13, 2009

So, first of all, i forget my camera and we didn't have time to go back for it, so no baptism pictures this week, but i'll get those next week for sure.

First of all (again) Transfer News: Elder Oram's heading out to Alverca to be a Zone Leader. I'm staying here, and will be serving with Elder Carter, who, to my surprise and horror (maybe horror's a strong word...aprehension) is younger than I am (in the mission that is, he has 4ish months in the field). So that's going to be an adventure starting tomorrow. I was in the MTC with Elder Carter for 3 weeks, but i didn't end up talking to him much, although i think i know who he is, so that will be exciting. It's kind of weird to imagine working with a new companion, I've been working with Elder Oram for ever, more or less.

So that's transfer news you can send stuff without fear, my address won't change for another 6 weeks, in other news, talking on the phone was great. It's nice to here everyone, Isaac sounds older, and smarter. It's so weird that you have a dog, and that Clubhouse is impressive and of epic proportion.

The baptismal meeting went great. I did the baptisms of Ana Paula and Eva, and Elder Oram baptized Nelson and Jean. It was a really great meeting, and the Spirit was very strong. Sunday was nice, our new chapel continues to be great. Lets see, i feel like there should be more news. Elder Oram's been saying goodbye to people, which has been sad. I'm sad for him, and imagining how it's going to be in 6 weeks (in theory). Ana Paula, Eva, and Nelson made a card for him leaving/his birthday it was really cool. Maiery and Ezequiel are doing well, and they have their baptismal interviews coming up either this or next week.

Oh yeah, Zone conference was this week, that was amazing. Patrick Kearen came and spoke with us, in his glorious british accent. I want one. He talked about the importance of being the light of the world, or getting into the mountain (symbolically), and recognizing that conversion comes through the holy ghost, not through us, and we should try or expect to convince people, that, like Elder Bednar said when he came, people are not getting baptized because two 19 year olds try to explain them the doctrines of salvation. In portuguese. It has a lot more to do with what they feel than what we say.

Other things...I made banana bread last p-day, which was suprisingly easy and delicious, and then someone gave us some slighly old bananas again, so i figure i'll make some more today if we have time. We have to go around saying goodbye to people and packing and such, so it's going to be a sort of busy day.

I had a cool experience on thursday. We've been doing splits with some of the members to work out in the little towns around our areas, and I've been going to Ribomar with Edgar (ribomar is, by the way, immensly beautiful). Edgar is about 29, an accountant, and his daughter was born in december, so he's doesn't have a whole lot of free time. He wasn't all that excited about working with us that night, because he really wanted to spend some QT with his wife and daughter, but he, being awesome, came out with us anyway. At first he was obviously stressed out and not excited about working, but as we got talking to people he started to enjoy it a lot more. One lady we talked to was 20, and said she didn't believe in God because she had had a miscarriage a little bit ago. As it happens, Edgar and his wife had experienced more than one miscarriage while trying to have children, and he was able to understand her pain and help her in a way i was certainly uncapable of doing. It was just a really good moment for me in seeing the great happiness that members get from serving with missionaries (that sounds a little presumptious, but it does make them happier, by their accounts) and there are people that need to hear the testimonies of members, and the way our experiences help us know how to console others, in the same way the Christ knows exactly how to console us because of what he went through. So yeah, that was really great.

So, to mount my soap box:

Work with Missionaries! You'll be happy, they'll be happy, and you'll make other people happy at the same time. While i'm up here, let me also say how incredibly important it is to talk to and involve new members in stuff. It's something in which missionaries can only do so much, and have to rely on members to do all the rest. So talk to new people, invite them to things, and such. From what i've heard, it's hard being a new member in the church.

I think that's more or less the news from here. I'm not exactly sure if i'm ready to be the older companion, but it'll be good. It'll make me rely a lot more on the Lord and a lot less on Elder Oram. Hopefully all is well in the states. People have already stopped talking about the swine virus, so hopefully you all got through that without problems.

Something interesting about the mission, is finding new investigators. It's interesting because it seems to be completely independent of our ability. Last week we didn't find any, for the first time in my mission. Yesterday we found 4. Elder Oram's over the last few transfers has gotten really excited about making graphs, and so he's been keeping track of new investigators and lessons and such. Its fun, because you can see the pride cycle as a function of time. Something i like about the account of Ammon in the Book of Mormon is he always ascribes success to the Lord, as do all the great people in the Book of Mormon. I think that's pretty important, and staying humble, dilligent, and praying with faith is the only way we get anywhere in this work. So hopefully we'll manage to do that, Mafra continues to be great, people pop up from everywhere. We were teaching a lesson to these two brasilians who were watching the wolverine movie when we got there (i didn't even know that existed!) and this guy walked up to the window and hung out for the rest. It turned out he had come from brasil where he would go to church and the missionaries taught him a bunch. So yeah, small and simple things.

I'm healthy (still!) and happy, and excited and scared about having a new companion. Fiquem bem, todos. Até próxima semana.

Abraço!

~Elder Ammon