I have flees!! The Torres Vedras Elderes found this couch somewhere (they wouldn't tell us where) and it seems to have given them flees. They slept in our house last week, i ended up using the same blanket, and then i woke up with little bites all over me and spots of blood on my clothes. They seem to be going away a bit now, but it was sort of rediculous. This is, i believe, the second time i've gotten flees, the first time wasn't bad at all because i was sleeping with thermals, so i was well protected. So yeah, all part of the portugal experience.
Time goes by way too fast here in Mafra. I'm trying hard not to think about it, but i'll probably get transfered in two weeks. I can't really imagine being anywhere else on the mission, and i'm not quite sure if i want to leave, but it'll be really good for me. It's time to pass on the area to someone that doesn't feel like they've knocked all the doors. I've started leaving all finding decisions up to Elder Carter, and he does pretty good. The other day, we were struggling because we didn't have any appointments and talking to people on the street all day can really wear you down, so I told Elder Carter to find us a street and we'd knock it. He took us to a street that i had never knocked before, and we ended up talking to this woman, Fatima, for about a half an hour. It turns out she used to know the Sister Missionaries a long time ago, and we set up a return appointment for friday. Then that night we found 3 new investigators. I think contacting people is interesting, because it doesn't seem to be all that productive, it's almost like the effort is all that matters, and then new people pop up from all over the place.
It's good to know the package is sent. We're almost at the point again where it's risky to send it to my address here, but it should get here fairly quick.
Anyway, life goes well in Mafra. Church on sunday was excellent. Afterwards we ate lunch at Maria de Graça's. I don't know if you remember the other two times i've eaten there, but both times i ended up eating pretty much more than i thought i was capable of eating. I need to eat a little slower at the beginning so that when they tell me ''come mais, não tenhas vengonha!'' I will be physcically capable without vomitting or something.
Sílvio (the guy that's marked for baptism) is doing well. He found work in Lisbon that's pretty steady and will allow him to go to church every sunday, so hurdle one is taken care of. It seems like the work situation is getting a little better in portugal, maybe this GLOBAL CRISIS!!! is abating just a bit. Anyway, he still has to find a way to not live with an unmarried woman, which could be a little complicated, but i think it'll work out.
We'll still working on getting more people to progress. Once again we have several people that are almost progressing but aren't quite moving along. But i think Manuel is going to start progressing a lot if he manages to stop smoking, and it turns out Maiery's family is good friends with his wife. It seems like everyone we teach know one another, so i'm hopeful we can start teaching the whole family. We made them soup last week, because Manuel doesn't know how to cook, so it seems like Teresa gets home from work and gets a little overwhelmed with having to cook for the family, and it turns out Elder Carter can cook pretty well. His dad is a professional caterer (which is a really awkward word, by the way) and so he has a bunch of good recipies. I wish i could cook better, or really, i wish i could cook more things. I'm getting sort of bored of pasta and cream sauce, as good as it is.
Last week i almost played settlers of Catan in a castle. I say almost because the game was homemade by Elder Peterson, and it ended up being to windy to play, but it was still almost very cool. We ended up playing futebol in the park (not real soccer, since i'm not allowed, but just passing it around and juggling, and then some of the other elderes played. Two of them got slightly injured, a good reminder of when President Terry told me not to play.)
I've been thinking a lot about change lately, like the past two days. I have to give a talk on the capacity to change next week for a zone meeting. I think it's important we, as missionaries, have faith and hope that people really can change, not just in small ways, but in significant ways (saul-ic proportions) because otherways our work is sort of impossible. It's hard to see that, because it seems like a lot of people are never going to change, and i guess lots of people aren't, but i'd like to know how to change people, or convince people to change, because when people want to change they generally have a great capacity to change, and when they don't there's not a whole lot you can do. I guess i could focus on finding the people that want to change instead of changing the people that don't, but i'd like to do both if that's possible.
Today is a holiday in mafra, so pretty much everything is closed (happily Intermarché is open, where we do internet and groceries) so we borrowed the Other Side of Heaven (one of the 5 or so movies that we're allowed to watch, alongside The Best Two Years and The Work and the Glory movies) so we're going to watch that, it'll be fun
That's about the news from Mafra. Thanks for your pictures, your prayers, your packages, and your ...aPoio. Have a great week, and enjoy the summer, since that should start for most of you sometime very soon, if it hasn't already.
Abraços all around.
~Elder Ammon
