Hey. My first email from Monte da Caparica, it's pretty sweet here. It's a lot more urban than Mafra, less European and more west jackson. Also these computers don't have microsoft word, so i'm rockin it up on Notepad.
It seems like last p-day was a really long time ago, but it passed pretty quick. The area is cool, it's a ward here with us and Costa da Caparica down on the coast. Down there it's really pretty and reminds me of california, up here it's less beautiful, but the work is better, so i'm not complaining. Transportation here is buses and walking. Today i bought my fifty euro pas that gets me pretty much anywhere in this area, on the metro, buses tudo. It's pretty sweet. It is absurd that it's july. When i was making my planner for this transfer i was a little freaked out that next transfer i hit a year. That will be a strange day.
My new comp is pretty cool, he's from American Fork, and is pretty green and springy. His portuguese is pretty good for only being here for 6 weeks, so it'll be good. We also work a lot with Telma, who is a 22 year old portuguese girl that's going on a mission to Cape Verde in 2 weeks, so she helps us a lot, it sort of feels like we're in a triple instead of a pair, which is sort of interesting, but yeah, she'll probably be a spectacular missionary out there. She reminds me of Filipe.
The work in monte is good, i think it's got a ton of potential. The members are awesome and are pretty willing to help. There's a bit of a tradition with the monte elderes now of not looking for new investigators, and just passing the time with things easier and more fun, so it feels like we're wasting lots and lots of time. But hopefully I can change that it can be hard to change traditions, especially amoung missionaries. I think it's be easier to help an investigator quit smoking than to convince an Elder to be obedient, but we'll see how it goes. Elder Cornwell is a good kid, he just has some bad traditions from his trainer So, i'm hoping everything goes well with this. I'm also hopeing that this interenet isn't as expensive as it says it's going to be. The meter says i'm up to 3£ already, which just isn't going to work.
Tonight the new mission president comes in and starts. I've heard good things about him, we met this brasilian member that knows him more or less, and says that he's a really nice guy and will be a good president, but that things will change.
I'm still thinking a lot abuot change, now that i'm in a new area and trying to make it better, and we've got a new president who will probably have lots of things he wants to make better, and then theres a different Elder back in mafra, hopefully changing things for the better. Change is good stuff.
Speaking of, Isaac is getting absurdly old. He needs to slow down or he'll be way too old by the time i get back.
Lets see, other news. Leaving mafra went smoothly. Some wheels fell of my luggage, i dunno if i said that yet. That happened in mafra on my first day. But so the rolling luggage turned into more of a dragging operation. It was sort of tiring. Happily, President esteves gave us a ride to the office, so that wasn't a problem, but the walk to the station and then up to our house was rough. For any future missions, two wheeled luggage is better, with wheels made out of something really really strong.
So cool things from the new area: There's some pretty great graffiti all over the place. The was a Wutang sign painted on the wall (a throw out to Emmett and Caitlin's brother and anyone else that loves them and probably isn't reading my blog), and all sorts of great stuff. I need to go through with my camera and take a picture of all the great art/vandalism. There's this gypsy kid that reminds me so much of Mouth from Goonies. He's really funny. We had a baptism on saturday of this guy named Ely. He's way cool.
Anyway, i like monte, it's a cool area that i'm hoping will become a lot better. Today i'm headed in to lisbon since we're close now, so i'll try to take pictures of awesome things. Have a great fourth of July, play with fire only in moderation, feed the missionaries and invite your friends to church and such.
So that's the news from Monte da Caparica, stay well, hugs, little kisses, tchau
~Ammon
