August 26, 2009

This week was interesting. We found a mouse in our house! I say found, i should say saw as it booked it into the kitchen. But everyone can rest easily knowing the mouse is taken care of. Our landlord bought some traps, so now we have the fun task of keeping an eye out for dead mice. Missions are really interesting.

On a more spiritual side, we're really excited about one of our investigators, Mario. I dunno if i talked about him at all last week, but we had a really good lesson with him and then he went to church and he loved it. Bringing investigators to church is scary. You never know what people will say, either to them directly, or in the talks and stuff, if the classes will be good or really boring, if there will be lots of little kids running around, etc, but he liked it a lot. He's also started coming to english class, which we teach, and he's started praying, we've been talking about baptism, and we're thinking he wants to get baptized, although he's a little nervous what his family will think. So yeah, fun times.

I had an epiphony about english class the other day. Honestly, i've never seen anyone learn english from the missionaries. We teach ok, the problem is there are always lots of new people, so we keep having to start over, and that these people live in portugal, so it's difficult for them to apply english (where as for us as missionaries, it's very easy to apply portuguese) So starting last week, I decided English class should just be really really fun and a lot more english practice than theory. So we're sort of molding English class into more of an English party, where we can invite lots of people and investigators get to know members and have a good time with these funny americans.

In other news, we had to push back Quinta's baptism again. It's sort of sad, but she missed church again because of a tooth ache related thing. Tooth ache sounds pretty benign, but i realize they can be pretty absurdly painful. But anyway, we're going to make sure she's good and ready before she gets baptized, there's no point in baptizing people that don't stay in the church, not to mention it's sort of bad form to baptize people who aren't ready.

Lets see, Portugal's starting to cool down a little bit, it had been really really hot the last few weeks, with blistering sun (well it wasn't technically blistering, but it was hot) and such, but it's started to cool down, and i'm starting to get excited for the rediculousness of winter. I'm banking on this house staying a little more warmer in the winter, since it's underground, but we'll see how that goes. Elder Fernandes is worried, since the only time he experienced cold in his life he got really sick.

Time is starting to pick up abit, it's strange. Days are going by pretty fast, but weeks seem like they take forever. It seems like a long time since last p-day, but at the same time it seems like we just got here. It's weird.

We're having a bit of a challenge here working with members. Finding members to come with us is proving to be more dificult here than in mafra or Monte. I've giving a talk on sunday, and i'm hoping to be able to get people excited to help and such. It's interesting because I'm getting fed more here than in any other area. And they have a weird habit of making food for us and just giving it to us to take home. I appreciate it and all, but it basically defeats the purpose of eating with the members. I like applying Ezekiel 34 in Missionary - Member relations. Speaking of that, on saturday we're going to help make lunch for the women in the ward, it's going to be fun, we're in charge of making some deserts.

I believe that's all the noteworthy things i can think of at the moment. It's good to hear Isaac's riding his bike, i would be really sad if Isaac got to be 10 years old without knowing how to ride a bike. I'm pretty sure that's one of the requirements for passing 3rd grade (or 4th grade...i realized the other day i'm not sure what grade isaac is in)

Well that's all the time we have for today. Hopefully you enjoy the photos. I'm running out of space on my card, because i insist on taking absurdly high quality photos, so i'm thinking i might buy a little pen drive and copy them all over and send them home. Since there are lots of pictures i don't have time to send, and lots of picture i don't want to delete.

So, have a great week. I hope everything goes well with Sister Garrett, Have a great week everyone,

Grandes Abraços,

Ammon the Elder

ps, enjoy my mad pancake skills

August 19, 2009

Today's email is going to be a little bit shorter, for now at least, we're going to sintra and have to leave in about 20 minutes to get there, so i'm hoping to write some more after.

This last week was good, and the weeks are starting to pick up, as they do. Elder Fernandes and I are working together well, and we're about as busy as i have ever been in my mission. We talk mostly portuguese, which is sometimes frustrating for me, because there are a lot of little things i don't say very well in portuguese (things like, "it's not good to pour oil down the sink because it will get clogged and hurt the environment") but we get by. His english isn't great, but he's practicing, and we teach English class twice a week, so he's learning pretty well. He went to the MTC in Brasil, where he stayed just 3.5 weeks. He also got to know Telma, who was in my old area before she went on a mission. It's funny how things like that happen.

Creole is pretty close to portuguese, but the pronounes are different (I, you, We) ect, and they don't complicate their verbs as much as portuguese does (it's absurd really) so i'm catching on pretty quick.

So yeah, the week was good, nothing too intense happened, I did my first District Meeting as District leader and did a division with Elder Velasquez and we went to the most ghetto place i've seen in my life. It was actually beyond ghetto, and more like midtown Baghdad or something.

About my house, it's starting to grow on me. But the problems are that its very dark, damp, and there's a sewer line running through it that stinks from time to time, but we've been cleaning stuff up and moving stuff around, and it's getting a lot better. It's stays really cool, because it's mostly underground, and i'm hoping it's stays warm in the winter. It has a dryer, which is really handy, and the landlords are really nice. One is spanish and runs marathons (he had a time of 3:46 in one of his pictures, you'll have to ask the marathon runners in the family if that's a good time, but i think it's pretty good) the other is portuguese and worry's a lot. So we have a bunch of little rules that are sort of frustrating, like not leaving the washing machine on when we leave the house, and things of that sort. But it's not a terrible house, and we're only there a couple hours a day anyway, so it's cool.

Anyway, i'm headed out to Sintra, so you guys have a great week, and i'll try to add on some stuff after i get back with pictures and such.

Abraços

Ammon

August 12, 2009

Hello Family, from The Little Point. It seems like not too long ago i was moving into Monte da Caparica, although i guess six weeks really isn't too long. So, some things i wasn't expecting: First, my companion, elder Fernandes, is from Cabo Verde, so he's a lot less green than you would expect (which is ironic actually, since Cabo Verde means green cape) and he's already served almost 5 months on a mini-mission (a thing they do a lot in portugal and very little in the states, where you are essentially a full time missionary for some shortish amount of time.) So he's already fairly experienced in teaching, and missionary work, although Portugal is a pretty new experience for him, probably newer for him than it was for me, even though he speaks portuguese. He doesn't speak english, but he speaks Creole, which is a dialect the have in Cabo Verde, which is great for talking to Cabo Verdians, i'm working on learning it. It's fun to learn a new language again. Aside from being a native and a reletively experienced missionary, he is one of the more driven missionaries i've run into so far. So i'm excited, and he's very excited. He and another portuguese elder did four hours of contacting on the street while the American Elders were getting interviewed and such. President Torgan, every time he sees us (we now live right next to the mission office, so he's run into us reletively a lot over the last week) tells us how much confidence he has in us and how much he expects in us for this area. It really is a great area, but basically nothing has happened there for a year or so. We've been pretty blessed here so far.

Oh, there was a 'Second:' that was supposed to come. Presidente Torgan rearranged the districts a bit so now the giant 10 person district is two normal sized districts, which is nice, since the other district people are in a different ward. So now i don't have to spend all my time calling people, which is nice.

So, Our first day, we had essentially no idea where we were or what to do. So we did some things we needed to, or tried to. This is my first time serving in the Lisbon Area, so i didn't know what we had to do to get his bus pass (we still haven't managed it quite yet) so i didn't get out there in time to do it, so we went back home. So the only person we knew was named Carlota. She got baptized about a year ago, and is pretty solid. So we figured we should go try and give her a visit, and as we were about to leave she called us to ask us to come buy, saying she had some dinner for the Elderes. 'Sweet!' I thought, 'Dinner on the first day!' When we got there however, it turns out the dinner was for the Office Elderes, and she wanted us to take it to them. So that was a little sad, but whatever. We did, however, meet Quinta (or Kinta, or something to that effect) who, like Carlota, is from Guinê (i'm not quite sure how to spell that) but, unlike Carlota, doesn't speak portuguese. But, Elder Fernandes the Great broke out his Creole speaking skills and started talking to her, and she really liked that. So then we took the food to the office and got our bags.

On Friday, we did planning and then had a lesson with this lady who was just a little crazy. She was nice, but we're probably not going back for a long time. Anyway, so then we spent about 4 hours trying to get Elder Fernandes' bus pas, which was frustrating, especially because we didn't even quite get it. If I train someone else, I'll know much better how to do this part of the training. We had some elderes who were supposed to go in the Açores but that missed the flight so the were sleeping over, so...

On saturday, we did a division (where you trade companions for a bit) and I went down into lisbon and looked for people andelder Fernandes stayed in Pontinha and found some people. We didn't achieve a whole lot in Lisbon, but it was lots of fun to explore lisbon and see everything. We have the Zoo in our area, so we're going to hit that up sometime. I've heard it's amazing, and the animals speak portuguese. Oh, right, while Elder Fernandes was up there he passed by Quinta and invited her to go to church, and she said she would, and did on Sunday. She was the first investigator from pontinha that's gone to church in a long long time.

Sunday was church, the ward here is nice, but it's not incredibly strong at the moment. They had to bring in leadership from other areas to increase membership and keep it going, but we're hopeful to see things change. The people that go are way nice, and it looks like we get fed quite a bit here. On sunday we ate dinner with André, who is from Angola and is way cool. After that we went and taught Quinta for the first time, and she liked it a lot. Hearing Elder Fernandes teach in Creole was pretty cool, because it's almost portuguese, but not quite. Anyway, she said she's pray about it and we set a return apointment for tuesday.

Monday was Zone Conference. I think it would be great if normal members had big Conferences every Six weeks to animate them and eat a lot of pizza. Zone Conferences are great. Presidente Torgan wants to raise the vision of the portugal mission. So it was pretty great. It went almost all day, so that was pretty much our monday, except for going to pick up the bus pass for elder Fernandes, and visiting a member

On Tuesday, we had a pretty awesome day. We taught this girl, Catarina, that moved here a while ago from Costa da Caparica (the ward i just moved from). And then it got really really really hot, and i couldn't find the house for an appointment we had so we wandered around in the sun for a while, and then we went back home really worn out and i had a bad headache and layed for a while. But then, it got a lot better, because we taught Quinta and she had prayed about everything and felt really good. She actually had one of the best answers i've ever heard which is she felt good, peace, and felt like the had a change of heart. So we ended up inviting her to be baptized, and she said yes! It's pretty amazing to see the difference already, and how there really are people waiting for us, and Elder Fernandes specifically.

So, all in all, a pretty epic week, and we're hoping to have lots more of really good weeks. I had a dream last night that i was home, and i was like, 'Hey! I still have a year left, I can't be home already' But it really does go by so fast. At zone conference, Elder Oram (my trainer) gave his last testimony (all the missionaries that are going home give one last little talk on their last zone conference) and when i got here he had just hit a year in the country. It was fun to hang out with him a bit and with his Grandson (his greeny's greeny)

Anyway, good week, being a district leader isn't really a big deal, although it's still fun, and training also is turning out to be more a matter of showing him how to use Portuguese washing machines (which are crazy, by the way. Everytime you use it you'd think you were firing up the time machine), but i'm enjoying it, and he shows his greenyness from time to time. Basically though, i have the coolest greeny ever, and we're going to work really hard in this area and make it awesome, and go to the zoo sometime.

Hopefully everyone is surviving august, have a great week.

Oh, P.S. our house is terrible, so we're going to move to a new one as soon as we can, so just send things to the mission office address. I go by there at least three times a week, so i'll get it easy.

thanks, Abraços, boa semana

~Elder Ammon

August 5, 2009

Big news of the day: I’m getting transferred! I was not expecting that, but that’s how it goes. And, as if a new area weren’t enough, this is how it’s going down: I’m going to pontinha which is right in the center of Lisbon, where I’m going to be district leader, of 10 missionaries (including myself). So that’s a pretty big deal right? But wait, I’m doing this all while training a Greeny fresh out of the states, which also means I’m white washing, or in other words, both the elders that are there in pontinha right now are leaving, and I’m basically starting over…with a brand new missionary. If this whole thing wasn’t crazy enough, I found out on Monday, a full day before we would find out with president terry. So it caught me completely off guard. I’m excited, and terrified, and wondering how I’m going to manage, but I’m sure learn and grow a whole lot. Meanwhile, Elder Tracy, my comp from the MTC, is coming here to serve with Elder Cornwell, so he’s excited,Elder Cornwell is going to learn a lot and grow a lot too.

By the way, I’m checking out the photos as I go, Yellowstone is really really amazing. Someday when I’m back we’ll have to do some serious Yellowstone adventuring.

But yeah, the transfer is going to be a bit intense. I’ve heard that there’s not a whole lot going on in pontinha (ergo the white washing) but hopefully we’ll have success out there. I have no idea who my companion is, but I’m hoping he’s really solid. The poor kid probably has no idea his companion doesn’t even know where they’ll be living, he’s still on the plane at the moment, probably looking out the window at Portugal as he’s landing. They fly right over this area, if I were outside I could probably spot their plane.

Anyway, so this week, other than transfer madness, was pretty nice, and really quick. This last transfer has gone by really really quickly, I enjoyed serving with Elder Cornwell a lot, and Monte was pretty intense. Now that I’m leaving I don’t worry telling you that I witnessed no less than three drug deals go down, saw what we think is some sort of illegal gambling ring, heard several gunshots, got cursed at in English (that’s actually really funny, because they can’t quite do it right), got yelled at by this crazy old gypsy that sat around all day and wanted money, and then two nights ago we were in the bus and someone threw a rock through the window (from outside). All this to say, I’ve been very protected here, and you don’t need to worry about me betting jumped or anything, since nowhere could be anywhere near as sketch as monte. They’re really good people here, and I hope this area keeps being awesome and that the people I’m teaching keep progressing. I learned a lot here, and it definitely got me better prepared for this next 6 weeks.

Other news…I dunno, it’s nothing else seems to big compared to leaving. I’m sort of nervice and I’ve had a sort of hard time sleeping the last couple nights, because whenever I go to bed I can’t stop thinking about what it’s going to be like and what I want to do as trainer, and district leader, and how to do the work in pontinha. I heard I have a dryer though, so that’s exciting.

So that’s the news, be sure to pray lots for me, this next week is going to be one of the biggest changes for me so far in the mission, but I’m pretty excited all in all.

So that’s all. Have a great week, good luck to all those who are starting school, especially all those named Isaac, and be safe.

Lots of Love

Elder “District Leader”