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
