Epilogue

Dear Readers,

My last week was perfect. Vladimiro was baptized, our night at president's was great. My parents got into the airport (i got there late and wasn't there waiting for them, but we found them with no trouble) President Torgan gave me one last hugs, and passed me off to my parents, and that was the last time i talked to him.

Our vacation was excellent, but the most meaninful parts were on the weekend. Saturday they announced a temple in portugal. Those who read my blog who aren't members or the church won't quite get the significance of having a temple, when i think about it i'm not quite sure how to explain how important it is. The Temple is the house of the Lord, and is where the gospel, which begins in baptism, is made complete in our life.

Sunday we ate lunch at Mariazinha, which also was a powerful experience. Were it not for anything else that happened in the past two years, that family made my whole mission worth while.

The flight how was long but uneventful, and now i'm home. I could try to sum up everything i know, but it would take a while, sufficeth to say: God lives, and answers prayers, anyone can discover this for themselves if they ask, seek, and knock. Thanks for all your support and everything. I love you all. The End

~Ammon

Tomorrow

hey, fyi, i'll be at the airport waiting for you. Other than that, we'll talk when i get here.

love,

Ammon

I would ask if all is done

Dear Family,

Thanks for your letters. This week was great. We marked Vladimiro for baptism this next saturday, he's doing great. We went and taught him today, he's excited. It's funny, the first time i talked to him, he spoke broken english i sort of passed him off as one of those guys that talks to the elders but doesn't really go anyway. I'm really glad we stopped him once and went to his house. Other than that, people are doing good. Graziele didn't make it to church this week, she's running into a lot of opposition, nothing big, just lots of little things. Friends show up from out of nowhere saturday night and so she doesn't make it to church. People invite her to come visit their church when we have lessons marked. Things like that. Anyway, today we're going to have a lesson with her and a married couple from the ward. We've been teaching her with Otávio, who is great, but is young, and we're not exactly old, and we're realizing we need to bring more mature influences.

Carregado (another ward) had a baptism here on saturday, and as we were on our way up, Elder Rivera suggested that we go pass by Sidney. Sidney is a good kid, we taught him a couple times, but when we invited him to go to church he said he didn't like it. He just didn't quite get it. Anyway, out of the blue, he said, "sure" and came to the baptism, and loved it. Sunday morning, all by himself, he woke himself up and got to church, and loved it. It's tough to teach him during the week because of school, but he's excited for church and we're going to teach him on the weekend. There's always a moment, or a few moments, when everything clicks, and people start to act.

This week we had Zone Conference, it was good, I, and a bunch of missionaries from my district, bore our 'last testimony'. The whole thing was very sweet, i was remembering a lot of moments on my mission, from the MTC, from other zone conferences, and from being in Benfica. I've had all but 3 of my zone conferences in Benfica. The whole thing is all very strange. It honestly just feels like another week.

Oh, i have to say how Vladimiro got marked for baptism. Usually the baptismal invite is the climax of all the teaching and it's very well prepared and very spiritual. On saturday we had a barbeque and Elder Rivera was introducing Vladimiro to all the members and talking about when they had been baptized (the majority of people there were relatively recently baptized) and the elder Rivera said that Vladimiro was preparing for baptism also. Vladimiro responded, "Yes, i was thinking about next weekend" and so Elder Rivera suggested saturday, and out of nowhere he was set. He is so ready though. He used to drink aobut 10 cups of coffee a day, just before we started to teach him he decided to quit, and quit, and hasn't had a problem since then. I am really greatful that, the last real week of my mission, i'll end with a baptism. Nevertheless, we have a bunch of people who are doing really well, and our plan is to have someone for the week after that also, at General Conference on sunday night. I can't really think of anyway that would be better to spend the last night in the country.

When Elder Teixeira was here, he talked a lot about the way we finish our missions. He made very good point: He asked us to think back on the Lords mission on the earth, and what he did in his last week. Most of the most important things that happened during his life happened in the last week, even the last few days. It was a good thing to think about and be motivated to work hard until the end. It would have been pretty disastrous if Christ had slacked off in his last few days.

Another cool thing we did for the first time this week: We got a bunch of pass along cards and wrote our numbers on them and went from store to store (there are about a million little stores in portugal) and asked if we could leave them on the counter. With only one acception, everyone said yes and was extremely nice about it. Missionaries get this feeling that portuguese people are mean. It's really untrue, they're just not too interested in discussing religion, but they're great people, for the most part. As we were walking along the street today we got a call from some random person, we think he might have gotten one of these cards, we marked for wednesday, so that will be exciting. Alverca is incredible, by the way, we have a meal almost everyday this week, and two days with two meals. I'm so glad i got to stay here.

Well, you guys have a great week, pray for Vladimiro. I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Ammon Perkes

Days Fly By

Dear Family,

Sorry about last week, i had planned to take half an hour later that day but i didn't get back to alverca until 6:30 and we had lessons to teach. We went and played Ultimate Frisbee in Alameda, in lisbon, which is probably one of the coolest places i've played ultimate frisbee in my life. I wish i had some pictures, but go on google maps and you can check it out.

The last two weeks have flown by and lots has happened. About two weeks ago, as we were walking a lot a car pulled over to talk to us. They told us they were from Angola, and wanted to know where the church was. So most of that family have been investigating the church in angola for several months, but their brother Helder and his wife Solange live here in Alverca. They got married a few weeks ago (we actually saw their wedding when they were taking pictures in the park) They're awesome. They came to church last week (this week they were in the Algarve on their honeymoon) and loved it, and have a very sincere desire to know if it's true or not. President tells us to always pray when choose a date for when people will get baptized, and we also pray about our goals for baptisms we'll have each week. A lot of missionaries talk about how they have no one to baptize, but president always points out that the Lord could easily bring in a whole family from another area that's just ready for baptism. When this angolan family of five popped up out of nowhere, you can imagine that we were excited. They had been to church tons of time, it was perfect. But when we prayed about it i felt very clearly that they weren't ready for baptism that week, and we made plans for Helder and Solange, we went there, and the rest of the family wasn't even there, and they didn't come to church on sunday, but Helder and Solange did. I read a talk about how we should be careful as we pray for answers, that we humbly accept the will of god. It said that a prompting to do something that we would otherwise not want to do is a good sign of authenticity, while feelings to do something we have a great desire to do should be examined cautiously. It was good to know that i'm not just reaffirming my own desires, and that i was able to receive a "no."

We found another guy named Vladimiro. The day before we taught him he got baptized in another church, and when we told him we'd like to visit him he said, "ah, but i'm from a different church"

"No problem!" I replied. Surprisingly that was enough for him and he happily accepted a commitment. This sunday he went to our church right after the other church. He's understandably a little confused. We read the Joseph Smith History with him and told him he should pray, i'm excited for him though, he has a very sincere desire to know what to do.

Francisco continues to come to church but still hasn't been able to stop smoking, although he is making progress. We're teaching lots of people, and it seems like people just keep coming out of the woodwork. I'm working with a new technique for contacting that i wish i had done my whole mission. First of all i only contact men. I made that decision at the beginning of this transfer and it's been great, we're teaching a lot more families and couples and a lot few single women and youth. Secondly i just talk to people who look at us. Your average person just walks by with their eyes fixed on the ground, someone who looks at us is guaranteed to at least be mildly curious about who we are. It's a pretty effective way to find families who are interested.

Our ward, two weeks ago, received a bunch of new pass along cards and the members are pretty excited about them. It's great to hear stories about them giving cards to friends and strangers. This ward is the best, we had lunch with members every day this week. We didn't even do shopping.

I think the best comparison for a mission is not a race, but a twilight paddle against the current on the pearl river, after paddling on the strong river all day long. But i don't think as many people have done that, that's probably why it's not as common.

As far as days vs months, it honestly feels about the same, because the reality hasn't really sunk in, although it hits me from time to time. I'm working really really hard not to count days, ever since a conversation i had about Dad about 2 years ago about not counting down the days but enjoying the moment, i've worked hard to not think about it. I also read a talk this week (i've been reading the ensign alot) about a treasure map for happiness: learn from the past, prepare for the future, and live in the present. So i've been trying to do that for these last couple weeks.

So, that's about what's going on. You guys have a great week, we're doing good out here.

love,

Ammon

August 30, 2010

Dear Family,

Today i'm in benfica for a bit, we had zone leader council, it was really great. But i don't have a whole lot of time, so i'll be quick. This week was good, some great stuff, and some dissapointments. Araujo, who was doing so great, decided out of nowhere to go to brasil, and is now there for a month. It was sort of a shock for us. Graziele and Tiago are doing well, but they're not going to be baptized this week, we're going to talk to them tonight, if we get home on time, and try to set up a new date for them.

On saturday, we did a really cool experiment. Elder Rivera is a great missionary, he's very excited to work, but one of the most impressive things is his courage to try new things. We went to a park and drew the plan of salvation on the wall in chalk and then contacted families that were walking by. It was a cool idea, and in the end we got the address of a moldovian family who was super nice. We're going to try it again this week, and try to find a more populated area to do it in, in the park there weren't a whole lot of people, but that chalk, if we don't scrub it off, will stay there until it rains, and it's been pretty hot and sunny, so who knows what will come out of that. I was afraid to write our number because you never know when you're breaking some minor law, so we just left a couple pamphlets next to the mural. I'll try to get a picture of it and send it for you.

What else happened...Francisco is doing great. He's said today is the day he quite smoking, he's been coming to church on time and on his own, which is spectacular. We're teaching a bunch of families and couples, we marked a lesson with this beautiful little family who are friends of some of our members. We're going to teach them, Edson and Daiane, tomorrow afternoon. We're excited for them. It's always fun to teach people for the first time. In the first lesson, you're so full of hope and faith for the people.

I gave a talk in sacrament yesterday, among other things, i talked about the power of member in missionary work. I commented about how i'm excited to be able to do missionary work as a member and not as a strangely dressed foreiner who barely speaks the language. I always wonder, giving talks, if it really makes a difference to people. Teaching lessons we can tell if people got it when we invite them to do stuff and then follow up on it, but in church you just hope that something you said can touch someone. I had a lot of good experiences this week, we gave a blessing to Leolinda's daughter, who was struggling in several things. We heard from leolinda later that week that they had seen miracles happen in her daughter's life. The mission really is great. I've been thinking a lot about this last month and how i want to finish. I want to finish well. Today i got my "anti-trunky" papers, with some instructions for the end of my mission, and a few talks to help keep me inspired. I'm pretty inspiried, this month ought to be the best of my whole mission, but that basically requires me to work better than i ever have before. But Elder Rivera has a good influence on me, and we have a lot of potential in this area. This thursday we have a lunch-lesson with a member and her daughter and grandchildren, none of whom have been baptized, so we're praying that that goes well. This is basically the perfect opportunity, which doesn't happen as often as it ought to.

Anyway, i'm out of time, so i'll talk to you guys more next week.

Abraços para todos,

Elder Ammon

August 23, 2010

Dear Family,

This week was good, we're seeing a lot of people coming out of the woodwork. Araujo and Graziele are doing well, they're excited to come to church and activities, and are reading and praying. They always comment on how good they feel, the peace and relief and joy that the gospel brings to their lives. It's such a blessing to teach them, i told them this week that we also feel joy and renewed energy every time we teach them. It turns out Araújo is married, but has been having a hard time with his wife recently. I didn't really know what to tell him, but i explained to him about the bishop and why he's there, and he's excited to talk to Macsuel on wednesday at the activity. It would be incredible to see not only Araújo get baptized, but his marriage saved because of the gospel. I just realized that here in a couple weeks, you're going to be able to meet these people. It's a shame you don't speak portuguese, you should look into that over the next few weeks. Francisco came to church again, all by himself. He's still struggling to quit smoking, but he's making some progress. We made him a little box of scriptures to read when he's tempted to drink cigarettes. Also Isabel came to church this week. She got there at the beginning of sacrament meeting and in the commotion right after church i didn't even get to talk to her, but she sat with Leolinda, who is being a friend, and sort of a mom to Isabel. We're hopeful for her, we've never actually taught her because her work schedule is tough, but she's come to a few activities and then came to church for the first time this week.

Speaking of activities, on wednesday, our integration night (this week, Jell-o) went crazy. Between Elder Mateer's last day, Elder Seraim passing buy (to pick up Elder Mateer) and the kids from EFY teaching us EFY dances and games, some which are just waiting for a perkes family reunion, it was sort of absurd. It was a lot of fun though, this ward is so great. It was a really special last day for Elder Mateer and probably a sort of shocking first day for Elder Rivera. Elder Rivera is doing well, it's his first time being zone leader, he's excited to serve. He brings some needed excitement to the area and the zone. We're still getting to know each other. The mission is weird, i had a dream last night that we got home and Elder Oram, and a bunch of other missionaries that have already gone home, were hiding in our house and jumped out and tried to scare us. It's just strange how these people you really only know for a few weeks or months become such an important part of your life.

We've been seeing some good results of member work. It's not very quick, but it's getting there. On monday we had a nice little family night with Leolinda's two daughters who aren't baptized yet. And Leolinda's going to invite them again today. Also, Neusa came to church on sunday, Neusa is Dora's sister. I don't know how much of this story i've told already, but Dora and her family were baptized a while ago, and when we first got here, we went to their house and talked to them about their friends and family, and at some point Dora called her sister and handed me the phone, i was sort of caught off guard, but she was very nice, and she accepted a lesson with the missionaries there on saturday. In the end her daughters, dora's neices, both got baptized and have been doing great. This was the first week Neusa came to church, and the first time i met her in person, so that was cool. I've also been noticing that we're teaching a lot of couples and a few families. I've been trying to focus on finding families, i'm now in the habit of checking for rings whenever we meet people to see if they're married, and we just keep running into people that are legitimately married, with kids and such. It's been great.

The mission got 20 greenies this week, one of them is serving in our ward, Elder Knuth. It was fun to talk to him, i realized that he has more years left than i have months. He's from Oregon. Elder Rivera, by the way, is from Kearns, Utah, i don't remember why that city means anything to me, but i recognized it and feel like i know someone from there or something.

Lets see, I can't think of much else that's going on. The Mission is just going. I'm excited for the people we're teaching, we have a lot of good people right now. Rude and Fábio finally are back from vacation, so we're excited to see what happens there. I say we, but Elder Rivera is sort of lost, he's doing is best, but he's having a hard time keeping track of everybody we know. Especially because, as i'm sure you guys have noticed, people here have the craziest names.

have a fantastic week,

abraços all around

Elder Ammon

August 16, 1010

So, the transfer news is in, and in the end i'm staying in Alverca for my last transfer. I'm going to be serving with Elder Riveira, who's coming up from Campo Pequeno. He's one of the district leaders in our zone, so i've talked to him a lot this transfer. He's a good missionary, and has been doing impressive work in Campo Pequeno. Elder Mateer is going to the Açores (to São Miguel, not the air force base), so he's pretty excited. It's weird. On friday i filled in my planner for my last transfer. Usually things slow down a little bit during the beginning of the transfer, so hopefully the next few weeks won't go as absurdly fast as the last three weeks. It's weird.

This week was good. We (mostly me) made a goal to not knock doors this week, wanting to plan more intelligently and work with the members. It was different, we didn't find very many new people, and didn't teach too many lessons but for the most part the week was a lot more effective, and the lessons we taught were real lessons. We visited the members and made plans with them to teach their friends, we talked to ex-investigators and followed up on the potentials and new people we've been finding over the past few weeks. For this last month and a half i want to work hard to work with the members and teach their friends with them. Today in a couple hours we have a family night (more of a family afternoon really) with Leolinda's daughter, Marisa.

Francisco came to church again, this time without us having to go pick him up. He's still struggling to quit smoking, we're going to teach him again on tuesday and make a plan with him, but there's no real trick to it, he just needs to have faith to stop. But he's doing well.

Yesterday we had one of the most powerful lessons of my mission. We taught Graziele, Tiago, and Araiujo, three brasilians we found a couple weeks ago. We taught them last sunday afternoon but we didn't get much time to talk to them. We had left a book of mormon with Graziele and she had started to read, but said she wasn't understanding it at all. All we did with them yesterday was read together 3 Nephi 11, explaining things occasionally, but mostly just reading. The spirit was really strong, when we finished the chapter she said, "I understood it perfectly, why did i understand it this time?" We talked about how the holy ghost teaches us and helps us understand scripture and things. We were there with Otávio (who is a champ) and he also taught and testified about the restoration. In the end we invited them to prepare for baptism on the fourth. There's still a lot to do between then and now, but it was a great lesson. It's amazing, we left that lesson happier than we've been the whole transfer, not just because they set a date, but because of the spirit we felt there. As we were leaving, Araiujo thanked us, and said that we had taked a great weight off his shoulders. It was a very good end to our day and our transfer, neither of which had gone exactly as planned.

We also taught Jocylane a couple times this week, i talked about her last week i believe, she's doing ok, she's bummed out because her boyfriend broke up with it, and she doesn't quite get it. Today i was reading king benjamin's talk, i was impressed with the way he invited his people to listed and pay attention so that they will understand. I feel like a lot of times in our lessons people don't do that. They listen, but they don't open their hearts, nor their minds. We had that with Jocylane, who it didn't seem like anything got in. Her daughter, however, is back from porto and continues to be sharp as a tack and understands everything and asks very good questions when she doesn't.

We tried to have an activity in the Vila Franca chapel, but in the end it didn't get approved and we got moved back to alverca, but we had a good little Noite do Gelado, a more or less active member brought his girlfriend, Isabel, who seemed liked it and had a nice conversation with Leolinda. There are some superstar recent converts here in Alverca, on saturday the whole ward went to the beach (we didn't feel confident enough to ask president to go, nor did we feel like it would be the best use of our time) and a lot of good integration.

We also ran into Tucha again, you'll remember that she dissapeared about a month ago. She's been working two jobs and hasn't had a whole lot of time these days, but we had a good lesson with her. It seems like right now isn't her time.

In retrospect, i learned a lot this transfer, and i'm glad to be able to stay here until the end. Yipes. I'm doing my best to stay focused, and i feel like i'm doing well to keep working and not get lazy or slack off. It's just sort of a fact now that my mission is nearly over. Even president, in our inverview this week, said that i was nearly at the end. And our interview was almost more reminiscing than anything else. I'm realizing it just depends on the way you let it effect you. You can't just ignore the fact that your almost done, it's not possible. The idea is to look towards the finish line and let that motivate you to give everything. At least that's what i'm thinking. We'll see how that goes.

So that was our week here, it flew by, like always. You guys have a great week. It'll be interesting to see what happens this week. I think things are going to start going now, not because Elder Mateer was holding back, but i feel like we finally figured out what we need to do here, and now we just need to work.

Um Grande Abraço,

Elder Ammon

August 9, 2010

It was cool to see pictures from the atlanta vacation. Isaac looks rather old, This week was good. I learn and re-learn the fact that when we get home on time and plan our days go well, and when we get home late and don't plan, our day goes poorly. This week we made a goal to get home at 9:30 always, so that we have time to plan our day. We're still striving to get things moving here in Alverca. We're still finding a bunch of people, it's just a question of finding the right people. We had a good lesson on Saturday with a man named Francisco, his mom is a member and he used to go to church, but he's never been able to quit smoking, we're trying to help him quit smoking. Throughout my mission, i've had a hard time helping people to quit smoking, but Elder Mateer is pretty good at it, so we're hopeful. We had a good lesson with Rudi, and almost invited him to be baptized, but then his cousins came home and it got sort of hectic. It's possible he'll be going to the algarve for a couple week with his cousins, we're hoping, however, that he stays so that we can teach him. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it won't necessarily make a huge difference, but i'd like to be around for when he gets baptized. Some other people that we've been teaching are starting to progress, so we're hoping to see things change this week.

All of our youth went to the first EFY in portugal, and now they're back and in EFY withdrawl. I sort of regret never having gone to EFY when i was younger, but i guess things worked out ok. We had another integration night this week, Noite da Salada da Fruta, that went well, it was a bit calmer because a member of the church had died and would have the funeral the next day, so there wasn't as much crazy partying as usual, but it was still good. This week went by really fast, and looking back nothing too momentous happened. We did find a house for Vila Franca, so they are moving out. It'll be nice to have our house back, they're great, but that house isn't made for four missionaries.

We tried something new this week, on thursday, we prayed, and chose a street, and knocked all the doors on that street. It was the first time i've done that in my mission, and i'm probably not going to repeat it, however, in nearly the last door on the street, we met Yara, who was cool. We had a little lesson with her and we're going to go back this week. Last week we spent a lot of time knocking doors, this week we're going to work harder to work with the members. When we got here we were focusing a lot on working with the members and following up on a bunch of names, but as we went we found that most of them lived outside our area and we didn't see much happening there and we sort of gave up on that, but in the end about 10 people were baptized in another area because of one of the references the members gave, so we're going to try to get back to doing that. I think these weeks have been to teach me a lesson i haven't learned until now, that missionary work doesn't revolve around me. I'm realizing that it's not really a question of me being blessed with people to teach and baptize, but people being blessed with learning and recieving the blessings of the gospel in their lives. It doesn't, and shouldn't, make any difference if someone lives in my area or in the açores, i should work just as hard for them to have an opportunity to learn about the gospel. As i've been learning this, it's been changing the way i think about my responsibility and my role as missionary. Hopefully as i re-evaluate my motivation and work, we'll see success in general and in the ward here in alverca. The elderes in Vila franca had a baptism this week, a guy named Manuel. I was able to do his baptismal interview. He was very well prepared. He came to church on sunday with a while shirt and tie, and you'd think he'd been a member for all his life. This week the Vila Franca chapel is opening for the first time in 2 years to have a Noite do Gelado. The plan is to soon open up a satelite group out in vila franca. This ward really is incredible, the Bishop, Macsuel, is on top of things, and has a very sincere love for everyone, and Otacílio as ward mission leader has a vision like President Torgan. Recently they called a new Elders Quorum President, Rui, who is also a great example of service and love. At the end of every meeting he takes a few minutes to follow up with home teaching and assigns people to talk to those that missed church for whatever reason. This sunday the jovens all bore the testimonies from EFY, including Jony, who got baptized a few months ago and was struggling for a while. There were pictures from EFY and i got to see youth from my other areas, including some people that i found and taught.

Next week is transfers, time is going faster than it ought too. At this point i don't really feel trunky, i just feel old. Next week, there won't be a single missionary who's been in the mission longer than my group. I've been in the mission for along time, and my pants, my socks, my shirts, my ties, my tag, and my sweet neck-tan line all show it. There are a bunch of new kids in the mission i don't know. There are 20 greenies coming in next week, and Elder Mateer thinks i'm going to train again. At this point i just want to be where i need to be, and work. It's extremely unlikely that i stay with Elder Mateer (who, by the way, has about 7 months left), but it wouldn't be the first time. I'd love to stay in Alverca one more transfer, but if i leave i'll be ok. I just have this increasing feeling of coming to the end, and i really want to finish off strong. I don't remember if mention this, but when Elder Teixeira came, he interviewed most of the missionaries, including all of the zone leaders. One of the first thing he asked me as where i was in the mission. When i told him i only had 2ish months left, he asked me if i had any plans for going home. I realized that i have basically no idea what i'm going to do with my life. School is going to happen, but other than that, i hadn't really thought about it. Anyway, i can worry about that as time goes. As far as BYU stuff goes, this week i'll take care of the endorsement with President Torgan, we have interviews, and i'll have to bite the bullet and write those essays. At this point i feel much more prepared to give a 20 minute talk with little or no warning than a 100 word essay. The book of Mormon reading is going well, i'm almost done with 2nd Nephi. In portuguese i have to read a little more than 10 pages everyday, and yesterday i didn't get around to it so i had to read 20 pages today. All in all, life continues, we're working hard, being patient, and standing still, with utmost assurence, to see the salvation of God.

Have a great week everyone, place your transfer bets, and don't get too trunky.

~Elder Ammon

August 2, 1010

This week was great, and as it happens it's cooled down a bit, last night we had to shut the window because it got cold and windy.

We started the week off with two conferences with Elder Teixeira, one on tuesday with all the zone leaders, and one on wednesday with half the mission. We learned a lot, i filled up about 20 pages in my little study journal. One of the biggest things we learned, was the importance of working; although we obviously knew, i think both I and Elder Mateer realized that we needed to work a lot harder, and be more obedient to mission rules and such. Also, he told a story about how when he was a mission president in brasil, when he got there the missionaries only taught 6 or 7 lessons a week, he invited them to work to get 21 lessons. Although he didn't directly suggest it,Elder Mateer and I left the conference determined to teach 21 lessons. Until that point we had only taught 1, so wednesday night we realized we needed to teach 5 lessons a day, which isn't too absurd (although it's a lot more than the 10ish lessons we've been teaching the past few weeks). We prayed and decided some places to go, Elder Mateer had this idea to leave a pamphlet in a bunch of mailboxes and then come back a bit later to ask people what they thought about it, we did that in the morning, and then spent the rest of the afternoon looking for people. At around 6 o'clock we had taught 2 lessons and found a couple people, elder Mateer felt like we should go back to that street and talk to some people. The first door we knocked opened, and we talked to this girl, Graziele, who's about our age. She called her sister, Fernanda, over, and then two of her friends Araujo and Alayana got home. Interestingly, we had talked to Alayana just the day before, and were planning on teaching her later, but we didn't have her address yet, it turns out they live in the same house. We had a quick lessons with them, and marked to come back on saturday to help them move. Then we kept following our plans, but nobody was home, and then Elder Mateer suggested we go to Leda, and investigator from a while ago, we went and talked to her, and she was home, and we had a really good lesson with her, and then left. At that point it was about 8:40 and we still needed to find one more person. Elder Mateer saw a light on up in the 9th floor of a building, and so we tried to talk to her, she was busy, but we talked to the neighbors, and at about 9:00 we found two guys, Magno and another Araujo, who were very nice and let us in a talk to them. We finished off the day with 5 lessons, which was great. At the end of the week, we did not quite get 21 lessons, we fell short by a couple, but we found lots of other people as we worked, and in the end it was one of the most successful weeks since we got her.

Just one more story, We decided to go work on this one street that i think looks vaguely like New York (not with giant buildings, just a bunch of small houses stuck together) as we walked down the street these two little girls shouted "São os nossos Amigos!" They were the daughters of Carlos, who we taught a couple weeks ago, but haven't managed to get a hold of since. They quickly invited us in to meet their mom, who is separated from the dad. It's sort of sketchy to have two ten-year-old girls present you to their mom, but the mom was super nice. They were in the middle of dinner so we just talked to them for a while and said a prayer with them, we're going to go back on saturday.

It's been really impressive to see the difference as we worked just a little bit harder and tried to be more obedient. We're also trying to plan better, especially to know what to do if a lesson falls through. As we've been following our plans, i've seen the Lord filling in the rest, and putting people in our path to teach.

At the moment, we have two people that are progressing. We had a great lesson with Rita on saturday. She wasn't going to be able to come to church, and in the end we didn't have a lot of time to talk to her, but she talked about how she wasn't sure what to do, because she really likes the church and what we've been teaching, but she doesn't know if she can leave the Catholic Church. Her mom is a die-hard catholic, and Rita's afraid of how her mom will react. But she (Rita) really wants to know what path she should follow.

We're also excited for Rudi, he was out of town this week, but he got home yesterday, and when we called him he asked if we could come by tonight. His mom talked to Otacílio (they're neighbors) and told him that Rudi's really excited about church and everything. Tonight we're going to invite Rudi to be baptized. Pray for Rita and Rudi, that they can have the courage to change their lives.

Sister Teixeira was also very cool, she invited us to read the Book of Mormon in the time it took to translate it (about 60 days). As it happens, i had exactly 60 days left, so i decided to do that one more time. So far it's been great, i've been reading 10 pages a day. I'm having a hard time studying everything i've been wanting to, i need to organize things a little better, but i will.

Oh, another really great experience. On tuesday, after the Zone Leader Council, we stayed in benfica for a while because we had a meeting with a member of the High Council in Lisbon. While we were waiting, i got to go visit Mariazinha and Jessica and Céu (jessica's mom) and Alberto (jessica's cousin). Jessica and Alberto got baptized on Saturday, and it was unreal to sit there with all of them, all of them having been baptized and confirmed. As we were talking, there was a knock on the door, and Elder Fernandes arrived. It was the first time he's been able to go by there since he left for the açores back in october. That family is incredible. This week Jessica and Alberto are going to the first EFY in portugal, along with Aylton, and a bunch of other youth from around portugal. I couldn't have imagined this when i knocked the door almost a year ago.

So, that was my week. We're working hard to keep the fire going and not forget about what we learned and felt at the conference. We're excited to see what will happen with all these new people that we met this week. Elder Teixeira also told the story of his son, who is finishing his mission today in New York, they're going to pick him up. Time is flying by, but we're enjoying it. We have transfers here in a couple weeks, it's unlikely that we'll stay together another transfer, but i said that with my first comp, so we'll see what happens. You guys have a great week,

abraços,

Elder Ammon

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." D&C 123:17

July 26, 2010

It's going to be a sort of shorter email today, because i'm at a member's house and we're going to help clean up the house. Anyway, this week was better, we're still having a tough time, but someone finally came to church. We found Rita a while back in the area book. We've been teaching her for a little while. Anyway, she came on sunday, as it turns out she worked with Bete, and she lived right next to a recent convert, and we asked a member to sit with her and show her the ropes and such, and so by the end she had tons of friends. So that was good.

We had another integration night, this one Noite de Stroganof, which was great, and this time we finally managed to teach some of these people that came to integration night. We taught two teenage kids, Fabio and Rudi, they we going to come to church, but they ended up going out of town for the weekend, so they'll come next week. We found a few other people, last night we taught this girl, Alice, who was pretty cool, she understood everything really well. It didn't work to teach her inside, so we were outside at a little table, but there were tons of mosquitos. It was a little distrating, especially when Otávio (who came with me on a divsion) squished one on his face a blood came out. I'm still all itchy from the mosquitos, but i figure sacrifice is important and such. Next time we'll have to find a better place to teach them.

We've still got a couple lodgers in our house, and we're not sure about when they're leaving, but it's alright. For the most part it's fun, but occasionally it causes problems, and four guys using one bathroom is not ideal. But we're doing good. This week is crazy, we have two big conferences this week with Elder Teixeira, from the area presidency.

It is one again super hot and we're having a hard time sleeping, today we went and played around with a football and some of the jovens, it was fun.

Sort of an uneventful week, it went super fast though, and we're hopeful, things are starting to get moving. Some other cool thing have happened, Jessica and Alberto, two of Mariazinha's grandchildren who i taught a lot in Benfica were baptized this weekend. Jessica i taught a lot, alberto i didn't actually teach that much, but i did give him book of mormon aparently (i barely remember) As it turns out since that day he's read every day and was already halfway through when the missionaries there now talked to him. It's always cool to here about success in my old areas.

Congrats to Michelle on the mission.

That's about the news from this week, you guys have a great week, the weeks are flying by, i can't believe it's already monday again.

Abraços,

Elder Ammon

July 19, 2010

"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." 2 Timothy 4:5

Hey guys,

This week was better, in several ways, although for the most part we're still trodding along in the refiners fire. Aside from the difficulties, i've been learning and growing a lot, and having some very good experiences as i've been praying and studying and trying to figure out what we need to do to get things going here. This week they called a new bishop, our old bishop was incredible, i'm really a bit sad to see him go, but he moved to another area, so they called a new bishop, Macsuel. He made the t-shirts for us (i don't remember if i mentioned, we arranged to make t-shirts for our zone.) He's one of my favorite people here in Alverca, he's 26 years old. Our stake president, who is in his early 30's, talked about how he was only 23 when he was called as bishop, and stayed there for 10 years. It's sort of a scary though to get home from the mission, get life going, and then get called as bishop for 10 years.

This week, we made a goal to work harder, specifically to contact 10 people a day, it was great at first, we were talking to lots of people and we were excited, but then everything sort of fizzled out. We did, however, find an incredible family of 5. I've never seen little kids so well behaved. We're really excited for them, and hoping that they'll progress. the mom said she would come to church this week, and we're hoping to get them to come on wednesday to the Stroganof Night. We also found this russian lady, Natasha, who is very sincere and wants to learn more, but we're sort of stuck because she barely speaks portuguese, and we don't speak russian at all, but between movies and other church materials in russian, we're getting there. We talked to the mother of one of our potential investigators that came to hotdog night, and she said that he came home and said that he wanted to join the 'church of the elders'. Her first question was to ask if we were allowed to get married. We assured her we were, and after that she was ok with the idea. We're excited for that little family to. They live across the hall from Otacílio, who continues to be a blessing in the work. This week we're going to have a family night with Marcelo and Luciana and her friend Tita, who is the mother of one of the kids that came to hotdog night. We have some other members that have people for us to teach. there's a lot of potential in this area, it just hasn't quite gotten going yet, but we're working hard, and we're hopeful this work we'll see things get going.

We are, at least, healthy for the most part. My cough has gone away and Elder Mateer is doing a lot better. We are still living with the Vila Franca elders, but elder mateer found them a house with Remax and they'll be moving in sometime this week. Their new house is super nice, but pretty cheap. It's still hot, but no longer untolerably hot, and it's been getting cooler at night. Last night we went to help some people move, what looked like it would be a quick project turned out to be a 3 hour ordeal with us getting home late and thoroughly exhausted. I've found that helping people usually ends up being a lot more complicated than you expect, but it's generally worth it.

Anyway, not too much happened this week outside of that. All things considered, we're happy and excited to keep working. In conferences and such, President Torgan usually talks about how missions are supposed to be difficult, and if the mission is confortable you're doing something wrong. So that's a plus.

Sounds like things are good out there. Have a great week, and don't forget to help the missionaries.

abraços,

Elder Ammon

July 12, 2010

Sounds like it was an eventful week with the surgery and such. It's good to here that everything went well, and that Dad is back at work. i can see how he'd be a good missionary. Here in the mission field, the health issues continue, Elder Mateer got sort of sick today, we are in benfica for zone leaders council and we decided to just stay the night here, since we're going to have a zone meeting tomorrow morning.

Our week was one of those weeks, one of those "humble yourself even to the dust" weeks. But, i figure if humility is necessary for success in missionary work, it's ok. We're having a tough time in Alverca right now, it just seems like nothing goes right. It was interesting, because Elder Seraim (who is the AP right now, but was serving in Alverca before that) talked about how he had several weeks of rough times in Alverca before having a lot of success there. There's something about this area that grinds missionaries into the ground. I had heard about this before i came to Alverca, and i didn't want to come here because of that, but from what i've seen, for those who survive the trials, it's a really blessed area. Anyway, i'll stop complaining about how missions are tough sometimes and tell you how my week went.

There were a few very good moments this week. Wednesday's Hot Dog Night went really well. we had a great turnout (about 20 investigators showed up), and it went really well. We weren't completely prepared for everyone, and we're planning for how we can make it bigger and better for next time. Mostly we're trying to figure out how to teach these people, and not just feed them hotdogs, but it was still good. We're going to talk about this idea in our zone meeting tomorrow, because it's super easy to set up and is really effective, although i think the title actually works better in portuguese than in english.

The teaching the member thing went well, although we've been having a hard time holding our members down long enough to teach them. We had a really good lesson with Douglas and his family, and we're planning to set it up with the other members. Happily, the world cup ended yesterday night, so we won't have to cancel appointments because our investigators (and members) are watching football games.

We had a meeting with a member of the High Council on friday, it's cool because our Zone is the same area as the Stake of Lisbon, so we as zone leaders are going to start working with one of the high council members to have more communication between the missionaries and the stake leadership. It was cool, i don't know if i mentioned last week, i got to do the baptismal interview for Mariazinha's daughter. This week Elder Mateer did the Baptismal Interview for a friend of a member here in benfica who both of us knew while we were here. Benfica is doing really well. They've been baptizing almost weekly for the past month. Mariazinha's grandson is marked for baptism next week, and the elders here are working on getting Jessica (who i taught a lot) ready for the same day. It's always great to see the work going well in my old areas.

Our week wasn't all sickness and hard weather, we found a lot of really cool people. We worked harder this week and tried not to get discouraged and just work. We found 3 guys from nigeria who speak english, as it happens elder Mateer knows the branch president from Sacavém (an area near here) who is also nigerian, so we invited him to help in the lesson, which helped a lot. On saturday we also got to teach a great family, Neo and Mári, and their kids. It's always a blessing to teach families, and the mom (mári) told us that she felt like she wasn't where she ought to be and wanted to know which was the right path to follow and how to get to Jesus Christ. She is super ready for the Gospel, except for the fact that she works on sundays. Everyone here works on sundays, the work schedule in portugal, especially for immigrants, is rough, and makes it tough for them to have time for anything, especially church. At the end of the week a lot of people still didn't show up for church. We're sort of baffled, but we had a really good meeting with president and the other zone leaders today, and we're excited for this week. There's just something that has to click in alverca, and the work will explode. we're hoping to figure out what that is this week.

I don't remember if i said or not, we're now living with two other elders, Elder Silva and Elder Teixeira, who are working in Vila Franca but haven't found a house yet. It's fun, Elder Silva is from Porto and Elder Teixeira is from Cape Verde (the island of Fogo, the same as Elder Fernandes), but it'll be nice when it's just me and Elder Mateer again. Our house is not made for four people.

Anyway, that's about the news from out here. You guys have a good week, help the elders by getting them people to teach.

Abraços,

Elder Ammon

July 5, 2010

"They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them." ~Isaiah 49:10

It's a bit scary to hear about dad's health stuff, i'll be praying that everything goes well. We've had a sort of unhealthy week here as well. I haven't talked much about this, but i'd had a cough for a long time now, and Elder Mateer was convinced that it was tuberculosis (he was studying to be a doctor, and knows things like this) so he convinced me to talk to the mission doctor, who prescribed some pills that helped a bit, but didn't really get rid of anything. The final diagnosis was a very mild case of whooping cough (yeah, weird). He doesn't think it's tuberculosis because i don't have a fever and i'm not coughing up blood all over the place or anything like that. He just said to watch it and to get a whooping cough vaccine next time i get a tetanus shot, but that it's not really a big deal. Come to think of it i haven't really been coughing much recently. Elder Mateer seems to have eaten something and had been having some problems and feeling generally sick. I also got food poisoning, but that was last week, and that passed pretty quick after i threw up outside an investigators building.

It is absurdly hot in portugal today, i 'm not really sure, but i'm betting pushing on 100 degrees. It's the hottest i've ever seen in portugal, or i might just be out of practice with summer, but it feels really really hot. This week was good, we're still spinning our wheels a little bit, but i'll talk more about that in a bit. Today we heard about transfers and Elder Mateer and I are staying together here in Alverca. It's pretty likely that i'll finish the mission here, the way it's going, but we'll see. Thanks for the pictures, the family reunion looks like it was a lot of fun, with good perkes games. There are tons of people, kids and adults, that i don't recognize. Next family reunion there will probably be about 50 people i have never even met.

So things have gone like this, we've been finding quite a few people, for example, this week we found a little ukranian family, a house with 6 brasilians in it, and a young couple. They're all cool people, but the just haven't been going anywhere. We mark appointments and they're not home, and then we see them in the streets and it's just sort of awkward, just a lot of nice people without a lot of desire to do anything. Last night it was really sad, we saw Tucha, who is a single mom with two kids, who we had taught. We were really excited about her, but then she sort of disappeared. we finally ran into her and we marked for last night, but she wasn't home, and then as we were about to got home we saw her from about 30 feet away, and she saw us. As i was about to wave to her she turned away and disappeared behind the corner. All of this happened in about 2 seconds, but it was sad. This was at about 9:15. We go home at 9:30, and we weren't really sure what to do, it's sort of tricky to knock doors at that time, because people usually aren't super excited to talk to the elderes. Homever, i've stopped wearing my watch to avoid losing it and/or getting a super tan line, and Elder Mateer refused to tell me what time it was, so i thought of one more person to try, Márcio, a young portuguese guy we ran into looking for an ex-investigator a while back. We knocked it door and to our surprise he answered and let us it, we had a nice 10 minute lesson with him about prayer and what we're here for, at the end his girlfriend, who was also really nice came in (she came in to tell márcio to stop criticizing the catholic chuch, but she stayed for the rest) and we said a prayer with them and marked for this weekend. It was cool because usually at that time of night we just dink around until it's time to go home, but this time, we found two great new people.

Anyway, back to the point, we've been finding people, but nothings been going anywhere. So last night as we were talking with our mission leader, otacílio and talking amongst ourselves we felt that we should teach the members. We have a good relationship with the members, they like us, they feed us, we like them, we help them whenever we can, but i've been feeling like the members don't really look at us too much as fun guys who need food, as opposed to authorized teachers of the gospel who are here to teach their friends. So this week we're going to try that, and hopefully as we strengthen their testimonies and as they gain confidence in us, they will we more willing to invite their friends to be taught. We also have a ´Noite do cachorro quente´ on wednesday, which will be a great activity and a great opportunity to invite friends and stuff, so that's exciting.

Other exciting news is that our ward is getting another set of elders that will be working in Vila Franca. I was hoping to get sent up there to work, but president left me here, which is fine. It is good though, because it 's very hard to work up there, because it's far away, it's also a good step towards reopening the branch that they're going to have there soon. So things are good, we're getting acclimated to the summer and carrying water around to not die.

We have to go teach a lesson. Keep sending pictures of the reunion, and As Melhores to dad (that basically means 'all the best' i don't remember the normal way to say that in english). Have a great week.

Abraços,

Elder Ammon

June 28, 2010

Thanks for the letters and more especially the pictures, the nephews look completely different. This week was a little tough, we walked and walked a lot, and a lot of things didn't go as we would have hoped, but we're looking at what we're doing and what we need to change, and this week is going to be better. We have 4 lessons today, one right in the middle of p-day, i've gotten to the point where i care very little about p-day, partially because there's nothing to do in alverca, and also because it's just the same thing every week. It's sort of a shame because we would like to clean the house, but we'll get around to that later. This morning we went in to lisbon to pick up our new cell phone, our old one having broken, and so until we charge it we have no cell phone. it's sort of crazy because we're completely disconnected from the world and especiallly the rest of the mission. Sounds like you had a good stake conference. It's going to be sort of nice to have general conference actually because it gets everybody together on sunday morning and sunday afternoon, so instead of just going to one sacrament meetings, we can go to two stake meetings and meet see pretty much everyone. It's good to hear that you got those tickets worked out, it would have been a shame to get shipped home. As far as vacation plans, i think it might be better for you guys to look into things to do, i have some ideas, but i'd rather see things i haven't seen yet (like evora) than things i have seen. there are some things we have to see though. Sintra (Castelo dos Mouros, Palácio da Pena, and Quinta da Regaleira.) There's tons of other stuff to see in sintra, i figure we could spend a whole day there, and then on our way back visit caçem, which is near sintra. Lisbon is cool, especially Belém. Other than that though, i don't know what is cool, i'd suggest looking into it and finding cool places to see around portugal. I have no idea about places to stay, i'll try to get the number of the landlady in pontinha to see if she'll be in town, i don't know who else we could stay with though, so i'd plan on getting hotels.

Despite what the first half of my letter suggests, i'm not super trunky, i feel like i'm doing a pretty good job of staying focus and not letting time pass me by. We had interviews with president on tuesday, those were great, he talked a lot about retention and temples and building up the church, and not just baptizing, but baptizing the right people and helping them to stay solid. There's a family here in alverca that got baptized a few months ago that are struggling a lot. They were doing great when we got here, but some family problems and work trouble made things seem complicated and they've been having a hard time since then. Actually everyone's having a hard time, i don't know how the "crise" (crisis) is in the states, but here in portugal people are having a hard time all around. Portugal is a sort of american dream for all the portuguese speaking countries, but immigrants are finding that things here are even worse than where they were, and few people are coming and a lot of people are leaving. It's sort of tough to help people in things like that, but you can see the difference the gospel makes in peoples lives, that even when things are rough there's hope where others would sink into despair. It's sort of tough because as missionaries, and as me in general, my life is very simple and i don't have to deal with economic crises or unemployment or anything. My life is very secure, and i'm here serving those who just don't have the same opportunities as i've had. There's a MormonMessage (i don't know if you know what those are, but they're on the church website, they're cool) from thanksgiving that we watched yesterday that talked about being greatful for everything, even adversity.

Even though i'm not super trunky, it blows my mind to only have three months left. i'm trying not to think too much about it.

I don't know if you guys remember Ros, who i found out got baptized last week. It turned out her cousin (or neice, i'm not sure which) also got baptized in brasil. Ros wants to come back to portugal, and has been praying that Joel will accept the gospel and be baptized (Joel was her "namarido" a handy play on the word namorado (boyfriend) and marido (husband)) and that things would work out between them. As it happens, we had a really good lesson with Joel last night, we talked about the importance of baptism and knowing which way is right and asking God to know the right way. Our bishop has specifically asked us to teach joel, he's tough because he works every day basically all day long, even on weekends. So aside from not being able to go to church, he's tough to find at home to teach, but generally he's home around 9:30 at night, right before we go home, and last night we were blessed to find him at home at 9. We're going to teach him again on wednesday, and we're hopeful that things will go well there. Ros is planning on coming back in september, maybe i'll have one last marriage before heading home.

We got transfers next week, it's likely something we're change, i doubt i'm leaving, i don't really want to leave, but i'm always excited to get to know a new area and new people and stuff, but i'd be perfectly happy to finish the mission here. It'd be crazy if you moved while i was here. Would you stay in mississippi or head off to bigger and better things? It sounds like Dad's testing the waters a bit for the next move.

Anyway, that's the news from out here, we're going to work hard this week to get things moving, it's been just a little stagnant lately, so next week expect to have all sorts of new developments. Anyway, have a great week, and watch out for hurricanes, oilspills, economic depressions, comets, fire breathing dragons, and everything else the world is throwing around these days. I'll be here, blissfully unaware. Seriously though, i am really grateful to be on a mission, we had a really good meeting with our ward mission leader, and i'm excited to make these last 3 months the best.

um grande abraço,

Elder Ammon

June 21, 2010

Well, as you guessed, the portugal game is starting right now, which works out pretty well for us, because this great little internet café that's closed on mondays is open at the right time.

The week was good, Teresa's confirmation went great yesterday, she's getting well integrated in the ward, which is great. We've been teaching a lot of women recently, not really on purpose, it's just sort of worked out that way. We've also been finding a lot of young families, which is great, we're hoping some of them will progress this week.

Happy Birthday to Isaac and Happy Fathers day to Dad, sounds like you guys had an eventful week, i cannot believe you bought year passes to Universal Studios. Those are transferable right?

Lets see, as far as news goes, things are pretty calm. We visited an evangelical church this week, that was interesting. One of our investigators, edinaldo, invited us, so we went, it was very loud. It was very enlightening though, i understand a lot better how to teach evangelicals now. One thing that was very impressive is how nice they all were. We went in and sat down, and almost every person made a point of coming up to us and introducing themselves and talking a bit to us. They were very welcoming. They also ask you every one who's there for the first time to stand up and they applaud you, that was a little awkward, but it's a nice gesture. I was impressed with the pastor and he seemed very sincere (and he sang very well). I don't know if you guys will remember this, but one time in fast and testimony meeting in the jackson branch, the elderes had brought a baptist guy who got up and basically started preaching, and kept going for like 20 minutes until Brother Stallworth got up and, very impressively, took him back to his seat. It made me remember that. We were hoping to be able to get up and preach, but they didn't give us that opportunity, there was a visiting pastor from cacem who i was less impressed with, he seemed to know our message, and he made some subtle but very obvious comments about it. He also asked me to stand up and basically told me i had been mislead and that God had another mission for me. I'm feeling pretty good about this mission though, and after i'm done i think i'll have had enough mission for a while. He sort of ruined his credibility though when afterward he asked everyone to buy his wifes ties (which looked suspicially like they been bought at the chinese store and marked up to 5 euros). Anyway, it was an interesting experience. The day after we talked to an adventist, who basically told me the same thing, she being thoroughly convinced in order to follow the bible you have to honor the sabbath on saturday. The seventh day adventists have a big advantage in portuguese because saturday is called Sábado, which is the word Sabbath. So the bible reads, "honor the saturday, to keep it holy" I'm really tired of having to explain that to people. In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, i'm just glad that my personal testimony isn't based on my interpretation of the bible. We try to explain to people that they just need to ask God sincerely and he'll answer, a lot of people's response is that God responds through the bible, basically that he can't say anything more than what he's already said.

Yesterday was had two lessons with people from people from that evangelical church, one was terrible, it felt sort of like bashing our head against a wall. The second was incredible, the spirit was great and we just talked about stuff, and read scriptures in the book of mormon and the bible. It was partly a difference in the people we were teaching, but the bigger difference was in the way we approached it.

Some other cool things that happened this week, on saturday we had a bunch of lessons lined up, at 5 o'clock basically all our plans had fallen through, and we were kind of lost and didn't know what to do. We were sitting on a bench basically with no plan. We went up to the church so i could take a pill (i talked to a doctor cus i still have a bit of a cough, and it's been a while and it's sort of annoying, and so he prescribed some medicine to take for three days)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! Portugal just scored.

anyway, so after that we prayed for a little while to figure out what to do. As i prayed and thought about what to do, i felt like we should go work on this street before a lesson we would have there, and as i imagined the street my mind fixed on a certain building that we had never tried. It's a cool little building, it had a little bridge from the sidewalk to the front door so that the basement can have front windows too. Anyway, as elder mateer prayed he felt like we should go visit this less active named Elizabeth Howard who we have tried several times but never gotten ahold of. Anyway, so we went to that street, i sort of forgot and we wandered around abit on that street, and then i remembered what i had though to do and so we walked back to the house. We knocked one door on the "quem é" box (i think i've explained this before but it's a little box that you push the buttons of the apartments and people say "quem é?" Happily this one was old and didn't have a voice box, so they just had to open it. I hate talking through those boxes) and we went up to the second floor. It was a portuguese girl, probably about our age, with two little brothers. we talked a little bit to here, she was actually pretty interested, and we're going to go back on wednesday. It's interesting how things like someone opening a door seem like a small thing, but every person who opens the door and listens to what you have to say is a miracle.

After that we had a nice lesson with Mauro and his wife and Alves (his friend, who's wife also lives there but wasn't there until the end) they're cool. Then we went out to chaza, where elizabeth howard lives, and knocked her door. We've knocked this door a hundred times, because it's intrigueing, we're in portugal and there's a person named Elizabeth Howard, you just don't see that much. Anyway, we've never found anyone, but this time we knocked the door, and the 20ish guy answered. He was nice, sort of in a hurry, but he said we could come back later, and he told us that elizabeth lives down stairs, so we knocked that door, talked to her friend, she wasn't home, but it was cool to finally make some progress there. then on our way back, Elder Mateer wanted to try this one door we had tried earlier, and we found a guy named Adamo, who has two sons and a wife and are moving back to brasil in a little bit. After teaching him, He referred us to his neighbor downstaires, who was the 7th day adventist, but she was cool to.

All in all, it was a very good end of the day, it was impressive to see the difference before and after the prayer.

One more cool story, we went to teach this couple yesterday, João and Glória, João was out but we taught Glória and her daughter, Margarida. Margarida was extremely interested, although she lives in a different area. Something they commented on was that before we got there, Margarida's son, Bruno, was crying and fussy, but after we got there he was super happy, and shouting for joy the whole lesson. It was sort of distracting, they were very impressed with the difference, and acredited it to the spirit. What was cooler, is after Margarida said a prayer at the end of the lesson (after a lot of coaxing and encoragement on our part) Bruno got very calm and stopped shouting and just hung out.

Anyway, good times here in portugal. Time continues to fly, but that's pretty normal at this point. I'm waiting on a call from one of my favorite members, Macsuel, who's helping us out by making t'shirts for our zone as a fundraiser for the youth of lisbon to go to EFY, he's going to email us the design before he prints it, so that we can ok it. While i wait i'll try to get some pictures sent off to you guys.

Have a great week, and don't forget to send pictures of the family reunion.

Love,

Elder Ammon

oh, p.s. I don't know what you're planning when you come, but if you can, it would be a good idea to plan on renting a car, it will make a lot of things a lot easier. One of the things i think would be really cool if it works out would be to go to the temple in madrid, it's a bit of a drive, but it's not too far, and it's just past Evora, which Elder Mateer says is worth visiting. Anyway, just keep that in mind.

Beixinhos

June 14, 2010

as it happens, flag day is not a holiday here in portugal, but there are tons of flags everywhere because of the world cup. This week was good, Teresa's baptism went very smoothly. Her Aunt who hasn't come to church in forever came and is excited to start coming back to church again. It's interesting, because she's the quickest baptism i've had on my mission (from meeting to baptizing) but she's one of the most prepared people for baptism. Marcelo Oliveira performed the baptism, it was great, because she's had about as much contact with the members as she has with us. Every lesson has been accompanied with members, and everyone who helped had a part in the baptism. It's like a textbook example of how things should go in the teaching process, i can't say i've finally learned the secret to missionary work, but if we can keep doing that it'll be excellent.

We also had zone conference, which was good, like always. It was fun to see Elder Nixon and Elder Fernandes who are Zone Leaders in the zone above us. And it was great to learn and get motivated and such. In the time i've been here, the mission has changed a lot. It's shrunk significantly, today it's about half the size it was when i got here, but a lot more people are getting found, taught, and baptized. In Odivelas, which is an area in our zone, the Irmãs (sisters) had baptisms every week for 5 weeks. When i got here that was unimaginable. The area presidency called president Torgan last week and said that we were the Hope of Europe. The coolest part of zone conference was the very end when President Torgan talked about how our purpose is to prepare the way so that there be a temple in portugal, and it made me think about that a lot.

We were surprised to see Ketely (the little girl that came to church last week) at church again. A 10 year old girl that can get herself up and go to church on her own is a bit out of the ordinary. We really want to teach her family, but they're sort of busy during the week. Speaking of families, i don't know how much i talked about Tatiana last week, but after setting the crib up and everything, we finally got to teach her this week. It was a great lesson, she loved it, and even asked if she could be baptized in the church. Today or tomorrow we're going to talk to the father of her baby, Lourenço, who arrived from angola yesterday, but we're really hopeful for them. There are two things that i haven't yet done in my mission: baptize an entire family and baptize a member reference. Considering that that's the way missionary work is supposed to work, i wonder why i haven't been able to do that yet, but we're hoping that Lourenço is as interested as Tatiana so that they can all come to church together and be united. It'd be great.

It sounds like the family reunion was great, just this morning i was thinking about how it'd be fun to play paintball, i'd definitely vote for going back there in three years. It's too bad i missed what sounds like the most epic family reunion in a long time, but i can't imagine missing this week of my mission. I appreciated your encouragement to not get trunky and focus and work hard. It's not as easy as i imagined to stay focused, especially when elder mateer likes to remind me how much time i have left, but i feel like i'm doing pretty good in not letting it interfere with the work. Today we're just relaxing and resting, it's been a while since we've been able to just relax. I'm still coughing from time to time (Elder Mateer, always a pal, suggested i might have tuburculosis) and he got some sort of mild food poisoning from something he ate for breakfast this morning.

On sunday i gave a talk about love, it was ironic because saturday night i had a dream where i had to give a talk but hadn't prepared anything and had no idea what to say. When i woke up i was so relieved it was sunday morning and that it was just a dream; then, just before church, Rui Marques, the second councilor, asked me if i could give a talk. The other two speakers were jovens, one who spoke for 2 minutes, the other who spoke for 5ish, so i was left with 25 minutes to talk. It went pretty well though i think, and luckily sacrament meeting is last, not first.

Elder Mateer has been having a hard time with the World Cup being on and not watching it. It's crazy, i wasn't expecting it to be as big a deal here as it is. Also i was expecting there to be craziness in the streets and stuff, but the streets are basically dead, and every café on every corner of portugal is full of people watching the game. I'm trying to figure out how we can use the world cup to our advantage, with people being home and such, but Elder Mateer says it can't be done. I'm thinking the only thing to do is teach woman and the oddballs that don't like football. The real problem is that for the first couple weeks there are two to four games per day. Anyway, we're managing.

That's the low-down from portugal, thanks for the pictures and everything, have a great summer and help the missionaries. We're still getting fed a lot. This week we have a lunch every day of the week. The members here are truly incredible.

love,

Elder Ammon

May 31, 2010

First of all, once again, congradulation on the newest nephew Tanner. I'm sure he'll make a good addition to the nephews.

As it turns out Elder Mateer had to take care of something with his family today, so we're doing email today, which is just as well because tomorrow is sort of crazy, we have a lesson at 10a.m. with Vanessa, District meeting at 11:30, then lunch, then we're planning on helping Leolinda and Viola move. More on that later

This week was great, it seems like it's been a really long time since last p-day, the first transfer is like that. I don't think i'm going to be able to get everything covered, so i'll start with the biggest stuff.

Leolinda and Joaquim Viola got married on wednesday, and baptized on saturday. The baptism was great, another one that had almost nothing to do with us. They were ready to baptize when we got here, and what little preperation was required was done by Otacílio and Bete, who are, by the way, on the list for Top 5 members of the church in the world. These people are Saints. Otacílio performed Joaquim´s baptism, and Elder Seraim came up from Olivais to do the baptism of Leolinda. After that we had a little wedding ceramony, which was cool. On sunday they got confirmed, they already seem like they've been members forever. They're excited about doing family history and going to the temple to get married in the temple a year from now. Leolinda is excited and working hard to bring the rest of her family, who all came to the baptism, to come to church. Marisa, her daughter, is living with Carlos, who was baptized some time ago but has since stopped coming, and Vanda and her boyfriend, who is younger and apparently used to have some difficulties but has calmed down a lot and liked the baptism.

This week has made me really grateful for my family. You guys are awesome, i'm so glad we all get along and there's no drama and Mom and Dad always were so good to us. The more i learn about other people's families, the more grateful I am to have a family so united and happy. We had a family history center open up in our ward, and so last p-day after email we went by there and looked at some stuff, i was amazed. Family history is the coolest. I had no idea we had so much family history on there. You can go back 27 generations to 1046. Also, i always assumed the Vail line came to utah from britain about the same time that the perkes family came, if not after, but it turns out they were in New England for along time, back to the Revolution. We probably had people fighting in the Revolutionary war and stuff. There's some Vail family that lived in Salem, Massachussetts in the 1600's. It was so cool to find out my roots are more interesting than Utah and England. We've been trying to show the people we teach about family history, and i've started carrying around a chart with all my family until the great grandparents. Yesterday we taught Sirlene and Paulo, a less-active member and her husband who's not a member, about family history, and they got really excited about it. It was cool, we've been trying to get ahold of this family for 6 weeks, and then we went with Otacílio for a day to do hometeaching and on our way back we passed by and they were at home and we taught Them, two of Sirlene's three daughters, and Ugo, her daughter's boyfriend.

We had some other cool experiences this week, on the wedding day we were up in Vila Franca (which is a ways away) to talk to Vanessa. She has a rough schedule so we talked to her for a bit in a Café, we talked abit about courage to ask for an answer from God and the importance of families and the way the gospel has blessed our families. I showed her a picture of our family (which i carry around in my bible in Malachi) and she was really impressed, she said she felt really strange looking at our family and how happy we were. We marked for today, but today we had to go to zone leader council. ZL Council was cool today, the mission baptized more than we ever have before, so President took us all to Chili's for lunch (yes, they have chili's in portugal) It was fun to spend some time withElder Fernandes and Elder Nixon and all the other Zone leaders that were there. It's funny how you guys don't know who these people are, and how close we are together. It's weird how close you get to your comps and other missionaries you serve with.

Anyway, on the way from Vanessa's to the Wedding, we saw this young woman standing at the top of the hill. This story is probably getting boring by now, but i felt like i should talk to her, but Elder Mateer was already a little ways ahead, and so i started to walk past, but i really wanted to talk to her, so by the time i was about 10 feet passed her and Elder Mateer was 10 feet ahead of me on the other side of a fence, i shouted to elder mateer to hold on a sec and i went and talked to her. I didn't really know what to say, but she had a big bag she was carrying and i sort of blurted out awkwardly, "Podemos ajudar com isso?" and to our suprise, she said "Sim!" ElderMateer (who is really good at serving people) grabbed her bag and we started walking with her to her house. And on our way I talked to her. I would learn later that that bag she was carrying was really really heavy, and she is five months pregnant, and i don't know how she was expecting to get the rest of the way to her house. We learned her name is Teresa, she's from Cabo Verde, the Island of Fogo, where Elder Fernandes is from. She had already been to church once in cape verde with her cousin, who is a member, but had never heard the lessons or anything. When we got to her house, it was crazy, because we had knocked her door before, because she is the niece of a member who used to live in Vila Franca (who is now living nearby with her newish husband). We talked a little bit with her, said a prayer and set up a return appointment, but later we felt like we should go back that day, so we got António Gomes, who lives nearby, to come with us, and he helped us a lot. We taught her the first lesson, she loved it, she said she'd read and pray (which she has) and she'd come to the baptism (which she did). We're going to teach her again on teusday, we're pretty excited for her.

I'm checking out some random family history stuff. I just found a great^nth Grandfather named Captain John Jacobs born in Hingham, Norfolk, England, who (i can only assumed) sailed to Plymouth, Massachussetts and established the city of Hingham.

Lets see, anything else? We put together a crip for Tatiana, a lady we've been teaching, who had a baby this week, and didn't have a crib. Last monday Macsuel (who is one of the coolest members in portugal, he's the brasilian Logan living in Alverca) asked us if we knew anyone who needed a crib, which we did, so that was cool. We're teaching her on teusday also. So, things are going good here, I'll try to get some pictures out next week, of the wedding, and baptism, and other crazyness has been going down this week.

oh, in relation to you guys picking me up. From the beginning i said i'd rather come home on the plane and come back with you guys later, but i like the idea of you picking me up too. Do whatever is cheapest and/or most convenient. To me, it doesn't make a big difference. Thanks for your letters, i'm excited for photos of the Tanner. My times gone, have a great week.

Abraços

'Captain' Elder Ammon

May 24, 2010

Olá família,

We're waiting on transfer calls, we're pretty positive nothing is changing, but it's still frustrating to not know for sure. You can assume nothing will change, if we get the call later i'll send another little email.

It's hard to believe another transfer has gone by. It went super fast. It's been a good six weeks. We've been working hard to try to gain the trust and the love of the members, by loving and serving them, and it's been a lot of fun. Yesterday we went with Otacílio´s family and Marcelo´s family to Marcelo´s son, Thiago´s birthday lunch. It was at Cabeço da Montachique (which i translate, roughly, The Head of Cool Mountain). It was nice, but we felt really out of place. It was in this big public park with lots of tables (very vaguely like La fleurs' Bluff) and we, as missionaries in white shirt and ties, stuck out a little. It's impressive that after 6 weeks here i'm closer to the members here than in any other area, even though i spent several months in other areas.

Number wise, it hasn't been the most productive transfer, we taught fewer lessons and found fewer investigators, but we're hoping with eyes of faith that after our patience and diligence it's work out and we can start teaching member's friends. This week we organized a bit better the names we got from president torgan's thing 6 weeks ago. We counted them all up and we ended up with 451. So far we've identified 35 of them that live in our area and 5 of them we've already talked to. It's getting there. If i had had a bit more experience with working with the members and such i maybe could have done this better, but i was realizing yesterday this is the first time in my mission i have focused on working with the members, and i'm learning by trial and error. This week we have a member meal every day, and several days where we have two. I still want to go trail blazing in new areas, but if i finish my mission here in alverca, i won't complain.

This week is sort of crazy, we have transfers today, and his weekend we have a baptism and a marriage. Leolinda and Joaquim Viola have been doing great. They announced the baptism in church (the bishop called Joaquim 'José' which was a little awkward, but after the opening song he corrected it) and the wedding. This is another baptism it feels like we're not doing anything for. Irmã Bete has been working hard for it though, staying up late and running all over the place to set the marriage up and resolve leolinda and viola's anxieties and such. She is president of the Relief Society here too, if she spoke english a bit better, She and Mom would get along really well. Yesterday, Otacílio had come straight from church and was still in his white shirt, which reminded me of Dad. It was a weird, surreal moment. Missions are so interesting.

Speaking of interesting, we're hearing about transfer calls right now, so hopefully here in a second we'll know stuff...

so i'm staying with Elder Mateer in Alverca, in the zone a bunch of stuff changed, although nothing too interesting other than the fact that Pontinha closed. It probably will only be for transfer or two, and is basically an opportunity to get out of that house.

Anyway, i'll be here for 6 more weeks at least, i'm happy.

Yesterday we taught Daniel and his wife Catarina. Catarina is a member and Daniel is not. They haven't been coming to church, the moved a while ago from Seixal, and haven't felt as at home in Alverca. They're way cool though. We went by the church yesterday to use the bathroom and Bishop was there, and asked us to pass by Daniel's, we went over there and they invited us in and gave us bread and cheese and cake and water and we talked and got to know them a bit better, and left a scripture and said a prayer with them and invited them to the baptism on Saturday. hopefully they'll come, they're really really cool. They'd be such a great young portuguese couple in the ward if they came.

Well, i need to call the rest of the zone and tell them what's up, sounds like you guys have an exciting week ahead. Have a great trip and i hope everything goes well with that and with the baby and everything. I'll try to get some pictures sent some of these days, it's always a battle to find computers that work for sending pictures. Thanks for your letters and everything.

até logo,

love,

Ammon