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
