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
