Elder Anthony Scott Lee

Elder Anthony Scott Lee

Tony can be reached at...

ELDER ANTHONY LEE
Portugal Lisbon Mission
Rua Jorge Barradas 14C
1500-370 Lisboa
Portugal


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Week 36 Letter

Monday, January 27, 2014

Famlee, 

Hey everybody! How are you all? I have been great, and hope that all of you have been too. 

It has been a long, long, week, but in a good way. To start off, halfway through the week we got a call from President Fluckiger telling us he was on the way to our house and needed us to be there ASAP. So we ran up the hill to our house just in time to see president pulling up to the curb. He told us he had a little surprise for us, and out popped Elder Richmond from the car, the newest member of our companionship. His companion had hurt his foot seriously, and was going to spend time helping out in the office, so President placed Elder Richmond with us here in Póvoa. We were a little worried about having a companionship of three; we had all heard bad things about it. But so far, it has been amazing. I am really blessed to have 2 very hard working companions. We work really well together. We are finding a ton of potential and new investigators, we just need to get them progressing and get them to church. Pray that we can do that if you would. 

Despite the fact that we have been flying blind, we have been flying a good course. We talked to the one investigator a few times who we had left to us from the last Elders who were here, and we marked her for baptism this Saturday. However, she is still quitting smoking, so everybody pray really hard for Paula. She needs it. We are excited. We will talk to her tonight.

There is some really sad news going on as well though. Elder Zaccaria, my great MTC brother is having a real challenge. He has been battling back problems the entire mission, and last transfer started the process of figuring out what is wrong with it. He went to the hospital several times last transfer when we were in the same district, got MRI's, and has been waiting on results. The results came back a little while ago, with unfortunate results. So, they sent the results to the church's medical guy in Germany who has been in contact with the hospital here in Portugal, president Fluckiger, and other back experts there in Germany. The back is a real problem, and Elder Zaccaria wants to do anything possible to stay out here on the mission. Surgery is required, but they are trying to decide if it can wait until after the mission or not. If he needs surgery, he will be going home, and staying home for some time. He may or may not be allowed to come back out to Portugal if he leaves with the back situation he has. Anyways, he called me last night to tell me this, really devastated, really upset, and worried. Tonight we will fast for him, but I ask you all to include Elder Zaccaria in your prayers. It would sure mean a lot to him. He loves his mission.

Well, I am doing great. I am happy. I am angry that the Seahawks are going to the superb owl. But I still hope they win. I am actually equally excited to see what happens between Portugal and America when they play in the world cup this year. A lot of people already talk about it. 

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Lee


Hey Mom,
How are you?  My companion Elder Richmond is from Utah.  Our branch is small.  There were about 30 in church yesterday. We had lunch with some cool members. The ward doesn’t seem too cool with missionaries, but they are nice. They just aren't the 'make you feel a part of the family' type yet. We'll see what happens.  I will use my family picture card right after pulling the Justin Beiber card. =P  People usually respond well to one or the other.

I am in Lisbon right now. We had to get elder Augusto a visa interview here in Lisbon. I was in the office and they checked to see if I had a package, but they said I didn't. But they have packages organized by area, so it is quite possibly in the box of Cascais instead of Póvoa, but because the office elders were just so great they didn’t check that for me and wouldn’t allow me to check it. So, my package could potentially be a little lost again. It will know after zone conference probably which is this week.  I am emailing from a place called Worton. It’s a tech store with an internet cafe. A little pricy.
I am in Lisbon just today. I will be back in my area by 630

I have to go.  Hugs and kisses to you.  I love you.

Elder Lee

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Week 35 Letter

Monday, January 20, 2014
Famlee!

How is it going? I want to apologize for not having emailed all of you back... this computer is really slow. The computer sits on a pair of
pedals, and you have to pedal crazy Flintstone style to get it to do
anything... Okay, that was an exaggeration.

I left Cascais. It was unexpected. My last Sunday was a good one though. Bemvindo received the Holy Ghost. I passed the sacrament with a recent convert we have been working with. Suely, one of the girls we baptized gave a talk about arriving closer to the Savior in our lives.  It was awesome. I already miss Bemvindo's family a ton though.

My new area is called Póvoa de Santa Iria. It is kind of close to Lisbon, but still kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Our entire district of four elders is whitewashing the area, which means this is
all our first day in this area together. We all live together in a four Elder house, and we are literally just exploring an area we know nothing about. It is really fun =) I am training, kind of. I am finishing the training of an Elder Augusto in his 2nd transfer now, but he is just waiting on his visa to go to his mission in the states. He is going to Caleb's mission in San Diego. He is from Portugal, but
speaks decent English.

It will be a crazy transfer. Training on top of whitewashing.  Whitewashing is rare, but an entire district whitewash is really rare with President Fluckinger. We have all been told by a lot of people that this area is a really tough one, and hasn't had much success for a while. It is a challenge I am ready to take.

I like hearing about you guys watching those movies we made. That's one of the first things we'll do when we meet back up. But before that we all have a lot of work to do. It sounds like there is a lot going on in your stake with missionary work. Members really need help here, but in all fairness the church is all first and maybe second generation here. It is very young. We as missionaries are doing everything we can to prepare for the temple here. We have a lot of work to do. The temple will be 10 times bigger than the one in Madrid, and will have a temple hotel, family history center, and some sort of MTC. Just for the temple they need 600 available workers, which means we need to baptize a lot of Melchezedek Priesthood holders. Pray for the Portugal Lisbon Temple. Portugal is the lighthouse of Europe (as stated in the dedicatory prayer of the mission, which was done by then Elder Monson), and a temple would make that lighthouse so much brighter.

I love you all, and will do better writing you next week if we can find computers that were made sometime after the 90's.

Hugs and kisses!  Elder Lee


















Monday, January 13, 2014

Week 34 Letter

Monday, January 13, 2014
Famlee!

Hey everybody! How was your week? I hope it was awesome. My week was incredible as usual. One week on the mission really is so much of everything. It is hard to explain. But you kids will understand one day =)

The highlight of this week was Bemvindo. He was baptized yesterday, but it wasn't just his baptism that highlighted the week, it was also just getting to teach him and spend time with his family. His little brother Junior is so fun; he has such an amazing sense of humor for his age of just eleven. I will see if I can upload a funny little video of him. But yeah, it was great with those two and their cousin Filomena who lives with them. As I think I have already told a couple of you, this week Bemvindo, Junior, Elder Moore and I all went out for a little bit and collected sea mussels together, took them back to the house, and cooked them all up for Filomena, their mom, uncle, and grandma. They also had some little crabs they cooked up and these little fish things that you just pick apart and eat without cooking... I really enjoyed them, because I am getting quite the taste for seafood. Elder Moore didn't like them at all. The only part I though was a little weird was the head. I had to try it though. You just crunch it right off, chew it up, and swallow. It was weird, but not too bad. 






The baptism yesterday was awesome. Bemvindo didn't want to choose between Elder Moore and me to baptize him, he is so sweet. Just so thoughtful, soft, and mature. Basically the opposite of his little brother Junior... Anyways, we had set up for someone else to do the baptism. Well, church ended, and it turned out that something happened with the member who was going to do the baptism and they couldn't make it. So we talked to Bemvindo and told him that he needed to choose again. He told us he didn't want to choose between us, so we explained that one of us could do the baptism and the other would confer him a member this coming Sunday, and he didn't need to be afraid of hurting feelings, because we were his brother and the important thing was him getting baptized. So, he chose me to baptize and Elder Moore to do the conferring next week. I was happy to do it, but because of the confusion with the member, I didn't have any of the clothing or a towel to use afterwards. I ended up finding a pair of too-big pants that I wore, and then just used my underclothes and shirt, and decided I was just going to have to go wet after the baptism. But I didn't think about the fact that I would have to stand in front of everybody to speak on the Holy Ghost afterwards. Plus to add to the problem, when Bemvindo went under, he didn't go very easy so I kind of had to force him down before I pulled him back up which involved me getting even more wet. 

Long story short I ended up wearing Elder Moore's white shirt over my wet underclothes. He wore his coat and buttoned it almost to the chin so that you couldn't tell that he wasn't wearing a white shirt at all...

Lesson learned. Always bring backup clothes just in case. Check.



Well, I look forward to hearing from you guys again next week. Sorry dad I didn't respond personally to your letter, but I was short on time. Please don't stop writing me for that =P

Love you!


Elder Lee

 Mom,
I am happy to say that bemvindos (Beng-veendoo is how you say his name) baptism did go through! We weren't able to get in touch with natalina before Sunday though because of her work schedule, but we will get on that this week and hopefully have another baptism on Sunday  He is from Guinea Bissau and Natalina is from the Cabo Verde islands.  I ate some funny things this week... we also collected some muscles (like 30) and ate all of those with bemvindo, junior, and filomena's family.  I LOVE shrimp. That was at the house of Bemvindo. His brother in the picture is Junior, who is already baptized. They live also with their cousin, Filomena (a she, and its pronounced fee-low-may-nuh) who is a member as well. They are an awesome family. We are going to try and baptized the mom, but she is not really into it. She loves us, but isn’t wanting our message.  Junior is sooooo funny man... I will upload pics. But my dropbox says it’s full so I can’t.  Hey, so I am going to get off right now, we are going to meet up with the elders from Oeiras, but I should be getting back on for a bit more later today. Love you!

PS did I already ask you about my highlighters? Did you send those? Did you send them in an envelope or with the package? I need those as soon as I can get them.

PPS If you can figure out how to get my dropbox memory cleared up I can upload pics when I come back. I don’t have a ton but I have some.




Sunday, January 12, 2014

Week 33 Letter

Monday, January 6, 2014
Famlee!

How is everybody doing?! I am doing great. I don't have a lot of time this week, the Elders from Oeiras are here and they need a turn on the computers as well.  How was New Year’s? I hope you all ate an extra Taco just for me. I have some serious longings for a taco now that I thought about them... but you can't get all of the ingredients for a proper taco, so I guess I will just have to wait. 

Some exciting things are happening here. Bemvindo, the one who gave me African clothes, is marked for baptism this Sunday. His mom still needs to give him permission though, so please pray for that. Also, an investigator named Natalina is getting close to baptism. We will try to mark her for this Sunday as well. 

It has been really cold lately, or at least I thought I had. However, the weather report on my LDS missionary portal says that it has been in the sixties every day, so apparently it hasn't been as cold as I thought. Hahaha, looks like I am still living the good life ;P

I hope I get to start hearing from all of you kids! I miss you guys a lot! You are all growing up so much, it is crazy! Keep up all of the good work you are doing, and keep strong with your missionary efforts. Our family is an Amulek family. 

Love you all, sorry for the short letter!
Elder Lee

Mom,
I’m pretty good. You?

I am having a slightly hard time with my wardrobe... I tore my pants really good yesterday, and the new shoes I bought are already starting to show bad signs of wear, and are giving me huge blisters on the very back of my foot. 

Other than that though, things are great. We had 8 in church yesterday.
Yeah. Bemvindo is marked for this Sunday, and Natalina we want to get marked for this Sunday as well. 

Don’t worry about pants and shoes. I will figure it out. I freaking hate spending money though, especially now that I am not making any...
I haven't heard anything about my stolen stuff. I emailed him again a couple weeks ago and he never replied. Really, really frustrating.  I'd rather not let you get to him... hahaha... Not much new, no. I mean, yeah, there is, but, it is hard to relate. Transfers come up soon, and a lot of things could change in our little district. It will be exciting.  
I think the real wait is on the church insurance. He sends it in and then waits for them to get back to him. We will see in a while. Hopefully I get at least some back. I would really like to buy some soccer jerseys while I am here; they make a really good lembrança. I don't know a way to say that in English. It is like souvenir, but more like something that reminds you of something. I don’t know. But they aren’t the cheapest things in the world. If I go north, I can buy some really good replicas for cheap. But if not, I might have to spend a bit more.
Gotta go now mom. I love you. If you need anything, I will jump back on after the other guys finish emailing so you can send me anything you need. 


Love you!  Elder Lee

Week 32 Letter

Monday, December 30, 2013
Famlee!

How's it going everybody? How was Christmas? It was really fun talking with you all. You all look so grown up! (Especially Cameron... fogo!) We can do it again in just five months =) 

My Christmas was good. I ate a lot of fish. A tradition here for Christmas is to eat bacalhau, the most popular fish here it Portugal. They make it in a casserole that is similar to cheesy potatoes. It is actually really, really good. So we ate a bunch of that. Also, like I might have explained on webcam, we ate what they call beef on rocks. You cook up a bunch of little stake strips on granite rocks with little flamed under them, just all right there at the dinner table. So that was really cool too, and really tasty. 

We ate Christmas Eve dinner with the Faias family, a really, really nice family. At the end of dinner they surprised us with a present each, which was super nice of them. They gave us both a scarf, because she is always lecturing us on how we need to dress warmer. It is really comfy =) Also, the son and his wife got us a little gift each too. They gave me a cool like clock that stands on a spring, and it actually reminded me of a trampoline spring and made me miss the trampoline a bit. Anyways, I will attach a photo of us with their family. 

Right now we have a lot of investigators with real potential, they just need to keep the commitments and they will get there. One named Bem-vindo is from Guinea Bissau in Africa. For Christmas he gave me traditional clothes from Guinea, which is really awesome, because they are super expensive outside of Africa, and a lot of missionaries want them. I will send a picture of that too. Or maybe I will upload to drop box. Not sure. Anyways, we will try to mark him for baptism early this week. 

Well, it's about time for me to get out of here. I hope you all have an awesome new year’s. We have a dinner appointment that night, so I am excited for that =) I love you all, and hope you all finish your holidays strong with a lot of fun!

Hugs and Kisses and those kind of things, 

Elder Lee










Mom,
I’m great. Bought some new shoes today. Hopefully they do me well. Tired?  Things are good. We had a really disappointing show of investigators at church though. That’s one of the roughest parts of the mission. Investigators not keeping commitments.  I did look at the Christmas Letter.   I looked at it on in apple computer in an electronics shop when I was buying shoes =) It was good.  I am at the chapel now. Yeah, I can get on dropbox. Why? Do you have new pics?  I saw all the pics, they were really cute. I sure missed you guys on Christmas. It was kind of weird talking to you though in all honesty. It’s like connecting back to an old life.  I think I will get to Skype on mother’s day actually.  January 20th is transfers. I will probably stay, but who knows. I already have two here, it is possible that I leave. What day is Levi's B-day this month?  So, you have Direct TV now.  Direct TV is really good now, isn’t it? Do you guys get a lot of crazy channels? Any HD? Other perks? I miss Koli a ton actually. I am glad he is doing well.   Hey, do you have all of my dropbox stuff backed up? I need to delete some so I can upload right now. And when I try to delete some of your folders that I don’t need any more it tells me I don’t have the permission to do that because they are shared or something. Know anything about that?   I didn’t know we had a projector! Blu-ray players are sick, but you do have to have actual Blu-ray DVDs to get the full effect. But redbox does do Blu-ray don’t they? If he just waits a bit soon it will be much more digital. 
I delete my photos to you, and then try to permanently delete them by hitting the garbage can icon which 'shows deleted files' and then it tells me I don’t have the permission to 'purge' the files. hmm. Maybe if I just leave them deleted for a bit they will purge themselves. 
Don’t worry about the package.  I will watch for it again.  I can leave my tree up if you want.  I can be the only kid on the block with a Christmas package in January or February.  Well, I love you.
Hugs and Kisses to the family,

Elder Tony Lee

Week 31 Letter

Monday, December 23, 2013

FamLee,

Merry Christmas! I will get to tell you in person on Christmas day, but all the same, I hope you are having a great Christmas season. Glad to hear you are enjoying the pictures. I was really glad it got there okay. 

I'll be honest; this may be a slightly lousy letter... We don't have much time, and hey, I will cover everything else in a couple days! I hope nobody is too sad about the package not getting here, really, no problem. I am super excited to open up my Pjs the night before, and then Christmas day I will get to talk to all of you! Also, a really cool part about this Christmas is that the other two Elders in our district will be spending Christmas in our area, which means my brother Elder Zaccaria from the MTC will be with us too. We never imagined we would ever even get to serve close to each other, much less spend Christmas together, so that is pretty awesome. 

I made a big batch of Grandma Lee's super-secret home-made hot chocolate (She finally spilled the beans; I knew she couldn't resist telling me. I played the little missionary card, she didn't stand a chance.)  and drank a glass both yesterday and today, and I should have enough for both Christmas Eve and Day! So, in a sense, I am still getting a taste of home this Christmas. Home tastes great!

Well, that is it for now. We will talk really soon. I hope you guys have an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Have fun opening all of you presents. My favorite part was seeing all of you open the presents that I got for you. I will miss that a little bit, but this Christmas I think will be really special =)

I love you all. Keep Christ in Christmas. Até Logo!

Elder Lee

Mom,
I already bought an external hard drive, and just finished backing up all of my pics. I didn’t have enough space on all of my memory cards. I take a lot of pics =) Sorry I haven’t uploaded in a while.. I will get on that if I get time. 
Also, I had to buy some shoes to play soccer in, and luckily I got those one sale for 25€

Okay, so looks like you are busy. I will probably be skyping home on Christmas at 8 o clock pm here, noon your time I think. My phone number here is 918101336 if you need to call me. Don’t worry about the package. The system sucks here. They definitely didn’t leave a notice in my box, we check it every day, and it is just by the door out of our predio. Don’t worry; I am just really excited to talk to you guys!

Mom, I am not getting you as a friend still. However, just talked with President Binns, and I might do it at his house. He already has a laptop with a camera, so don’t worry. We can try Skype first, Gmail after, and if worse comes to worse, and we can use Facebook. 

I need to go save souls however, so, just don’t worry about it, don’t be scared, and have faith. 


Ether 12:29-30