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


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Week 47 Letter

Monday, April 21
Famlee!

Então família querida, como vocês estão?! I thought about writing the entire letter in Portuguese just as a joke, but I figured that could be a little bit annoying. Serving with a native speaker though, I sometimes forget that English exists...

How was Easter? Mine was great. I did miss the good food though. I ate rice and beans for dinner, but I did get to eat a piece of goat meat for lunch, so that was good. It was really good, actually. Easter morning started out really difficult. I won't go into a lot of detail, but the family of our Group Leader had some serious difficulties that morning. Luckily with a lot of help from the Spirit everything turned out for the better. It turned out to be an incredible experience. 

At church Ricardo passed the sacrament for the first time. I gave him one of my white shirts and one of my favorite ties, and he looked great, and did a great job. Next week he will bless the sacrament. He is doing great. Éder and Zé, our Cabo Verdeano recent-converts should get back today, so they will receive the priesthood here shortly too. 

Rosa Maria is on fire. She will be baptized this Saturday, which means a trip to Vila Real to the baptismal font. It is really hard for a person here to get used to the church. The people here are born in a lot of false doctrines of the catholic church, and they can be really hard to shake, because their religious mind just thinks that way. However, she is doing well. 

Speaking of false doctrines of the catholic church (I don't mean to pick on them, but you may find this interesting,) for Easter they have a lot of interesting traditions. They do quiet parades throughout the town led by someone carrying a silver or gold cross, a crown that is supposed to be the Holy Ghost, and some other weird things. On Easter morning the Padre, or 'Father' walks down the streets from door to door ringing a bell, kind of like the charity Santas on Christmas. He goes to each door to let the people in the house kiss his cross, and then asks for money. He must make thousands, and Portugal is in a crises. Sheesh.

This week Ricardo also turned 18, so we set up a party for him. I knew his family wouldn't do anything, his dad is an alcoholic and doesn't have anything to do with Ricardo, and the only other person in his house is his grandma who has something like 90 years. So we set up a party at Maria and Zé´s house. It was an awesome night; we had a lot of fun. Zé and Maria are the best. They made a dinner, and various deserts. I bought him some Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which I think they have in the states. They are really pricy here, but I knew he liked them a lot. Anyways, the night was great. I will try to upload pics to dropbox.
















Well, that is all I have time for. I love you all, and hope you had a great Easter. Shout out to Josh: ''Happy birthday beast! You are the best!''

Have a great week!

Elder Lee






Josh,

Josh, I had a dream about you last night, it was cool. We were fishing together, but we were fishing in a pond that was in our yard by the garage... it was weird...

I love you a bunch, and miss you a ton. I can't believe how old you are getting, it is unbelievable. I hope you have a great birthday, because you sure deserve one. You are a great brother, and an example to me. Keep being a star man, and be careful with those ladies! ;)

Stay cool!

Elder Lee


Friday, April 18, 2014

Week 46 Letter


Monday, April 14, 2014

Famlee!

How is everybody doing? Are you all sad now that the sun is coming out...? Hahaha, didn't think so. Neither am I! We have had some seriously hot days here this week, it has been great. Today is a bit cloudy though.

 Well, I should get to business. Today was a great week to end the transfer with. A lot happened. To start off with, we are teaching a woman named Rosa Maria who accepted a baptismal date, April 25th just a few days ago. After accepting the date, she went home and started reading the pamphlet we gave her of the restoration, and the Book of Mormon. She prayed about the book of Mormon, and received an incredible answer. She now is certain that all of this is true, and will start preparing to be baptized on the 25th. She still needs to be taught several lessons, so pray for her, especially concerning the word of wisdom. I don't think she smokes, which is a miracle here in Portugal, but there is a good chance she drinks wine, as Regua is a town that only exists because of the wine industry. These people like their wine. 

 Sunday we had an awesome sacrament meeting. For the first time in 6 weeks I didn't give a talk, but I did have the chance to bear my testimony. We also had some visitors from the stake who bore their testimonies on the temple as they had just finished a trip to the temple in Madrid. It really made me miss the temple.

 After sacrament meeting yesterday(which is the 2nd and last hour of church) our recent convert Ricardo received the Aaronic priesthood. In his blessing president included a blessing that he would have the desire to serve a mission. I know that he is already planning on it, however he still has 2 years of school left. He wants to do a mini mission of 6 weeks over the summer, which is an option for him. He can do that, and then after school serve a full time mission. What an awesome experience I have had with Ricardo!

 Also, we were able to have a lesson with a young Brazilian man who we had been trying to get a hold of for a long time. His name is Artur. When we first contacted him at the door, he told us he used to believe in God but that he is now Atheist. During the lesson the Spirit made it clear to me that he really does believe in God, but he just doesn't know God well enough to know the right way to believe in him. He has real desire, and his prayer at the end of the lesson was one of the most sincere I have heard yet. He will read and pray, and hopefully when we call him either tonight or tomorrow he will have received an answer. Please pray that he can receive and recognize the answer.

Well, that was my week, or at least a tiny glance into my week. We got transfer calls last night and both Elder Alves and I will be here another 6 weeks, which was a relief to hear.

love you all. Have an awesome week. Have a great Easter! Remember the Savior and everything he did for us, including living again, breaking the bands of death that once bound his people. I love him with all my heart.

Love you all,
Elder Lee

Hey mom!
Okay, in response to the onslaught of questions... deep breath... jump!

I have only seen one session I won’t be able to read it for a few months but my companion will try to download some of the talks on his MP3 player

the 3 amigos are great. Ricardo received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday and the others will follow when they get back from Lisboa.

Other investigators are great. Eufragio is on holiday in Lisboa as well, but we will get on him when he gets back. We are teaching a woman named Rosa Maria who we marked for baptism on the 25th of April. Kaching! Also, we taught a lesson to a young man (another potential Melch Priesthood holder) that went amazingly. The spirit was burning like a fire and I think despite the fact that he says he is atheist that he will be baptized soon.

The 3 amigos will receive the Melch priesthood when they are ready. Because the stake wants this group to be a branch it could be in just a couple months. I might be here to see it.

Happily I didn’t get transferred. We both stayed.

Haven’t gotten another card yet but they don't send mail on sat or sun so I might get it today.

GASP! deep breaths...
Done.

Love you!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Week 45 Letter

Monday, April 7, 2014

Famlee,

Hey everybody! How are you all? I am great. I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer... time has flown here in Regua. I really hope I stay here; there is still so much happening.

Right now we are working with another young man with 23 years from Africa named Eufragio. He is from Guinea Bissau, the same place that Bemvindo and Junior and family from Cascais were from if you remember. He is awesome. All of the Africans here are amazing, but I think that those from Guinea might be my favorite. They are such a happy, humble people, and Eufragio is no exception. He will be out of town for the next two weeks, but when he gets back I think he will be baptized very soon. His head is on straight. He is such a calm, logical thinker. Cabo Verdeanos are almost the opposite; it is so funny to see the differences between all the Africans here. 

I got great news today. The sister of Paula and Sara, the mom and daughter we baptized back in Póvoa got baptized yesterday! I knew she would eventually; it was so awesome to here that she made the step. The mission is great.

Well, I gotta go. Have a great week everybody, love you all!

Elder Lee 

Mom,
In answer to your questions –
Wake up at 7. Exercises.  I just do pushups because there is nothing to use in this house to work out. I have only been in 1 house that had a dumbbell, and the rest had nothing. It is really annoying. I want to gain weight and the pushups only get me so far. I would think about buying a big ol dumbbell to carry around with me on the mission, but I would have to pay the equivalent for 40 bucks for one, or at least that is the price of any I have seen so far. Blah.
My companion takes a nap on P-day.  I don’t like passing time during the day sleeping. I get about 1 and a half hours a week to do something to unwind and sleeping doesn’t really do it for me. I will just be tired the next day anyways.  We leave the house at 11 to work and have to return at 9:30 or 10:00 at the latest to sleep at 11pm.
Love you, Elder Lee

I drew this picture too, but I think I messed up on Jesus' face.



Koli,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
PARABÉNS!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday Koli!  I love you so much. I can't believe you are already 11! I think about you a lot. I am sad we can't hang out more, but we will have plenty of time for that when I get back.

I drew you a picture I thought you might like. I still haven't finished, but I will let you see it before it is done.


How was your birthday? How does it feel to be 11? Have you been practicing your acting skills so that when i get back we cant make another awesome movie?


Tchau Koli! Love you!