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


Saturday, June 28, 2014

Week 56 Letter

Monday, June 23, 2014
Famlee!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing!? I am great. This week was a good one, so I am going to get going on some highlights.

This week was a white one. We baptized José Luís, Luís, and Mariana. It was fantastic. We finished up teaching them, they accepted everything so well, and understood perfectly. They did great with the interviews, our zone leaders were impressed. Earlier in the week Mariana was having some anxiety about baptism, because an anti-Mormon neighbor had talked bad about the church to her. We invited her to do a prayer with us to ask God what she should do. She did, and after, she said, ''I am going to be baptized.'' It's amazing to see Heavenly Father respond to our investigators prayers, even those from a 10 year old girl. It is one of the greatest miracles of the mission. 

We had to hire a taxi yesterday to drive out to a beautiful little lake to do the baptisms. It was either that or drive 2 hours to Vila Real... The lake was definitely way better, although it did make me miss swimming a little. The water was nice and warm, and it was a nice hot day too. All three of them were so excited! I love seeing investigators excited to be baptized! It is the best. Everything ran smoothly, and they all ended the day smiling. Tonight we have a family home evening with them and a couple other families from the branch. It should be good. 

Our big focus now will be Iury and Abidulai. Abidulai is struggling. He is pulling out a little bit. Pray that he can receive and answer to his prayers. It is hard to contact either one of them, because they are in the last stretch of their courses, and time is hard to come by. We still haven't taught the commandments to them, and we are running out of time. We need a miracle to happen with them this week so they can get baptized soon, hopefully Sunday.

We only have 2 more weeks left in the transfer, time is blowing by at speeds that I can't believe. I should stay here for the next transfer, but our district will probably change up at least a little. My good friend Elder Camper from my district in Cascais who works in a town about an hour away from Bragança called Mirandela will probably transferred. I am starting to get used to all the change I think... 

There has been a lot of stress in our branch these last few weeks, and it is a lot to deal with. I have been in close contact with the stake president, and we are in kind of a rough spot with some things going on here. We only had 13 in church yesterday counting our 5 investigators and us. That’s only 6 regular members. Pray for our little branch.

Okay, I need to write my mission president now, but I love you all. Thanks for all of the letters and all of the prayers. Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Lee






Week 55 Letter

Monday, June 16, 2014
Famlee,

Hey everyone!! First off, thanks for all of your awesome letters! I had a great birthday, and the best part was getting to hear from all of you today.

The sun here has been crazy! I love it! It has been hot, every single day. Soon I and my African companion will look the same. 

This week was a great week. We had the opportunity to mark Mariana, the daughter of José Luís for baptism. They will hopefully all be baptized this Sunday. Pray lots for them.

We are trying to find more investigators, as usual. We have our 5 that are marked for baptism, but outside of them we don't really have much going on. Fortunately, we found some people with potential this last week, and we will try to get them progressing during this week. We have three women, all cousins, who we want to mark today. I hope it goes well. 

Tomorrow we have zone conference in Porto, so that means a three hour bus ride at 6 o' clock in the morning... But I like zone conference a lot, so no problem. 

We are working a lot with the branch. It is really struggling with some problems between members. It isn't easy, but I hope by the time I leave everything will be running smoothly. 

I am already running out of time. The computer hasn't been working well, so it has been really slow, and now my time is coming to an end. Next week I will try to do better with the letter... But until then, you are just going to have to be satisfied with this one!

I love you all, and hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Lee


Mom,
I don’t know if you are still there mom, but we didn’t have any baptism because we didn’t have any planned for this week. We have 3 planned for this next Sunday and then 2 for the following Saturday. I will keep you posted. The father of the 2 kids is in kind of an interesting situation, so I hope everything goes well for him and he is baptized this Sunday.
The comp is good. We like each other. Serving with a Cabo verdiano isn't always easy, but he is great, and we don’t have any problems. As first councilor I have more meetings, but basically we as missionaries run the branch. Our branch president only has 3 months in the church, and it has been really hard. There is some apostasy in the branch... Our branch president teaches a lot of false doctrine, and there are some members getting upset. Ahhh. I would love to serve in a well-functioning ward, but I love being in a branch too. It is just really tiring. We just have to run around fixing problems so much, and we can't do anything about it. We can't talk with the stake, they don't want to hear it from the missionaries, and we can't talk with our mission president, because he doesn't want us involved in it. But if we weren't involved, this branch would close. It is work.
Love you,

Elder Lee

Week 54 Letter

Monday, June 9
Famlee!!!                

It has been an awesome week, but I am short on time so I will get started.

This week we marked 4 people for baptism! It was awesome! We marked a dad, José Luís and his son Luís, and then an African from São Tomé named Iury (youry), and then his cousin (we didn't know they were related until afterwards) whose name is Abidulae (uh-bih-doo-lie). It was a week filled with miracles. All four of these investigators that we found just this week on the street! All of them have dates to be baptized this month.

José Luís and Luís are great. We found José Luís on the street one day, walking slowly and kind of sad looking. We talked to him, and he gave us his address. When we went to visit him we learned that he had been walking home from the cemetery the day we talked to him. He walks to the cemetery and back every day, because his parents and sister is buried there. We began to teach the second lesson, the plan of salvation, thinking that it would be perfect for him. However, I had the distinct impression that we needed to teach the Restoration instead. We went with the prompting, and the lesson was great. Halfway through the lesson his son, Luís, with 13 years walked in, and joined us. He liked us a lot, and understood what we were teaching. We lanced what we call the 'convite suave', or smooth invite where we ask them if they receive and answer if they would follow it and be baptized. They accepted.  The next lesson we taught the first half of the second lesson with a member, António, who has just over a year in the church. António was Jehovah ’s Witness for 30 years, but after talking with the missionaries, searching out the Doctrine and Covenants online and reading the entire book in 1 week and then the Book of Mormon he was converted. Before the lesson we met with him and told him we wanted him to mark José Luís and Luís to be baptized on June 21st. The lesson was amazing, and they were marked for that day. Working with members is awesome. The next lesson Luís and I drew the plan of salvation. I will send a picture.

As for Iury and Abidulae, we marked both of them for the 28th of June in the first lesson with each of them. It was awesome. There is a story behind both of them also, but I am running out of time fast. 

This week we want to mark 4 more new investigators to be baptized. Pray for us!

I have been focusing a lot on consecration and becoming one in Christ through exact obedience and faith. The results have been incredible in the last couple transfers. I am really excited for this year. I testify that God always blesses us when we keep his commandments. ALL of his commandments. The law of consecration should be alive and in effect in our hearts!

Well, I love you all. I have to go. Thanks for all of the letters. It's weird thinking this week I will be 20. I will finish the mission before hitting 21. That is really scary. I think I will start talking with President Fluckiger about an extension now.


Love you!

Elder Lee

I did get some awesome jerseys this transfer




Week 53 Letter

Monday, June 2, 2014
Famlee!!!

Hey everybody!!! How are you all doing? From the letters it sounds like you are all alright. Shout out to Shiloh! Congratulations on one more beautiful little daughter!!

This week was good. I am in a little branch, again. I still haven't served in a ward. I love branches anyways. This is a great little branch, with a lot of potential, however it is struggling a little bit. A while back it had a church attendance of 25 or so, but now it is down to 12. We have a lot of work to do here. The work has been slow here, and the members are getting discouraged. Please pray for them. This month is the month of invites, and we are really trying to fire the members up to invite everyone they know to come to activities of the church. I think it will be a great month. 

Our branch president is a great Brother, but he is very young in the church. He has 3 months in the church; he has been the only baptism in something like a year. He has good fire, and great intentions, but no experience. That’s okay, it is better like that than if he didn't have fire. There are some members who have problems with him because he teaches a lot of doctrine that comes from his own ideas and is not in line with the teachings of the church. But I like him, and we will get things figured out.

Bragança is cool. It is the furthest north area in the mission, which means I have now served in the furthest west and north areas. When I was on the island I was furthest West. Now I just need to serve in a place called Faro down in the southern part of the country called The Algarve, and then the most eastern. That would be cool, wouldn't it?

There are a lot of cool things here. Awesome roundabouts. The pics I am sending are from a roundabout. There is a castle too; I will have to visit that one day. Portugal sure is awesome. I forget sometimes how different it is.

As far as investigators go, we are trying to find some. We have a couple with good potential right now, but outside of them there are just a lot of people we try to pass who haven't been at home yet. We will find the elect.

Okay, I love you all. Thank you for the love and support. Hugs and kisses to everyone unless you are one of the people I am forwarding this email to who shouldn't get a hug or kiss...

Love you!


Elder Lee



Week 52 Letter

Monday, May 26, 2014

Famlee!!!

Well, once again the unexpected occurred with transfers. I thought I was safe in Régua, however I was sent up even further north to a place called Bragança, just a quick skip away from Spain. This was the hardest transfer I have had on the mission so far, except for maybe when I left the island. It was at least equally as hard. The hardest goodbye was the one I said this morning to Ricardo. We became brothers of a short period of time, and unfortunately had to split early. It was hard. Really hard. I worry a lot about Ricardo. Not spiritually, but just in life. He has a dad that isn't a dad, just an alcoholic that doesn't play any parental role. His uncle is abusive, and wants to put him on the street because in one of the cases of abuse Ricardo went to the police for help. All of his friends and the rest of his family are in Venezuela. He lives a really hard life, and I was his best friend. He doesn't have friends that he spends time with in Régua, just classmates at school. I didn't want to leave him yet. However, I know he will be okay. This next month he will receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He wants to serve a 6 week mini mission this summer. I might just ask president if I could be his companion during that time, but I don't know that it will happen. He might go to the temple this summer too, if he can go with the stake to Spain to do baptisms. He will be okay, but it won't be easy for him. 

The rest of the week went really well. We had the conference with Elder Kearon, which was awesome. He remembered our family, and told me to 'send lots of love'. It really was a fantastic conference, it is changing my mission. 

We also celebrated Éder's birthday in the house of Zé the older, which was really fun. Ricardo and I made pancakes for desert. I will try to send pics next week, I don't have time this week.

I got glasses this week as well... I don't know what I think about the look, but how could instantly improved vision not be at the top of your to do list?  

I don't know much about Bragança yet seeing as I just arrived here. I am the new district leader here. Also, I am the first councilor in the Branch. We have a branch of about 20 active members, small, but a step up from Régua. We meet in a 'chapel' on the ground level of an apartment. I am serving with the 2nd councilor in the branch, Elder Tavares from Cabo Verde. He seems pretty cool. I am excited for the transfer, we will do a lot of cool things here. The work has been slow here for some time, but we are looking to turn that around. 

Well, I need to get going. I love you all, and wish you all a great week. Thanks for the prayers and emails!


Love, Elder Lee