Pictures from Terceira

I received these pictures in my dropbox today.  Tony must have had a zone meeting.  He says he and his companion download pictures to dropbox on the church computer during his zone or training meetings because it takes sooooo long to download pictures.  I love getting his pictures.  It is so beautiful there.

 So, I don't so much love getting these kinds of pics :<

 Is this suppose to be the same moon I was seeing on that particular night?

Amazing that he is just there, and I am here...

Week 16 Letter - So I am playing catch-up. :)

You'll need to go back to week 11 to catch up.  It's worth the read. 

Monday, September 2, 2013

Here is a pic for ya...

Just know I am 100 percent okay... I will tell you the story when I know you are on...

Really, I am fine. Look, I am smiling =)

Famlee,

How is everybody?!

This week was a tough week. Always good on the mission, but this week had some challenges. We had marked 3 teenagers for baptism this weekend, Joao, Eduardo, and Wilson. They are such studs, they love the gospel already, they keep all of the commitments, and they are building testimonies and everything! We were really seeing the fruits of our labors with them.

However, things happened this week. We went to visit João, and his mom confronted us angrily. She tried to give us the book of Mormon and pamphlet we had given him back, but we insisted they were his. She told us she was catholic, and that he was too. We tried to explain our purpose, but she would have none of it. She forbid us from talking to him again. 

So, we were pretty sad about that. Yesterday, we had both Wilson and Eduardo in church again, and we were having a really good testimony. But then, Eduardo's mom stormed in to get him out of church. We talked to her outside, and she was upset. But she also had a nonmember with her who is related to some people in the ward who really hates the church, and she was yelling, screaming, and saying really bad things about the church. Eduardo went around to the back of the church building, so we went back there while president talked to his mom. He was back there crying, upset that his mom told him he couldn't be in church and couldn’t meet with us. She had known he was meeting with us and was okay with it until that angry friend found out, and then she really caused to whole mess. We told him it was alright, things would be okay and everything, but he wanted to be baptized so badly. I hope something good comes of this. 

Wilson we still aren’t all that sure about. His mom also is against his baptism, but we will see what we can do. I just really hope we can talk to her and tell her what we are all about and actually have her listen to us. We'll see. Please pray for all three of them.

Other news, I messed up my hand today during p-day. We were on some rocks getting a good view of the cove. My shoes didn't have enough grip apparently because I fell down in-between some of these big rocks. I landed on my feet alright, and didn’t think anything was wrong at first, but then felt the pain in my hand. I looked at it and knew it was bad. So, we called the mission president’s wife who takes care of this kind of thing, and then got me a ride to the hospital. My hand was bleeding like crazy, it filled elder Jacobson’s sock with blood and then some. 

Anyways, we went in and because everything is socialized here it took FOREVER to get treated. They did a prewrap job, but then after that it was hours before they did anything else. Finally I went in. The doctor asked me if I spoke Portuguese, and I told her if she wanted to talk about Jesus I could tell her anything she needed to know. So we talked about Jesus the whole time, it was kind of funny. Anyways, they started by washing the gash. First, an entire bottle of alcohol. Next, a ton of some brownish liquid, I don’t know, maybe iodine or something. Anyways, it burned, BAD. I was being tough you know, like a Lee, and to take the pain I was flexing my calves because I couldn’t really clench my fists, but then I got a major cramp in my right cramp, and had to bear that one out on top of the hand stuff trying to be tough. Wow, a mission is tough... hahaha... anyways, then they started picking stuff out of it. There was a lot of dirt, rocks, and everything, so she had it peeled open and picking at it with tweezers, cutting of some flesh, everything, and this was before any numbing occurred. It was pretty awful. I wouldn’t say I was giving childbirth a run for the money, but I was close... Anyways, finally they numbed me, and put stitches in. I got 4 in my hand I think and 2 in my arm. 

They are pretty worried about infection, so they hooked me up with some antibiotics (and pain killers, but c'mon, I'm a Lee), and I have to go in to a clinic every day for 8 days. I feel awful wasting so much time because of a stupid accident, but we will go into the clinic during language study so in all reality it may be even better, new vocab and all ;)

Anyways, Mom is probably freaking out a little. Don’t worry mom, I am perfectly fine. Please don’t call the mission president or office, they are busy people, and I assure you there is no need to worry. You don’t have to worry about any paperwork or anything either. Merely a flesh wound.

I don’t have any more time though, so I need to go. I love you all, have a great week, I will send some pics with this email and hopefully upload sometime to dropbox as well. 

Love you all!!!!

Elder Lee

P.S. The smile in that second picture is a smile of pain. Trust me, I was there.

Dad,

I don’t have a lot of time, but the family email is longer than usual. 

I love getting your letters, they teach me so much, and make me laugh too, which is good. I think about you all the time. Sometimes, I wish I could call you at night after a long day and just talk a little bit. You teach me so much, I still learn from you every day. 

As you will read in the family letter, things are hard right now, but salvation is not an easy experience, is it? The song puts it best for me right now. I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following in his ways. I watch for the day of gladness when he will come again. 

Keep up the good work, I am excited for all of your students that seminary has started, they are so lucky to have the best teacher in the world. 

Well, I need to go. I love you though, so much. Thanks for all you do. How great shall be your joy in the kingdom of your father. 

Your son,

Elder Lee

Week 15 Letter

Monday, August 26, 2013

Famlee!

How are all of you!? Really tan? I am pretty tan too, but probably not too much more than as tan as I get in Spokane because the Azores get a lot of cloud and humidity along with the sunshine. 

How was the lake? I missed being there with all of you; we had some really fun times there. I remember how fun playing pirates was, it was a blast! Something kind of cool about Portugal is that they are a country of sailors, both in history and now. That’s how they discovered the islands I am on, Brazil, Madeira, and a lot of other places also. I should find a pirate here and talk to him a little bit so when I get back and we play pirates I can do an even better job. 

You all looked so pretty and clean in the wedding pics! I have such a pretty family! People love to see the family picture I have of you all. I need to learn the language really well, because people tell me already I have a Portuguese face, but when I talk it becomes very apparent I'm not Portuguese, and people go from assuming I am Portuguese to assuming I am mentally deficient... hahaha

We have been finding new people to teach which is really exciting. In the past we have spent a lot of time doing procura and very little time teaching, and teaching is the best part of missionary work by far! 

We are so lucky to have the family we have, aren’t we? I can testify to the fact that there isn’t a better family on this side of the world either, so it looks like we are number 1! I love each one of you so much. It is sad to think that our family is all growing up; especially when you think of all the fun times we had as kids. But that is why it is so cool we can live together forever as a family. It is so important to work to become a celestial family, so let’s do it! As we do we will have so much happiness and joy in our lives, it is amazing! 

I love you all so much. Keep being awesome. Sometimes I miss you all so much and start to get sad, but like an old saying, 

Whenever I get sad

I stop being sad

and start being 

AWESOME!

So don’t be sad, be awesome!

I love you!

Elder Lee

Mom,

I am great; things here are good with the work. We have 4 new really good investigators, but Fernando is still having difficulties due to his wife.

Anyways, his wife is being one heck of a stumbling block. Idk if I told you they are separating, but they are I think. We don’t want that, we want them to fix things. It’s rough.

How are the kids doing? Scared as summer is winding down?

Is Danny turning 12?  Is he going to get the priesthood? That is weird to think about. But if anybody is ready for the priesthood, Danny is.  With the birth certificate stuff, maybe he should wait. Idk, that all is kind of hard. How is jets potty training?  He is getting bigger, it makes me sad =(   (but happy too =) 

I don’t think I am going to be able to email dad a separate letter, so make sure he knows I love him too, and he needs to keep the Seahawks winning.  Dad says the weather has been great there.  We are on the same side of the equator, so seasons are at the same time. It is usually about 80-90 here, with a lot of humidity. It’s nice though. I hope I will get to see the Azores in the fall. It doesn’t get very cold in Portugal in the winter, but it does rain a lot. I don’t know what to expect 100 percent, but am excited to find out I guess.  I hope my coat wasn’t stolen from Lisbon, because I am going to need that eventually. I won’t figure that out unless I get transferred and have to go by the office or until I have to go back to the continent to get my visa renewed either in September or the next transfer.  The day I got to Lisbon was crazy. I could only take one suitcase with a weight limit, and I hardly had any time to transfer anything from suitcase to suitcase. So I got the essentials. It hasn’t been cold enough for a coat yet, and we have only had rain once so far (this last week), so I'm good right now. I will just need to get it when I go to the continent.