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!

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!

Week 44 Letter

Monday, March 31, 2014

Famlee,

This week was a white one! We had the awesome privilege to baptize Héder, Zé, and Ricardo. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Don't stop praying for these guys. They are the future of this group/soon to be branch. They now need to prepare to receive the priesthood. What a blessing it is to be a part of this work!

Well, due to the fact that we just baptized all of our progressing investigators, looks like we will be going back to some hard core tracting. We are also going to try and focus on receiving more references, or in better words helping people be more willing and have more trust in us to give us references. Hope we can get some people progressing soon. 

We have an investigator we've recently found from Guinea-Bissau. He seems to be pretty solid. He knows Héder and Zé. Hopefully we can get him progressing before he leaves for spring vacation.

Well, I really don't have anymore time unfortunately. I will attach a pic of the baptism.

Thank you all for your prayers and letters!

Love,

Elder Lee

Mom,

Picture 1 from Left to right: Héder, Ricardo, Elder Alves, Zé, Yours Truly

Yup, got the card. Yup, Héder has some sick hair. Elder Alves is telling him he should cut it, but one day he asked me quietly what I thought. I told him that yeah he should cut it... eventually ;P

We did the baptism in Vila Real, which is about an hour from here. Its a pain and it was expensive. Good thing I only eat rice and beans... I plan on doing one in the river eventually if the weather permits.

 I love you! Have a great week! Tell the kiddos I said hi!  And a Happy Birthday to my Koli Poki!

Elder Lee

Week 43 Letter

Monday, March 24, 2014

Famlee!

Okay, not a lot of time left, so I will get right to it.

The week was good. Thanks to a lot of prayers from you guys Ricardo, Éder, and Zé are all doing great. They should all be baptized this Saturday. Yesterday I was sitting with Ricardo in church and he was talking about serving a mission. Highlight of my week. He is awesome. Keep praying for these guys.

Right now in our group we have 2 Melchizedek Priesthood holders. To have a branch we need 5. What a miracle that we are having the baptism of the last three priesthood holders of the branch all on Saturday! Ricardo is only 17, but he turns 18 on April 18. What a golden birthday! I know that he is going to be such a huge help for this ward, along with Éder and Zé. Éder and Zé have a lot of Cabo Verdeano friends, so we are going to try to get all of them to church on Sunday. It will be awesome.

Well, tonight we have family home evening at our Group Leader's house with Ricardo and a partly-active woman named Elsa. The Group Leader's family is so awesome. His name is also Zé, and he reminds me a lot of Grandpa Jenkinson. He too is an awesome missionary. The whole family is. I have never seen members with such a desire to see the Church grow. It is inspiring. If I remember I will take a picture of us all tonight during the family home evening.

Well, I hope you are all well. I love you all a ton. Keep working hard!!

Lots of love,

Elder Lee

Week 42 Letter

Monday, March 17, 2014

Famlee,

How is everybody doing? Are you all enjoying the start of spring? I sure am! We haven't had a cloud in the sky since the first day I was here, and I would like it to stay that way for a good 10 months or so =)

This week was an amazing week. It was a really hard week. We are going through a lot of rejection. The people up here in the North are a bit harder to get to. However, we just kept working hard and trusting in the Lord. It was reminding me a lot of the island, which honestly scared me a little bit because back on the island we worked like crazy for 3 transfers and didn't see a lot of success. However this week Heavenly Father was really gracious. Midway through the week we bumped into Ricardo, a teenager with 17 years that we had talked to and prayed with on the street a while ago but hadn't been able to find him again. We set up to meet in the hotel a couple days later to have a lesson. However, he didn't know his address, and his phone was dead, so he wasn't able to leave us with any contact information. 2 days later we showed up at the meeting spot with faith that he would show up even though normally it would be kind of a longshot. However, after a little while of waiting we saw Ricardo walking down the dark street towards us with a smile on his face. He made it.

First we got to know him a little better. He is from Venezuela where he had been living with his family until two years ago he moved here to Portugal with his Portuguese dad after his parents divorced. He had to learn Portuguese here, because before he only spoke Spanish. He is a great kid with a lot of struggles. We taught him the restoration of the gospel, it was so powerful, and he seemed to really like it and feel the spirit. At the end of the lesson we asked him if he would read the book of Mormon and pray to know if it were true, and if he would be baptized when he received an answer. He said yes. We invited him to come to church with us on Sunday, and he accepted that invitation as well.

Friday or Saturday we met a young man named Éder from Cabo Verde through some people we had played futesol with a while back. He seemed like a great kid, and he took us up on the invitation to attend church with us yesterday. We asked him if we could meet up outside the fire station with him on Sunday and walk to the Hotel together. He said that would be cool. Well, when we showed up Sunday at the fire station 10 minutes early, Éder was already there, and he had brought his friend Zé with him as well! We all walked to church together, and shortly after we arrived in walked Ricardo.

Church was awesome. We had our one family of 4 there, one other member, and then our three investigators. The spirit was incredibly strong during the meeting.

After the meeting we taught Éder and Zé an incredible first lesson. We offered them the same invite that we had offered Ricardo about the Book of Mormon and baptism, and they also both accepted.

Heavenly Father is so loving. He blesses us so much out here in the mission, and I hope my letters convey that to you all. Please pray for Ricardo (hee-car-doo), Éder (like Elder without the L) and Zé (Zay). Pray that they can read the Book of Mormon and pray to receive an answer of its validity.

I know that this is the work of the Lord.

Have a great week everybody, I love you all!

Elder Lee

Week 41 Letter

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Famlee,

How is everybody doing? Sorry it took so long for this letter to get to you, it has been a crazy few days.

Sunday night I got a personal call from President Fluckiger telling me I would be leaving the area of Póvoa to go to a little place called Peso da Regua. This area has only been open for one transfer, and he is hoping to see good things happen here. That makes two of us.

Peso da Regua is an amazing little village in the middle of a beautiful mountain range. I was sad I had to take all of the pics of the landscape from out a dirty bus window, because it really is incredible. The landscape is dotted by tiny little civilizations just here and there.

Side note, there is a kid sitting next to me doing nothing but staring right at my screen, and he thinks I haven't noticed...

Anyways, Peso da Regua sits right by a river that runs through the mountains. The river is really high right now, but it is a lot lower than it was when it was flooding part of the city just a couple weeks ago. We live in an apartment building on the 7th floor so we get a decent view of the river and mountains.

I am way up in the north of Portugal now, with some added elevation, so it is FREEZING up here. Well, at least almost freezing. When I was on the bus it said it was only 5 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrr...

Here in Regua there is only a small group of about 5 active members. The church hasn't been here in a long, long time, but there are still some inactive members around from the first time it was here. We will try to find them.

I am with an Elder from Cabo Verde named Elder Alves. He has just 1 transfer less than me on the mission. He is going to help me improve my Creole. I already speak quite a bit, but I don't speak it like an African yet.

I am really excited to be here. It was sad leaving Póvoa, and also unexpected, but I know I am here for a reason. We want to triple the size of this group over the next little while. I hope I get a good amount of time here to try and accomplish that goal. We'll see I guess.

Well, I love you all and hope you are all having a great time. I am sorry if I didn't get the chance to write a personal letter to you this week. Give me another chance and I will respond personally next week.

I bear testimony that this really is the work of the Lord. He needs our help in doing it. If he wants fish, he can have fish. What he needs are souls. Let’s bring him some.

Love you all,

Elder Lee

Mom,

Wow, lots of questions. Yes, we baptized Sara, daughter of Paula.

 

There are 6 missionaries in my district, but we are 1.5 hours from the first set and 3 hours from the second set. So, we are basically alone.

 

My old area is a long story. It got closed down. Well, actually, it just combined with another area in Povoa and became 1 area instead of 2. Because of that both elder Richmond and I were kicked out. Pretty sad, we had a lot going there. Now I am with Elder Alves from Cabo Verde who has 1 transfer less than me on the mission. 

Well, Love you!

Week 40 Letter

Monday, February 24, 2014

This was all we got this week.  He did send me an email telling me the library was closing early.  Next week are transfers so we'll see if he emails on time.

Dad,

I feel bad, I never have a lot of time, and I never get you a very good letter. Unfortunately with that being said, it might be another one of those weeks... 

I love your updates about the kids. I don’t get a whole lot of letters from the ones younger than Ali, so it is good to hear what they are up to. 

Hey, I have a question for you. Portugal is working hard on a temple, but it is still a long ways away. Portugal still needs hundreds more Melck. Preisthood holders before it can begin construction on the temple. I want to be a part of getting those men. However, it is harder to find a Portuguese man to teach than any other  person. We always fast and pray to find men and families, but we still don’t have a male progressing investigator. How can I find more men to teach?

It is cool hearing about your mission. Before my mission, I knew very little about your mission. I definitely understand how special it is, so thanks for sharing. I hope I can fulfill my purpose as a missionary as much as you did. I still want to be just like you when I grow up. 

Well, I need to get working on the family letter, and I need to get Shauna a letter for her birthday. Hope I have time for it all.

Love you!

Elder Lee