Staying in Amadora

This week was interesting.  I will get a new companion.  He's Asian and from Utah. I will be staying here in Amadora. Nothing much changed. It's going to be great.

Natural man is an enemy to God

This week was good. We have been working. We don't work differently even if it's Christmas. We have been working really hard and have been getting a lot of rewards. I have been working on being a better person. Trying to develop patience. I am seeing more the natural man in me. He acts really fast, it's my job to see how he is acting and to stop and think, "Will this help or destroy the situation?" I am really stupid because even when I know that it will destroy the situation, I do it. I would say that I am getting better but that would be marginal at best. I hope that you guys are doing well. Until Christmas. 

 

Pics - Baptism

Not all investigators are the same

This week was a rush I will tell an experience that happened. Not all investigators are the same, they are very different in needs and in responses to invites that we leave with them. This week we had two different responses between the two women we baptized recently.

1. Filismina: The elect. She was found by Elders that arrived before me in the street. She is from Angola. She has two kids and they are the greatest. She was taught the restoration and accepted baptism right away. She already lived all the commandments. She arrives at church 30 minutes before any of the actual members and she arrived at her own baptism an hour before anyone else. That is what we call an elect.

2. Epifania: Another type of elect. She was found a couple of weeks ago. She has gone through a couple of difficulties in her life. She was not living all the commandments when we found her. She had headaches and other illnesses the day she was supposed to be confirmed. We had to call a taxi so that she could arrive in the church. 

Both were baptized but they show that people are different. Everyone needs what we have, not depending on what ever circumstances that they have or commandments they are or aren't living now. Everyone is a child of god and needs to grow closer to him through baptism.

Elder Fogg

It all came together at the last minute

BOM DIA ALEGRIA!

Milagre da semana: Epifania, o batismo. So we got a call this last week from this number that we didn't have in our phone. When I answered the person on the other end couldn't understand me and hung up. I gave the phone to Elder Antelmi. He called her and it turned out to be an old investigator that wanted to talk to us again. Talked to her on that day last week and she told us that she wanted to be baptized in our church because she felt something different that she never felt in any other church. We lost contact with her for one week. On Friday, we were in the area and decided to pass by her. She opened the door but didn't have time for us at that moment. We set up a time to pass by the next day. She was ready the next morning. We were feeling good about it so we took a baptism register with us on the visit just in case so if she was ready we could do the interview there. (I still hadn't taught her.) When we got there she wasn't completely ready so we explained and clarified some of the restoration and tithing. The mom was a real trouble.  She didn't want her to be baptized that week end but wait for the next week end because the mom's back was hurting. Elder Antelmi thought really fast and arranged a ride for her during church so that she could still come and see here daughter get baptized afterward. We did her interview during the church meetings, she passed! But that meant that we needed to plan the baptism completely from scratch with only one hour of church. It all came together at the last minute but It all worked out and she was baptized! 

 

Engraçada: Mulher que nós parou na rua. This women stopped us in the road on Sunday night. She yelled out ''Hey Elders come here''. Turns out that she has already been taught by the Elders for a long time and that she has already gone to church 2 times. She was actually prepared to be baptized but the Elders went to other areas before it could happen. 

Elder Foggão

I love eating and the Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have made a goal to read the Book of Mormon daily for the rest of my mission. I have seen the difference this has made. I found time to read during breakfast. I sit down with my bowl of corn flakes mixed with chocolocos and I read. (It's a combination of the 2 greatest things that I love, eating and the Book of Mormon). I have been reading recently in 3 Nephi when Christ visits the Americas. It is interesting to see the doctrines that Christ thought was most important to teach. He teaches about the priesthood, about baptism, about godlike attributes that are need to receive god's forgiveness.  When I read the Book of Mormon I am filled with the holy ghost. I feel that it is true. It is a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

Elder Fogg

Opposite of pride is humility

Amadora: Não Ama, adora. This area where I am serving now is literally right next to Lisbon. Instead of taking 3 hours by train to get to the mission office from the Algarve, it takes 15 minutes. IT's really nice. Our area has three stops on the train that goes through it.  It's pretty big. There are a lot of people from Cape Verde that live here or basically there are a lot of people who are from Africa. Also I moved from below the River Tejo to above the river to the North Western part of Lisbon so the weather changed a little bit too. It's freezing cold here. There's literally a part of the city that is called «Venteira» basically windy city. The ward has about 120 people. It's really big. There are a lot of returned missionaries that live here. It's really good. Não Amo, Adoro.

Iago: Eleitissimo.   We found one of the elect. This guy named Iago. He is really cool and pretty ready for baptism. He came to church this week. When we talk to him on Saturday, he said that he had problems with work and he is changing or looking for new work or something. Something is getting messed up with the papers or people are being racist. Something is happening but his mom told him as he was leaving to buy juice for dinner to not get discourage something better will come. Then he talked to us. It was really cool. He is really receptive. I hope he progresses. He is really cool. He is 19 years old. that means that he could still serve a mission. 

Caridade v. Orgulho. The opposite of pride is humility but one thing that really helps to kill pride is Charity. When we love our neighbors we see over their weaknesses and their faults and we help them grow. When we love we forgive the wrongs that people do to us. As missionaries this will be critical. In the D+C and in the New Testament. The Lord teaches that as missionaries, we will be at the judgement of the people that we helped or tried to help. We will be there and give an account of what we did. Sometimes people reject us hard core and it's not easy to be humble. But as a messenger of the atonement of Jesus Christ we need to believe that not only we are worthy of forgiveness and not only our converts are worthy too but those that reject are also worthy of it. If as missionaries we can't forgive those that reject in the hardest of ways we are not worthy of entering the kingdom of god. Some of them will have a change of heart and if we hold it prideful then we won't be worthy of the gift of forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The power that keeps us from being prideful is the Charity. It never fails.

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Pics of dog bite

Transferred to Amadora

I know this church is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I know that God is the same yesterday today and forever and with that always called, calls and will call prophets. I know that's how Moses talked with god ''face to face'' and received power to act in his name. Joseph Smith in our times received the same power and that Thomas S. Monson has that power now.

Bom Dia Alegria! Como vocês estão?!?!?! Estamos bem aqui.... mais ou menos bem na verdade. Mais tivemos uma outra semana maravilhosa. Era muito bom. Tivemos muitas boas experiências e Recebemos Ligações de transferências. Era uma outra semana em paraíso.

A pé de Élder Harper: Na verdade, naverdade vos digo, aquele que anda numa fractura de stress provavelmente quebrará-lo. That's exactly what happened with Elder Harper. Turns out that he actually had a stress fracture from before the mission and from all the stress from walking and most the time running after the elect, it broke. He now has a cast and is in a wheel chair. We went to the hospital on Tuesday and sister Tavares went with us. When she got there the first thing she said to Elder Harper was that ''this is nothing'', so Elder Harper was really scared that it was going to be just tendonitis because he didn't want to waste the time of Sister Tavares. We found out it was actually a broken bone in his foot. They sent us back home with only two crunches that were pretty bad. The next day we went and rented a wheel chair from an old person store (not lying that is literally what they call it in Portuguese.) So we have been trying to do missionary work with Elder harper sitting in a wheel chair and I pushing him. It has been pretty funny. 

 

Transferencias: Vou para Amadora. We got the call for transfers yesterday. I am going to Amadora. That is apparently right next to my first area, Odivelas. Apparently it's going to be a pretty minor change from here. There, it's basically mini Africa. Actually, I heard a funny statistic about Amadora that there are more people from Cabe Verde there in Amadora than actually are in Cabe Verde. I don't know if that's true but It's going to be great!

O grande e espaçoso edificio: Não tem um alicerce. I was talking with Salmon about this the other day and I thought it was a cool thought. They talk about the Great and spacious building and how it is high in the air.(1 Ne 8:26) (The great and spacious building being the pride of the world(1Ne 11:36) ). The thing that bothered me as a child is that I always wondered how the people entered into the great and spacious building if it was in the air, where was the entrance on the ground. As I was talking with Salmon about this I realized that it doesn't matter if the great and spacious building was on the ground or not, it was a better thought that that pride of all the earth had no foundation. That ultimately that building will fall because it was built on ''those secret combination of the evil one''. Build on a sure foundation, where on men build they can  not fall. Jesus is the Christ. He Lives. He is our rock and foundation! 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

Pics

The "FoggMachine" still has leg speed

Bom Dia Alegria! Esta semana foi muito bom! Ensinamos, trabalhamos e comemos! Tivemos muitas adventuras! Era uma semana de MILAGRES. Em fim foi uma outra semana em paraíso.

A pé de Elder Harper: Provavelmente quebrado. He said last week that his foot was hurting. We went running on Tuesday or something and it kept on getting worse. On Wednesday we showed his foot to the sisters in our branch. They said that we needed to call Sister Tavares in that moment. Then I got a good look at his foot. It was swollen, like really big. It was bad. This week we weren't able to do as much ''work'' as we usually do in the usual sense, basically we didn't walk as much. We worked in a different manner. We had to work smartly. We didn't walk as much but we used our phone a lot more and tried to get a hold of the people that had the most potential. We now have to wait until Tuesday so see what is wrong with his foot. (that's the earliest appointment that they could get for us). It's great to see how the Lord blesses us when we try to do our best. 

Noticias na programa de treinemento: Sou mais rapido de que um cão. So this week we were trying to visit one person called Sandro. We found him in his house and made an appointment with him for the weekend. As we were going to head down the stairs, we heard a door open on the top floor (they had 6 floors and we were on the 2nd), and all of a sudden ravenous barking filled the stairwell. As we made it to the first floor, we noticed that the barking was getting really loud and that the footsteps of the dog actually sounded like leaps. Bolting for the door, Elder Harper hobbled out, I was closely behind. Tried to jam the door shut to block the ferocious beast on the other side alas but to no avail. He came bolting out barking. I did the thing I was trained to do from a very young age, I'm talking 4, 5 or 6, I RAN. (iraq, afganistan, but I shouldn't make these joke in the middle(east) of the story... lol puns). We were off to the races. I dashed out into the parking lot, the beast close behind, I couldn't tell and then I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I couldn't stop to look at what happened I had to get away. I could feel him on my heels. I veered to the right.  I did the longest and fastest stride of my life. (If any of you were wondering if the "foggmachine" still has leg speed, let's just say all the dog could eat for dinner was my dust.) I out ran a dog. The Africans that were sitting viewing the spectacle actually said it was impressive.  The dog did bite me but the worst part is that he ripped my pants. And they were my comfy pants too. But we actually went back to the house after the fact and knocked on the door. Turns out the dog's name is Max. The owner actually came to church and we taught him this Sunday. 

Escritura: 2 Ne 31:17 ''Portanto, fazei as coisas que eu vos disse ter visto vosso Senhor e Redentor fazer; porque por esta razão me foram mostradas, para que possais conhecer a porta pela qual deveis entrar. Porque a porta pela qual deveis entrar é o arrependimento e o batismo com água; e vem, então, a remissão de vossos pecados pelo fogo e pelo Espírito Santo.'' As missionaries we have a lot of circumstances that are like what the Savoir passed by.  When we invited people to come unto Christ through baptism and receiving the holy ghost by laying on of hands, we are basically taking the place of the Savoir. We are showing them the door that he has showed us and we are helping them like he has helped us. I know this work is true and that Christ lives. This is his church and I am his representative. 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Building a foundation by faith

Apesar de: muitas dificuldades, humilhei-mi mesmo e vi o que Deus queria que eu fizesse. «Apesar de» signifies despite of. These past weeks have been really humbling. We have not been having the success we ought to have had. I had been a little upset about that. Instead of just giving up and becoming overcome, I was able to see the why. I have seen that I haven't been sufficiently prepared to help people. That I have been relying to much on hope instead of building a foundation by faith. I will build the foundation that I need and become the missionary God wants me to become.

 

Milagre: Olhando para atrás é impressionate como eu consigo falar portugês. The miracle  is that I can speak Portuguese fluently. A year ago that was my biggest preoccupation. But I received a blessing from my stake president when I was being set apart that I would be able to learn and speak Portuguese above my natural capabilities. I have seen that promise fulfilled time and time again here in Portugal. It's awesome seeing the shock and awe on the faces of the people after I respond fluently in Portuguese. They always respond in English and I always respond in Portuguese. Because it is actually easier. The biggest reason I know that this is a blessing from God is because I learned to speak French «fluently» for 8 or more years, using the best learning method of men. But in less than 12 short months I have learned to speak Portuguese 12x better using the power of god.

Pics - My greenie baptized. #aguinha

Pedir vs Pedar

Background about Portuguese: Pedir vs Pedar. So they have two words in Portuguese that are very similar. The first we use quite often. It means to ask. We definitely ask people a lot of questions so we use this verb a lot of times. Pedir means to ask and also Perguntar. Perguntar is more for information and Pedir is more for a service or favor. So when we tell people to ask God if this is right, this would be a time when we use the verb Pedir. So this lady was telling us this story about how she has a lot of faith and how she asked God, or Pediu a Deus. Then she asked me, «Élder, how do you think I got this help from god.» In my brain I knew the right answer, but just like my glory days in high school, my brain got the best of me and I switched the two verbs. Instead of saying the correct «Tu pediste a Deus» (which is that she asked God). I said «Tu pedaste Deus». The verb pedar signifies to fart. I told her «She farted to god». Definitely not want she wanted to hear or what I intended to say. I thought those stories only happened in films like «The Best Two Years», but oh no, they happen in real life.

Fatima: So way back when in Portugal, 1914, there were these three kids. They were praying and then appeared to them Mary the mother of Jesus. This happened here in Portugal. These three kids were canonized by the Catholic Church this year in May. But that is the reason why everyone hear is named Fatima. Because of Nossa Senhora de Fatima (Our lady of Fatima). In the Portuguese town called Fatima, where this occurrence took place, they have a church that people go to. A lot of people do a pilgrimage to Fatima every year because a lot of people are Catholic here. Also if you run into to anyone name Fatima, you can probably guess that they are from Portugal. Apparently every country has an our lady of something. Here it's Fatima. Interesting.

Spiritual: As I was reading the Book of Mormon during sacrament meeting I was reading in Alma 32, the great lecture on faith where Alma compares the faith to a seed and how the seed will grow. Here I learned from the spirit that this is true. Lasting conversion comes line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little. When we take the time to grow our own testimony everyday, it will become precious to us. We will value the Testimony we have because we «paid the price», we worked hard to obtain it. We will be more stable than if we were just handed knowledge. Knowledge is important. Knowledge is how we grow. But knowledge is not a testimony. Testimony is understanding, applying and faith. Knowledge turns to understanding only through time. We will be lead to the edge of what we can see. We can grow our testimony by using our faith by experimenting on what we know to learn and understand what we don't know. When should not give up because we have doubts, we always will. We live in a fallen world. We are not God and not supposed to have his knowledge right now. His thoughts are not our thoughts.  Only acting but faith trusting in the only being who can give us the knowledge is the only way we can grow our testimony to a greater understanding.

Holy moly that general conference was incredible.

Ola Familia e amigos! Espero que todo esteja bem convosco. Foi increival aqui, mais uma semana em paraíso.

Milagre de conferencia geral: Uma experiência espiritual inspiradora.  Holy moly that general conference was incredible. Every talk I listened to was really good. We only had the time to listen to the Saturday and Sunday Morning sessions and priesthood. The talks from President Uchtdorf and from President Eyring were both incredible.  I also really liked the talk from Holland that was about how the commandments are here as a vision of what we can achieve and that we shouldn't get overwhelmed by them. 

1. General Theme: Keep the commandments and fulfill your covenants. It was interesting to see that a lot of the speakers at General Conference talked about how it is important to strive to keep the commandments. It is easy to get discouraged when we hear that because we can never keep the commandments perfectly but it is possible to try really hard and that is all that heavenly father wants. Elder Holland's talk was really good guys. 
2. Exemplifying Christ-like attribute: This comes hand in hand with keeping the commandments but it is always good to reiterate. We need to try and exemplify the attributes of Christ. When we do that, we will be a lot happier, be better prepared to meet god and to have more love and charity for others because we will try to mimic what the Savior does. If we pray earnestly to have these attributes and work even harder to achieve them, we will be blessed by developing them.
3. Questions: I went to conference really different then I have in the past. I wrote down seven questions that I had. As I focused on those seven questions during general conference I was able to receive revelation about how they could be answered. It was incredible.
4. Interesting: Dallin H Oaks. He talked about the family proclamation and how it came to be. As a missionary of the Lord it is easy to see why we have the family: a proclamation to the world. Families are weakened when they don't have a mother and a father working in loving harmony to fulfill their family responsibilities. Families are to be forever, they need to be protected. It was an interesting reminder that we need to protect that.

Leonel: Ele está a progredir bem. I know that you were all wondering about the next seventy of Portugal so I thought I talk about him right now. Leonel is progressing like any elect would. He has questions that just lead to the next step in the process of conversion. He is really a great guy and wants to do what is right. He wants to know more about the Book of Mormon and the restoration.

Elder Harper: Meu filho tá progredir bem também. My new companion Elder Harper is from Oklahoma.  He played baseball and likes the Red Sox. He is about 6' 5'' and has blond hair and blue eyes. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. We need to work on his Portuguese. I am glad I have this opportunity to serve with him. 

Everything is good in the hood, until next week.

ESTOU GRAVIDO! (I'M PREGNANT!)

Transferências: Vou treinar. So this week is the end of yet another transfer. It's crazy how fast these things go by. I feel like I just barely started this one this last week but it indeed has been 6 weeks and things will be switching up. My companion Elder Nascimento is going to serve in the Algarve! WOOOO! But not just any place in the Algarve. He is going to be serving in Loulé, my second area where I served. And I got the news yesterday and I still don't believe it to this minute. I have no idea what president is thinking with this move.  He probably wants to destroy the mission of another Elder, that's the only reason why President would want me to train another missionary. So this next transfer I will be training an American, Elder Harper. I know nothing about him except that on Wednesday I need to be in the mission office to pick him up. It's going to be great. (That's why I said I am pregnant, because I am going to train. He is going to be my ''kid''. It's going to be great.)

Noticias: Vou conduzir, talvez. Also I need to be in the mission office on Friday because they want me to take out my driver's license here. That means two things: 1.These People have way too much trust in me. 2. I could drive a car. Both of which are really bad, especially the first. And kind of the second. But this is going to be interesting. People are crazy here on the roads especially in Lisboa. It's crazy. I don't know how anybody functions. 

Alma 17:2-3: Escritura bem fixe! I have been reading the Book of Mormon in English trying to finish it before the end of the year. I am in Alma right now (so I don't think that goal will be achieved) and I have really good thoughts about this goal. I read Alma 17:2-3 this week and thought about it a little bit. 

 

"2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God."

 

I have been thinking about how I can be a successful missionary. A missionary that grows and does his best. I have a lot of qualities that I want to have before I end my mission but I was stuck and a little overwhelmed on how I could achieve those goals. This scripture brought light on how I could do that. Reading the scriptures, prayer, fasting, studying and understanding the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's simple, but the Lord has promised that if this pattern is followed, when we teach we «will teach with the power and authority of God». This scripture brings a lot of desire to do my best.  

Pic

Christiano Raldo is like a god here

Espero que vocês estejam bem. Estamos animados aqui. Estamos a lutar.

Meta da missão: 75 Batismos. In our mission, we have been trying to achieve a goal that our mission president set for us in May. This goal was to help 75 people be baptized in a month. That's a pretty lofty goal. We have been trying the best we can and the closest we have come is 49 in July. We have made a lot of sacrifices. We had a Mission wide fast this last transfer where everyday one area of the mission would fast each day. So everyday of the transfer at least one area of the mission was fasting at a time. It was really cool to think about it, even if our day was really hard and nothing was happening we knew that Heavenly Father was pouring out blessings on our mission because two Elders or two Sisters were fasting for us at that exact moment. Yesterday, we also realized a fast that the entire mission participated in. It was really good. Everyone is really focused on achieving that goal.

Contexto de Portugal: Benfica e Sporting. Like any European country, Portugal likes to play soccer. They have their own soccer league that is called Liga Nos. In this league, they have a couple soccer teams that are pretty good, three to be exact. Porto (that isn't in our mission), and two teams in Lisbon called Benfica and Sporting. They have the biggest rivalry here in Portugal. People are either Benfiquistas or Sportinguistas. They have fights sometimes, and the members and investigators take these teams very seriously, so I take these teams very seriously. Famous players have played for each of these teams. Notingly for Sporting one Cristiano Raldo grew up in their academy, and now is winning a lot of golden boots? I don't know, I have never really gotten the point of chasing after balls. But now Benfica is playing in the Champions league. We will see how this goes if they make it out of group play. I still haven't chosen a team I like better here in Portugal because people literally don't talk to us if we say that we like the team that they don't like. So for now my favorite team here is the same team that the person that I am talking to likes. 

Lição em Principios de Evangelho: Como desenvolver nossos talentos: So this week, the lesson in gospel principles was how to develop talents. In this class we basically used the only example of talent that they have here in Portugal, Cristano Raldo. He is like a god here. (Talk about having no other gods before me) But there is a store in the Algarve called força Portugal that sells the brand of Benfica or of Sporting and then the only other thing they sell is the Cristiano Ronaldo Brand... lol. But back to the point we basically had a lesson about how to develop talents using the example of Cristiano Ronaldo. I just thought it was funny.  You really can't escape him.  He's every where in Portugal. But it was still a good lesson.

The book is blue - the church is true. We are teaching a young women named Yolene. She is from Angola. She has come to church two times. She is really cool. She likes to sleep. But that's alright. We are trying to help her understand the importance of the Priesthood. We talked with her about temples yesterday. The only way you can know these things are true is through reading the book of Mormon and praying to know. He will respond in his time and in his way. 

 Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

This work is the work of the Lord

Bom dia Irmãos e Irmãs, Estou tão grato para falar convosco hoje! Esta semana foi uma benção do Senhor. Trabalhamos até o pó e vimos os milagres que foram demoradas sobre nos!

Primeiro milagre: Encontramos com Leonel. The Future Seventy that we found a couple weeks ago was a little hard to get in touch with. He had a lot of meetings and it takes a while for him to drive home. We were able to meet with him once this week. It was really interesting. He had cancer in the past and to distract him from cancer, his doctor asked him to raise chickens in his house. He thought the message was interesting and he read basically half the pamphlet of the restoration the night after and finished it completely two days after. He only has one problem becoming the next Seventy of Portugal which is that he doesn't have a wife but besides that I think that he doesn't drink or smoke, just maybe coffee. He is an eleito.

Segundo milagre: Encontramos com Celia. Celia is a women that was married to a brother of a member that lives in Porto (in the north). We met her about two weeks ago while that family was here for vacation. We had been having trouble getting in touch with her but finally ran into her after the Zone Conference on Thursday. We taught her the Restoration. She thought it was interesting. She doesn't not believe in god but she doesn't explicitly believe in god if that makes sense. As we were reciting the first vision account, I felt something that I knew that those words were true. I can't count how many times I have already recited those words in Portuguese or how many hours I spent struggling to memorize those words for scripture mastery in seminary, but all those times were different than this one. This time, something clicked, information became reality and I understood the magnitude of that event for one instant. It was good. 

 

Terceiro milagre: Ensinamos Lurdes. Lurdes is an «Eleita». She was contacted on the street about a week ago. She said we could meet with her and talk about the restoration. We had trouble finding her in her house. Finally when we knocked she opened the door in the bottom. When we got up to the top, Lurdes wasn't standing there. There was this man who didn't seem to happy to discover that missionaries wanted to talk to him. Rejecting us as quickly as he could, trying to escape into the protection of his own home, we asked if he knew a Lurdes that lived in that apartment building. Reluctantly, as if it killed him to help missionaries like us, he said that she lived in the door across from him as he slammed the door. With the echo of the door still ringing loudly in our ears, we knocked on her door. Immediately, the door swooshed opened. The Light filled the stairwell which seemed too dark and dreary before. A woman was standing there. «Lurdes?» I asked. She nodded with her head and motioned that we could enter. We had been knocking on the wrong door for about a week but the Lord in his own timing in his own way made sure that Lurdes would have an opportunity to hear the message. 

This Work is the work of the Lord. I am glad to be an instrument in the Lord's hands for these two years. I wouldn't have left my family for two years if I didn't know these things were absolutely and completely true. I know that this church is the true and only church of God on the earth with the whole and complete gospel that Jesus Christ himself taught while he was here. I know this through personal revelation and through his prophets. They and I hold the priesthood authority of God. They and I are chosen representatives of Jesus Christ himself here on the earth. The Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith and is the fruit that is needed to know that Joseph was a true prophet of God. I know this through the Holy Ghost. God is my heavenly father and yours. He loves all of his children. These miracles are a manifestation of his love.  

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

The Lord puts people in your way

Bom Dia Irmãos e Irmã! Agradeço muito por este tempo para falar convosco esta semana! Foi uma semana incrível! Tivemos muitos milagres e algumas historias ingresadas. Mas em geral foi uma outra semana em paraíso.

Primeira historia ingressada: Um pastore tentou a nos converter. So two weeks ago at the end of the week, we had been talking with a lot of people in the streets. We ended up talking with this guy who was really cool and really receptive to talk to us (that was the first weird thing). He had moved into the area recently with his family. The second weird thing is that he wanted to tell us a little bit about himself in the street. So he started talking, and he was a religious person in the past.  He told us about how he found Jesus Christ and became saved and stuff like that. He really liked the Bible. Then at the end he told us why he had moved here recently. He was actually going to open up his own church here in Vale da Amoreira. Lol. Haha so we set up an appointment with him for early this past week. When we got there we explained why we were there and explained about the restoration, the great apostasy and the Book of Mormon. When we finished, he told us that he was thankful that we came and explained all these thing but that he had a different purpose in mind. He told us that he wanted to «mudar nossa mentes» or «change our minds». He then tried to bible bash with us for the next 45 minutes. He didn't do a very good job because I am still here on the mission and have more desire than ever to help other understand better their relationship with Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon.

Também tivemos Milagres: Uma mulher parou nos porque ela quer ser batizada. As we were rushing from one appointment to another yesterday, this lady that was sitting on a bench stopped us because she wanted to talk with us. When we got to her, she told us that she wanted to be baptized. She had already talked with the missionaries before and they had tried to help her to be baptized but she was sick so she couldn't. Now she is better and now she wants to be baptized. She has already gone to church for three months and she already lives the Word of Wisdom. Aguinha. It's funny how we work really hard sometimes and it seems like our work doesn't do anything and then the Lord just puts people in your way. It's incredible how he works. 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Miracles Happened

Ahoy! Como está família! Espero que vossas semana fossem boas. Nossas semana foi incrível! Uma outra semana aqui em paraíso.

This week was a little bit different than most weeks. We didn't have a lot of time to work in our area this week because of interviews that we had with President and other baptismal interviews in our area. It was a little sad but we only had about three hours everyday to work in our area. So we didn't have the greatest success this week but we tried hard. 

Milagre #1: Apesar de não trabalhando tanto em nossa area estamos a encontrar muitos eleitos que vão progredir. We didn't have much time but with the time, we did have we didn't waste! We talked with everyone  in the street and miracles happened. We found a couple people have a lot of potential to progress. 

a. Leonel: He is a man about 45 years old. He works for the phone company MEO here in Portugal and he is really cool. It was about 20h45 at night and we were getting ready to return home because we work really far away from our house, but this guy was entering his house, and we just shouted out «Ola amigo!» and he stopped and talked with us for a while. He was interested not only in our work but also in the message we have. We think that he is going to be the next Seventy of Portugal.

b. Gina: She is a women we stopped in the road while she was walking her dog. She thought I didn't know how to speak Portuguese but was impressed when I started talking with her fluently. She is really sensitive to the spirit. She started crying during our contact with her. It was interesting. She talked about the spirit that she felt when she went to fatima (a catholic worshipping site here in Portugal, I'll explain it in another email). She said that she doesn't really believe in fatima but she was touched by the faith of the other people that were there.  She could feel their dedication. I really think she will like temples. That space is holy beyond holy and she will feel the spirit really strongly.

Estudos do Scrituras: Correlação entre 3 Ne 18: 9-10, e D+C 18:10-16. There is a connection between those two passages of holy writ. The first is when Christ was talking with his apostles in the Americas. He ordained the three Nephites and explained why they would be blessed. The second is describing the joy that comes from helping souls find Christ, and his true doctrine. I am still trying to understand this completely but as a generality the eternal joy that is sweet beyond all else that is described in Lehi's dream is found when we declare repentance and baptism unto our fellow men. The worth of the soul that is saved is so great that when we are involved in the saving process and help, we will rest forever in happiness in our father's kingdom with them. 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

BOM is the keystone of our religion

Ola tudo bem, Como estão esta semana?Estou bem obrigado. Chegou aqui em mini africa (barreiro) e é bem fixe!

I don't have much time this week. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting in the new branch in Barreiro. I talked about the quote of Joseph Smith in the intro of the Book of Mormon. How the BoM is the most correct book on all of the earth, how it is the keystone of our religion, and how a man would draw closer to God by abiding by it's principles than by any other book. This book is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. God has restored his church on the earth today. Jesus is the Christ. I am his servant.

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Trasnfer to Berreiro

Ola Meus Queridos! Como Estão? Tudo tá muito fixe aqui! Só Estamos a destrutar, quemando e batizando, no sol do Algarve por mais uma semana, depois vou voltar para Lisboa.

Transferencias: Esta semana mudarei para Barreiro. So this week was transfer week. Elder Rogers is going to stay in Olhão. He is really excited! We received a call from Elder Schlofman (the couple missionaries that are responsible for the Algarve) that said we were going to move out of our house because the sisters are going to be kicked out of their house, and that we are going to live in Tavira. We thought that meant that we were going to work there too but now it seems like we will just live there until they find a new house in Olhão for Elders. Yea, the sisters aren't going to move into our house until the 26th of August. Should be fun, we have been cleaning for the past two days, woot! Also I am going to be leaving the Algarve and the scorching sun, that kills.  After 6 months here, I will be serving in Berreiro. That is an area on the southern part of the Tejo River, just across from Lisbon. 

Uma Coisa Engrasada: Carlos será batizado ali em Loulé.  So we had been teaching this guy named Carlos for about a month but then his boss stopped paying him. (This happened around the time that Cidalia got baptized). He didn't like that very much that he wasn't receiving money for his service. So he moved to Albufeira (where I served previously). For about a week we lost contact with him, waiting for him to return. Finally we gave his info to Elder Martel (My old companion who is still working there). They got in contact with him. They taught him, and marked him for baptism. Then he went dark again.  That is until Sunday when he showed up to church with a pair of clothes to change into, ready for baptism. Lol, they really wished they could have baptized him, but he was still missing some small things before he was ready.  But yeah he'll probably be baptized this next week, na boa!

Mais como o Salvador: O amor por o povo é sempre dificil durante tranderencias. It's great developing the love of the People when you are on the mission. The members are always the greatest.  They are your family away from home for the period of time you are in that area. When you come to an area, it is usually hard feeling the love right away becuase you don't know anyone.  It's kind of crazy. But by the last day, you have spent an extended period of time trying to help these people. You have exerted a lot of energy and sweated a lot, cried a lot, and sweated more. You sweat a lot on the mission. But the point is that during this time you sacrifice your whole life for them and through that sacrifice you are able to feel a small fraction of what the Savior felt for us.

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

A Day of Miracles

Ola Tudo Bem?

Esta semana foi bem fixe! Ajudamos toda gente, foi muito bom.Espero que todo mundo esteja bem. A verão está a acabar então faça muitas coisas fixes. Tá certo? Então esta semana....

Nosso Milagre do Batismo em Seixal: Não tivemos muito termpo na sexta-feira mas ainda tivemos milagres. This Friday Elder Rogers had the opportunity to return to his old area of Sexial to help his amigo Lucas get baptized. It was a really special experience. He had a lot of fun seeing his old companion and the ward members there. Unluckily, that meant that we had to leave our area for a long time. A miracle happened that Elder Lopes from Tavira had a car and was willing to drive Elder Rogers all the way to Sexial and back. So I had a division with Elder Heiner. We had to leave our area at about 6 on Friday so we did our best to work hard in the morning to do our best. We had a couple lessons, our recent convert Cidalia was able to be helped and took a big step toward salvation and our friend Ana called us randomly to tell us she had made food for us, so we had free food too! (It was awesome, a day of miracles, especially the free food part that was key). But the biggest part of this whole miracle was that I was able to sleep in one of the only houses in our mission that has air conditioning that completely saved my fast! It was just blessing from the Lord this Weekend. 

Coisas Ingresadas: Nossa irmã Ana trabalho muito mas ainda nos deixa entrar sua casa ainda quando ela tem muito sono. While I was on a division with Elder Heiner, we passed by our amigo Ana. She works a lot so she doesn't get that much sleep. The only time we can drop by her house is really late at night. So we decided to watch the restoration video with her because she has a couple questions about Joseph Smith. We turned off the lights and watched it. She must have had a really hard day. As we were watching the last part of the restoration something was kind of off. I thought to myself «hmm, I don't remember snoring to be a part of the joseph smiths first prayer». That's right she slept through the last half of the film. It was so funny.  When she woke up she was like «Aiight, not gonna lie, I mised the last half of that thing». Lol, we'll probably show it again this weekv--a d this time with the lights on.  

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Pics

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 5:12

Ola, Tudo Bem!

This we worked a lot.

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 5:12 

"I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you."

This scripture is really important. We need to rewrite our desires especially after baptism. When we make that covenant with God, we promise to obey his commandments and basically try to exemplify Christ's attributes in every way possible. Also this scripture helps us see that we need to work at learning how to hear the voice of the Lord. We are not perfect, Heavenly Father knows that. He knows that we won't obey perfectly.  He knows our weaknesses and he is perfectly patient with us. As we practice obeying the commandments of the Lord, we will grow hearing and following the voice of the lord. If we try perfectly here to learn how to obey the commandments of the Lord, we will know the voice of the Lord on the last day. We will know the voice that calls us.  We will recognize it because we have tried our hardest to learn it during this time. 

I know the church is true - that God is patient with us. He has given us leaders with spiritual revelation and keys to help us in our lives. He loves us. 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Be blunt and be bold

Miracle: Nossa amiga Cidalia chegou nas aguas de Batismo esta semana! Cidalia is a Portuguese women that we found while searching for some one else in our Area Book. She already knows the missionaries -- some of her family members are members of the church. She is a very spiritual person. She has a mission that she has received from God. She has to help people in need, that is her mission. Fine by me. Cidalia is one of the Elect. She was willing to change and she did change. With Cidalia I learned what it means to be blunt and be bold. Sometimes I would have doubts if we taught her the word of wisdom that she wouldn't let us come back but that was the adversary talking. When I heard the voice of the spirit tell me what we needed to teach or to clarify, we taught it or clarified it. There are people who are just ready to hear the gospel, and she was one of them.  We had her baptism on Friday. Elder Rogers baptized her ( was reminiscent of how I baptized Salva a couple of weeks ago). And this Sunday she received the Holy Ghost. It was amazing seeing the change in her life. I was glad to be a part of it.

 

Jejum: Neste tranferencia estamos a fazer um jejum como uma missão. So this transfer we are doing a fast as a mission where everyday one or two missionary companionships fast for the entire mission. This week it was our turn to do the fast. I was on a division with the Elders of Tavera and there we felt the pain of the fast. It was really hard. It was like we could feel the weight of the mission on our shoulders. I don't want to sound self-righteous but I felt a little bit like the Savior during that time. I was able to feel just for a couple hours what it was like for him with all of us depending on His sacrifice. It helped me learn more about the nature of the atonement. I wanted to stop a couple of times, not going to lie. We did a complete fast, no food and no water, even though we were still proselyting during that time. But I knew that the entire mission was depending on us and I didn't give up because I knew the blessings the others would receive and the miracles that we would see from it. 

 

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

''This is was what we received as revelation that we need to share with your family specifically"

Hey,

 

So this week we worked really hard.

 

Cool: Os  Sholfman's e o Aniversario de Elder Rogers. Elder and Sister Schlofman came to inspect our apartment this week. It was really fun seeing them again. They were impressed with our cleaning job that they only gave us ''kind of clean needs work'', which both Elder Rogers and I are both really proud of. (Probably because we procrastinated cleaning until the very last moment, so that was one of the bigger wins of the week this week. The other cool part was that that day was also the birthday of Elder Rogers. Happy Birthday! yoot. But the best part was that the Scholfman's took us to this Brazilian barbeque place. It was a buffet with the meet on stakes that they take around to each table and it was all you can eat! IT was the bomb. Also that night we talked with one of our amigas and she had said she would try to get us a tub of ice cream because she has a friend that works at this ice cream place. Well when she heard that it was Elder Rogers birthday, she made sure we got that tub. And it was really good ice cream! I would say that Elder Rogers had a good birthday.

Spiritual: Trabalhando com os membros. This week we shifted our focus a little bit. We are trying to stop by all the houses of the members that are active in our branch every week. We have a list of active families and we divided the list into areas and gave one half to the sisters and we took the other half. We tried to pass by all these families during the week, trying to strengthen them spiritually. So Elder Rogers and I planned really hard for the families we were going to pass by and we prayed and we practiced, revised prayed and practiced so more. Yesterday we visited two of those families and I still remember how unprepared I felt. I said a prayer in my heart that even though I am slow of speech and can't speak the language correctly that the spirit could be there and strengthen them. The first family that we visited we didn't share the scripture that we planned, we didn't talk about the stuff we had planned, we followed the spirit and what it wanted us to say. In the end we left them with an invitation to pray and read the Book of Mormon together as a family. It was amazing what happened next. The less active son who was sitting on the couch playing video games (who I thought was completely not paying attention but apparently was half listening) piped up and said ''Ya I would do that if we did it as a family''. The parents then asked us if this was the message that we were giving to all the families. ''No'' I confessed ''This is was what we received as revelation that we need to share with your family specifically''. The parents said ''This is what we need as a family, how did you guys know?'' Prayer and revelation are real. D&C 84:85, we need to plan, but in the moment we will be given the revelation that we need.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope all had a Merry Christmas... I mean Fourth of July.

This was an interesting week. Elder Moses left for Setubal on Tuesday so while I was waiting for Elder Rogers to arrive I got to spend some time with Elder Lopes and Elder Heiner in Tavira. It was fun being with them but their house has this aconditioner, oh my, it was really close to being the miracle of the week but fell a little short. Later that day after we left the comfy confines of the air conditioned casa  I got my new companion Elder Rogers.

New Companion: Elder Rogers. He will be 24 this upcoming Saturday. He has already graduated from college in business managing. He graduated from Utah State recently. He joined the Church 4 years ago. Right before his friend was leaving for a mission, he told his friend to practice teaching the lessons with him. And he was baptized the day his friend left for his mission. He likes to lift things, usually weights but other heavy object too (I am assuming). He likes to drink a lot of Whey. #Lifting #Workout #DoYouEvenLiftBro? #ComeAtMe #NotReally,IWasJoking,PleaseDon't

Miracle: This week president Tavares challenged us to be ''Usado'' or basically to be bold. So that's what I tried to do. We were teaching an Investigator Carlos. He has a problem with drinking. As we were teaching the lesson, I was trying to think of which commandment we would teach him so that he could progress the most. Immediately the Word of Wisdom came to mind, but then I thought ''if you teach the Word of Wisdom, you'll scare him away/lose him''. But I knew where that thought came from, not from the Lord. So I decided to be bold and teach about the Word of Wisdom. After we had taught him the Word of Wisdom and explained that god wants us to take care of our bodies so we can't drink, he told us, ''I don't actually like drinking.  It's a bad habit.  I do it because I am mad.''  We made plans to help him stop. I could feel the spirit testifying to me that the Word of Wisdom is really of God and also that those thoughts that I had were from God and that if I follow the spirit in my mission and later in my life, I will do the right and will be blessed. 

Merry Christmas,

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Pics - Olhao

Happy Birthday America!

Ola tudo bem!

Happy Birthday America! And Dinis got baptized!

Transfer Week: I am staying in Olhão! Wo! Hoo! Ye Haw! Aiight! Elder Moses is leaving and I am getting a new companion. His name is Elder Rogers. I Feel like maybe doing the thing from the ''Best Two Years'' when Elder Calhoon meets Elder Rogers for the first time. ''Elder Johnson, Elder Vanpelt, Elder Rogers.... Elder Rogers....  Mijn nieuwe collega...''. So ya cool.

Funny: Elder Moses and I had to go to Lisboa this week because Elder Moses had to renew his residency here in Portugal. So we had to leave our area in the Algarve and take a train and go all the way to Lisboa and stay the night there with the office Elders. Well, the office Elders were doing something important (probably), and they didn't get home until 3 o'clock in the morning. So when we got up, I didn't want to wake them up because they hadn't got much sleep, and my razor makes a lot of noise so I didn't shave. But we had to leave really early in the morning to go to do this residency thing, so by the time we got to the mission office it was already time to leave and I didn't have time to shave. We did the residency stuff pretty quickly and when they brought us back to the mission office, President Tavares was standing right there in the door way. When he saw me, he didn't say a word.  He only looked at me then rubbed my cheek with the back of his hand and said ''Elder missionaries are supposed to shave aren't they''. Oops. I had my razor in my backpack so I went to shave immediately. When I finally finished, He came over again and put his hands on the shoulders of Elder Moses and I and looked at me and then at Elder Moses and said 'I love you guys Elders'' and started to laugh.

Spiritual: This week we taught a lesson with a investigator named Cedalia. She is very spiritual. She is having trouble with some of her family members. We had given her a book of Mormon previously and she has felt the power of the book.  We taught lessons with her about the Plan of Salvation and how God has given us our families so that we can be happy and the difficulties we have are just here so we can grow. I then bore my testimony about how important my family was to me. The spirit was there testifying to me that it was true and therefore it was testifying to her too the it was also true. My family is so important to me. I love them.  They have helped me so much. Why then would I leave them for 2 years to go to a place where I won't be able to see them. Because the Book of Mormon is true. The Church is true. Jesus is the Christ, the god of Israel.

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018