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.  

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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