The people that the Lord has prepared generally aren't the same people we have in mind

Hello from Portugal,

Transfer Week! Elder Martel, a missionary I have know for a long time, is leaving Amadora! He has served here for 6 months and is now going to the Açores. The rest of us are Staying. I am staying with Elder Lee here, he will be the first companion that I will stay with for more than 6 weeks since my trainer Elder Thompson.

This past week was insane. We have been teaching a lot of people that are really close to baptism but are just missing that one little thing. This past week we did not close that gap, but people have gotten even closer. 

Sandro: He is about 16 years old. He is African and plays basketball. He lives in an area that's called Riboleira. We visited him this last week with another young man called Yuri, they seemed to like each other. He need to wake up on time. He slept through 10 alarms this past week that we set on his phone. He wants to get baptized and wants to follow God.

André: Is the only kid that has questions but his questions are really advanced. He asks stuff that is really deep doctrine like ''how did Jesus resurrect''. He has already been to church a couple times and if everything goes well this next week he should be baptized.

Kiesa: Is a reference that a less active family gave us. She is a non practicing catholic (we never talk to any of those here in Portugal.  I will say right now that that was sarcasm, most of the Catholics here that we talk to are nonpracticing). We talked with here about being baptized. She said she wants to have a new life to start this new year. We are currently helping her come to church. (The familia that gave us the reference was really surprised that she accepted to be baptized.  Goes to show- the people that the Lord has prepared generally aren't the same people we have in mind.  The Lord knows their hearts (1 Sam 16:7))

Our problem right now is finding new people. We will be working more with the members in our ward to find new people who want to talk with us.

This transfer is going to be really good. We are going to make Amadora explode. I am going to try and strengthen my testimony of the Savior and his atonement through a good study of the plan of salvation. 

Elder Fogg

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

I don't know why I received a lot of birthday emails this week. I was thinking about that when I realized that it is Martin Luther King Day today! He probably is the only person cool or important that was born today. No body else important would ever be born on this day the 15th of January after him. So happy MLK day!

Osmar: He is an African youth that is about 17 years old. He is in high school right now and is very cool. We found him using the area book. The Elders found him about two years ago, he told us that he didn't want to be baptized then so he would run away from the missionaries and avoid the topic of baptism. Now the first thing he said to us is that he wants to be baptized. We are helping him with that. He has a good friend that already goes to church that is called Olivio( he is the biggest person that I have ever seen in my life. He is like a walking wall. He plays American football). The only problem with Osmar from being baptized is that he doesn't want to follow all the commandments and that as a young man who is 17 years old, some are a little annoying. But he wants to follow god and we are helping him read and understand the Book of Mormon.

Miracles: This past week was pretty discouraging because a lot of our investigators had a lot of problems to the point where some of them just disappeared. We finished church with not having one investigator show up, it was very sad. So we started our daily planning session and we thought of all the people we knew that we could help to make a goal to be baptized. We made plans to pass by the majority of them. We said we weren't going to try to find people in potential or new investigators but that we were going to try and find 3 people that we could help make a goal to be baptized. We then went to work as hard as we could. We went so crazy as to ask a guy in the stairwell if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes! (the most effective contact that I have done in my life). We ended the day with 2 people on date. I know that the lord has a way prepared for those who have faith. We worked with faith last night  and the lord blessed us in or works that we were able to bring to pass great and mighty works.

Elder Fogg

Pics

President Monson was a prophet of God

Well I was pondering recently and I realized that, nuts, I haven't sent a photo of myself in a long time. I know you all are pretty concerned, but I just want to reassure all of you guys that I still look the same. This past week, I had my other leg amputated but besides that everything is the same. I don't know how I am going to run with two prosthetic legs but I'll make it work. The mission doesn't have enough money to buy the legs for me so I'll be walking on my hands for the next year, should be interesting.

I'm just kidding - both my legs are working just fine.  This week was really exciting. I don't know why but I think that we have found every single person in Amadora that is not married but living with another person. Basically, all of our investigators have that problem.  It's alright. We are trying to help a couple of them get married.  It should be fun.

President Monson passed away.  We found out on Wednesday. It made it pretty hard to testify that we have a living prophet. But I was reading today in the declaration 1 and 2 after the Doctrine and Covenants. Since President Monson passed away this past week, I think this quote applies to us. It was given by Wilford Woodroff.  He was talking with respect to the office of president of the church. He said that the Lord would not let anyone lead the saints in the wrong direction or to the wrong decision. I believe completely in that statement. I know that President Monson was a prophet of God but I also know that god still calls prophets and that his next prophet is still going to be a prophet also.

Elder Fogg

Happy New Year

Estimados Familiares,

 

This new year's eve was lit.  It was crazy.  The mission going into the last hours of Sunday faulted 2 baptisms to achieve our goal. So we all went to work chasing down who ever had already gone to church, who ever had been taught more than once, and anyone that would hear us. We worked our butts off. It was crazy and we ended up completing our goal.  It was really good to see how the Lord blesses those who have faith and try hard. Then, we went to bed at 11 to woke up at 11h59 to see the fireworks. In  that moment, I had a panic attack that I had less that a year left.

On other side of things, I have been studying Preach my Gospel with more rigor. It has been going well.  I have been seeing what I am doing good and what I can do even better! I have been making goals on how I can apply the stuff I learn in my life. I started out this past week studying about planning. It was really cool to see as I worked hard and pondered about the principles taught, I received revelation about how I could apply those principles in my life. The mission is really great. I feel like I am doing better than I was.

Hope this new year goes well!