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I, thankfully, still have 2 more weeks to throw myself into the Lord's service

We had Zone Conference this week. That was a sleep robbing adventure. Wow, we left the Azores at 7 or so Wednesday, and we didn't get back until midnight Thursday. Needless to say I was wrecked. Zone conference 1 - Elder Fogg 0. Elder Fogg was eliminated. We usually have our zone conferences here, and President comes with the assistants but what happened this time is that the seventy came (Paul V. Johnson). So we all had to go to Lisbon. 

It was crazy, first of all, we didn't get to Lisbon until about 10 ish and we didn't make contact with the Elders we were staying with until 11 o'clock. But better yet, we walked by a less active on the way home. (Why can't they be found in the normal hours of the day? Why do they have to hide until the dark hours of the night to come out?) Well the Elders with whom we were staying decided to stop an talk to him. Let me tell you again, it's 11 at night more like 11:15 or something because their house was not close to the train station either, and they decided to talk with him. I'm not saying «hey dude what up, it'd be cool if you'd go to church» type of thing, but no more of a «here let's sit down and have a cup of tea, *sip* *sip*, with the pinky extended»type of thing.  (I don't have any hard feelings towards them.... why would you say that?)

Somehow in the wee hours of the morning someone realized that it was actually time to sleep, so someone proposed that we all go home and sleep. I was the first one to second it! Their house was really good but they only had two fans. We were stuck in another room with out a fan. Better yet there was also a street light directly outside our window. What a blessing. Needless to say elder Fogg got no sleep that night. And in the morning we didn't eat breakfast.  The Conference was very spiritual. The spirit was talking so strong that at times I was overcome and had to close my eyes and bow my head. 

I saw every Elder from my group that went to Lisbon that is still on a mission right now. It was fun to talk with them and see how they were doing. I also saw, due to the recent merge of the missions, many other people I haven't seen since the MTC that went to Porto. It's was incredibly funny seeing them and being like «Hey it's been a while, almost 2 years... how was your mission?»

Coming home was even better. We didn't leave Lisbon until 9:00 and that means we didn't get home until midnight. The good thing is that I drove the car home because I have a license from here and the other elders had to stay in Lisbon for one more day.

Going back to Lisbon just showed me a early wake up call. It's ending. The next time I go there will be the last time as a missionary. I, thankfully, still have 2 more weeks to throw myself into the Lord's service with all my might.

Élder Fogg

Pics

Hurricane missed us

So this week was kind of hectic, I don't know why.  It always is and for some reason was again this week. We worked a lot. Alfredo and Maria came to church. We thought Tania was also going to come but she didn't. That's the third week that she's missed in a row, sadness. School started today.  Everyone was really sad that summer ended. It didn't change anything for us so I was pretty indifferent. I heard that BYU won!  Go cougs! There was apparently a hurricane coming our way that barely missed us, and I guess there's another headed for us. I've heard that it's going to miss us. It brings to mind that scripture that Satan with throw his fiery darts (well in this case his ''watery'' darts), but we're out here dodging 'em "Samuel the Lamanite" style. 

We are preparing for a mission tour of Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy. It's going to be in Lisbon, so we are going to be traveling for most of the week. I studied hardcore the gospel of Jesus Christ and some talks that the mission sent us to prepare for the meeting. They were really good. Learned a lot about the Gospel. I liked what I learned about repentance. That it's not just asking God to forgive our sins but that repentance is believing that the Savior performed the atonement and that he has the power to change us. An important part is asking forgiveness but we need to add two other important parts: 1. pleading that he will give us the strength to overcome the weaknesses we have and 2. our best efforts. When we do those two things we receive the grace of Christ which is the enabling power. Personally I have also felt that the spirit will be sent to comfort us and give us strength and reassurance that we will improve.

Élder Fogg

Mario got baptized

Hello,

This week many great things have happened. First and foremost, Mario got baptized. We felt as though he needed another week to be completely ready for baptism. When we passed by his house on Friday the day before his baptism, we asked him what he knew about all the commandments. When we asked him, he gave a response that showed he really had a complete and full understanding. At his baptism, we didn't have that many members that said that they could go. We wanted this to be a special day for him. We talked with some of Paula's Family members to see if they could come. They said that they could. At the baptism we ended up with more nonmembers than members but ehh people liked it. They said I may have been a little too forceful on the baptism but there was no Shamu splash zone, so  think I did a pretty good job.  

The other great thing is that "Saints: A standard of Truth" came out, and is it good. Holy moly, I've downloaded the audio to my pin drive and have been listening to it. Wow, I thought I knew a lot about church history. It's really good and tells the story in an interesting way. I would say that (first you should read the Book of Mormon, and second, you should read "Doctrine and Covenants" and "the Bible" and other standard works and probably the Ensign and General Conference talks and then) Saints. It's really good. 

We are helping all in coming unto Christ.  Hope all is well

Élder Fogg

Mario and Paula got married!

This week was very long and seems like eternity passed since last week. Mario and Paula got married! Holy cow that's amazing that it happened. First time on my mission that people I was teaching got married but hey that was cool. We went to the marriage ceremony and saw them sit there and have a government official read a message to them. Took a picture with them. It was interesting to see how the government tries also to protect the family. It's just that they can't protect the family in the same way a church can. With governments, it's the thoughts and best ideas of people trying to do their best, but with the church, it's not our ideas, it's revelation from God. So I thought that was interesting. The members also threw together a little party, like a reception. I'll send pictures next week.   The computer isn't working. It was really cool to see the support from the members for them.

We have been working our buns off trying to help less actives. We helped one, Alfredo, who's been less active for a couple years. He came to church earlier this year, but we decided to talk with him about going to church and the word of wisdom because he smokes. We made a plan to help him stop smoking and to help him go to church and we just passed by everyday. We had contact with him everyday and he got down to 5 cigarettes! And this week the first person I saw when I walked in the building was him! It was incredible! So fun to see when people make and keep commitments because I know that as they do what we say they will get closer to the Lord.

Élder Fogg