Finally in Portugal

Olá! Tudo Bem?

 

This week was a little interesting. This week was the longest week of my life. I´m not in Utah anymore which is fun (I´m in Portugal). We left the MTC at 3 am on Monday. We flew from Salt Lake City to Portland to Amsterdam to Lisbon. We didn´t get to Lisbon until 3 pm on Tuesday. It was weird to get on the plane in Salt Lake City where it was around freezing and getting of the plane in Portugal where it was 60 and sunny. Looks like we´re not going to have a white Christmas here. 

 

The language we were taught in the MTC is not the same as the language here. We were in the airport and I was trying to sleep and I woke up for a second. I heard people speaking what I thought was some sort of gibberish until I heard one Portuguese word I knew. When we talk to people here or other missionaries, I have no idea what other people are saying. Also missionaries are not allowed to speak any language besides Portuguese so I am not really saying anything these days.

 

We were picked up by President and Sister Tavares and a couple other missionaries at the airport. We had a dinner with the mission president and spent the night at the mission home. The next day they took us to the mission office where we met our companions. I am companions with Elder Thompson.  He´s from Indiana and he is tall. We are working in Odivelas. There is another companionship in our apartment. Elder Harker and Elder Welch are working with us in our area. Elder Thomspon and I are White Washing our area. (White Washing is when neither missionary has experience working prior to the transfer). We talk to a lot of people on the street, knock a lot of doors and don´t teach a lot of lessons. We have very little ground work done for us so we have to find people on our own.

Missionaries who have returned from this mission previously have compared the Portuguese people to eggs. They have a hard shell but when you break through the shell they are really good people. They are really hard eggs. 

 

Last night the two Lisbon soccer teams (Benfica and Sporting) played each other so there was nobody on the street to talk to. It was a ghost town (people like soccer here). But one of our investigators came to church, he´s super fiche. He´s from Brazil. I had to bare my testimony in church this week (keep in mind I know no Portuguese). The only things I could say were the only things that got me through the week. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. I know that Jesus is the savoir and redeemer of the world. The work I´m doing is the work that he would be doing. 

 

Elder Fogg