I hope everything is well back home. I am still alive. The shark attack really hurt this week but I think I will be good for the rest of the mission. Basically it was another week in paradise.
This week was really a roller coaster of fun, sweat and tears. It was really hot, so that's where the sweat comes in but besides being really hot and sunny we had a couple of cool experiences. The first is that we started teaching a Brazilian family in Albufeira this week. We had found them knocking doors last transfer but never passed by their house when they were home but this week they were home! They are a really humble family. We taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We didn't have a Book of Mormon we could give them in the end but they still wanted to go to church. The problem is that there aren't any buses that leave for Loule in time for them to make it to church so we had to arrange a ride for them. We called a couple of the families that live there in Albufeira but the problem is that no car had four open seats so they couldn't all go together. We split up the family and had two go with a family that lives in Albufeira and had the other two go with another family. So we arranged two families to help give them a ride and we gave them each others contacts and prayed really hard. When we called to see if the family was going to be able to make it to church, it turns out that the two families we had called went together to the house of the Brasilians to get to know them a little bit and to show them who was going to give them a ride the next day. Our members are too cool. And the Brazilian family came to church yesterday and had a great time. One funny thing is that they talked with one of the Brazilian Elders that is serving in our same Branch and they told him that they actually don't understand our Portuguese, like at all. But they still came to church which is really cool.
The other end of the spectrum is another Brazilian family we were teaching in Quarteira. We had taught the plan of Salvation to them and that first lesson was really spiritual. The spirit was strong and they asked what do I have to do to make it to the celestial kingdom. It was really cool but the second time we passed by things just got really weird and they started telling a lot of stories that got us off track and it was really hard to pull them back in to the lesson. The spirit was not there as strong. We had tried to pass by a couple times just to see how things were going but they were never home. Finally this past Saturday we were going to teach there with the Schlofman's but they called us 15 minutes beforehand and basically told us to pass by so we could take the Book of Mormon back and not pass by again. That was kind of sad but I know that as we work our hardest, doing our best, trying to be as obedient as can be, the Lord will bless us and everything will turn out all right.
I know that this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It was translated by the power of God through Joseph Smith. Through Joseph Smith, the Lord restored his church, his gospel and his priesthood. Jesus is the Christ. Through modern day revelation we can and will know what we must do to fulfill the plan our Father in Heaven has for us. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God on the Earth today. He holds all the priesthood keys pertaining to salvation. Through his direction we can have the fullness of happiness God has planned for us. I know these things are true.
Elder Fogg
Missão Portugal Lisboa
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