The Savior loves all of us

«Na missão encontra e descobrem uma país que nunca vai encontrar de novo, só por causa de o que vocês estão a fazer.» That was said to me in Amadora around Christmas time.

As a missionary, you talk to a lot of people in different circumstances with a completely different culture than you understand. This past Saturday, we has an experience that made me stand back in amazement. We ended up having 3 lessons with 3 groups of people from very different socioeconomic classes.

1.The Portuguese family: First we taught a Portuguese family that was pretty much middle class. They weren't loaded but they were blessed. They lived in a good neighborhood. They had two great kids. They are worried with the bad influences in this world and just want their children to grow up safe by way of the master and they love Jesus Christ.

2. The Immigrant workers: They were from Brazil, like us they are strangers here in Portugal trying to figure out the difference between the Portuguese culture and their own. They have left behind family and friends in search of a better life and hope they can find it here in Portugal. They are very religious and great students of the bible with a huge testimony of that holy work and love of Jesus Christ. 

3. The college student: She is from a former Portuguese colony in Africa. She is here to learn and develop a better life here. She is studying in the world famous college in évora and fights daily to have bread on the table, energy in her house and good grades in the class room. She wants to make her mark. She is not very keen on following a religion but she loves Jesus Christ.

It's interesting how in all of these people come from those groups so separated but they all have the same love for their Savior. I love my Savior too and I know that he too loves us and wants to help us.

I really like the 2 new apostles.

I really like the 2 new apostles. I was actually interviewed by Élder Soares when he came to Portugal to do the mission tour of our mission.

President Nelson is the Prophet is this church. In his talk in the Sunday Morning session, it is impossible to deny the spirit that was felt. It was incredible to hear him talk with power and authority to show that he has been chosen of God. I loved his counsel that he gave to us to learn to recognize the promptings of the holy ghost. I am glad that we have a prophet today. He leads and guides us.

The summer before I went on my mission I had the opportunity to go to BYU and I took the class ''the Living prophets''. It studies the life and teachings of the current prophets and apostles. When I was in that class, I wrote a paper about the ministry of President Nelson, then the President of the 12 apostles. In studying his talks that he has given and his life I was able to see and feel the confirmation that God has called him to be a prophet in this dispensation.

 

With this guidance that he gave us this conference to learn to recognize the promptings of the holy ghost, I have one thought. There is no better way to draw closer to the spirit than through the Book of Mormon. It was written for us today. We can learn to recognize the spirit through reading the Book of Mormon. It restores truths that we can learn intellectually from it's pages and draws a man closer to God spiritually. 

Elder Fogg

Easter Week

We found an elderly women in our area who is less active. Her name is Palmira. She was sick and in home. When we passed by her house, she let us in and asked immediately for a priesthood blessing. Generally and for a couple of months on my mission, I haven't carried around the consecrated vile of Olive oil that is needed to anoint the afflicted and give a priesthood blessing. Thankfully, I changed that habit and had my vile with me ready to administer the priesthood blessing. We didn't delay and gave her the blessing quickly promising health and recovery.

This experience made me think of a biblical story that dealt with another type of oil. The parable of the ten virgins can be found in Matt 25 which talks about 10 virgins that are waiting for the bridegroom to come. 5 of them were ready having brought extra oil to burn the other 5 not having oil were unprepared. It is important that we always be prepared to serve the Lord. We live in a world that we need to overcome. We prepare ourselves daily reading the scriptures, praying acknowledging the hand of God in our lives. This gratitude helps us have the spirit be with us and be guided by Him. We need to be ready at all times to do his work. We need to sacrifice as he did. This is Easter weekend. We can remember him and his sacrifice.

Évora is great!

Let's imagine real quick. You wake up, it's cold and you can here the sound of rain hitting a against the roof. You slowly drift into consciousness. You hadn't noticed the smell until now and the smell of humid cotton hits your nostrils. You look up at the ceiling.  Slowly you recognize that you aren't in the bunk bed that you have been sleeping in for the past 4 1/2 months. Then, you realize that you are also way closer to the ground than you are accustomed to. Look to the side and above all you see is a blond haired, blue eyed dude instead of an Asian, and that's when you start to panic. That how I have been feeling for the last week as I have been waking up here in Évora. Lol I don't panic, it's more of an exciting feeling.

Évora is great! The town is really cool. There are a lot of tourist. It's got a college too so there are some youth. It's kind of like Colonial Williamsburg and William and Mary. The entire city is encircled by a stone wall like a castle! It's so cool. And they have like 10 Catholic churches in like 5 square miles! It's insane in the membrane. The streets are only cobble stone.  There is no pavement. It's incredibly painful for my feet but who cares because it looks incredible. There are about 15 people that are active in our branch here but we have a couple of families and investigators that come regularly to church, so we have 20-25 people generally. The people here are really cool.

Elder Francis is going home a week early this transfer because of some meeting our mission president has to go to. So I will probably be here for a good long time. Elder Francis is white and from Utah. He has served in Loulé like I did, but before I did, and the Acores and another area. He likes video games and has a big family. He doesn't seem too excited to be my comp.  He seems more excited for his next one (*wink *wink *nod *nod (*cough *His wife* *cough)) Lol, the only thing better than a good joke is a well explained one. He's pretty cool and is excited to be my comp.

Transfer to Évora

We have transfers this week. There have been some real interesting changes in the mission and a real interesting change here in Amadora and for me. Elder Lee is going to stay and he is going to serve with the same missionary that trained him in his first transfer. I am gone. I will be going to an Area of Portugal that is called Évora. It's in the middle of Portugal. It's one of the biggest areas in the mission, and it's in the middle of no where. I don't know what I did to make President mad to send me to Évora but it must of been something real bad. (I joke). But Évora usually was the area of sisters until now, so it's gonna be a fun whitewash. I will be serving with Élder Francis. I talked with him at this last Zone Conference.  He said he was from Utah. It's gonna be lit.

 

After having been in Amadora for 4 and a half months, I will be leaving. There is a commercial center that is called ''Centro Commercial Babalonia'' or in English ''Babylon''. It's a really famous mall basically. It has a ton of African shops, and there are a ton of African people so it's real crowded all  of the time. We do shopping and use the internet cafés to write home. It's a real cool place and it's right next to the Amadora Train station so literally everyone knows it. I have decided that As I am leaving on the train looking through the window seeing Babalonia disappear in the distance I am going to sing ''Ye Elders of Israel''. 

''O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell; We’re going to the mountains of Évora to dwell.''

We had a rough week, Elder Lee was sick because it rained a lot. We didn't have much time to work but when we did, we were blessed immensely. 

It rained, and rained and rained some more.

It rained, and rained and rained some more.

 

Since when I arrived in Portugal I have known this country as literally a dry and dreary waste land because it's been so hot and literally no vegetation grows. I can count on my fingers and my toes the amount of times that it has rained here. It hasn't rained much. It has been few and very far between until this week. This week it rained every day in every type of way. It rained when it was cloudy, heck it rained when there weren't even clouds in the sky (that was impressive I might add, Elder Lee thinks it's because President Russell M Nelson is playing around with his new power over the weather). But it's supposed to rain for the next week too. I am excited. Others are sad and choosing to complain but I remember what it was like to walk through what seemed like heck everyday with the sun in the Algarve. I am glad that it is cloudy.

 

I am glad for the Savior and for his atonement. I Know that it is for all of us. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. With that sin we are incapable of returning to the presence of our God, for he can not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. But God is a merciful and just, he gave us his son Jesus to help us. Isaiah said ''Come now and let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool''. Christ cleans us. When we sin we feel bad but as we repent we can feel the joy that comes. As Alma the younger put it 

''Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy''

Repentance brings great joy, the most we can feel here on earth. When we help others, we feel even more joy than when we do it for ourselves. I feel that joy. Testify that it's true. 

Hand of the Lord is guiding us

''Portugal is just old people with old stuff living in old buildings.'' -Unknown

 

This week was good. We had a lot of work that we did, and we did it. It was great seeing the hand of the Lord as he has guided us here in Portugal. 

 

The importance of Members: We have been working a lot with the members recently. I was reading in Preach My Gospel this week during personal study and I read the following sentence. I think that I may have been eating cereal while I was reading. In Preach My Gospel it says ''more people are baptized and remain active in the church''. I choked on my corn flakes and chocolocos. This part really hit me. Our purpose as missionaries is to ''teach repentance and baptize converts'' and I thought to myself as I was cleaning up the corn flakes that had spilled on my desk that that would probably be the best way to fulfill that purpose. 

Here in Europe the area presidency has made a card that has three basic goals that members should do to grow in the gospel. They are

3. Find an ancestor,

2. Become Self-Sufficient temporally and spiritually and

1. Bring a Friend to Church.

As missionaries we can help a ton with bringing friends to church. We decided to bring the card with us to the members and make goals to help the members bring their friends to church. It has helped the members grow in the testimony and feel more of the spirit. Also it has helped us eat more in their houses, so it's really a win win for all. 

 

Augusto: He was baptized. He didn't smoke at all since the day he left it behind. The only trial of his faith was the baptismal suit that we had in the church. All the others were being washed because of the last baptism that happened so we only had one left that was in his size, the only problem was that it was all ripped and the zipper was broken. We had to run home and back to the church to get white pants and a shirt that he could wear. Augusto being a very large man and most of the missionaries being very skinny and scrawny the shirts they had didn't work very well. I had a shirt that fit him which goes to show where my body size is at. It is going to take a long time to get back in shape after the mission.