FELIZ ANO NOVO

Hello Family,
(I found more of those white long-sleeve shirts for cheap – I’ll be fine.)
I have ten minutes. We went to do grocery shopping today and we remembered that it’s NEW YEARS EVE. There was almost nothing useful on the shelves and EVERYBODY was there.
Anyway…
We went to the Dedication Rock today with President and some missionaries that are going home. It was really cool. It was all foggy and REALLY cool. It reminded me, aside from the soil type and the kinds of trees, of the Oregon coast in the winter. It was really cool.
I’m including a picture from when Elder Cobb and I went for a hike in Sintra after we found Castelo dos Mouros closed because it was Christmas Eve. It was cool and we got a lot of really good pictures. I’ll probably send a CD or DVD again before I leave the office.
Work has been slow around this time. You would think that people would be home or at least more relaxed, but it’s completely opposite. People are all gone, people are all stressed out (in fact, right now there is a guy talking to Elder Barrett because he is freaking out about how so many other people spend New Years alone.
OK, I’ll write about this:
It’s funny to me how people define “helping” and my definition of what that means has changed drastically since getting in the office. This guy, for instance, is driving himself crazy trying to find somebody, but even he said that “everybody complains about spending the holidays alone, but nobody wants to get together.” If people don’t want the help, it doesn’t really improve their quality of life if you make a big deal and an inconvenience for everybody if they don’t want it at all. If your worrying about something for somebody, it doesn’t help them unless you make it so they don’t have to worry about it anymore.
Sorry for such a short email. Not a whole lot really happened this week aside from what I already told you about on the phone.
2009! I don’t remember the 90’s very well, so this will be the first decade I can actually remember well! CRAZY.
Happy New Year!
I love you guys!
Elder Lobo

FELIZ NATAL!!!

Christmas Turkey in Oeiras

HAZELNUT HOT CHOCOLATE
with our Portuguese Class

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
So I got the package on Tuesday! I opened it up so I could put up the nativity scene and put everything under the tree. It’s so weird not being home for Christmas! But it’s cool. Thanks for everything. Technically, I don’t know what they all are yet, but since Mom lists everything out exactly on the customs forms… Anyway, we’re really excited for Christmas – we’re going to pass every member in our area during the afternoon and give them all a card and maybe sing at them.
We had two Christmas conferences this week: one in Miratejo (across the river) and one in Oeiras. They were pretty unique conferences. The members at each of the wards volunteered to do lunch for us, and they were AMAZING. I’m so glad I could go to both. At the one across the river they had a roast and incredible desserts. At the other, it was a sit-down thing and the youth served. It was INCREDIBLE. Turkeys. Mashed potatoes. Bacalhau com natas. It was amazing. Luckily, I knew how to cut the turkey. Those were on Thursday and Friday and took the whole day. We left to the Oeiras chapel at 8:30 and went back home at 9:00. It was insane.
We had a lot of fun setting up the Christmas tree upstairs this week. It took us a while to finally find it, but we got it up after a concerted effort. I had never “put together” a Christmas tree before. It had all these metal branch things and you put them in the color-coordinated holes. It was bizarre. It’s cool. I remember staying up when I was little to stare at the lights on the tree. I can’t really do that here, but we turn the lights off early to get the effect.
Carla flipped out for some reason and we can’t get a hold of her. We talked to Angela, who lives with her, and apparently Angela is planning on moving back to Brazil, leaving the rent to Carla, so she’s in a sticky situation. She doesn’t answer the phone, we can’t get to her house because of all the locks and walls in the way. We did have a pretty cool experience, though, when we went last week. She hadn’t been answering her phone, and the place she lives has a gate that locks after 6 PM. We were going with Irmão Rau to a lesson with her, and we knew we needed a miracle of some kind to get in, so we asked for it. We got there at 8:30 after waiting a little, and the gate was shut, like it usually is at night. But I went to try the gate to go in and it opened. She wasn’t home, but that was when we talked to Angela about the whole situation. She said she wouldn’t mind having us over, but she hasn’t been answering the phone either. Paciencia.
On Sunday, Irisvaldo was in church again. He gave the talk, but his nephew ended up not coming. We had a quick lunch and then went caroling until we had to go to a stake musical fireside thing where we had been invited to participate. It was really cool. The Setúbal missionaries were really late, so there was a member who was AMAZING at the piano and played Christmas songs on the baby grand. We sang Silent Night and Joy to the World. I am so sick of Silent Night. Haha.
On Monday, it was Subway Tuesday. It’s transfer meeting. We had it on Monday because President and Sister Terry’s son Tyler was flying in on Tuesday. We went and got Subway, and TRANSFERS ARE GOING DOWN. Elder Wardenburg is set to stay in the office but as Executive Secretary. I’ll probably leave after this next transfer in February.
That night, we had to take a bunch of stuff to President at his house. It’s so funny how the magic of the mission home has completely changed. Most missionaries only are in the mission home when they get into the mission and when they go home. I’ve been there so many times. It’s funny.
Yesterday we had district meeting and a quick but good district lunch. It was amazing.
Today, we’re planning on going to Castelo dos Mouros in Sintra, and it’ll be my second time there. The weather looks pretty good today. Tonight, there’s a ward Christmas dinner, and we’re hoping that we can have Irisvaldo bring his nephew Edson. It all depends on whether they get back from work on time or not.
What else…
OH YEAH.
Last night, we took our Portuguese class to Starbucks that had just opened on the edge of our area to practice Portuguese and talk about Christmas. But only Tyler, our ward mission leader, and his wife Kristen came to class at the chapel, so we went anyway. FYI, he’s studying in Lisbon and she hasn’t really gotten settled yet. Our goal of practicing Portuguese at Starbucks was to help her feel at home and feel more comfortable here (they’re from Seattle). She had missed church a couple weeks, and with a Starbucks in our own area, we can’t let anybody from the Great Northwest feel disconnected. Everybody was pretty happy about it. It was one of those experiences that made me feel like “wow, I’m a human being again.”
Anyway, I’m out of time.

I love you guys and hope everybody has a great Christmas. Drive safely and make snowmen.

FELIZ NATAL

ELDER LOBO

PA RUM PUM PUM PUM

Elder Hobbs likes to fold things.

Caroling

Caroling

Caroling

The Bishop and Elders Lobo and Wardenburg.

Hey Everybody!
Thanks for all the emails and pictures this week!! SO MUCH COOL STUFF! Preston’s new house looks so cool!
It’s so cool that you have the lessons with Darrell at our house!!! That is perfect Preach My Gospel. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to go. It blows my mind.
I’m still waiting for the package to come, but it should be here any day now.
Christmas is eight days away! That means you get to call me! I think I’ll have you call the cell phone again, except this time it’ll be a different number.
Anyway, novidades:
We were at the Chimarrão restaurant in Colombo last week and found that Carla works there. She’s the investigator that was marked for baptism when I got into the office but ended up giving up because her work and her situation at home were keeping her from progressing much farther. But after we ran into her at Colombo, she told us that her namorado went back to Brazil and that she wanted to start taking the lessons again so she could be baptized. So she’s one commandment closer to qualifying for baptism. We met with her and had Irmão Rau last week and reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her to understand better her desire to get baptized. She says she knows it’s all true, especially the Book of Mormon and that we have a living prophet. She just has to get her work schedule changed slightly so she can come to sacrament meeting on Sundays. Basically, her work schedule is 12PM to 12 AM six days a week, and sacrament meeting on Sundays starts at 12 PM. She’s really excited to have everything in order so she can finally get baptized.
On Sunday, Irisvaldo made it to church. He’s a Brazilian less-active member who had gone through a lot of hard times with work. We had been visiting him to keep him going, and it was incredible to see him at church again. We visited him that night, and we had intended to talk about the thirteenth article of faith with him because Bispo asked him to give a talk next week. So we went over, expecting to talk about the thirteenth article of faith. I took a copy of the Joy to the World DVD (Mundo Feliz) to give to him afterwards. We got there, and his nephew Edson was there in their T0 house (T0 = one room, T1 = two rooms, etc.). Irisvaldo saw the video and suggested that we watch it, and so Edson got the DVD player and everything going (they have this bunkbed setup from IKEA that has a TV and everything attached to one of the bedposts – we were all sitting on little fold-out stools so we could all see). Anyway, we watched it, and the whole time Edson had a look of peace and amazement on his face. The DVD ended after 25 minutes, and then he asked, “so is it alright if we watch the special features?” We were all kinda shocked, and said, “Força!” So we watched all the special features. Edson had usually been a little indifferent with the lessons we had with Irisvaldo, but it’s been cool to watch him slowly be much more attentive to everything. At this visit, Irisvaldo talked a lot about how he had come to the decision to join the church, and he made it sound like church had been something on Edson’s mind. So we invited him to the ward Christmas party this Saturday and to church on Sunday to hear Irisvaldo give his talk. Perfect opportunity! It was really cool. Paciencia.
We went caroling with some ward members to a bunch of members in our area, and it was a really cool experience. I’ve been singing quarta voz (bass) and it’s hilarious. I remember in young men’s when I thought I was a tenor (because I wanted to sing the cooler parts). Not true. The other members that were singing bass ended up not coming, and I ended up being the only one. It’s funny how we set limits for ourselves. I didn’t think I could sing bass, so I never did. After having to sing a bunch of times for things on the mission, I should definitely sing bass. We sang under the huge arch in Baixa a couple weeks ago and I had to sing the melody and I lost my voice for the whole day!!! It was hilarious. We’re singing in Zone Conference this Friday, then at the ward Christmas party, then in church, then caroling again, then at a Stake thing. We’re basically on tour. It’s insane. Lá Na Judéia Onde Cristo Nasceu (#123 in the Portuguese hymnbook) is so fun to sing.
Elder Wardenburg is off crutches and is going to get an MRI here pretty soon. Elder Barrett is having a fun time learning all the jobs and stuff, and it’s been like a firehose for him. He is still not driving quite yet, but he did drive back from the parking lot in Pontinha the last time we practiced. Elder Croshaw’s ankle is doing a little better.
YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST.
AMO-VOS.

ELDER LOBO

Craze

Elder Caussé of the Q of 70.

Monday Morning Empty Colombo with mission car.

HEY EVERYBODY.
Glad you enjoyed the epistle last week. It had been quite a while since I had attempted to write in scripture voice (I guess that’s what it’s called), but I figured it was something so crazy and so detailed that why not write in the same voice as the people who wrote other crazy important things?
I hear there’s a bunch of crazy attacks against the church from the general Hollywood population because of the Prop 8 stuff. I also hear that the Catholic Church along with the evangelical churches are defending us. Weird. I heard there’s a bunch of messed up stuff on TV.
So as for the happenings this week, I went to sleep Wednesday night and basically woke up on Friday. I woke up a few times throughout Thursday, but I had a crazy fever going on like a radio station (102.1). Elder Barrett ended up being on the phone with Elder Croshaw for a while during lunch to figure out how to do all the stuff that had to be done while I was out of it. It sounds like it all went well. I’m not exactly sure what he all did, but nothing has blown up yet.
Friday we ended up doing office work until late, and then didn’t teach Portuguese class but helped President get some things ready for the zone conferences with Elder Caussé, who arrived that day.
It was really cool to have Elder Caussé here. It’s funny. Working with so many people all the time, especially President, and having so many things to do while all the big stuff is going on kind of desensitizes you to having somebody from the Seventy walking around. We did pizza and worked on the Christmas present for all the missionaries (copying and labeling the music compilation CD Sister Terry put together) while the first zone conference was going.
Saturday night was Elder Barrett’s first time practicing to drive stick, and it was pretty fun. It was hilarious having Elder Wardenburg teach him (he already taught several people to drive stick) but when it wasn’t working I would explain it again or have Elder Barrett do something that would make it click in his brain. For instance, he couldn’t really figure out what to do with the clutch while starting from a stop. So to explain the catch point, I had him start from a stop just by letting up on the clutch slowly. Anyway, we did all of this while listening to some great Christmas music. It’ll be a while before Elder Barrett is driving everywhere.
Sunday was great. We had no investigators in church and nobody else we had been working with, so we just went to Sunday School – my first time in a long time having a good lesson during the second hour of church. Gospel Principles is great, but Book of Mormon is so much more interesting.
Monday was our turn to attend Zone Conference with Elder Caussé, and it was really good. Really really good. President Terry was on fire to start off the zone conference giving a great talk about using the Spirit in the mission. It’s so true that without the Spirit, it’s completely pointless to try to do missionary work. Afterwards, Elder Caussé gave three sessions of training: one about planning, one about preparing people marked for baptism, and one about finding. It was so good to hear him tear down a lot of the dumb habits missionaries get into to just pass the time. For instance, Preach My Gospel says to have 10 contacts with people outside of normal work that are out of the ordinary every day. In our mission, we go for 20. A lot of missionaries (myself included) had in the past been counting regular contacts for these contacts. Then, instead of trying to contact people who would be likely to respond, missionaries don’t really look too hard for anybody who looks or feels like somebody who would respond to them. So, you get 20 quick rejections, say you’re “doing your part”, and then blame the Lord for not putting elect people in your path. It was very refreshing to be reminded that “fora-de-normal” contacts should just be targeted – not just talking to people who don’t have any reason to talk to you besides the fact that you talked to them first.
Elder Wardenburg’s future is still uncertain. The doctors have been saying for him to go home, but he has been on a treatment plan that seems to be having a good effect. It doesn’t look like he’ll need surgery, but it looks like he’ll need so much time to recover that it will almost be impractical. Either way, he has three more weeks allotted to stay in the office. He’s had what you would call a great attitude about the whole situation (he’s enjoying his time), but it’s not an attitude that really drives him to get a whole lot done outside. He’s a great missionary – he doesn’t give up a good opportunity to do missionary work – but he hasn’t really been seeking opportunities very much.
Elder Barrett is not really too happy at all still to be in the office – expectable. But he’s abnormally bitter about it. It’s not like he’s only confused as to why he’s in the office when he’s physically capable of being outside – he just doesn’t think he’s office material and doesn’t think he can do it. I know he can, obviously – it doesn’t take too much to do all this stuff, and it’s gotten a lot simpler since I got here. But I think his attitude has spilled over so much that he doesn’t really ask a lot of questions in order to find out what’s going on. He usually waits for me to start explaining something before he tries to understand what’s going on. I’m not one to push him to do it – he’ll figure it out on his own.
I’m going to go work on my Christmas present for everybody – I haven’t had nearly enough time nor money to buy and ship things to everybody. Expect wonderful things.
I have no idea where my extra toothbrush handle is. If you’re not going to send one for Christmas, don’t worry about it. I can always get one for Valentine’s Day or some holiday in that timeframe.
Amor.
Elder Lobo

Epistle

Cleaning up downstairs

FELIZ NATAL!!

Dear Family,
1 I write unto you an epistle, and I do it with mine own hand, wherefore I know that it is true. I do it for a wise purpose, well, not really; I figure it would enlighten your minds and brighten your countenances.
2 And it came to pass that not much happened this week in the land of office, except for an unbelievably crazy transfer day, a companionship change, a sewage backup and blowout, a day spent cleaning, a crazy Monday; needless to say, it sufficeth me to say that much craziness did go down in our lives this past week.
3 It came to pass that on the morn of transfer day, I did wake myself up to go downstairs, but did find that I was much grieved with sickness to my stomach and such. Wherefore, I did pop two pills and pressed forward, feasting upon Jello and rice. I did go down with Elder Croshaw and did prepare every needful thing for the training of our beloved greenies. It came to pass that they did enjoy much the training which they did receive from the mouths of Elder Wardenburg and me. It was most delightful.
4 But wo unto such that believeth that everything was tudo bem! For lo, I say unto you, President did lay hold upon Elder Barrett and did pronounce a tripla of financial secretaries in the office, consisting of Elder Barrett, Elder Wardenburg, and me. It sufficeth me to say that the other two of whom I have spoken did spend much time throughout transfer day being companions so the other secretaries could drop people off at airports and take care of many other such tasks. It came to pass that Elder Wardenburg needed to get X-Rays that day, so he was dropped off at one of the hospitals, the which I couldn’t find.
5 Nevertheless, the office was out of petty cash, and it was at the end of the month so all the missionaries had already wasted all of their money, so I found it expedient unto me to prepare a petty cash check like a madman, but it came to pass that President was out of the office, so it could not be signed. Needless to say, there was much to be done in the office.
6 It came to pass that I had to take some sisters to President’s house for the night because they did have no beds, and on the way, the police called our phone saying that a dear elder had accidentally brought a knife on the plane and had to go to court the next morning. And the executive secretaries did pick him up from the airport. Everything went fine with that; the knife was too small.
7 The next day, I arose once again, but found myself without strength; wherefore I did sleep like a rock until midday. Nevertheless, there was much to be done, so I sucked it up and went downstairs with Elder Barrett to show him how to do bills and reimbursements. It came to pass that we did not make it to the bank because I had a ridiculous headache and could not drive.
8 And now, I testify unto thee, when thou dost think that everything is A-OK, it probably isn’t. And how is it, you ask, that I know such things? Wherefore, I say unto you, that at approximately 3 PM on Friday, a horrible stench did fill the upstairs of the office. It came to pass that the AP’s, while leaving the office, did find liquid sewage on the floor in our office by the bathroom and all over in the chapel next door. And they did leave it there, not attending to how flipping disgusting it was. Wherefore, Elder Cobb did call a plumber according to the will of Reginaldo Cruz, and they did show up way late. They did show up at about 7 PM, from which they did commence to ask who would end up paying the bill. It came to pass that I did persuade the building manager person that he should pay the hefty bill. Nevertheless, he did murmur and complain much.
9 And it came to pass that the Desentop crew people did inflict the work of death upon the clog, doing so by means of forcing water through the sink and sewer main, and in so doing did blow a giant hole in the exposed sewer pipe located in our basement.
10 And now, it came to pass that while I was going downstairs to make some copies, President did call me asking if there was any leaking in the basement, and I did question him as I found that I could not get to the copier, saying, “PRESIDENT! CAN YOU HEAR THAT?!?!?!” It came to pass that there was A RIVER sewage coming forth from the pipe that it did fill the floor and also a giant garbage can. It was so gross.
11 Nevertheless, in this moment of panic and despair the Moldovian plumber guy did shove a t-shirt wrapped in a plastic sack into the hole, frustrating the flow of the filth.
12 And Edgar, the cleaning guy, did show up about an hour later to help us do the first cleaning. It was disgusting.
13 It sufficeth me to say that things did calm down and everything looked like it would be tudo bem. Nevertheless, I needed to do pay the landlords, so I did stay up with Elder Hobbs doing office work in our financial secretary office, apart from the filth.
14 And it came to pass that we did spend the whole next day washing the carpets over and over and over and over.
15 And we did eat out every day at Colombo because we did have no food and had no time to buy and cook food.
16 Sunday was great. We did have a giant weekly planning session, planning everything we needed to do for the week.
17 Monday had much office work along with district meeting. We had a lesson with a less active member and participated in a family night at Familia Rau.
18 And it came to pass that yesterday was spent driving around like crazy to the bank and to Lisbon to help the Executive Secretaries renew visas. And we also paid all the donos and took a sister missionary to the airport way early, even though she did miss her flight for some reason.
19 And now, I make an end of my words, saying unto all who may read my words: Wo unto such who is not prepared to scrub poop out of the carpet all day! Nevertheless, in the energy of my soul I say unto you, figuratively, work diligently all the days of thy life, scrubbing the poo out of your own garments with the blood of the Lamb, for He doth call you and is mighty to sanitize.
20 And I make an end. I am Elder Christian Lobo.
21 Love.

pizza helpsheatformcalculator.xls

HEY EVERYBODY
I don’t have much time today at all. Since 9 AM this morning, we’ve been helping out with the giant group of 14 new missionaries. We went to the airport, drove them back to the office, got pizza, hung around with them, and we just got back from taking them to the mission home. It’s now 4:18 and we have a dinner/goingawayparty for Elder Croshaw at 5:00.
It’s been crazy. Elder Croshaw is going to Cacém to be district leader, if I haven’t already mentioned that. It’s been a really good three transfers with him. It’s been really hard in the office for me with all the time sitting around and not really doing anything that captures my attention. But it’s been good, and he’s been a great friend to talk to this whole time. He’s the first companion I’ve really been able to get to know (since I was only with the others for six weeks at a time).
Elder Wardenburg, from my MTC group is coming in to be the new financial secretary. I had mixed feelings about him coming in. President told me in my interview on Monday that he was bringing him in because he hurt his ankle and it isn’t getting better. It kinda worries me because Elder Wardenburg has never given me the impression of being a very… focused missionary. But I’m sure we’ll do great. Being in the office has a very different dynamic than the MTC and the field, especially since we’re practically a quadruple here in the office because we spend so much time together. It’ll be good.
As for happenings, Elder Croshaw and I redid the computers at the mission home with the software provided by the church. So we ended up hanging out with President talking about all sorts of things while we installed all the stuff. We spent a while with Sister Terry teaching her how to use Microsoft Office 2007. It reminded me so much of doing computer stuff at home. Saturday, we went to another ward’s baptism of a Brazilian kid of about 16 years. It was really cool. I hope he stays strong. We had family night with Familia Teixeira, and we talked about Thanksgiving. We did that “pass the bowl around and say what you’re thankful for” game with them, and it was amazing. I really needed that – I feel like my “attitude of gratitude” really needs some work. With all the giant changes in life over the last year or so, I feel like a lot of the characteristics about me that I felt good about had fallen through the cracks. A lot of my gratitude and optimism has taken a big hit, not just because I got out of the habit, but because I started thinking too much about it all. I do that a lot. I don’t know what to do about the whole thinking too much that I seem to do.
We have an appointment to teach Deco’s wife tonight!!!
I’m out of time – P-day flew by.
FIQUEM BEM!
Elder Lobo

The Ghosts of Thanksgivings Past

I thought it would be fun to share memories of past Thanksgivings.... Feel free to go back in time however near or far you like, include experiences with the Murray family or your in-laws or your own family. I'll start with my top two silly memories:

1) One year in MN, I was given the task of drying the lettuce for our green salad. No problem, should be easy enough. Well, the pre-salad spinner method of drying lettuce in the Lobo household was to get a big dish towel, put the wet lettuce in the middle, close it up, go outside, and twirl the bundle around as fast as you can. The centrifugal force whisks away the water, and you are left with nice dry lettuce. Well, that's the plan anyway. Insert one very old and decrepit dishtowel into the story, and you have one very embarrassed girl, and lettuce strewn across the frozen, snowy Minnesota landscape. I went out and started swinging the dishtowel around, and ..... RIP! The old towel gave way and ripped open, and our salad was all across the front yard. Bits of it were even hanging in the leafless front bushes. I remember standing in the yard, cold without my jacket, staring blankly at the now inedible Thanksgiving salad, wondering how in the world I would explain this one to my mom. Nevermind the LDS missionaries who were there to share Thanksgiving, now salad-free, with our family. I now own a salad spinner, and this will never happen on my watch again. (hahahahahahaha)

2) I also remember the year we were working on preparing our Thanksgiving food when the power went out. That meant no dishwasher or microwave or access to the fridge. Luckily for us, our stove was gas and could be ignited with a match if necessary. Also lucky for us, it was (as usual) freezing cold outside, and we had an unheated screened porch that always doubled as a giant walk-in cooler for Thanksgiving. That was an interesting year....I remember it was a little dark. :) But fun.

Now it's your turn (YUP, you too mom!) to share your Thanksgiving stories. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving this year....I wish we could all get together!

Thanksgiving Dinner on Tuesday at President's House!

After the zone training about exercise

The transfer board right before I came into the mission

HEY EVERYBODY!
Quick things before I actually start writing:
I can only receive emails from direct family members (this includes cousins!!! Woo!).
Christmas stuff… I don’t really need anything. I broke my Sonicare toothbrush (I soaked it bleach water every once in a while, but I put way too much in one time and it ate through the button…) but all the heads are still good. I really want to get stuff for a few families here, though. I really want some help getting something incredible for Familia Rau and Familia Teixeira.
Familia Rau is amazing. Irmão (Brother) Werner Rau is in the bishopric, and his wife is inactive (but she finally sat in on family night with us this last Monday!!!! First time since I’ve been here!). They have five kids: Werner Jorge (like “Verner”), Wania (like “Vania”) (25ish, spent a little time in Utah for school), Wivian (like “Vivian”, 21, speaks great English and is a really level-headed, practical, helpful person), Willian (like “Willian”, 17, loves soccer and the computer), and Wendy (like “Wendy”, 15, kinda shy but is absolutely hilarious because of her interests… but she really likes music).
Familia Teixeira as Irmã (Sister) Ana Teixeira, a single mother in her late 40’s. She has three boys that live with her. Francisco (17) is a total troublemaker, but he can still be a good guy when he tries. André is 15, has some rough friends but still really tries to do the right thing. João is 13 and is pretty small for his age, but he’s amazing. He’s really sincere and kind, but Francisco picks on him a lot. He loves soccer to DEATH. He plays in the Sporting club, even though he’s hardcore Benfica. If anybody in this family deserves an amazing Christmas gift, it’s Irmã Teixeira.
Think of some ideas and ask me in next week’s emails about which ideas would be good. They deserve an awesome Christmas.
As for happenings, most of the work this week has been pretty typical. Except, the AP’s finally moved out.
I want to explain this a little bit. For anybody who has been through the MTC, you know that when you pack in tons of people of the same age and together and then assign one of them to lead them, it can get pretty out of hand. Either the people just go crazy disobedient or the leaders go crazy unrighteous dominion, etc. Unfortunately, there was a huge perception on our part of the AP’s doing a lot of disrespectful bossing around – in the apartment and in the office. Instead of asking how we’re doing or what’s going on, they just asked for this or that phone number or for us to drop everything and do something that didn’t need to be done right then. (I don’t want to make them sound horrible, but that’s the basic idea.). It’s been really, really sad to watch Elder Stott follow in Elder Paulson’s footsteps.
Because of all this, I’ve been learning a lot about how leadership isn’t about being responsible for other people. It’s not about forcing things to get done just so you can have your way. It’s about being somebody worth looking up to so that other people willingly follow the true principles you try to represent, thus accomplishing the purposes of those principles. It’s also been so sad to see people use the excuse of “optimism” to try to excuse the bad consequences of their bad actions.
Oh well. There are a lot of other people in this mission worth looking up to, and it’s amazing to see how big of an impact they have by doing so little more than just taking care of themselves and being generous to the people “below” them.
Peer leadership.
So Tuesday came around: TRANSFER MEETING. We went and got Subway, and came back to have Elder Croshaw say the Subway prayer. It sounds ridiculous, but it means he is leaving for sure. He’s going to go be a district leader in Cacém (He’ll get to do divisions in AMADORA!). With all of the happenings with the AP’s, he and I have talked a lot about the leaders in our lives and how they did what they did. Leadership isn’t about making things happen. It’s about serving the people so well as to take away any excuse they would have to make good choices.
Elder Barrett is coming in from the Azores to be my new companion here in the office. He has been in the mission as long as Elder Croshaw – I remember Elder Barrett from my first transfer when he was in Mem Martins – west of Cacém, which is also west of Amadora. He’s from Bellvue, Washington, and he is SO AmAZING. It’s really, really weird though. He’s in his 9th transfer, meaning that by the time he leaves the office, he’ll only have four transfers left in the mission.
Overall, though, this week has been full of ups and downs, confusions and realizations but it balances itself out. I really enjoy all your emails and I wish I had time to send direct replies and even more pictures, but it’s just how it goes.
I love you guys, and I hope everything works out well.
Até breve,
Elder Lobo
PS: how can I make rice less sticky? (I am the Rice Whisperer, after all)
1 Timothy 1:15 – This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Castanhas! (roasted chestnuts! ate some yesterday!)

Elders in Action!
At Chilis. (they have Chilis in Portugal?? Gringo! And I can only imagine "The Office" references flying around...)

Hey everybody.
Thanks for all the updates.
I got a letter from Kevin on Monday, and it was crazy (crazy awesome). Time actually does move everywhere in the world (even though it is relative). Life does go on. It really does.
So you’re all sick, huh? Maybe you got it from me. We were all pretty sick over here a few weeks ago (and President still sounds sick). If you want some crazy good soup recipes, try to find some Portuguese soups online. It’s all they eat here (even during the summer!!!)
About getting a flu shot: If I wanted to get a flu shot (which don’t really exist here anyway), I would either have to go to the hospital and wait in line all night (we had a member who was having heart troubles who spent the whole night waiting just to get into the emergency room). Do you remember when I fell down the stairs and went to the emergency room but ended up just leaving?
People just don’t get the flu here. They don’t even know what it is.
Anyway, as for updates on my side over here...
In case I haven’t mentioned it already, I’ve been teaching Portuguese classes to eight people for the last three weeks, and it’s been really fun. An American member who is taking classes at MIT Portugal (which is basically just the Portuguese government paying to have students study in Portugal) invited a bunch of people to learn Portuguese with him since we were already teaching him some stuff during English classes.
The more I teach, whether Portuguese, English, or the Gospel, the more I find that I don’t know. There’s a lot of knowledge that we as human beings act on, but I don’t think we always understand what we’re doing. My problem, though, is that I have to understand what I’m doing. I don’t know if it’s the same with all people. It’s hard to try to teach anything to somebody if I am certain that I don’t completely understand it. Either way, it’s up to them whether they apply what they learn or not.
As far as the missionary work goes, we’ve been working a ton with inactive members. We haven’t been very successful finding people using what I would call “random” techniques (knocking, street contacts). We’ve been finding a lot of people who really want to come back. We’ve been working with Familia Rodrigues, and since starting working with them two weeks ago, we’ve been over three times, given blessings to both of their kids, and worked really hard to have members involved in getting them back to church. In the end, it’s up to them, but it’s totally worth it. Getting two people back keeping their baptismal covenants is just as important as getting two new people to make baptismal covenants. The wards here need a lot of strengthening, too, and we only have four active, sealed families in our ward. The rest are single members.
Deco’s wife and daughter finally made it here to Portugal, and we’re going over tonight to help Deco help his wife (and himself) back to church. There are a lot of people who know what they need to do but just need some support to finally go do it.
Preach My Gospel talks a lot about how the Gospel blesses families. But in all reality, the Gospel blesses families so that families can bless the individuals so that they can strengthen their own families. It’s part of never being left alone for you to fend for yourself. It’s a continual process.
Elder Croshaw and I, during dinner last Friday at a KFC in Colombo (celebrating finding a new dryer because our old one died and we had been unsuccessfully air drying clothes for two weeks), had an amazing conversation about gypsies. In this analysis, we talked about the fundamental units, and how the fundamental unit of a group produces effects directly corresponding to the nature of the fundamental unit.
If you look at different societies, they all have different fundamental units. In the US, that fundamental unit is the individual. The individual makes free-market economics possible, which makes the USA possible. The individual rights to choice are protected so that individual choices and individual consequences are directly correlated to each other and are fair. This makes people responsible for themselves.
You go over here to Europe, and the fundamental unit is not considered to be the individual, but the country. You have to obey the laws and contribute to the country to receive the benefits provided by the country. This makes you responsible for everybody else around you, and everybody else around you is also responsible for you. Responsibility is placed in the hands of people who don’t receive the consequences.
Then you have the gypsies.
The fundamental unit is the community, and it’s volatile. It’s every man for himself, but they are very loyal to each other because they need each other to stay protected.
But then, in the church, we know that the fundamental unit is the family and that individuals are incomplete without it. The family provides a place where individuals can make their own decisions, being responsible for themselves. It’s a place where they can work together for their combined good, which is greater than the sum of the parts. Family members need each other. It’s a unit that combines the essential characteristics that no other organization in the world can provide. No church, nor government, nor club, nor team can do for their members what the family can. And the family can’t do anything worthwhile without the Gospel.
I’m out of time.
Obrigado por tudo o que vocês fazem!
Amo-vos!
Elder Lobo


The pictures are from Chilis a few weeks ago and from a project we're doing for the Spain MTC - they want pictures of missionary work. Elder Hobbs snapped that one.

Haberdashery

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for all the updates.

It sounds like the election was pretty decisive. It’s funny to think about how much I got sucked into trying to figure it all out before I left. I still think that it’s all a matter of choosing the lesser of two or more evils. But either way, politics is politics, and I’m just glad to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, like Elder Uchtdorf said (I think it was him… at Stake Conference at Westview. OH YEAH. What elementary school does Alexander go to? Oh, and by the way, Elder Gerald Caussé, who spoke in conference, is coming in December. We made the payment for his flights to and from the Azores.). I wish I could sit everybody down that won an election and read D&C 121:39 with them.

I’m glad to hear Jason’s job is going well. I wonder what he does that is so super-duper top secret that he can’t talk about it. Speaking of which, I saw advertised a couple new Intel processors, and it blew my mind. The Intel Atom? The Centrino 2? Crazy.

Anyway, last P-Day, we went down to Lisbon and then up to Telheiras to eat at a Chilis that opened up just over a month ago. The story about that is really funny, because there was a missionary who had a bunch of taco bell wrappers sent into him and ended up tricking the assistants into thinking there was a Taco Bell in Colombo. So when we said we were going to Chilis, they were totally convinced that it didn’t exist… so we decided to let them think what they want.

We finished up a zone conference across the river on Halloween. It’s getting pretty routine. I have a hard time getting stressed about most of the things we do now.

Saturday, we put together a big map to pass all the members in our area, and we went Saturday and Sunday passing members and doing contacts all day. It was really cool. We ended up fasting after church, so we didn’t go back until after 7 hours of being out. It was pretty cool.

Then Monday I went on a division with Elder Christensen (who has an Aunt and Uncle right by our stake center, but he’s the only member in his family) in Pontinha, which is basically right up the street from Benfica. To put it into perspective, it’s like going on a division from Tanasbourne to Westview (and Amadora would be… Streets of Tanasbourne.) It was really cool. We spent a lot of time with less-active members, taught a first lesson to a 25-year-old guy, and did a family night for a bunch of Brazilians.

The morning of the end of that division (Tuesday morning), when I got out of bed, I had one of those “stood up too fast” moments and my consciousness went away for about 5 seconds, like normal, and was fine (and still am, don’t worry). But immediately after coming back to reality, I realized that I was in the middle of a weirdo house, sleeping in a weirdo bed, with nobody else in the house but this weirdo guy (I say weirdo just to establish parallelism, he’s so cool. I love Elder Christensen.), wearing weirdo clothes. It was weird. It was like I was just thrown back into being alive again. Everything, for a little while, was new. So I came back from the division like I had just woken up from a dream. Everything doesn’t seem to be as real as I thought it was before. It’s funny, though. It’s funny to think and remember that this world is not the “real deal” – eternal life is the real deal. It’s easier to remember the real deal that you can’t see when you remember that the world you can see isn’t all it hypes itself up to be.

The pictures of are us being crazy on Halloween and of when Elder Hobbs caught me “moleskinning by the fire”. Just for the record, my PJ’s are not purple – it was his camera. I was wearing green and black. For the record.

After the time change, it got drastically colder. I’ve started wearing a sweater.

Life goes on.

LOVE TO ALL.

Elder Lobo

2 Nephi 25:26

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for all the emails and updates!

Letter writing is an interesting thing.

Thanks for the pictures! I loved that picture of the neighborhood with the trees going like crazy.

Anyway, I don’t have too much time today.

So I’m attaching pictures from P-Day last week, when we went to Sintra. We took the same train I took all the time in Amadora (since it runs through Benfica). It was a really, really cool feeling. It’s so weird to think that the majority of the last 8 months of my life has been spent within about 15 square miles. I really got a lot of my fire back to travel and see cool places.

Lisbon can really wear you down, but Sintra is a world of its own. It’s SO cool. Being on a mission here in Portugal makes it seem like I’m on a different planet anyway, but being in Sintra makes it like being on a moon of that planet.

Anyway,

The amount of time I have also somewhat corresponds with how much I have to say.

We had zone conference yesterday, and it was probably the best zone conference I have had so far.

I’ve been thinking a lot for a long time about fixing problems. Every zone conference, it’s to fix and prevent problems. Financial Secretary duties, fix and prevent problems.

But you can’t fix a problem by treating the symptoms – you have to treat the problem.

It’s like any good episode of House – the patient has a million random problems, but they all come from something like a tumor in the patient’s pinky toe.

I think sometimes we are too scared to actually fix a problem so we willingly and ignorantly settle for treating the symptoms.

President Terry talked about nourishing righteous desires in Zone Conference. The other trainings done by the assistants and zone leaders were about specific issues, like companionship unity or usage of the Area Book or whatever.

I feel like I should mention something that has been sitting on my mind for the past while.

With the name of Christian, I had people all through high school asking me how my parents could name me Christian if we’re supposedly not Christian.

“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Ne 25:26)

HOW TRUE IS THAT FOR EACH OF US??? Yeah, it's in the scriptures that sit on our shelves and on our laps in church, but man.

It’s like we assume that our testimony (whether of the Book of Mormon or fasting or whatever) implies a testimony of Christ.

SARCASM: Why talk about Christ over and over when you can learn the deepest depths of doctrine about fasting and sacrifice or kingdoms of glory or intelligences or etc.?

Do we really talk of Christ, rejoice in Christ, preach of Christ, and prophesy of Christ?

Or do we talk about our neighbor, rejoice in last weekend’s activity, preach of the Gospel according to Brother and Sister Priestcraft, or prophesy of how cool we will be in the near future?

In my opinion, if those are the kinds of things that somebody does, they don’t really deserve to be called Christians.

We have to recognize our own individual need for Christ (not humanity’s need, our own need. Why do we care if we receive salvation or not?).

We have to rely on our hope in Christ as our anchor.

We have to realize that Christ has a lot he wants of us.

We have to rely on the fact that if we don’t do what he wants us to do, it doesn’t matter how much faith we have in him.

Yes, we all have everyday lives, but they are completely and utterly worthless without Christ.

Well,

Out of time.

I hope this doesn’t sound like a massive faca letter or anything, but man.

“Remember, o man, and perish not.”

I love you all so much.

Elder Lobo

By the way, I finished up my moleskine yesterday. BUYING A NEW ONE TODAY.

Check out Megan and Jake Kent's blog (link at right) for pictures of their cute new baby! Congratulations to them!!!

Isaiah 55:2

Ministerial Certificates -- one with Pres. Hinckley and one with Pres. Monson

Sintra -- sign translation "ENTRANCE PROHIBITED TO STRANGE PEOPLE"

HEY EVERYBODY

A HUGE thanks for all the pictures and updates on how everybody is doing. I’ve been thinking a lot the last few weeks about the weekly email and such things, and it really blows my mind that it’s the only connection between me on this side of the world and you on yours.

I wish I could go through every week and respond really specifically to everybody’s stuff. I’m not really sure that I could do it all justice, so please accept my apologies for not going into great detail about many things.

I have about twenty minutes left, and seeing how I didn’t really talk about what I have been up to in the email last week, I figure it would be good to do so this week.

These last couple weeks have been pretty big for me. I’ve had a lot to think about and reflect over.

But first and foremost, we had an investigator in church for the first time in weeks. Her name is Márcia, she´s Brazilian, and she´s about 45-50 years old. We knew her from English class, and she used to come to every class (Tuesdays and Fridays) until her work schedule changed. But we invited her to a ward fireside about the Restoration, where she was very intrigued and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and talked with us for about 20 minutes after the fireside. We didn’t coerce any of it. Then, last Sunday, she showed up at church! She stayed for all three hours. The lesson in Gospel Principles was that Families Can Be Eternal. I ended up being the one to give the class. She was very curious because she has a 20-year-old daughter who she wants to come to church with her, and the lesson that family is the only unit of eternal importance really hit home with her. She asked if people who have been divorced can still get baptized, too. She’s also been reading the Book of Mormon every night, without having to be pushed and reminded into doing it. Elder Croshaw (who is still a Financial Secretary with me) and I are really hoping we can do everything we can for her, but her schedule is the biggest obstacle.

What else.

Well, right before transfers, I had my interview with President for the transfer. Since coming into the office, I had really been struggling to keep a burning motivation all the time and about everything. The stress of the financial secretary job, especially in this mission, is very high. I have had, and will forever have, very high expectations for myself, but my lack of experience with renting houses has made it very difficult to have a smooth process every time we get a new house for the missionaries. When you have four variables (us, the missionaries, the landlord, and the contract), a lot changes every time. I have been working hard to make the contract a lot better, but there have been a lot of landlords trying to GET THE MOST, and it’s been really frustrating. Our contract in the past is completely worthless and holds no weight with the law. We have been left to do this contracting without any help from the real estate people nor anybody else.

But I talked to President about all this, and how it has all just completely broken me down. The only reason that I do anything anymore is because I hope for a life afterwards that won’t have these problems. Nobody trying to GET THE MOST, nobody being tempted to do so, etc. I explained to him that my hope in Christ is the only thing I have to hold onto. Going into the interview, I knew I would tell him that, but I felt like the Gospel is supposed to bless you with a lot more than just a hope in Christ.

But if you have a hope in Christ, you don’t need anything else.

And that’s all I go on.

So lately, it’s been a lot less stressful, and it’s been so much easier to sit down and do my best with what I have, because I know that’s what the Savior wants from me. The only perfection I believe in now is not the perfection of the ideal way of doing housing contracts, but it’s in the Savior. I don’t even think an ideal world I can imagine now even compares to what Heavenly Father wants to give all of us.

What else.

Well, this weekend, all six of us in the house upstairs got massive colds, and President ended up getting it, too. Any by the way, I asked about flu shots, and people have heard of influenza, but nobody ever gets it. I’m on the other side of the crazy wide world, folks. Crazy. And on this side of the world you buy milk and honey without a reasonable price. (Oh, socialism. Lovely, lovely socialism)

I already got my ballot and sent it back. I do get a lot of politics updates from the front-page headlines of newspapers laying in the streets. Apparently there was a final debate and Obama “won” it, and apparently that led to him leading by 6% in the polls. People here are much more interested in our politics than their own.

Anyway.

Time is basically up. I don’t have that many pictures to send.

Yeah.

Até já. Amo-vos.

ELDERLOBO

The picture attached is of me with my replacement Ministerial Certificate (my actual go-home date should be Jan 22) -- I have one with Pres. Hinckley and one with Pres. Monson -- GET THE MOST!

SPECIAL EDITION: Get The Most!

HEY EVERYBODY

This will be a SPECIAL EDITION email.

GET THE MOST!

This phrase comes from a stencil graffiti Elder Hobbs and I found a few weeks ago while we were visiting Castelo São Jorge in Lisbon (picture attached). We were walking back to the Metro station and saw it on the wall, and were completely blown away by how ridiculous it seemed, but how relevant it seemed in the world. Since seeing it, we have discovered that it has incredible meaning for us as human beings, as well as for us as children of God.

But what does GET THE MOST mean?

At first, when we saw it, we attached the meaning of “make the most of every day”, as if it were some happy, motivational graffiti to keep people thinking on the bright side. But as we thought more and more, it came to fit more in line with the basic economic idea of Adam Smith (I think that was his name) that self-interest is the most beneficial for an economy. But this kind of self-interest is founded in a whole lot more than just dollar amounts.

In all reality, GET THE MOST is the counterfeit way of getting happiness. It’s best summarized as “Suck the moment you are in completely dry!” This attitude, at its extreme, is living for the moment. It doesn’t account for the aggregate benefits of all the moments combined together. It looks at life as a sum of moments that were all hopefully taken advantage of. Take advantage of now to keep yourself from missing out on getting something for nothing. This is GET THE MOST.

For example, while driving, I slowed down so somebody could have space to turn onto the street I was on (traffic was bad). In so doing, the person behind them saw that and GOT THE MOST, speeding up to fill in the tiny gap, and I had to slam on the brakes. GET THE MOST.

Another way I see it is when missionaries come into the office. We are like a mini distribution center for the missionaries, and there are a lot of things that you can get for free. So missionaries come in and ask, “which movies are free?” “The Restoration, The Lamb of God, etc.” “I’ll take one of each.” So the missionaries tell the members, and even members start coming in and asking for free movies, even though they are only free when they are going to be given to an investigator. This is GET THE MOST.

Mission trinkets (jerseys, suits, patches, bags, ties, books, etc.), in extreme abundance, are another symptom of GET THE MOST.

Another way I saw this was in some advice I got from another missionary while having a really hard time dealing with the ever-growing responsibilities of being a financial secretary. He said that I just need to forget about the bad things and enjoy the little things, and he pointed out elders in the past who loved the office because they could drive the car, they got to see the phone bill, they got to know transfer assignments early, etc. He also said to “fake it ‘til you make it”. Being in the office, apparently, is just an opportunity for me to progress, and that is all I should worry about, according to him. This is GET THE MOST.

To redefine GET THE MOST, it is sucking the most out of the moment for yourself just because you can.

Let’s look at a list of people in the scriptures who embraced GET THE MOST:

-Satan. (Even after getting kicked out of heaven, he is still trying to get as many people to follow him.)
-Laman and Lemuel. (Even after barely helping build the boat, they still decided to take advantage of a sweet cruise across the ocean, making themselves merry.)
-Judas. (Even if he knew Christ had to be crucified, Judas still wanted the silver.)

The list goes on and on.

But people who do not go about getting the most do not live for themselves and their own progress. But this, somehow, allows them aggregate progression beyond the sum of the moments. They refuse to GET THE MOST now because doing so will keep them from more valuable, lasting rewards later.

NOT GETTING THE MOST is an incredible principle to live by. It means that you sacrifice some (if not all) of what you have now for the benefits that will long outlive the moment.

To understand this better, let’s look at a list of people who were NOT GETTING THE MOST:

-Adam and Eve. (They fell to make life possible for everybody else, even though it meant sacrificing their ignorance.)
-King Benjamin. (Was the king but still served like a normal person.)
-The Three Nephites. (Chose to help God on the earth feeling the pains of the sins of the world instead of going straight into heaven.)
-Job.
-The Holy Ghost. (Doesn’t have a body now and still works like crazy for EVERYBODY IN THE WHOLE WORLD.)
-Our Savior Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. DEFININTELY NOT GETTING THE MOST. He even asked if there were any other way to do it, but he didn’t GET THE MOST by giving up. He DIDN’T GET THE MOST so we all could have the chance to GET THE MOST in the end.
-And my favorite example: Christ being tempted by Satan while fasting in the desert. (Come on, man, you’re the Son of God! Wouldn’t it be flippin’ sweet to turn this rock into bread?)

With all this, let us all follow Christ’s perfect example of NOT GETTING THE MOST. I know that as I have tried so hard to live by this principle, I maintain the eternal perspective much better, and I love the Savior so, so much more.

If we go about truly NOT GETTING THE MOST, we will avoid the pride cycles we find in the Book of Mormon. We will avoid the seemingly harmless indulgences in this life to find true, everlasting happiness in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father. I know this is true.

Nothing is worthwhile without Christ. If we could satisfy ourselves with this world, we would have no need for the world to come.

I hope you all enjoyed this along with the original GET THE MOST graffiti picture.

I love you all so much.

Elder Lobo

Singing by the choir

Well,

Hey everybody!

Thanks for all the great emails this week. I really enjoyed reading them all. I got a letter from Brother Larimer in the mail (WOO! MAIL), too, and I’m hoping I have enough time to write back today (I only have about 35 minutes left in the P-Day).

Darrell sounds so awesome! Keep me posted!

Another week of incredible awesomeness to report.

Conference was SO COOL. It was incredible. Elder Cobridge’s talk blew my mind. I was so focused during his talk that I was just… completely sucked in. Elder Croshaw and I had been talking about a lot of the things they talked about throughout the couple weeks before conference: how pointless the world is without the Savior, how confidence and hope have to be in concrete things besides your own abilities, and a bunch of other things. Elder Uchtdorf’s talk about hope was great. Elder Holland’s talk really struck me that even if there were only two human beings in the whole universe, our Heavenly Father would still love them enough to provide everything they would need to return to Him. So COOL.

We had Saturday morning at 5 PM on Saturday, and then Priesthood rebroadcasted Sunday Morning, so four sessions of conference on Sunday. It was incredible. I can’t wait to go watch it again in person.

And did anybody else notice that Andrew Allen (from the Skyline Ward) was on a massive close-up while the MTC choir was singing during Priesthood Session?? I jumped out of my chair when I saw him. Where is he going??

Basically, Conference envelops everything I could possibly want to talk about this week, except for transfer meeting, which was yesterday.

Today for P-Day, Elder Croshaw and I went to Baixa in Lisbon to get him a suit. We went around a few stores, and at a store called Zara (where I got my 6-month tie) we found INCREDIBLE SUITS for 150 € total (about $210). We found some really ridiculously cool suits that I would try to find an excuse to buy for after the mission. There was one I really, really, really liked, and tried really hard to rationalize buying it right now. I still haven't spent the birthday money on anything, etc. It was a dark-brown, striped (but the stripes weren’t pinstripes – it looked like the fabric was woven in alternating directions), two-button suit with the European cut, so it didn’t look like a giant box with buttons. I’m kinda bummed that I bought two American suits before I came here. Anyway, I definitely want to get a suit like that for afterwards (because there is no way I will find brown shoes that fit me anywhere here). It was a really fun P-Day today.

Transfer meeting yesterday.

We weren’t in it, obviously – we just got Subway for everybody. But the striking news is that missionary files were retrieved to review for the financial secretary spot, and Elder Croshaw’s card is still there right next to mine (I caught a glance when I was talking to President yesterday). This means that it is highly probable that Elder Croshaw is STAYING. ANOTHER. IN THE OFFICE. I feel so sorry for him. Hahaha. Lift where you stand, I guess. The last person to stay for five transfers in the office only did so because his new companion had to go home, so he spent one extra transfer in the middle of his stay as the lone financial secretary, in a tripla with the other office elders.

Short email this week. Sorry.

O tempo passa a voar! (Time flies!)

Amo-vos!

ELDERLOBO

Stars

[The office tourist attraction mentioned before.]

HEY EVERYBODY!

I’m glad to hear so much good stuff is going on.

Is Jason going to leave behind the dreaded green badge at Intel?

I guess the rearranging of the ward boundaries was inevitable. I’m kinda bummed that President Weight and everybody won’t be in our ward anymore. It had been quite a while without a change, though. The wards here in Portugal are combining like crazy. The branches had been growing so much that whenever there were over about 100 members in a branch they were split. Amadora and Queluz joined when I was there, and now Benfica and Odivelas are supposed to be joined pretty soon.

YEAH! Accompanied lesson! I don’t know if having members help in the work helps there as much as it does here, but it is SO important! I’m so glad to hear you had a lesson at home.

Kevin is back already! Crazy. It doesn’t seem unbelievable, like it did before. I remember how weird it was for Tyson Frodsham to come back – it seemed that when people leave on missions that they are never going to come back. But after watching people go back home from here, it doesn’t seem like that farfetched of an idea.

So today, for P-Day, we cleaned up the plants and everything front of the office. By “plants” I mean five little palm bushes, a ridiculously huge palm tree, and a bunch of other bushes that had all never been pruned. [See the first photo above!] Luckily, though, Ariana had taught me how to prune bushes, and after four hours, we took care of it all. President Terry worked with us, too, which was awesome. We have a general authority coming this month for a mission tour. It was a lot of fun and great exercise.

Anyway, as for happenings during the week, it all funnels down into last night.

I knew last week when I wrote that email that I was being ridiculous about stress and everything. I knew that all the stress and frustration with everything was just completely unnecessary and wasn’t even worth my time.

I had really been going downhill until Saturday night when I got sick (something from a member, I think), and spend Sunday inside with a lot of time to think things out. I wasn’t understanding the value of things. I was looking at life and the world and just seeing a lot of futility and nothingness because of people. People seem to ruin everything. We don’t understand each other, we are offended so easily, we forget the important things, etc. I had just finished reading Helaman and 3 Nephi this last week, and all I saw was the nothingness of man (Hel 12) and how stupid it was that Christ had to be so specific about what to call the church. Then, 4 Nephi, after all that, it doesn’t take that long until everybody forgets about what really matters and it all goes to chaos again. It just seemed like people were a big waste of time.

And we arrive at last night.

So last night, I was kinda fed up with how crazy I was going, and I knew I was being ridiculous. So I went out and sat in our 8th floor kitchen window, overlooking the Benfica stadium, Monsanto, and a ton of buildings. There is no ground visible from our window – just buildings and people. I looked at them so frustrated with how bitter and impatient they are with each other and how it makes it fruitless to try to be kind and patient with them. But then I did something I hadn’t done since getting in Portugal – I looked up at the stars.

It caught me off guard. When I looked up, I couldn’t see the world anymore. The whole time here, I had been driving myself crazy trying to help people all around me. There were (and still are) tons of problems all around, waiting to be solved, and when they do get solved, people don’t stick to the solutions, and it all goes back to how it was before. Frustrating, isn't it?

I think I understand a little bit better now why Moses, Nephi, and even Christ went up mountains to commune with God. When you’re at ground level and try to look up, you still see all the people and buildings surrounding you. It’s like there’s no escape. But when you get above it all and look up, they’re not there, and you see that there is so much more than just us in this universe.

I was sitting there, and instantly after realizing I was indeed looking at the stars, I thought of Switchfoot (the song “Stars”). Since everybody else wasn’t in the kitchen, I started singing it to myself, playing the rhythm on my leg and the air guitar, trying to remember the words (I’m not very good with the words of songs). It was awesome. The music I listened to back home had this kind of effect for me. I moved onto singing “Oh! Gravity”, which basically says, “why can’t we seem to keep it together?” Then I moved onto “Meant to Live” and it all made sense.

Despite all the stupidity and frailties in the world, and all our annoying shortcomings, we were meant to live for so much more than just arguments and inability to make our dreams come true.

I knew, on paper, the Plan of Salvation, but KNOWING is a completely different thing. Knowing something can be very passing. It can come and go. But one thing I can cling to is that no matter how little I understand or how annoyed I get with the world, I know the purpose of it all is so much more than itself.

Maybe it was a little apostate to sing (and rock out to) Switchfoot to myself, but I don’t think so.

But either way, the best part is that we were meant to live for a whole lot more than just being born, struggling to learn how to live, and then dying long after the chance to really apply what you learned. For me, it’s like being a financial secretary – I don’t learn my job to do it well, I learn it well so that the person I have to teach (my “office child”) can do it well. Is that fleeting and pointless? In and of itself, yes, but it’s all meant for so much more than that. I don’t have to know nor understand the value of it all to believe there is so much more beyond the thing itself.

I had that before the mission, and that quickly faded after leaving. I got so focused on all the things around me and I was supposed to be doing and forgot how it’s all meant for so much more than just itself. The mission isn’t just to bring people into the church – there is so much more.

I think this kind of attitude accounts for the uncertainty that I was hating before. I was so annoyed with how confident people were in their own knowledge – and I couldn’t find anything to balance that out until last night, when I found that I could be confident in something I didn’t understand. Confidence has always been something I have been very reluctant to have, and even when I had it, I was reluctant to use it. I still am, to a certain extent, but I think this kind of confidence in something that overshadows all the fallacies of nature is the best I have found yet.

Moroni 7:20-22:
How is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing? And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing. For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.

You don’t need to understand why eternal life is desirable if you know that it’s definitely better than anything the world can offer.

TIME’S UP

I LOVE YOU ALL

ELDERLOBO