Escutai-vos! Escutai-vos! 9 Apr 2008

Hey everybody!

Thanks for the great emails and updates.

Congratulations to Paul on his mission call!! It's pretty nice to go someplace where people don't have all the misconceptions or prejudices.

Preston sounds crazy!!! Man, Uncle Nitchen sure does like showing pictures of him to all the other missionaries that ask "so do you have pictures of family?" You guys need to send me some more!

FELIZ ANIVERSARIO, PAI!!! Traz-me muito felicidade poder dizer que tu és o meu pai. Eu falo com as pessoas aqui que querem saber a importancia do Evangelho, e eu posso explicar a grande diferenca que O fez na tua vida e consequentamente nas vidas de teus filhos. È uma grande bênção ser teu filho.

I'm glad I got out of the election business just in time. I almost feel sorry for you guys.

Anyway,

This past week was a big week for what we jokingly call "wife points." Whenever we diligently do things like make awesome meals or walk endlessly in the heat or POURING, WINDY RAIN which is so pervasive, we rack up these said wife points. Anyway, it lightens the mood a little bit, especially when soggy pants and big coats weigh us down. But yeah, I hear that our final interview with the mission president is actually a review of our wife points, kind of like the game in Life is Beautiful. ah Estou a brincar (I'm joking)

So I'm going to take some time in each letter to go over our AWESOME investigators, because they pretty much make my life:

Cleriston! He's a 37-year-old, unmarried Brazilian who knew of the church in Brasil, then moved to Portugal. He plays piano really really well, and the Bishop would let him practice and play for sacrament meetings (He's really good - I love how great musicians seem to follow me wherever I go). He started taking English classes (before I got here), and started taking lessons after that. He is AMAZING. We taught him part of the 4th lesson yesterday (the commandments) and he was asking us what he should tell his friends at work who bother him about the church. "Should I say I'm of the church of the mormons or of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?" He's pretty much a member already, but he has trouble going to church because he works crazy hours. He went to the Priesthood Session of Conference and loved it. He's amazing.

Miguel! He's about 45, divorced, has one son, and is pretty quiet. He had been looking at LDS.org and other sites for a long time trying to learn about the church. Surprisingly, he's true-blooded Portuguese (instead of African or Brazilian). He saw a member's tithing slip in a bank institution and talked to the member to get missionaries. He's very open, free of the dominant closed-minded, prejudging attitude that is so prevalent here (especially amongst the TJ's, the Testamunhos de Jehovah, who don't like to let us say anything to them). Anyway, last week, we were going to teach the 2nd lesson about the Plan of Salvation, but it turned into an amazing hour-long discussion of the Book of Mormon and the Nephites, Lamanites, etc. and why it all matters! I was on a division with Elder Hobbs (AMAZING SENSE OF DRY HUMOR) when we actually taught the second lesson to him, and we really focused on how knowing the plan of salvation gives us an eternal perspective which is absolutely critical to accepting Christ more deeply as our Savior. Anyway, it was pretty good, and I ended up teaching most of it - which was kind of nerve-wracking. It's crazy to think that the Lord entrusts us with each other - and me, of all people. But yeah. It was incrível (I think this will be my replacement for "amazing").

Josiane - She moved from Queluz. She's 23, has had all the lessons, gone to church more than five times, but just isn't ready to be baptized yet. She has had some doubts about why revelations sometimes go back on previous ones - like Christ over the law of Moses, polygamy, etc. But really all of these questions come from a lacking of a testimony of prophets - especially that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. That's the easiest one to tangibly receive. But that comes from faith in Christ (she believed in God, but not Jesus Christ - I have no idea how). So we have to build on that rock, but she is having a hard time doing that in her life - and we can't do that for her, but we can help.

Domingas e António! I was there for their first lesson. They are from Angola, have two kids, and are so overworked. They're never home, always busy - it's kinda sad. Some people get really taken advantage of because they're so desperate. They're really humble and teachable, except for the fact that we can never get over to their house. They need to keep reading though!

Now for a recap of the week:

Last P-Day, we went to Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra. Sintra really reminds me of Gramado (in Brasil). Yeah. Google it - it's cool.

Thursday, I went on a divison with Elder Hearn in Massamá, a zone leader who is on his last transfer. We did street contacts for almost 6 hours, and we found somebody who really wanted to attend church and even THANKED us for stopping her in the street and giving her a Book of Mormon. Massamá is an awesome area. The people are really nice.

Friday was hot. I wore a short-sleeved shirt for the first time. Every time I do something like that (like the quintessential missionary things) I say "I'm a real boy!" Like when I got my clip nametag back from the office (I don't know how it got there), when I got a small proselyting bag to walk with, when I got the Lisboa Viva card (necessary to qualify for bus passes), and when I wore the short-sleeved shirt.

Sat, Sun - CONFERENCE. AWESOME. We watched a few in English, didn't get to see the Saturday Afternoon, and I watched one in Portuguese because Miguel came. It was really cool.

And then it started to POUR.

Had some good lessons with Cleriston and a few other people for the first time.

I bought an umbrella (I'm a real boy!) Everybody has them here.

I have to go. I love you all!

Tell Denise I'm really going to write her! I've made plans every week but just haven't found enough time at once!

Fiquem bem!

Elder Lobo