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