ANONOVO2009

Elder Lobo on Dedication Rock where Portugal was dedicated for the preaching of the restored Gospel

Elder Lobo and his famous initials -- CDL

HEY EVERYBODY!
THE TILES MADE IT!!! Hahaha That was the ultimate test of the Correio Verde system. SO AWESOME. I have heard, however, of people sending boxes of milk in those envelopes. Happy Birthday, MOM!
Happy 2009!!! It’s hard to believe it’s a whole new year. It hit me today when we picked up Elder Machado (from Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil) that it’s been FOUR YEARS since we went to Brasil.
With the new year, I bought a 2009 Moleskine diary with a day for every page, so I’ve been doing a lot better on writing consistently and getting the important things down. There are only 19 lines per page since it’s so small, but it really saves a lot of time and forces me to be succinct. I use it to regurgitate everything that happened, and I use my regular one for anything that comes to mind. I really like it so far.
On New Years Eve, we went by Carla, and she’s doing pretty well. Her work schedule has been a big stressor for her. But we just went with a scripture to share and ended up talking for an hour. We talked about a bunch of stuff, but right in the middle of the conversation I felt like I should ask her if she had any questions about anything. It definitely was the Spirit. She answered like she usually does, “No, it’s all good. I believe it all,” but then started telling us about this one time when she was at a party people told her she should drink and do bad things, but she told us that she felt so strongly from inside that she shouldn’t do it. She wasn’t sure what it was, but we helped her discover that it was the Spirit and that she can have more of the strength that comes from following the Spirit when she gets baptized and receives the Holy Ghost. It was a very important connection for her to make.
We had permission to stay up til 12, and it was ridiculous. Benfica must be full of old people, because we could hear a ton of noise in the distance, but the most we saw was a few people hanging out the window banging pots. Inexpensive noisemakers. So we got right in on it and banged pots like none other. Then we went to sleep.
New Years Day: the calmest day of the year. Everybody is all hung over and everything is closed. It was transfer day, too, and Elder Hobbs left for the Algarve and I became the “oldest” in the office. It was funny because transfer days used to be so taxing on my brain because of all the chaos, but that’s not the case anymore. It’s all just part of life. It was pouring and really foggy, too, so we gave some sisters a ride to the Sete Rios bus station on our way to the Rau’s for lunch. Feijoada (rice, beans, meat, etc.) is great, but with lentils it’s AMAZING. I need to learn how to make good lentils, but if it takes too much time, it’s probably not worth it to me right now. That night, we went to drop off beds to two houses that went from being duplas to triplas. We went to Alameda and Olivais. While trying to come back from Olivais, we ended up going north on the A1, intending to turn around. We took one exit so we could get off (because there wasn’t another exit for a while), then we took the next one because we didn’t want to go north anymore, and about five seconds later we were on the Vasco da Gama bridge, on our way to Setúbal, ACROSS THE RIVER. It took about 10 minutes to get across the bridge (no turnarounds) and then there weren’t any exits until Palmela, and once we got there, we were practically in Setúbal anyway, so we opted to pick up a bed that we were going to pick up the next day. We drove back through Almada and crossed the 25 de Abril Bridge. One night. Two Bridges. It was awesome.
My trainer went home that day, too.
Elder Barrett is practically a pro at driving stick now, except there’s still one hill that he hasn’t been able to climb, and it haunts him. It’s hilarious.
President was in the office on Monday, so we got a ton of stuff done. I’ve been working my office habits from before into the office here, and it’s been so nice to have a system that actually works in the office. People change through so often that there’s no system established for anything (how much does a 20-year-old naturally know about office work, anyway?). Plus, with the mindset of obeying mission rules, doing things that I used to do never really entered my brain, but now I’m sure that they’re good habits. For example, instead of putting all the office tasks in my missionary planner, I put them on a to-do list TAPED TO THE DESK so work will stay at work.
We taught a family night with Familia Teixeira, and we used a hot pepper to represent sin. João (13), Irmã Teixeira, and I ate it, and they started FREAKING OUT trying to cool it down. So we gave them water, which didn’t help. Then 7UP – didn’t help either. Then an orange. Nothing. Then chocolate. Nothing. Then we offered them milk, the one thing that would actually help. Instantly, it all calmed down. Then we read the first part of the “The Way” talk from conference. Christ is the ONLY way. It was cool.
Yesterday, we took inventory so I can put together an Excel inventory system that will be easy to use. It’s been a nightmare to handle supplies since the dawn of mankind.

No time. TCHAU
AMO-VOS

ELDER LOBO