This is the longest I have been away from Portland at one time

Bom anooooo
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! FROM ALL OF US TO YOU! WE WISH IT WERE OUR BIRTHDAY SO WE COULD PARTY TOO! HEY!
Yeah… The dictionary. Didn’t want to throw it away and didn’t mind paying 1.75ish to have it sent home! Have fun.
This week was pretty crazy. The greenies arrived and we had a transfer day combined with zone leader council day, meaning that it was double duty. We finished all that up at about 10 AM, then we had to do office things and help missionaries with their concerns about transfers and supplies and all that stuff. A senior missionary couple (Casal Parker) came in to give us a bill for some car maintenance, so we went and added it to the payments we were about to do. I had told them that it would be most convenient for them to have them just bill the office. So we went and paid the bill. We were running really low on paper. So I went with Elder Wardenburg to get paper. Then we got a call from Casal Parker saying that they had already paid the car bill. Trouble. Elder Barrett handled the pizza getting with Elder Cobb. I sent bank confirmations and called people trying to get the money back, and Elder Parker is going to be working with the people up there to get the money back.
I got a call that night from a member about a division with members that we had apparently committed to (I never remember hearing about any of it) and so I talked to the zone leaders and never heard anything about it either. I didn’t think it was a bad idea, so we decided to call some members to have them go with us on a big division (duplas of one member and one missionary). Because it was totally unplanned for, we only had two missionaries free because two had to stay for English class, but we tried to get some appointments for the next day, but nobody answered their phones.
The next day, I worked on the financial secretary guide for a few hours while Elder Barrett did all the random little things that we do during the day. We passed by a member we had talked to the week before, and from talking to her the first time, we thought she was active and that we just didn’t remember who she was. But we went over in the middle of the day to find that we had never met her before and that she hadn’t been coming to church for months, but she still has a strong testimony. She goes up to Tomar (2 hours north of here) for the weekends to visit her mother, so we gave her the address of the chapel in Tomar. She even said she would plan to come to church here next week.
We had that division with the members, and I went with one who didn’t have a car, so I drove, and we visited two members: Dulcinaide and Deco. Dulcinaide takes care of an old woman, Mariana, and so we taught a first lesson and also about eternal families. She had already read the Book of Mormon doesn’t doubt that it’s true, but thinks she’s too old to do anything about it. After that, we went to Deco’s house and Jorge did an amazing job motivating him to come to church on Sundays. Deco really likes to talk and doesn’t do very much listening when it’s just us, but with somebody who was older than him and had been through much harder times than he had, it was really good for both of them.
On Saturday, we went in the morning to help Irmã Miquelina drop off donated clothes from the ward to a place in our area. We packed our car completely full of clothes. Elder Barrett even had bags on his lap. We found our way over to it (Miquelina gave me directions by road names, and when I showed her the map I had, she laughed because instead of having the names of the streets it had the names of the members, so she gave me directions based on where members lived).
For lunch, we made the most amazing quesadillas I have ever had in my life. We’ve started eating all at the table. Before, we only had three chairs in the kitchen, and so you’d have to eat in the other room on the couch or something. So we stuck a chair between the wall and the table and just pull the table out when we eat, and it’s been really good. It’s a really great thing to finally have a civilized meal on a consistent basis.
Then, Elder Parker came down from Caldas da Rainha (about an 1.5 hours north) to change the oil in all the cars. However, the parts person sold him the wrong parts, so Elder Wardenburg and I went on a quest (on a Saturday) to find the right filters. We went to your typical small socialist establishment, and they only had parts for like… 3 different cars. We went to a larger business. Closed on Saturdays. So we went to the one in El Corte Ingles, a large commercial establishment, and the Precision Auto there doesn’t sell parts. Then we went to the Opel dealership in our area, and they were CLOSED. ON A SATURDAY. SATURDAYYYYY. I don’t know if it’s just Portugal’s economy or Europe’s economy, but I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS PLACE STILL EXISTS SOMETIMES! Patience.
Sunday. We had Ward Conference. We taught Gospel Principles about Charity in English for Tyler and Kristen, and it was pretty good. It’s been an interesting subject of thought for me to think about why “Charity Never Faileth.” Then, in the middle of Sacrament Meeting, we got an urgent message from the executive secretaries, so I went and called them. They had locked themselves out of the office. After sacrament meeting, we drove 15 minutes back, unlocked it, got their keys, then drove 15 minutes back to our lunch appointment. We had 12 people at one tiny table. It was awesome. After lunch, the executives locked themselves out AGAIN. So we went back. Again. Went to a DINNER APPOINTMENT. TWO MEALS IN ONE DAY. UNHEARD OF! We passed Stelvio, who was finally home and was really glad to see us.
Then Monday was a wonderful day.
A landlord called from a house that we are leaving at the end of the month, and he said that there was a ton of stuff broken and that we hadn’t paid him for January, etc. He wanted to come pick me up and take me to the house so he could show me all the broken stuff. This was the same landlord that came into the office during the poo flood to complain about utilities and walked all over in the stuff like it wasn’t even there. So I talked to the Elders there and President and decided to go there and visit the house. I found out when I got there that the things he said were completely broken (oven, fridge, toilet, and television) weren’t, and the oven door was dirty on the inside of the glass (which I had the elders wipe off… it was hilarious when he showed it to me… “E o fogão tá completemente estragado… ehhhhh estava.”), the freezer drawer was cracked (he had broken one himself but fixed it with tape and he blamed us for both), the toilet was in a bathroom that had been locked since they moved in, and the television was 10 years old. He wanted us to replace everything. He was completely unreasonable, didn’t listen, and was extremely rude and self-contradicting. Then, after he left, I found out that the utilities overages he complained about during the poo flood were from when HE used the missionaries’ washing machine and bathroom while they were out working.
The bottom line, though, is that we could fight this and be completely right in the end, but because we represent the Church, we’ll probably just cave and avoid the fight. If I weren’t wearing the nametag, I could just let the storm blow over, but I can’t let there even BE a storm.
Then yesterday. Zone Conference.
Then this morning, we went to the bank to arrange a proof of payment for this guy to show that we paid him the rent for January. We got there, and because we did the payment online in a group payment, they couldn’t provide us with a valid proof of payment for each of the individual payments. (I’m not risking the human error of entering 58 bank numbers and amounts by hand every month.) Unbelievable. There is no “valid” way for us to prove to this guy that we paid him!
CAVEMAN STATUS.
I remember you asking during the phone call about what we do in the office, and this whole story is the epitome of why I don’t really like talking about it.
Anyway, I love you guys and I thank everybody for sending me emails and letters, and I guess this is where I’ll give a shoutout to Missy and Brother Donithorne for their extraordinary extraordinariness.
I love you all so much, and I’m so thankful for all of your prayers and love.
Beijinhos,
Elder Lobo


Jardim Alcanteira

25 de Abril Sunset Crew