Persistence

Bom dia, everybody

Well, I'm working on my picture DVD's right now, so I'm going to be jumping back and forth, so I apologize if I'm any more incoherent than usual.

Thanks for the news from everybody. It's cool to hear that things are going well and that everything that isn't going well is at least going.

Well, we've been working pretty closely with a couple familes. Delfim's kids understand what we teach pretty quickly and have incredible questions. It's amazing what things kids understand that adults seem to forget. It's really cool to see the Gospel take place in peoples' lives. Like Christ said, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. I'm not much of a breadmaker, but what I understand from that is that the quantity isn't as important as actually having it. Sicknesses have symptoms, but good things also have symptoms, too. When you can see people relax and pay more attention to each other, it's a good sign.

We've been persistent with a less-active sister who has been having a lot of turbulence in her life. We were going to go visit a hilarious guy we met on the street who ended up not being home (I didn't find it hilarious, but life goes on), but then we decided to go back to where we came to visit this Maria Mendes. We found her and her 9-year-old son at home, and right away, I could tell something was wrong. You would have to be pretty dense to not realize something was wrong: her son was on the couch crying and her face was not a happy one. After a while talking with her, she had explained in wonderful detail her problem with her ex-husband and how it was affecting her son more than her. I wanted to talk to him, he and I walked 7 feet over into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I tried to talk to him, but it wasn't working. I then realized, once again, "why in the world am I trying to convince him to be happy when I can just make him happy myself?" So, we played with a ball and took goofy pictures on the laptop (provided by the school) and realized that everything would be OK.

I think I've gone through most of my mission trying to help people with words.

Anyway, it's been interesting lately. We're planning a lot of different things to get people to give what we have a shot. We've been focusing a lot on the practical uses of the Book of Mormon, basically that part that says, "If you don't believe me, believe in Christ, and if you believe in Christ, you'll believe me." If somebody reads it with the intent of reading the whole book, there is no way they'll regret it.

Well, I'm gonna go.

Love to all and to all a wonderful week

Elder Lobo

Conferencetasticness

Elder Hatch and I with a big ol cruise ship

Ad at a bus stop - "thousands of clotheslines with underwear that drips like a fiend"

Hey everybody!

Thanks a ton for the emails and adjusting to the Monday P-day. It hasn't really been a huge adjustment, but this last week has been kinda crazy. We had zone conference on Tuesday and then General Conference this weekend.

General conference was SO GOOD. Holy cow. We watched the Saturday morning session live at 5 PM here, and that one was so good I didn't see how it could get any better. Elder Bednar said some of the same things he told us -- about consistency and integrity. He even told us about that painting in his office. I absolutely loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about charity, since the last few zone conferences have left my head spinning. The thing I liked the most that he said was that "love is the measure of our faith". Later on, with Elder Oak's talk basically about how God doesn't look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, it was good to remember what Elder Uchtdorf said, that of all the shoulds and should nots, if we focus on love, everything else will fall into place. Sometimes it's unclear to me whether it matters more to do something with a bad attitude or to maintain a good attitude and be OK with wherever that leads you. If I had heard the same things last year, I think I would be completely baffled and confused, but now I have just a little bit more experience with this whole "life" thing that I can see my way through the ideology down to the reality of what they were talking about. I'm still sorting through it in my head.

This conference came at a good time for me. There's been a big conflict in my brain between doing what I think is right and doing what others tell me to be right. There's also another big conflict in my brain between doing "my best" and "not running faster than I have strength". Over the last year, it's woken me up a lot inside to think for myself, and it seems like most of this kind of discussion is a semantic waste of time between oversensitive consciences. There's a lot more to be done than there is to be said, but how we feel about what we do can weigh just as heavily on our minds as the results of our actions.

I really liked Elder Christofferson's talk, as well. Merely wanting to do something isn't entirely sound rationale to do it. But still, that depends on how you define "want": I think he was talking about something like, "merely [being capable of enjoying] something isn't entirely sound rationale to do it. Having a partial understanding of our own desires confuses us.

A lot of the doctrinal debate and discussion we have needs better-defined terms. We throw around a lot of simple words that have a completely different meanings to different people.

In comparison to my experiences with previous conferences, this one was really good, and it's informing me sufficiently to help me make decisions. Before, it was like high school -- just sucking in the information to turn it back on the teacher at the test to show I knew what was going on. But, like President Monson said, learning is not just to "pour information into our minds". It's not enough to have awareness of Gospel principles. Awareness is only half of it. It's pretty easy to be like that one octopus in the Nature "Sea of Cortez" documentary I absolutely LOVED, "He's bitten off more than he can chew." It doesn't matter how much of the Gospel you can stuff into your face if you can't chew it.

And HOW ABOUT THAT ELDER HOLLAND??? I absolutely LOVED that talk.

Could somebody send me the talks in English on an MP3 cd (they should all fit on one CD) Making the CD as an MP3 CD is different than making a regular CD -- You can fit the whole conference on one CD instead of seven. Thanks a ton.

I hope everything goes well with everybody and that Dad has fun making COMPUTER TAQUITOS! Hahahaha

Oh yeah, "whitewashing" is when both companions are new to the area.


OUT OF TIME

LOVE YOU
CHURCH IS TRUE

ELDER LOBO

SURPRISE!!!

Hey everybody!

Surprise! P-day is now Monday! Yep. We found out last week after P-Day. With all the changes that have been going on, we had been joking that the only thing left to change was P-day, but I guess the joke's on us!

Anyway,

This week has been pretty decent, all in all. With starting the area from scratch, we've been visiting all the members we can find, and we've started visiting one of the families pretty frequently. The father, Delfim, is a member, but the rest of the family isn't. We went by on Friday and made cheesecake for them, and it's really opened them up. It's pretty funny -- I thought cheesecake would be something like "bolo de queijo" or something like that, but nope, it's "cheesecake" (pronounced like "sheez-KEK". weird.).

I don't have time to send pictures right now -- this internet café we're using is taking a little getting used to. There are only four computers, and I have about 10 minutes left.

It's pretty cool to see Preston going to town on those shelves. I've still got my IKEA catalog that I look through every once in a while.

We're not relly sure what we're going to do for P-day today. I've already seen everything in my DK Lisbon tourist guide. We were going to go walk on the aqueduct today, but we found out that you can't walk on it unless escorted because of some crazy murderer in 1853 who would throw people off. So we're loking for ideas, still.

In going by members on our ward list, we've only found two so far that have died, only a few who have moved, and surprisingly a lot at home. In most of my other wards, lots of people had either moved or died.

OH, I remembered this a few weeks ago, but when I applied for my Portuguese drivers License, they took my Oregon one from me. Is it possible for you to go to the DMV and request a copy without me being there, or do I have to do that when I get back? Does it take a long time? I don't remember if the government is as unbelievably slow there as it is here. (I still haven't actually received my license yet, and I applied for it a year ago.)

Anyway, I'm out of time. I'll go on a quest for a better internet café when I get the chance.

Tchauzinhos

Elder Lobo

Hey everybody!

I don't have a whole ton of time this time, but I can send pictures, so according to that saying, I am sending you an extra 2000 words in attachment.

Thanks for the news! The news about the BYU - Florida State game wasn't too surprising, but oh well. 7 games against high school football teams later and we might have another good game to watch at the end of the year.

The adjustment to the new area has been a little difficult. We live 20-30 minutes away from the ward boundaries. We're basically starting from scratch, except that I know some of the members and how to get around. We visited a part-member family that hasn't been to church in a while, and it was pretty interesting. They have two kids, and I spent most of my time keeping them busy so we could talk to their dad. I usually carry some paper and markers with me, and it worked out pretty well. I got the 4-year-old kid to be coloring at the table and kept pulling faces at his older brother so he would calm down. Everybody was smiling by the end, and we're going back on Friday to make cheesecake with them.

It's crazy, though, Elder Silva can get on the phone or start a conversation with just about anybody and it usually works out pretty well. There's just something about not speaking perfect Portuguese that people seem to not like so much when I call them. Oh well, ainda bem.

We're focusing on strengthening the members in the ward. Elder Silva was blown away when we went knocking the first time -- he wasn't used to people being so rough with him. He had only been in very calm areas far from Lisbon and, on top of it all, he's from Porto up north, where the people are apparently much more civilized.

Gotta go catch the metro (subway)

I love you guys and thanks for the updates

Beijinhos,

Elder Lobo

Back to the A's

Hey everybody!

I loved the emails this week. Thanks for the update about the BYU blowout. I heard Tulane was supposed to be decent, but I guess that was a mistake. Florida State should be a really cool game -- Elder Golden is going to Florida State when he gets back, so I'm pretty excited to see what happens.

Thanks for the extra money, Dad!

Anyway,

OH MY GOODNESS crazy news:

So this week is transfers, and I found out from Elder Croshaw on Monday that I'm being transferred, but GET THIS: I'm being transferred to the other ward in our building (Ala 2). According to what he told me, Presidente Torgan wants the AP's (Elder Croshaw and Elder Jasche, Brazilian) to have more members to work with. So Elder Hatch is going up to Torres Vedras to "whitewash". I'll be "whitewashing", too. Olivais is being absorbed by the AP's. I'll still be meeting in the same building, but just with the other ward. I'll be switching houses with the AP's, who live right by the Sete Rios train station at:

Rua Filipe de Mata
Nº124, R/C Dtº
1600-073 Lisboa

I'll be serving with Elder Silva, who is from Gaia, up north, and I hear he doesn't speak any English. He's also at least 27 years old, so it will be interesting.

My area will be called "Alvalade", since it includes Alvalade, Areeiro, Campo Pequeno, and some other parts of Lisbon down to Saldanha, west from Entrecampos.

Olivais was my first area that wasn't touching my others, but this new one fills in the gap. (The ward boundaries of Lisbon Ala (ward) 1 and Almada touch each other in the middle of the river.)

I'm much better friends with the members in Ala 2, where I'm going, because more of them come to our weekly ward family night than from Ala 4. This is the ward in which I also play piano on Sundays.

A lot of really weird stuff has been going on with transfers. There are a bunch of areas that are getting "whitewashed" that were doing really well. The financial secretary area is now Amadora (ALL of Amadora and Queluz, which used to have 8 missionaries). There's almost no trace of President Terry anymore, and I still don't understand the necessity of all this change.

I really liked that article that Mom sent me written by Orson Scott Card. I completely agree with him. Since Presidente Torgan got here, we've been getting a ton of pressure to trick members and investigators into giving references to us so we can get baptisms. A lot of stuff we have been taught to do really doesn't sit well with me at all. For example, we're supposed to do the "Family Mission Plan", which is actually where we ask members for names of friends so we can say some special prayer for them, and in so doing we're supposed to get their addresses and start teaching them, too. I haven't been able to stomach that with any member yet.

In the last few months, I've focused a whole lot more on doing unspeakable things (things that aren't just words). It's been cool to develop real friendships with people, members and investigators, but NOT cool to get ripped out of them after just a few weeks. I'm much more focused now on quality than quantity, and I really don't appreciate my environment to be ever more hostile to my behavior. Numbers will never make Portugal a better place to be a member of the church.

What is "the church", anyway? In reality, I see it to be the people. In abstract, it's the doctrine. Like Orson Scott Card said (could somebody do me a favor and see how much it costs to order books in Portugal Portuguese on the internet?), teaching lessons in members' houses isn't what helps, it's the friendship. You could talk about the plan of salvation on the bus with a member and it would still be effective -- it's not like teaching lessons in the member's house is the "key" and then suddenly God takes over and makes the person get baptized because you taught a lesson with some walls around you. There's a view in the mission and in the church here that "that's just how it's supposed to be done", and it's robotic and not real. The push to "be right" and live up to being in the only true church shoves people onto a conveyor belt of lifeless, robotic thought and behavior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about being right. It's not even about right and wrong. It's about being happy according to our true natures. Living a celestial life isn't about thinking you keep the commandments better than everybody else, it's about living a life where you would be the happiest forever if you were in the presence of God. Right now, we have bodies and are trying to figure out what in the world to do with them, but we would all be happier if we became more like Christ in nature, not just analyzed his footsteps and tiptoed behind him. The Gospel takes very little analyzation. It's about nature. More than that, it's about finding out what your true nature is. We can often think that the "natural" man, the enemy to God, curses our life into being a game of avoiding evil, but in thinking that way, we may lose sight of having our nature changed towards pursuing what we see to be good by our own free will. Being a member of the church doesn't mean that you give up your agency, like signing a contract and just having to obey to whatever is written (who interprets it, anyway?). You never give up your agency. That's the greatest gift God has yet given us. We're here to learn how to pursue happiness. Life isn't about coloring within the lines, and the church isn't merely a "true" set of lines to color within. It's so much more than that. The church on Sunday is not just to do everything you're supposed to do (classes, sacrament, talks, blahblahblah), it should be a place where you can benefit if you want to. How? According to your answers to that question I asked, serving and being served: Charity, basically. The truth of the church in the abstract is absolute and unchangeable, but the truth of the church in reality depends upon us and how true we are to God, to each other, and to ourselves.

I hope I explained that effectively. I hate words.

Thanks a ton for everything!

Love,

Elder Lobo

It finally rained!

Hey everybody!

This morning, I woke up about 15 minutes before the alarm to some giant explosions coming from the backyard. I thought it was the garbage man or something, but they come at about 12 or 1 in the morning, so it was too late to be them. Then there were a bunch of flashes all over the place, and I finally realized what in the world was going on. Not only was it raining for the first time in months, there was a huge thunderstorm going by. So I wandered around the room in the dark looking for my tripod to get pictures, and Elder Hatch mumbled out a "what in the world are you doing?" I was so focused on finding my tripod that the only thing I could get to come out of my mouth was "tripod... where's my tripod?" I eventually found it, set up the camera in the window, and set it on long exposure and got some really cool pictures of lightning and the buildings. There's a book I almost bought that had a really cool picture of the Vasco da Gama bridge with lightning behind it, but now I don't really feel the desire to buy that book anymore.

As for the rest of the week:

A member told me on Sunday that BYU had won, and I didn't believe him. He's kind of a jokester anyway (his name is Franciel, but everybody calls him Linguiça, which is a kind of sausage). Crazy. It sounds like this opening week was crazy. Pancadas

We taught Benvinda a couple times this week with Bispo Artur, and OH MY GOODNESS. He loves to talk. I have never met anybody who can talk so much. I don't like to talk to myself with somebody in front of me -- I prefer to talk with somebody. Bispo, however, talked from basically the moment we got in to the moment we left, and it was all over the place. Everything from how the Igreja Universal is full of evil spirits to what your body will look like in the resurrection. It was very out of control, but somehow that seems to have worked out OK, because Benvinda is thinking about getting baptized before she goes to Angola in a few weeks. All she has to do is just have a couple more lessons with us and go to church. There's a certain kind of persuasive, smooth-talking capability that some people have over others that I just don't have.

We also visited a brazilian family who moved from Barreiro recently to our ward. Ivanildo, his wife, and their 8-year-old daughter Lorena. Lorena is absolutely HILARIOUS. She reminds me a lot of Katie (Katiebugs). We had a family night about eternal families where she cut and colored every member of their family from construction paper and we "sealed" them together with superglue that had "Templo" written on it in Sharpie. Ivanildo is the administrator of a RIDICULOUSLY nice apartment building in Parque das Nações. Their house has AC, a REAL water heater, a dishwasher, motorized persianas (they're like blast shields over the windows - everybody has them), and a pretty nice kitchen -- and he lives there for free!. They're a great addition to the ward.

I really enjoyed the responses to my question about the most beneficial and fulfilling parts of being in your respective wards. I had a hunch the responses would be something like that, falling into two categories: being served and serving. It seems like they go together, and they happen naturally when everybody actually cares.

It's been a little slow, otherwise, seeing as most of our members still haven't returned from vacation, or at least it seems that way from the number of people in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Elder Croshaw and Elder Bass spent a week in the Azores for a zone conference and some divisions with people, so it was pretty quiet.

I've been casually thinking a bit about optometry and opthamology and all that stuff, and the more I analyze it, the more I think that optometry is right for me. I work to live -- I don't live to work. I've never really been so sucked into something that I would want to do it for the rest of my life, but optometry embodies a ton of principles and topics that I really enjoy. It's not so much about what I do, but the process of how I do it. It's something that seems stimulating and broad enough to be stimulating, but it's also simple enough that it won't consume my life. Some people have ADD, but I think I have the opposite -- I can't really multitask in life. I have a really hard time zoning out on something or somebody unless something else captures my attnetion. I like the idea of optometry because I want to help people, but I don't want my success to depend on them (like teaching). I want to help people who want to be helped, and I don't want to try to convince people to want something they don't. Optometry sounds really cool -- it's still a scientific process, but it's in a personal environment. It's not robotic like working at a desk, nor is it completely subjective like teaching, but it's objective and subjective at the same time. I'm a very subjective person, but I like doing objective things. I really like it. Plus, I like the idea of studying at Pacific University because I want to stay in Oregon or Washington. I'll be able to figure all that out later, but it's cool that all this has suddenly opened up in my brain as an option I really like.

It's been fun to have a working oven in our house. We've been making cookies like crazy for people and for activities. We take some with us when we go to visit members. I gave a lesson yesterday in District Meeting about the Plan of Salvation, consisting of playing the CES Fireside talk by Elder Bednar from last May, and while he was talking I mixed chocolate chip cookie dough on a table in front of everybody. "A spirit hath not [the ability to mix chocolate chip cookie dough] as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). There are just some experiences that you need a body for, and when we understand that, the Plan of Salvation makes a lot more sense.

We had a less-active member show up to English class yesterday. She had talked to us a few weeks ago while we were doing internet, asking if we still did English classes Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 PM. We replied in the affirmative, but unfortunately hadn't heard or seen anything of her since -- until last night. She's returning to activity, and she seems to enjoy English class. We started doing it in the chapel (to facilitate giving chapel tours to non-members), simply using a chalkboard in front of the chairs. We don't have benches -- I've never had a chapel that actually had benches here, but I know of a couple that have benches. Anyway, a little "I am a Child of God" or even a practice run of "Carol of the Bells" later, and we have our Ukranian friend Nikolai listening to some scriptures, which he didn't like before. Music is awesome. There's so much more to life than just words.

The man cave looks pretty cool. It's hard not to call our house the "man cave" sometimes -- I don't think I'll ever live in a house in a condition anything like the houses I've lived in. Sometimes it feels like living in an abandoned house, even like camping indoors, if that makes sense. You are one with nature.

Speaking of being one with nature, we found a gecko on the ceiling of our room last night, and I caught it and took some pictures. It was really small, luckily, because the big ones are ridiculously fast.

Oh well.

Every truly good desire we can have in life is dependent upon the Gospel. Without it, it's impossible.

Love to all, and to all a good morning.

Elder Lobo

Note the question at the end...

(I can't figure out how to flip this picture...sorry it's like looking in a mirror and the words are backwards) :)
Hey everybody,

Thanks a ton for the emails, advice, and info. I got a letter from Sister Hoeppner today, and her second sentence made me laugh a little bit: "I understand you'll be coming home soon." I really appreciated the letter, and that little big detail really is starting to sink in.

My birthday went well. I met up with António Fragoso from Almada in Parque das Nações right by the Torre Vasco da Gama. He gave me an AWESOME t-shirt and we had a really good time talking. Also, we had a lesson with a recent convert's mother who has some general curiosity about the church, all of her children go to different churches, and she wants to understand a little better why this one seems so different to her. Her name, if I'm not mistaken, is Benvinda, which basically means "welcome".

By the way, apparently Presidente Torgan changed his mind about Dec 17 -- we had interviews on Friday, and I told him how it didn't really matter to me when I got back as long as I had time to get ready, plus I already have a flight on Dec 29, so he changed it to Dec 22. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's a monday or something like that. I'll have Christmas Sunday in Portugal, so maybe the other ward will have a pianist for that sacrament meeting. I can play some mean Christmas tunes every once in a while.

I listened to a talk by John Bytheway last week that Elder Hatch got for his birthday called "Jesus Knows I'm a Christian". It embodies everything I have learned since leaving Almada, but I hadn't really put it into words as well as he did. It's a talk that answers, in a roundabout way, the idea that some people have that we aren't Christian. Now, I don't know if many other people can relate to this like I can, but my name is Christian (but for right now, it's Elder, hahaha). Some people in high school used to think it was funny that my name was Christian because I'm a member of this church, which in their minds makes me non-Christian. ANYWAY, so this talk addressed one of the ideologies I've never really understood, being the one derived from 2 Nephi 25:23, where it says, "by grace ye are saved, after all ye can do." We talk a lot about faith and works, partially because it's good to work hard -- we're happier and we become better if we keep ourselves close to Christ and the Spirit. But it's possible for us to believe whole-heartedly that we do "our part" and then Jesus fills in the gap. Brother Bytheway investigated that "gap", and it matches up with how my understanding of the Plan of Salvation (the Plan of Happiness, rather) has gained new depth and dimension:

Basically, we're not here just to be saved. A big part of being here is choosing to come unto Christ by faith, repentance, baptism, and confirmation, but the rest of our journey we can't do alone. Ether 12:27 says something like "If men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, for my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, for if men humble themselves before me and have faith in me, then will I (the Lord) make weak things become strong unto them." A huge part of being in this life is to learn lessons that we can only learn here, and in that perspective, merely being saved is only a small part. Christ's journey to atonement not only allows us to be saved, but it allows Him to "succor his people, according to the flesh". He has the power to change us, we have the power to believe in Him and learn. There is so much that is out of our control but is completely in His.

While I was on a division with Elder McClean, who is in his first transfer, we taught a lesson to an AMAZING investigator about the Plan of Salvation. I haven't met an investigator like him since Miguel in Amadora. We had a very valuable conversation about the Plan of Salvation, not by just going through the steps and where we are and what we have to do, but why in the world we do it all in the first place. I had never taught the Plan of Salvation like that, and it's something you can't usually do with new missionaries (because of the MTC robot mode they're in), but we had a genuinely significant conversation with this guy. There is no point in learning about the Plan of Salvation if you're just learning it for the details.

We also talked to a member this week whose 17-year-old son went off the deep end recently (basically went from being awesomely active to angrily antagonistic). I had met him last year, and I even remember his name: José Miguel. We had been teaching the Plan of Salvation, and for the first time, I didn't have the anxiety to provide some quick fix for him. We talked about how there are some lessons that we have to learn, and if we are really seeking to be happy, we will inevitably be guided to the Gospel and trust in Christ. It takes one kind of faith to try to convince somebody that they can get their son to come back, but it takes something so much deeper to be able to trust that everything will be OK and never to stop loving that son. I'm a firm believer in patience now, and also that being Christlike has longer-lasting consequences than just telling others to be Christlike.

We had a family night last week, and Elder Hatch and I were in charge. The family nights in the past weeks have been just reading scriptures and debates, and they were beneficial, but seemed to be very argumentative and frustrating for the people there. So, we decided to change things up a little bit, and maybe this will illustrate the change in perspective I'm having:

After Christ gave the sermon on the mount and said so many words, he expressed his compassion in 3 Nephi 17. We talked about his words to "prepare your minds" for what he would say the next day. We told everybody to prepare their minds for what we were about to do. We went into the kitchen and all worked together to make chocolate chip cookies. It was the happiest I have ever seen those people, and it's the best I have ever seen them get along with each other. When all the cookies were made, we had the cooled ones on a plate and realized that we had just enough for the kids outside playing soccer, so we took that plate out for them. That felt real. That was real.

There's a huge difference between just being convinced that you're in the right church and living the teachings in such a way that you know you couldn't want it any other way.

The church here needs a huge boost, not in testimony, but in lifestyle. There is too much talking of the path and not enough walking on the path, and the only way I have been able to help others start walking on the path is to walk with them, not talk with them. Knocking and contacting are great, but they're not enough on their own. Looking like good missionaries by doing hard work is not as effective as loving the people.

My goal before I leave is to give the ward the vitality it needs. We taught an investigator who refuses to get baptized until he knows with perfect clarity that it's the right choice, but he just hasn't understood that it's not about perfect knowledge.

Maybe it's european culture or something -- I don't know.

I made a connection this week between economics and missionary work I find very valuable. Many people claim that the stable growth of the USA during the 90's was because of Bill Clinton, and others claim it was a consequence of the "supply-side economics" of Ronald Reagan. I don't believe there's a sure way to claim what the cause was, but supply-side economics definitely had an impact. In times of mission crisis, do we rely on artificial stimulus packages (do more contacts, teach more lessons, baptize more people) or do we invest in the supply side of the church (activities, improve the quality of Sunday meetings, make home teaching and visiting teaching a staple of life, etc)? I see now that what Lisbon needs the most is not to increase the size of the church but to build the integrity of what is already there. Have you ever heard of a ward with a 3% activity rate? There are a lot of people ready to come back to church on Sunday, but there's something missing from Sunday that keeps them from enjoying the Gospel in their lives the rest of the week.

Anyway,

I'm going to get some pictures printed and some DVD's made to send home -- I have 7 GB of pictures not on DVD's yet, so that'll be another two installments of The Elder Lobo Photo Project.

I have a question I'd like as many people to answer as possible:

What do you find most beneficial and fulfilling about being a member of your ward?

I love you guys.

Elder Lobo