Costa da Caparica, Portugal!

Olá meus queridos amigos e querida família, 

Another week down!! The time flies when you are busy each and every day! This week has basically been just like any other week. We have been struggling finding people to teach in Costa da Caparica, and all of our investigators are in Monte da Caparica, about 30 minutes away. Its harder here because the church is in Costa and the investigators find it hard to travel 30 minutes to get to church. 

The ward we are in is about 40 members and we have a couple stud returned missionaries that have really started to help us out this week. We went with one of them yesterday, sunday, to visit this investigator named Jannette. She is 17 and shes from somewhere in Africa. We have been over there a couple times and her younger brothers go crazy so its hard to teach and the mom is never there. This sunday the mom was there and Francisco helped out with the younger boys by playing with them in their room. Anyways, we taught the third lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ and really emphasized baptism. I told her all things we accomplish are accomplished by setting goals so we tried to mark her for baptism on November 22. She said she would keep praying, but she doesnt feel like shes received an answer yet. Her mom promised to come to church along with jannette this sunday so Im excited about that! We are going to help them paint the inside of their apartment after church haha so im excited about that too.

This sunday the bishop came up to us and asked if we could speak 5 min before church starts and we were like ummmm shoot! So we got up there and shared a scripture and bore our testimonies. Somehow I was able to wing out a 7 minute talk all in portuguese out of the top of my head! I surprised myself lol.

I forgot to mention last week, but they announced the Cornerstone laying on the Portugal, Lisbon temple on sat. Dec 5th!! I think we are going to get to go!!! Its across the river(the bay) and it going to be such a cool experience! They are saying the Lisbon Temple is going to be the second most expensive to build temple in the world! Its going to be so awesome to be able to see that temple from across the bay when it is finished! I am super excited for this great blessing for the people of Portugal! 

Today was a pretty fun pday as usual. We spent the night as a district in Almada and hung out last night then woke up this morning to go out and play some volleyball/ go to the mall again. There is a store here that is exactly like best buy at the mall and they have all the new electronics and games and stuff. Its crazy looking at all the new iphones, tvs and games that have come out recently. Then we went to the pizza hut buffet where we always have a competition to see who can eat the most pizzas. I was only able to eat 10 and Hilton ate 13.. But the record in the mission is 42!!! I dont know how thats possible because I almost threw up with just 10 haha. 

This week was pretty good but this next week should be better. ALways looking forward to improve!! I strive to be better each and every day no matter how hard it is. 

I am so glad for my great calling as a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. All I have to worry about is serving others and helping them come unto Christ!! But to be a missionary you dont need a white shirt and plaque. Every single one of you can be a missionary. It wasnt until I got out here that I realized how important members are for missionaries and accomplishing the Lords work. When we go out with the missionaries, the investigator already has a friend and someone they can look up to in the church. This is why member missionary work is so important, because the members in the individual wards are what keep everything going! The missionaries will everntually leave the area and the investigator needs a friend at church! So be a missionary! Serve others! Open your mouths and share this wonderful gospel with everyone you know! 

I hope you all have a great week and have a great halloween with your families! Eat lots of good American candy for me!!! :) 

Eu os amo a cada um de vocês! Tenham uma boa semana!! Sejam melhor cada dia! 

-- 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

A Igreja De Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Últimos Dias 

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Olá meus queridos amigos e família!,

Como vai? Tudo bem?

Whats up y'all? How are you all doing? I am doing pretty good! We had a chill week this week. My comp. had an ingrown townail that he had to get operated on so he went to the hospital and then stayed at the mission home.. meanwhile I went on a split with another Elder. He worked the heck out of me! haha But on that split we were able to mark a lady for baptism and after we did the elder was like how did we do that!? we have been trying to mark her forever! I was feeling the spirit strong!

After that day, we went back to our apartment and just basically hung out while my comp rested his foot. He can barely walk! So I just wrote letters and layed down lol Im ready to get back out and work!

The weather here is still beautiful! Its such a nice area. We have a couple of people we are starting to teach and hopefully they begin progressing this week!! Im excited to see the fruites of our labors!

On the way back home from the mission home, the AP's gave us a ride in their car. It was their p-day (they have pday on fridays) and they were like..., "You know president Tavares was allowed to listen to regular music on his pdays on his mission just to pump the elders up for the rest of the week?.. i was like oh really? hes lucky! well they were like hes allowing us to do the same! as long as it doesnt have a bad message or bad words we can listen to any songs on pday." So they turned on taylor swift and they were all amazed at the song shake it off because they had never heard it before the mish haha Im super stoked at this new rule though! And nobody knows yet but us and the AP,s...

Today was a fun pday. We went to the mall and its just like the mall in the US. Its super huge!!!! And it has alot of the same stores. I was missing good old cali! We also got to eat mcdonalds and it tasted exactly the same as the States!!! bomb.com

We walked out on the beach today to take some cool pics with our nametags. Its so nice out there!!!

Well thats about all we did this week. Hopefully this week picks up and gets busy. 

Always remember who you are and try your best in no matter what you do. I love and miss you all. Have a great week!!! 

Fica fixe meus amigos e sempre seja melhor cada dia!!! 

-- 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

A Igreja De Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Últimos Dias 

Transfer day is here!

Hello everybody! I am emailing a little bit later today because today starts the first day of my second transfer.. and I got transferred to the Lisbon area!! Its called Costa de Caprica and its across the bay from Lisbon. I was really nervous to find out where I was going last night and all this morning because I had no idea what it was going to be like... but it is BEAUTIFUL!!! I took the two hour bus ride with Elder Lee to meet up with my new trainer and Elder Fletcher. Fletch is getting trained in Évora now!! I got to see him and it was so awesome!

My new companion is named Elder Brett Hilton.. hes a Utah boy and this is his 6th transfer on the mish so hes not far in either. This guy is so awesome though. Hes super hilarious and I can tell we are going to have a great time together.

This new area is huge!!! We took a 35 min bus ride from one side to the other just now. We have to get a bus pass as we will be using it alot. way different than evora!!We are at the church right now and this church i guess used to be a mansion house that the church bought. its two stories and its hugeeeee!!!! Its so different from the U.S.

I just got done dropping my bags off at the apartment and my comp was like... you want to see the beach? we walk out, walk to the back of the house, up a hill and bam its the beach... its like a 10 second walk!!! The beach reminds me of pismo beach. Its super pretty. We then walked 10 min down the beach to get to church to email. The weather is perfect.. I am in paradise!!!

This past week has been stormy weather and back in Évora last monday Elder Lee and I got caught in the biggest rainstorm of my life!!! We were like 2 miles from our house and it starts sprinkling and we were like oh its fine, we can go visit this lady really quick.. then the drops started getting bigger and falling faster. Next thing you know we were stuck in the rain with nowhere to go. The wind picked up and the streets were flooding super fast. We were soaked to the bone!!! We ran to a ladys hopuse in water up to my ankles just to find she wasnt home, just her 13yr old daughter... i felt like i was standing in the shower with all my clothes!! haha it was a rough day. 

This week we got moved from the Hobbit house that was 500 years old with no lights to a brand new apartment. It was super nice having places to sit to study and not having to study on a stool with no table to eat or study. now we got our own study desk each and a huge table for all 4 of us. It was super nice and i unpacked just to repack lol

Hawerth dissapeared again. It was sad. But we planted a seed. He really felt the spirit but he just never accepted to follow the promptings. Hopefully he gets baptized there soon!!!

We shall see how this week goes. Ill keep you all posted next week.

Once again, thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I am having the time of my life here on the Lord's errand. 

Fica fixe amigos

-- 

Elder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

A Igreja De Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Ultimos Dias