TRANSFERS!!! 7/16: Leaving the Jungle

What up what up! 

Well we got transfer calls last night and I am leaving the island :( I was really sad to hear that because I love this place and I have come to love the people here but I am also excited to learn a new area and more people! My new area is across the bay from Lisbon and it is called Seixal ("Say-shaul"). I will be serving with Elder Hinkey. I met him on a division when I went to the other island and he is a really cool guy so I am excited! I fly out of this place tomorrow morning at 8 amand I land in Lisbon at 10 fresh to start a new week in a new area! 

This week was another tough week. We knocked countless doors and walked countless hours. We found some superrr awesome people through our labors tho! Her name is Sandra and she has two boys named Alexandre and Samuel. They even came to church and loved it! Elder Thomas and his new comp. are going to baptize her forsure! 

Other than that, I got to skype my family yesterday!! It is so crazy how fast the time you skype feels like it flies. I felt like I had just started when my time was up lol. But it was super cool seeing them and laughing with them. My brother Kyle is all grown up! Crazy crazy crazy! 

Today since it was my last pday here we went to Burger King in Angra with a member named Delcio and ate the only fast food on the island! I am going to miss that guy! 

Tonight I will go by members houses to say my goodbyes and pack my suitcase. 

Anyways.. I hope all the mothers had a great mothers day. I am grateful that my Father in Heaven has given me the opportunity to have two wonderful mothers. I am so happy that I was given that blessing and I love them both! Because of my Savior Jesus Christ I will be with them forever. 

I love you guys! I´m so glad that I get to be a missionary! Life is awesome. In Jesus Christ I have found new life! I know that he lives and this church is true! 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Com bastante amor,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen 

 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

It´s Gonna´ Be A Long Hot Summer

What up homies!!!

It´s already May! And along with it only being May, it´s already super hot some days here! With this weather I´m already getting a sleeve, collar, and watch tan! This summer is going to be rough.

This week was another week of miles and miles of walking. My legs have never been more in shape for walking than they are now haha. My Ecco Shoes are starting to get beat up! My dad and I bought the same shoes on the same day and we are going to compare them when I get home and see what two years of walking everyday does to them. 

We met with several investigators this week and saw some progress but not much. We found out that our investigator Michael from Brazil isn´t married and it´s going to be a process to be able to get them married. We are going to keep pushing and helping him until that day.

We found a new investigator named Jorge this week! He is married to a lady named Conceição who is a less active for more than 25 years. We went over this week and started teaching them both and testifying about everything and how their lives would be blessed if they took these steps. They both showed up this sunday! The members of our branch were surprised because she hadn´t been in so long! We were pumped with that!

The Bull runs have started but haven´t come to Praia yet! Hopefully I will get to see one maybe next pday. Transfers are also next week and I am pretty sure that I will be staying at least one more and hitting six months on the island. It´s crazy because it feels like I just got here having no idea where I was and now I know the area exteremely well.

I am so grateful for all of the people who are still emailing me! As you get older in the mission you get less and less emails every week so I am glad I still have people writing me. I hope to respond to everyone every week but I always end up running out of time. 

I just want to end with a missionary thought...

Last week my Aunt Betsy wrote me an email and she told me that my cousin, McKay, has been reading the Book of Mormon with the goal of finishing it for the first time all the way through. She said that McKay came up to her super excited and told her that he had finished reading the book cover to cover and he had done what Moroni said to do. She asked him how he felt and he said, " I cried of happiness, so I know it´s true."

When I read that email I teared up because one, I remembered when I received a testimony that the Book of Mormon was true just like McKay did and I myself also cried of happiness and two, that is exactly why I am serving a mission, to have people know for themselves that these things are true, and it was awesome to know that my 9 year old cousin had received a witness for himself. I´m super proud of you McKay!

I hope you all have a great week. Keep pushing forward and trust in Heavenly Father just like I am. He will never let you fall.

Com Muito Amor,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen

“Don't you quit. You keep walking, you keep trying, there is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. Some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in Good Things to Come.”

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

SUP EVERYONE! 

Days are weeks and weeks are days out here on the mission! It is extremely crazy how fast it seems like P-day gets here from the last! 

This week was a pretty quiet week. We found a couple of new investigators and met with our recent converts to start reteaching the lessons to them. We were really excited with the progress that both Isabel and Beatriz are making! It makes me really happy :) I have realized that joy doesn´t come from just baptizing a person, but that true joy comes from seeing that person progress in the Gospel and change their lives to be a Disciple of Christ. At times, people make wrong choices and it leaves us frustrated, but because they have their own agency, we need to learn to look past that and keep pushing forward. 

This week we shared the talk "His Grace Is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox with a member who is really stuggling in their life right now. I really love that talk and I recommend that all of you look it up on Youtube and watch it. 

As we watched with him, I felt the spirit fill the room and I was able to feel a little of the love that our Heavenly Father has for this member. It is sad that at times we forget this. We forget that we have a loving Father in Heaven that is waiting to bless us as we do our part, but that´s why I am on my mission. 

One of my favorite things to think is, "If Jesus Christ was standing here in my place right now at this moment, what would he be saying or doing?" As one of his Representatives, this is something sacred and important for me to remember. Every day of my mission, I want everyone I talk to to be able to see the special light of Christ in my eyes. I want them to be able to feel, through my love and Charity, that I am His Disciple. This is HIS work, this is HIS mission, and these are two years of my life that I am giving to HIM. I want you to all know that I love Him and I trust in Him. I invite you all to learn to love and trust in Him also, because we cannot do it without Him. 

I know that Jesus Christ lives. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is His church that He established on this earth with His Authority, Prophets, and Apostles and it is the only way that we will be able to be with our families forever. I know this with 100% of my heart and soul and I cannot deny it. 

As my Dad always told me, "Remember Who You Are". You are a son or daughter of God! You are loved beyond imagination by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the friend of friends. Never forget that.

I love my mission. There is no better work that a young man or young woman can do during this time of their lives. The Lord blesses his servants and their families.. of this I testify.

I love you all. I hope that you have a great week and I am praying for all of the people who were involved in the earthquke in Ecuador. God be with those souls.

Fiquem bem, Confiam no Senhor, e sejam felizes.

Com Amor Sempre,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen 

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

Transfers 6/16

Olá para tudo mundo! 

Another transfer is here and another gone by! 6 weeks went by super fast! 

So this transfer is my 6th transfer on the mission (7th counting the MTC). I will be staying on the Azores island here in Praia. My companion Elder Foutz is being transferred back to Lisbon and I will be getting a new comp. His name is Elder Thomas. He is going into his 4th transfer so he is about 3 months behind me. We are going to work hard together and have fun I hope! He flies in tomorrow morning.

Other than that, this past week we had to stay inside all day again because of Elder Foutz´s sickness. We went to the doctors and they decided that he needs his tonsils removed so he will be getting them out in Lisbon in a week. It is going to be tough getting back into the missionary life after two weeks of staying inside!

Although we were inside basically all day every day, we found a couple of sunny hours to work and managed to find a new investigator named Nunu. He walked by us one night and said that he is intrested in our church and for us to pass by the next day, so we did. This was tuesday morning and we taught him and got around to teaching the Word of Wisdom right after the first lesson so that we could start helping him right away. He accepted and said that he will start working to try to quit smoking. We saw him 3 days after and he said that he hasn´t bought tobacco since! He has a lot of potential so we will see.

We had a special Easter movie that the Branch President Elder Broderick made that we showed on saturday night. He took the musical "The Lamb of God" and combined it with scenes to perfectly match bible videos and put portuguese subtitles. It was awesome!! If any of you haven´t heard of the Lamb of God, you should totally look it up. But anyways, I had sent a bunch of texts out inviting people to come. Through this invite, an investigator named Isabel showed up for the film! She is 20 years old and has the cutest baby girl. She has been to church before when I first got on the Island, but we could never come in contact with her. When she arrived, I started talking to her and she told me,"I´ve been wanting to talk to you guys about baptism" I smiled and told her we could help her with that. She told me she had been taught everything by the missionaries in the past and was going to be baptized on a certain day but she couldn´t make it and the Elders dropped her for some reason. I asked her if she wanted to get baptized this coming saturday and she said that she did, so we are going to meet with her and Elder Thomas and I will prepare her for baptism this week! It will take a lot of work but I know we can do it!!

As for our other investigators, it´s been hard these past two weeks to be in contact with them. Now that we are back at it hopefully we can get them back! 

Easter sunday was really good. Elder Foutz, President Broderick, and I sang the song,"Eu sei que vive o meu Senhor" in sacrament meeting, and I had to sing a solo part in Portuguese and I was so nervous but everyone said it was awesome haha. It was a really spiritual day! 

As for today, it´s raining again.. so we decided to have a district Pday in Angra! All six of our district missionaries (Elder Foutz, me, Elder Lowry, Elder Crawford, Sister Doman, and Sister Hart) went bowling and it was SUPER FUN!! We had a little competition and as all of you know I´m super competative so it was a good time! I can´t wait to go back again :)

Hope y´all are doing awesome. I´m sad to hear about the bombings at the airport but our mission hasn´t had any changes because of it. The only reason I heard about it was from an investigator... so I´m super closed off from society lol.  

Espero que tenham uma boa semana!! 

Fiquem bem! Um abraço para todos :)

--------

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

DOG DAYZZZZ

Hello everybody!

This week we had a long week. Unfortunately we had to take the hour long bus ride to Angra almost every single day for divisions with our District leader, visiting the doctor for my companions tonsilitis, Zone Conference, and going to our District Conference, meaning we missed a lot of work time in our area.

Basically everyone we had on the potential list is MIA(Missing In Action). We have gone by their houses every day, several times a day, and they seem to never be home. They all live really far away from each other so basically we would use most of our day just walking to their houses to find they were not home. Fortunately we fixed our bikes this week! We had bikes sitting outside our apartment for the longest time and finally decided to do something about them. A less active kid helped us fix them and they are good to go now. We rode them up the mountain and by the time we got all the way up we were both huffin´ and puffin´ with sweat dripping down our foreheads haha. We have a lot of uphill roads but the downhill makes it all worth it. It will take some time getting used to as our bodies are only used to walking all day every day! We both have saddle sore super bad right now. The bikes will definately help though and the best part is we are the only missionaries with bikes in all of Portugal!  

This week we also had our Azores zone conference with our mission president and his wife. They always give encouraging uplifting things that are exactly what I need to here. I really love them! Pres. Tavares and his wife both spoke and she talked about how we will have hard days on our missions and feel like we are unsucessful but then she asked President. "when you interview a missionary at the end of their missions, do you ask them how many baptisms they had?" he said "No, because you dont know how many baptisms you truly had or will have influenced. A baptism that happens is part of everybodies that contacted, taught, or even said hi to the person in the past." She said our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ.. if we invite, we are being truly sucessful.  

This really helped me because this mission and especially this area is really tough. But I know that my purpose as a Disciple of Jesus Christ is to invite others to partake of the happiness that Jesus Christ and his gospel has to offer. Whether they accept or reject, as long as I tried my best, I can still be sucessful. Then President spoke and he shared a quote, in portuguese of course, but he said, "Despite all of the challenges and difficulties we face, we will be sucessful. One day all of the people who accepted the Gospel that you influenced in any way will be there in the Celestial Kingdom with you and they will be rejoicing at the sacrifice you made for them here on your missions".

I just want to close with a brief spiritual thought..

As a Missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, I talk to people all day every day about Christ and his gospel. I have seen people that have a lot of faith, and others who have very little or no faith at all. Most people say they have faith but have no idea what faith is and what they even have faith in. They refuse to act on this faith because they truly don´t understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. I just want to let you all know that I have faith in my Savior Jesus Christ and his Atonement. And because I have faith in him, I am willing to obey everything he has commanded me to do in order to receive exaltation, as he has promised, because faith without works is dead (James 2:17). This gospel is simple. Christ suffered for all of our pains, sicknesses, sufferings, and sorrows so that we don´t have to. How amazing is that? And in return, all he asks us to do is to follow him. This is why I am here on my mission.. because I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement. I know that he lives and loves me. With this faith comes hope for the future. And I want to share this hope with all of God´s children. All we have to do is obey and do as he did. 

This church is true. It is the only true church on the face of the earth. Christ lives. He is our savior and reedeemer. His atonement and grace is sufficient for each and every one of us if we turn to him. I know this and this is why I am a missionary for his church.

I love you all!

Have a great week!! 

Love,

Elder Haroldsen     

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

Started from the bottom now we´re here!

Olá meus amigos e família! 

How was everybody´s week? 

Our´s was a pretty awesome, spiritual week. As many of you remember, last week I was kind of dissapointed because our super elect baptism fell and we were basically out of investigators and people to teach.

Welllll, this week we did a lot of tracting: Street contacts, door knocking, passing by everyone we had taught before.. Aka the hard part about missionary work. I probably walked close to 40 miles this past week because of all the tracting we did. BUT we found some elects! 

These people were a PROCESS to find. haha. Basically we did a contact, the guy gave us his address, we passed by, he wasn´t home.. we went by a couple of days later, nothing. After knocking his door at 8:30pmand after a long day of walking and no success, I was pretty discouraged. Then we saw a kid walking by himself around a corner. The adversity told me not to talk to him, but as consecrated missionaries, we talk to everyone. So we did. We asked him his name, he said his name was Daniel. He is 21 years old. We introduced ourselves and told him we are Representatives of The Lord Jesus Christ, here with a message about how families can be together forever. We asked if he had 15-20 min to talk to us and he said sure! And took us to his house around the corner. We taught him the 2nd lesson, the Plan of Salvation, and he told us his dad had past away a few years ago. WOW the spirit was strong that lesson. We taught so clearly with the spirit and Daniel accepted to read and pray. We marked him for baptism for the 19th of March and then he prayed and gave a wonderful prayer! As we walked out Elder Foutz and I were like,"The Lord is answering our prayers." The Lord works in mysterious ways! 

We went back two days later and Daniels Mom was there, Maria Josê. She was going to leave the lesson and just have us talk to Daniel and he was like, "no mom, stay.. this message is important for you too." So we taught them both the 1st lesson, the Restoration, and marked them both for the 19th. Daniel helped his mom with the closing prayer. He is already gaining his own testimony! He told us he prayed about the Book of Mormon and felt that it was true and he also prayed to see if he should be baptized by proper authority and he said he felt the spirit confirm to him that he should. We have been back like 4 times to talk to them and I have felt the spirit there more than any other investigator I have had. Daniel is going to be the future of this Branch. 

Unfortunately, we have a District Conference for the Azore islands this weekend and Daniel works this sunday, and since they haven´t been to church yet, we are going to have to move their baptismal date to the 27th according to our Zone Leaders. We haven´t told talked to them to tell them yet, but we have a family home evening with them tonight so we are excited! 

We also have other huge potentials: Sandra, her son Vitor, Tina, and Maria Dos Santos. So we are going to work a lot for them to prepare them for baptism too! There is a lot of potential here in Praia and we working hard to find them! 

I´m so very grateful for your prayers. I really feel the power of prayer and The Lord is blessing me and strengthening me every day out here. 

Muito obrigado por tudo que fazem para mim. Vocês são os melhores! Os amo muito! Espero que tenham uma boa semana e que sempre se lembram a seguir em frente com fé no senhor Jesus Cristo.  

Com muito carinho,

Elder Brandon Haroldsen 

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

LEAD DAY ON P-DAY

Hello Friends and Family,

Well... this week was tough. My comp. got strep throat and I ended up getting a cold so we lost two days of our work going to the doctors and trying to feel better. It´s so difficult just sitting in the apartment w/ no entertainment and nobody to talk to. We just put on church videos such as "The Testaments" and "Finding Faith in Christ". I still have a sore throat but I´m feeling much better.

We started the week off hot by finding a new investigator last monday night and we really got to know her. Her name is Sandra. She is really struggling w/ her problems in life right now. We taught her the Restoration and taught a little differently than normal. The spirit was SUPER STRONG. We both received promptings and impressions on what to say. Sandra told us she felt this burning feeling in her heart that was bringing peace to her. We testified that this was the Holy Ghost confirming that what we were saying was true. She told us that sometimes she goes and sits in her car on the beach crying and pouring her heart out to Heavenly Father asking him to send her a light so that she may know that he is there and if he loves her. She told us she feels in her heart that we were that light. What better thing can a person tell us than that? She accepted the Book of Mormon and the invitation to read and pray about it. She even told us she would read and pray that night for an answer because that´s how bad she needs help. Upon leaving the house, I told Foutz that I believe she was a Tender Mercy sent from the Lord. Elder Foutz told me that that was the most powerful 1st lesson him and his comp. had ever presented to anyone these past 19 months of his mission. We had also marked her for baptism the 6th of March. Unfortunately, we haven´t been able to get ahold of her since we first talked to her. It´s so hard because you find these people who are SO elect and prepared for the gospel in their lives and then Satan tries all he can to change their mind when it matters most. 

Speaking of the Law of Opposition, as all of you know and have asked me, we had our investigatior Bruno marked for baptism this past saturday. We tried to meet w/ him throughout the week but it became difficult once we became sick. Eventually, I got ahold of him on the phone and we marked an appointment w/ him friday afternoon at 2pmto plan out his baptism. Well, long story short, he didn´t show up to the church at 2. We called and called and no answer like always. Since his baptism was the next day, we really needed to talk to him. We decided to trek up the mtn. up to his house to see if he was home. Turns out he was, and he was with a girl. When he opened the door he instantly started yelling at us asking why we showed up at his house and why we were calling him so much. He was like you know I have a life? This kinda made me mad. We told him we were just there to plan out his baptism, something he wanted for himself, for the following day. We told him since he had combined an appointment with us at 2 and didn´t show up and wouldnt answer, we thought maybe something had happened to him and that´s why we were there. He then said that we were pushing him too much and that he has a life to live. This was him yelling at us still. We were like okay, we will talk to you later then. I think he was mostly embarassed that we had knocked on his door and caught him with his jeans in his hands. So basically that was the end of that convo. He ended up all mad at us for no reason and we ended up really dissapointed in him. We tried calling and texting him the next day to tell him we wouldn´t be able to do the baptism but that we wanted to talk and clarify some things but he didnt answer. Foutz and I both decided that we didn´t believe he was coming to church for the right reasons either. So yeah. I was pretty sad walking back down to Praia after that convo with Bruno.

But then this week I was reading the Portuguese liahona from nov. 2015, the conf. talks, and I came across the talk by Henty B. Eyring titled," You are not alone in the work", from the Priesthood session. In this talk he says that he went to a stake conf. in which they called out more than 40 young men to be sustained to the office of Elder. He came to find almost all of these young men were less actives that were brought back to church by their Elder´s Quorum President. Elder Eyring spoke to this young man and asked him how he did this great work? Basically the yound man says, "I know all the less active guys in this city. Most of them have trucks, and so do I. We wash our trucks at the same car washes and, with time, we become friends. Then I wait for something bad to occur in their lives, which always does. They tell me about it and I listen and don´t accuse them of anything. Then, when they say,"There is something wrong w/ my life...there simply has to be something better than this." I tell them what is missing and where they can find it. Sometimes they believe in me, and when they do, I bring them with me." 

I really like this story because it basically says we cannot force people to change their lives and be baptized and partake of the happiness this gospel brings, but they have to choose to change it themselves. We as missionaries are just here to present the gospel, and present the Holy Ghost so that the people can feel it is true. We cannot convince people it is true no matter how good of a missionary we are. 

So basically, Foutz and I both decided that it simply wasn´t Bruno´s time yet. Something will eventually happen in his life in which he will realize he needs this gospel because it is the only soultion, but this time hasn´t happened yet. Although we didn´t baptize Bruno, I believe we were sucessful because we presented the Gospel w/ the spirit and planted a seed for Bruno´s future when he realizes he needs it. 

What is important is that we grew and we learned from this experience and will apply it in our seek for true elects prepared by the Lord. Although times like this can be frustrating, I have faith in the Lord. He promises that with obedience we will find sucess and I know that because he always keeps his promises. 

Im so grateful for all of your prayers and love and support and for all of those who write me while I am out here. You trult help me keep moving forward and I am glad to know I have so many people who love and support me.

Keep being strong and keep striving to be the best you can be and the Lord will mold you into the person you want to become.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Haroldsen 

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal