#LightTheWorld #Batismo

WHAT UP HOMIES!!!

Well Thanksgiving came and went this week and we ended it hot with a stud baptism! Leandro Lamarosa. I had the privledge of baptizing him and it was such an incredible experience. We are so pumped for him!

Since he is only 17, he is still part of the young men´s program. Our Branch President is super excited to work with the youth because they are the future of the church so he wants to build them up. He has been helping Leandro feel involved and prepared him to be a leader here in Olhão! I was talking with him after the baptism and we made the goal of having Leandro attend the Madrid, Spain temple with the youth of the Algarve zone on the 22nd of December. Leandro is all pumped to go and we started working on some family names with him to take. #MIRACLE!

Saturday was his baptismal interview and he passed with flying colors. That night Elder Lemmon and I were super pumped and talking all about Leandro and how the Lord led us to him. I then was thinking about the temple and Leandro going here in 3 weeks and then this thought came, "What if my mom Flor has been teaching Leandro´s ancestors in the spirit world and she is helping his family prepare to receive their ordinances in the temple just as we were preparing Leandro for his baptism?"  Lemmon said whoa.. can you imagine!?

Then during the baptism when I began saying the baptismal prayer I felt the spirit come over me really strong and I knew that his baptism was valid in God´s eyes. The program went really well and at the end Sister Stegeman sang the Portuguese version of "Come Thou Fount" for a special musical number and I felt the spirit SUPER strong. I felt as if my mom was right there excited with me as we sang her favorite song. I was trying to hide my face as I teared up a little bit. At that moment I truly felt that she has been working with Leandros family in the Spirit world. It was incredible! #MIRACLE!

I know that this church is true and it has changed my life. Jesus Christ lives and he can reach out and help each and every one of us if we let him. This week is another week of miracles in the books and I am super excited to find and help a lot more people for the rest of my mission! Thank you all for the support and prayers for us missionaries! Love you all! 

Kia Kaha!

Elder Haroldsen 

Élder Brandon Haroldsen

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​MISSÃO PORTUGAL LISBOA

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Brandon Haroldsen <brandon.haroldsen@myldsmail.net>wrote:

District Conf, Zone Conf, and Miracles

BUENAS TARDES PARA TODOS!

Another week of miracles in the books!! 

This week started off hot with the Romanian family who showed up to church with us last week! We taught them for the first time last monday night and we shared the Restoration. The spirit was there but they had trouble understanding Portuguese. They accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of Nov. but kept saying they wanted many months to prepare for their baptism. I told them that they would be prepared.

We went by again the next day for our follow up lesson. We took the restoration film in Romanian and when the part played where Joseph sees God and Jesus Christ, the mom said she was getting goosebumps because the spirit was SO strong!! After the movie they said that they knew this was Christ´s church because it is the only place in which they felt the spirit like that. They were saying that they wanted to be baptized, but still in a few months. I was trying to help them understand that we were there to help them prepare but they were talking to each other in Romanian and I had no idea what they were saying. I felt the spirit instruct me to bear strong testimony to the dad and so while he was going off with his wife I put my hand on his shoulder and leaned in really close to him. I told him that I promise as a Representative of Jesus Christ that both he and his family needed to be baptized on that day. I looked him straight in the eyes and paused and saw his eyes tear up. Man oh man the spirit was FORTE!! He looked at me and said,"I feel the spirit through you. I know God is telling me this, and we will be baptized on that day". The spirit touched his heart!

Since that day, we have been talking to them almost every day. They are the best!! I go there and come out smiling. They are named Lucian(the dad), rebecca(the mom), Stefin(11), Juliana(10), Ebi(10), and Jorgiana(4). The parents have a smoking habit that we are working with. We made goals and they were having troubles stopping. They expressed how tough their lives are at this moment. They came here to Portugal a couple of months ago in order to escape their hardships of Romania. Their kids currently don´t have residency so they can´t be admitted into school. The dad is unemployed looking for a job but has been digging for clams on the beach everyday to sell, making hardly anything. He is in debt for his rent and could lose their house if they don´t pay here soon. He then broke my heart telling me that he doesn´t even have money to feed his kids. He told me this on friday so we bought the kids some bread and cookies, They were SO grateful! I told him that as long as they strive to follow Christ, they will see miracles. I talked to some members and we showed up to talk to the family satudrday night with no help. They were hopeless. We were in the middle of the lesson and suddenly we get a call from one of our members. I answered and he asked how the fam. was. He then asked if they still needed a job. I told him they did and he said,"Okay, I have a job for him starting monday(today) working on houses with me". I hung up and told them what he had said. Their eyes lit up like fire. They looked at each other and teared up and said that God was blessing them. He then looked at his family and said, "We are going to be baptized the 26th. Starting today, I am never touching a cigarette ever again". I was soooo happy, especially when they showed up for district conference all dressed up!! MIRACLESSSS!!!!

We also marked Leandro for the 27th. He is a 17 year old kid who is the son of an inactive woman named Lucia. He is legit! He has already read the first 20 pages of the BOM in just a couple days and told me everything detail by detail what happened. Him and his mom are also excited to prepare for his baptism!

I can feel the power from the prayers everyone is offering for me. We have seen miracles these past weeks and I know that a huge part comes from all the prayers. So big thank you to everyone! 

I am so happy right now with my mission. Time is flying and I just want to help more and more people while I still can! When the Savior comes again, I want to be serving somebody. 

I love this Gospel. It is the true church of Jesus Christ. Prayers are powerful and I love all of you!

Tenham uma boa semana! 

Kia Kaha

Elder Haroldsen 

Beautiful City, Tourists, and Awesome Weather!

Hey Hey everyone!

Well, week one of my new area is accomplished! I am loving it here! It is one of the prettiest areas that I´ve had on my mission so far! My comp is super funny and I am getting along super well with him! He is another Utah boy from the city of Mapleton. We are tearin´up these streets of Tavira! 

I got to the Algarve on tuesday night after a three and a half hour bus ride from Lisbon. It was fun chatting it up with Elder Puertas and Hilton who both came down with me too! We were laughng it up and talking about all the fun times and experiences we had together. You find your best friends here on the mission!

This week was basically a week of starting over in this area. I was trying to get my bearings down and we basically are starting new trying to find investigators. We talked to a whole lot of tourists and most of them speak english. It was pretty funny because we say "Olá" to people in Portuguese then they look at us funny, so we say "Hello", then "Bonjour" then "Guten Dag" and if they don´t understand any of that we just awkwardly wave and walk away, haha. Elder Mitton is great at contacts and can get anyone laughing so it´s great.

I have met few members so far this past week! Our Branch President is a stud! We have about 16 members that come to church on a regular basis in Tavira so it is back to reality coming from Seixal of 100+ weekly! But we are going to help this place grow! 

Saturday there was a huge Algarve district youth activity here in our chapel and they asked us missionaries to help with the activities. We took some kids out and did street contacts with them and it was fun getting to know them. We had a ton of kids here who have lived in the states and are just here for vacation or family work though! It was awesome speaking english to them and hanging out. 

This sunday I gave a talk and I literally had to wing it from nothing. I was assigned to speak on Idleness but I had literally no time to prepare a talk and just spoke by the spirit. It´s pretty interesting how I´ve gotten so comfortable to just talk and testify and how easy the words just come to my mind! I wasn´t even nervous to get up there either so I am growing here on the mission!

We have a couple of people we are focusing on too. One is named Rian.. he´s brasilian, 14 years old, does kickboxing and is super cool! He looks like he is 21 years old though! Its super weird! He is the most ripped 14 year old that I have ever seen! He was going to be baptized in the past but he didn´t feel prepared so he decided to wait and hopefully we can help prepare him here soon! He wants to roll ju-jitsu with me at the chapel really bad. I´m actually scared of him though because he is like 6´2" and a total beast, hahaha! He is hoping to fight in the UFC in the future. I told him if I tap him he has to get baptized so we will see what happens :P I already challenged him to an arm wrestling contest and I miraculously won luckily!!!

We have also been helping a recent convert named Vasco help stop his bad habit of smoking. We made some plans with him and are going to talk to him daily to help him stop. We made a plan with the branch president that he will excercise with us every morning and that by the time I leave this area he will weigh 15 kilograms more than he does now. We are going to try to bulk him up! It´s going to be fun and we are going to help him receive the Melchisedek priesthood hopefully in November.   

All in all, I am loving this new area! It has definately cooled down weather wise too! The Algarve is one of the hottest places in Portugal during the summer and it seems like I just missed the heat! 75 Degree Paradise! 

I love you all! Hope this week will be great! Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love you and live! They are waiting to help you and are just a prayer away :) 

Com Amor,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen

1. Frekin. Year.

Boas Tardes pra todos!!! Como estão?

I am great! This week was awesome! 

On the 22nd I hit my year mark! It is pretty unbelieveable that it has already been a year. I was thinking back on the weeks before my mission a year ago and everything feels like it was just yesterday. I remember how nervous I was and now here I am livin´it up loving every minute of my mission. I honestly feel like it hasn´t even been a year though because of how fast it flew by. Time truly flies when you´re having fun! There is still a ton of work for me to do here this year and I am so happy that I still have a year to become and do what I want to accomplish! 

With that being said, this awesome week was backed up with awesome investigators! Marcel and Janet are progressing and gaining a testimony! They came to church this week again for the second time and they are loving it! They have been reading and praying everyday to know if the church is true and I believe they have already received an answer and this week we are going to help them recognize it! I believe that Marcel is going to be a strong leader in the church someday, future bishop/ stake president!

We also found a new investigator names Anick. She is a single mom with a one year old baby named Leonardo. He is such a cute little boy with a little afro haha! But Anick also came to church! She accepted a baptismal date for the 6th of Aug. I know she will be baptized and I am super excited for her! 

This week we had a division with our Zone Leaders and I was paired up with Elder Wilson and my old comp. Elder Puertas!! It was so awesome being with him again for a day and a night and chatting about our past experiences! I felt like I was with my brother again!  It was so ironic how I spent my 6 month mark comps with Puertas and then I spent my year mark with him again, 6 months later! The mission is awesome when you have comps that you love and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to serve with him! One of my best friends from the mission right there!

Thats about it for the week. It is still hot as heck here and I still go to sleep sweating and wake up sweating everyday.. but I am used to it by now lol! Trials of Faith right there but when you overcome it at the end of the day it is worth it! 

Elder Wilson is still with us for one more week. He still falls asleep in the bathroom everynight and I bust up laughing when I wake up at 6ish and look over at his bed and see he´s not there haha! Super funny guy!

Other than that, thats about it for the week. The mission life is the best! I have learned so much this past year and everything is going to help me in the future. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father has blessed me to be able to make it this far and also all the miracles he has sent to me, including being able to speak Portuguese. His hand is seen in my life everyday, even if it be in tiny, tiny ways. 

This church is true. It is his church, the Church of Jesus Christ. It has been restored just as it was prophesied in the Bible through the Prophet Joseph Smith. We have the same power and authority that Jesus Christ had here on the earth today. With this power and authority, we can perform ordinances such as baptism which are valid in God´s eyes and we can also work miracles with this authority. I have seen miracles through this authority everyday. 

I love this gospel. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. They live and they are so eager to help and bless us if we turn to them! I can feel their love for me especially when I struggle and I hope you guys do too because their love is real and it is infinite. 

Have a wonderful week! 

Elder Haroldsen 

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Élder Brandon Haroldsen

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Missão Portugal Lisboa

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal

Triple!

Hello everyone!!

I don´t have very much time to email today because we took a long time in Lisbon but I will write about the important things that happened this week!

So we are now in a tri-panionship! The Elders who were in Seixal A (Elder Katipunan and Wilson) got changed up a little. Katipunan got a call saying that there was an emergency transfer happening because an elder had to go home with a back injury. So Katipunan got shipped off and Wilson came to join the homies here in Seixal B. We had to combine the areas for the rest of the transfer and our area is HUGEEEEE!!! 

This week was an explosion in our numbers and the people we found! We found a family named Marcel, Janet, Paris, and Aminachi. Marcel is from Nigeria and doesn´t speak portuguese so we teach him in english but his wife speaks Portuguese and no english so we switch off languages! We found him on a street contact and we taught him and his fam the first lesson and it went super well!! They all four came to church this week too!! Paris is 7 and aminachi is 18 months. Cute elect family!! We will be marking them for baptism this week and I´m super excited for them! 

We also met Ladí, the cousin of our recent convert. She has a very difficult life and she was touched by our message. She cried and said she knows it is God´s true church. We threw out a baptismal goal for the 30th of July and we are helping her and her 8 year old son José be baptised on that day! They both came to church too! Super exciting!

We should have a ton of baptisms in the coming weeks! I am super excited to see what the Lord blesses us with! He is so good! 

Anyways I have to go.. but I wanted to end with a funny story this week. So now that we are in a tri-panionship things have gotten quite interesting. Everything from buying more food to teaching in different ways because there are three of us now has changed. Elder Wilson is hilarious. He gets me to laugh all day long lol.. anyways, one night I got in bed after praying and noticed that Elder Wilson was still praying. I was thinking holy cow this guy prays for a long time! Then I fell asleep and woke up 2 hours later and looked over and saw the guy still on his knees praying. I was like no way!! how??.. We wake up in the morning and I hit him up about it. He started laughing and tells me that he fell asleep kneeling down and woke up at about 4 am still asleep on his knees!! WHATTTT?!?! He was asleep on his knees for like 5 hrs! I couldn´t stop laughing haha. Then to make things even funnier, he falls asleep on the toilet every. single. night. Guarenteed. He sits on the toilet for like 5 hrs every night and falls asleep and then wakes up and realizes he fell asleep. We are always joking that now that he moved in with us he doesn´t even need a bed, he can pray for 4 hrs then finish off the night on the toilet!! classic!!

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week. Miss you all!!

Com Amor, 

Elder Haroldsen

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Élder Brandon Haroldsen

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Missão Portugal Lisboa

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal

19.

Hello hello!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who sent me emails for my birthday this past week!!! I received the most emails this week than any week of my mission so far! I felt super loved as I read everyone´s emails today :) 

Well, I am super short on time today because I spent a little too much time deciding which suit I was gonna buy at the mall today!! I am super excited to wear it because it is a swagged out european suit. Therefore, I only have about 30 min to email today unfortunately... 

BUT this week was a great one! I am getting to know the area and some of the members relatively well now and I am loving it! My comp. and I become better and better friends every day too. My birthday went great! We went to the mall to eat lunch which was buffet Pizza Hut. We always have a competition and I was only able to eat 10 and then 11 today. I also received a call from my mission president and his wife wishing me a happy birthday. That night we had a lesson with our investigator Elsa and she had remembered my bday and bought juice and doughnuts for me! I was so happy and grateful! She is so nice and super elect. We have her marked for baptism this saturday the 28th of May and we are going to work hard preparing her this week. I am super excited for her to make this change in her life to follow our Savior Jesus Christ! 

THEN I received a super special bday present this weekend. On friday we had a mission conference with Elder David A. Bednar, an Apostle of the Lord! I got to sit about 10 feet away from him and he was so powerful! I loved it so much and he really motivated me by his powerful testimony and witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he said, "Revelation is a conclusion and almost never has an explaination... when we receive revelation to act upon something from the Holy Ghost, the Lord lmost never explains why he wants us to do it. We just need to trust that the revelation is coming from our Loving Heavenly Father and do it." Then the stake of Setubal had the opportunity to have Elder Bednar speak to them on sunday and I was there too!! Our investigator Elsa showed up and the talk he gave was directed perfectly for her as an investigator of the church. Elder Bednar explained how this is the only true church of Jesus Christ on all the face of the earth and explained the restoration is detail. The spirit was SO strong! One quote that I loved that he said on sunday was, "When Christ is hungry, he feeds other people. When he is suffering pain, he heals others. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can turn out to serve others and be more like HIM." 

I was touched this weekend hearing from an Apostle of the Lord. I know he is a true witness of Him. I know without a doubt that this is the only church that will help us be together forever as families. This church is the same orginazation that Christ established. It is all true. I know this and all of you can know it for yourselves through the help of the missionaries like me. 

I am so grateful for all of you and the love you show me. May the Lord bless all of you and your families! 

p.s. sorry I am not writing individual emails this week as I am on a public computer and I have about 5 min left.

Com Amor para 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 

PORTUGAL OR AFRICA

WHATUPPP from Continental Portugal! 

This week went really fast like always! I flew in tuesday and have been getting to know the area ever since. Seixal is hugeee. So many people too! But I´m finally starting to catch on to the different roads. Here in a couple of weeks I´ll have it all down I hope. There are a TON of people from Africa here. They tend to speak Creole sometimes when they don´t want us to understand and it drives me crazy lol. But getting to know the African culture has really opened my eyes and helped me be more humble. 

My comp. is a pretty cool guy. He is from Oregon so we are both west coast kids. We get along well and we are going to baptize some elects together! 

Basically upon arriving here, we have no investigators. It has been difficult for me to help my comp. out finding people because I have no idea who anybody is or where we are even at. BUT we already had our first sunday here together! Man this ward is awesome! I came from the Azores with a branch of about 6 members to this ward with an attendance of more than 100 people! I felt like I was in my ward back home... super different. 

This saturday we knocked on this lady´s door named Elsa that the missionaries had contacted about 2 weeks ago. They had passed by like 4 times and she always said she didn´t have time so they dropped her. We decided to knock her door one more time and she was home! We told her we had church the next day at 9:30 and that we could walk with her to church. She said she would go so we were excited! Then sunday morning we rung her doorbell and no answer.. I felt dissapointed but had the feeling to not lose hope. So like 3 min. later we knocked again and she started coming out all dressed up for church! She was like,"I thought you guys had forgotten about me!" We walked to church with her and got to know her. She is African from Angola and is visiting her sister here in Portugal until mid July. She is super nice and turns out she absolutely loved church! She was so happy that she went and she said she is planning on going every week. On the walk home we talked to her about baptism and she said that she would be intrested! She said she wants to find a chapel in Angola and go there too! We are going by her house tonight with faith and power! The Lord is always preparing elects! 

Anyways..thats about it for the week. We have a mall in our area so we went there for Pday today and I got some new pants and McDonalds for the first time in 5 months. Bomb.com! 

My mission is soooo awesome. I am learning a lot and growing in testimony and power. I have learned to rely on my Heavenly Father for everything and leaving things in his hands. I know with 100% of my heart that this is Jesus Christs´ true church, the same church he established on this earth himself. I have seen miracles performed by the authority and power of the priesthood. The priesthood is real and can only be found in this church. The best part about this all is that we can know for ourselves! 

This church is real and true. Families can be together forever and this is the goal in the end. 

I love you all and I hope that you have an amazing week! 

Teu Élder Preferido,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen 

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Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal