OLA!

What up friends and family?! How are you all? Hows the United States?

Well I am here in PORTUGAL!!! ITS SO SO SO AMAZING!!! I love my mission so much!

So ill start by explaining everything that has happened this past week.

We left the MTC at 3:30AM. It was so hard to wake up after 3 hrs of sleep. We almost missed the time to leave because we slept through the alarm we had set for 2AM but luckily an Elder woke up and woke us all up at 3.. so we got dressed and ready in the dark, half asleep. We then got on a bus that took alot of us missionaries to a train station kinda by the girls house in Provo. It was sad to drive down the street and see the pawn shop and know we are so close to the house. So I fell asleep on the 45 min train ride to the SLC Airport. Then we had to check into the computers at the airport and my bags weighed 50lbs and 52lbs.. hopefully they didnt charge my credit card for a heavy bag haha. I then had a little bit of time to call my parents and had to go because we almost missed our flight. We then flew 4.5 hrs to JFK Airport in New York. The airport was huge! But it was in the middle of nowhere so we didnt see any buildings. The people there were SUPER RUDE! It was so different and crazy. So we were only there for like an hour and i had to get some food because I was starving. This is where i did my first contact. It was with a lady from Africa and she asked what we were doing and how our church was different from others. We explained the restoration of the Church and the priesthood and basically after that she just wanted to argue. The payphones wernt working to i was like i guess ill just call from France. So we flew 7.5 hrs and finally got to france. Longest flight ever just sitting there not being able to watch movies like American Sniper, Inside Out, or Fast and Furious 7 haha. Then in france the payphones were all in french and i couldnt understand and so i couldnt call. Sorry to all who were expecting a call!! We then flew 2 hrs to Portugal.. i slept again and woke up as we were flying over Lisbon. it was so amazing!!! When we landed some elders had lost their bags so they waited and the rest of us went down to meet the President and his AP´s. They were all waving Portugal flags and they were all super excited. It was so cool!! They presidents wife was taking pics of us on her ipad and it reminded me of home lol. then we went to meet our companions at the mission home and ate lunch and had interviewa with President Tavares. My companion is named elder eric lee from utah. He is a super cool guy and he speaks portuguese really well. President Tavares is such a wonderful guy!!! he reminds me exactly of tio vinicio in Ecuador. And his wife is just like yorye haha. The first night we got assigned to our areas. I got assigned to a small city called Évora. It is a new area for my comp and me. we are opening this area and taking the south side. There are two other elders on the north side. Our house is extremely small. there is no closets or anything so my stuff is still in my suitcase. There is an AC machine only in the room and the rest of the house is super hot. It is two stories but trust me its tiny tiny. especially for the four of us. We are a part of a small branch here in Évora. there is no leadership, so we are conducting every meeting. There are only about 12 active members on a good day. 

We are working hard though. President Tavares promised that if we make 20street contacts every day as a companionship, we will baptize this transfer. yesterday we got 30. It was a lot of work but we just talked to everybody we saw. Since we are both new, we are trying to figure out the area. This city is probably one of the oldest in portugal. its allllll cobblestone streets. and they are rough rocks sticking out so its tiring to walk on.. my feet kill by the end of the day!!

we have found a couple of people that seem intrested in the church. hopefully we can mark them down for a baptismal date. 

since there are only a few members, most meals are on our own.. ham and cheese sandwiches or cereal basically. yeah we go hungry. but thats okay. we have had two meals at members houses. it was just rice (super good) chicken salad and soup. not that exciting haha. my pants are already starting to fit me big cause we have been walking alot which is good!!! 

the weather is sometimes a little warm here but in the mornings and nights its like 70 degrees.. so nice!! when i got to lisbon it felt like perfect beach weather. This place reminds me alot of ecuador. its super similar. 

My portuguese is decent haha but its so hard to understand real people. their accent is crazy and when i bore my testimony in church yesterday they said i have a spanish accent when i speak portuguese. better that sounding like a gringo!!! 

ill let you all know how this week goes. peace out America

-- 

Elder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

A Igreja De Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Ultimos Dias