Elder Haroldsen Takes On Lisbon, Portugal!: 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!