From the warm coast to the freezing Mtns week 19/102

Whats up everyone!

Another blur of a week down! First week of the transfer gone! 

Vila Franca de Xira is an awesome place to serve! We have mountains here and then the rio tejo, which connects to the ocean. It is such a difference here from Costa though! It is freezzinngg here! At night it gets probably below freezing. My big coat isn't enough and I end up shivering knocking doors until we have to walk haha. We live at the top of the mountain. There are a bunch of apartment complex´s next to the house so we work there a lot, but the main downtown part is way down the hill, about a 2 mile walk! But downtown is beautiful. I finally feel like I am in Europe  here! The streets are small and the buildings look like they are fake, like something you would see in NewYork, NewYork in Vegas. They put up a bunch of Christmas lights around the city and they have these speakers all around the city at the top of the buildings that they play American Christmas music from. It feels like its Christmas already walking around there every night lol. 

Thanksgiving was pretty cool. We got together as a district in the chapel in Alverça and everyone brought a bunch of homemade food. It was actually really good! It made it easier being away from home, but I was fine. It honestly didn't even seem like it was really thanksgiving because of course it isn't celebrated here... they didn't even do black Friday! 

We had our first Sunday here in the branch. They are all really nice! There were about 12 people that came to church total this week, but at least we have a branch president and leadership here. But we are hoping to help this branch grow!

This week my comp was looking through the area book and the potential investigator list the Elders left from the past because we are literally starting from scratch here in this whitewash. They left us no investigators to work with so it makes things hard. 

Anyways the first name he writes down was a man named Oscar. So he calls him and hes like, "Yeah i talked to the Missionaries in the past and they marked an appointment with me like last month but never showed up!" 

so he kept talking and hes like okay well we can see if we can meet up with you soon. and he goes yeah we are American... are you from here in Portugal originally?.. and he goes no im Ecuadorian! And Hilton gets a big smile and hes all my comp is Ecuadorian! Do you want to talk to him? 

So i did, in spanish haha! He is from Otavalo also known as "Utahvalo" in Ecuador because of the abundance of LDS members there., and I was like," oh wow then you're a descendant of the laminates!" He didn't know what that is of course lol but I told him that the indigenous people from Otavalo are laminates from the Book of Mormon and hes all oh! Yeah im an indian! So I tried to mark an appointment with him but unfortunately he works 7 days a week from 10 am to 8-9pm and hes going back to Ecuador on Dec. 27! So I asked if there's any way he can go in to work a little bit later on Sundays so he can make it to church and he said he will try. So we are praying for him and we are going to fast for him. Who knows, maybe that's the reason we got transferred here? 

Today we spent all day in Belem. My comp had a doctors appointment for his shoulder so we were in the hospital for like 3 hrs. But we got to eat lunch in this 50´s American Diner!! It was so good! Reminded me of Red Robin. And i also had my first Oreo milkshake in 4 months!! 

Hope you all have a great week. Love and miss you all and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Also, shoutout to my friend from High School, Alfredo Frausto! He´s getting baptized this Friday! 

Thats so awesome bro!! I wish I could be there to see it. 

Com amor,

Elder B. Haroldsen 

Address: 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

TRANSFERS TRANSFERS TRANSFERS

Olá meus queridos amigos e minha querida familia!!

Another week down, another transfer in the books!!! This past transfer seemed like a breeze! I cant believe how fast it flew by.

Well, I got transferred again! But before that let me tell you about the week. 

Well last Monday started off pretty rough. We almost ended up in a brawl with three punks on our way home at night. We had passed these three guys on the street earlier and they were saying bad jokes about us and making fun of the church and stuff so we basically ignored them. So we were walking home at around 9:30 and we see them on the street that we needed to take to get home. They were about 27 years old each. So we walk by them and they said something to Hilton and he got mad so he goes up to them and we talked and they were smoking weed and still acting dumb and he like poked Hilton super hard in the chest and Hilton`s like don´t touch me. and we were like whatever so Hilton like pats his shoulder and says okay bud, we are leaving and he pushes Hilton and says don´t touch me! So Hilton pushed him back super hard and I started to jump in just in case he punched Hilton and the guy backs up and hes all ready to fight and Hilton says lucky for you i cant fight or ill get sent home. And the guy was like yeah you`re lucky because if we fought these guys would jump in and kill you guys. Man oh man my heart was pounding and the spirit was saying to leave so we did. Hilton said he felt the spirit the same so luckily we obeyed and didn`t get our butts kicked. We saw those guys three times after that night driving around and they yelled at us so i think its a good thing we got transferred. 

So we taught Luis and Neusa again, and invited them to schedule a day for their baptism/wedding. She said she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and felt a different feeling and we kept testifying that that was the holy ghost. So Luis said he will get married but he has to settle some things and he will be ready for marriage in 15-30 days.. so we were like perfect! We can do it on Christmas or something! So we were all excited about that. Then we taught another girl we found knocking and she really accepted our message and was all excited about reading and praying. So we were like yeah!!! Three solid baptisms right there!!!

Then on Tuesday we get a call from the mission president, President Tavares, and he asks us about Luis and Neusa and how they are doing. He said that he felt inspired to call us and tell us to read more of the BOM with them. We got our confidence built up! And we were thinking now forsure we wouldnt get transferred. 

Well, come saturday night we get an early call saying that costa da caparica would be whitewashed(Both missionaries leave the area) they kept saying dont worry it was nothing you guys did the Lord just has other plans for you. So we were all bummed out wondering where we would go and who we would be spending christmas and new years with as we had to clean out house in prep for the other elders coming in. Then sunday after church we get a call from President again. He told us that this was a special phone call. We would be staying together as a companionship and we would be going to a small branch in Vila Franca de Xira to a new stake we are opening up called lisbon west. He said that we are going to baptize a ton in this area. he said that he had prayed about us and this area in specific and that the area is very prepared for baptisms, and that we are going to take care of it. We were like wow!!! Because staying together for a whitewash is rare. So we are really excited as we get to spend christmas and new years together! 

So far this area seems pretty nice! Its kinda in the mountains so its reallyyy cold right now. Ive only been here for a couple hours but im already liking it. Except for the fact that the nearest supermarket is about 3 miles downhill from out house and so we had to walk 3 miles uphill with 20 lbs of food to get back which was tough!! So looks like this transfer ill be getting in shape! haha 

I was also surprised that ive seen a couple Ecuadorians today! They were Otavalenios from Otavalo, Ecuador, so they has the long indian ponytail. I had a lot of fun talking to them in spanish and telling them about my family in Quito! It was really cool to see them. 

We are starting off from scratch here, so we are going to need to work hard and talk with everybody! Im really excited to see what the Lord has in store for us though. 

Have a great week everyone. Ill give you the update about this area next week.

love you all. Fica fixe! 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

Week 18/102

Hello friends and family!

How are you all? Another week has come and gone. One more week left in the transfer!! I hope I stay here in Costa. We still have a lot of work to do here with a lot of potential. The chance of me getting transferred is pretty small though. Hopefully my comp Hilton stays too so we can spend Christmas on the beach! That would be fun.

This week we found a couple of news to teach and a couple more potentials. We met up with Luis and Neuza at the beginning of the week and we get there and they are straight up arguing yelling at each other. So we had to calm them down and finally taught them a lesson. So that day was rough. But we taught them again yesterday and they were much better. They said they feel like they should be baptized but still havent received an answer. So when they do we will marry them and baptize them right after. I pray for them day and night. Hopefully they are going to keep their commitments!

Earlier this week we went out on the beach when we first left the house just to see the beach and take a few pics and as soon as we started walking we hear, " Hey Elders!" It ends up being a member from Germany that is a pilot and stayed the week here in Portugal. He started asking about the mission and our investigators and I was like just a question, what is your calling? He says stake president and I was like i knew it! Haha that guy was awesome!! He sounded just like uchdorf. And he really emphasized,"Remeber who you are, you are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will always help you." This really hit home to me and i was feeling the spirit super strong through him. Its so crazy how the Lord puts people in your path to help you and motivate you. The guys name was Mark Hart. 

It was super sad hearing about the tradigy in Paris. I dont really know how I ended up hearing about it but somehow i did from investigators or something. But my heart goes out to those people. We were sitting at Luis and Neuzas house and they were talking about it on the news and showing what happened. It was scary! 

Nothing is happening here in Portugal as in safety measures. Everything is still the same. But now with this whole situation, people always ask us," If God loves all his children, Why does he let these things happen?" And we simply answer: God loves us so much. He loves us enough to give us our own agency, or the freedom to choose between right or wrong. Whatever people do is based on their own agency. Satan is real, and he knows God´s plan. He knows he can tempt us and influence us and this is what he does all day long every single day. And this is why evil things happen in this world, because God´s plan is centered around agency and he will never take that away from us. There will always be those good people who use their agency to do good things and follow God´s plan, and there will always be evil people who have fallen to the temptations of the enemy. Therefore, just because bad things happen, it doesnt mean God doesnt love us.

Today for pday we went across the river to "Torre de Belém" which is a famous statue in the river. It was pretty cool! But the main reason why we went there is to meet up with a bunchhhhh of elders to play a game of tackle football! A bunch of people are dying this transfer (Term for finishing their missions) so they wanted to play a game of tackle football together. So we did. It starts just like your typical turkey bowl football game with about 20 people on each team. We went and grabbed some food while they started playing and came back and played. They wanted me to play quarterback because they saw me throw the football and they couldnt really i guess. So here we go, playing full out tackel football with no pads or anything. It was awesome!! I got rocked a couple of times haha because we were playing with a bunch of beasts. I feel kinda sore now but we will see tomorrow. 

Anyways. Thats about it for my week. Still working hard! Slowly but surely seeing success!

But always trusting in the Lord. 

I love and miss all of you. Nobody needs to worry about me because I am doing just fine. Im exactly where the Lord needs me, and he will always help me. Ill be home in no time. 

Always remember who you are. A child of God, Our Heavenly Father. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to be happy. We need to always remember what is truly important in this life- striving to be better every day by keeping the commandments and loving/ serving one another. Bad things will always happen to good people, I can promise you that, because it always seems to happen to me. But these bad things will make you better. They will strengthen you for even greater things. The most important thing you need to do is trust in your Heavenly Father. He will always be there for you, I promise. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I testify that he lives and loves you. I know that. or else I wouldn´t be out here to share this with the people of Portugal. 

Alma 26:12 

que tenham uma boa semana! 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

Como que é meus amigos?!

How was this week? I heard Cali finally got some rain and Utah got some snow! Thats good!! Meanwhile the weather here really changes. Some days storms roll in and the beaches are empty while some days its 75 and sunny and the beaches are packed! I love the sunny days!

This week was hard finding people to teach. A lot of the days our appointments were dropped and we had nothing to do but contact people. But we were able to meet up with our investigators Luiz and Neuza.. They are really cool and they always feed us when we get there haha. When we show up hes always watching some different youtube video or the simpsons or a movie and this time it was hunting in portugal. I was like what?! I didnt think they even had guns in Portugal? And he said basically they are smuggled in.. But they were hunting javelina pigs and i was like where is this? He said up in the north. But he showed me videos of javelina in Setubal which is like 30 min away!!! Thise pigs were huge! and they werent even afraid of people. I was all pumped lol But these people are awesome!! We basically had them marked for baptism but came to find out they arent married :(

So we explained the Law of Chastity and told them they can be married at the chapel by the bishop for free. They had huge smiles on their faces and said they will have to talk and get some clothes. I told him he can use one of my suits haha so im excited for that!! Hopefully it happens.

This week my comp had to go back to the hospital because his shoulder got hurt a couple weeks ago.. so we went to lisbon across the river and went to the American store! They have a ton of american foods that they dont have in Portugal!! I got some dr peppers, cherry coke, root beer, kettle corn, and candy. It was so nice having dp again!! 

Last night we got invited to eat dinner with the bishop of our ward and his house was so nice!! He had invited one of the members who had just moved here from canada because her son is playing soccer here in portugal and is hoping to go pro. Anyways she was asking us where we are from and i said Im from cali but i have a mom from Ecuador and shes like IM FROM ECUADOR!!! She had only lived in canada for 8 years and shes been here in portugal for 4 months. She only spoke to bishops wife in english so i spoke spanish to here and i had thought i wouldnt be able to but i still can luckily!! But she said she cant speak portuguese even after 4 months of language classes here. So i had to translate for her from portuguese to spanish haha. She was shocked i have only been in portugal for 2.5 months... The gift of toungues is real!! This experience really helped build up my confidence and reminded me of my fam back home. The lady was just like Liz! :) 

This week we got a letter from the AP´s and i really liked it:

"There was a wise man who was walking down the beach one day. In the distance, he saw what looked like somone who was dancing in the waves out in the distance. As he got closer, he saw a young man who was grabbing starfish from the sand and throwing them into the waves.

"What are you doing?" The man asked.

"The sun is coming up, and the tide is going out. If I dont throw the starfish back into the water, they will dry out and die."

"But kid, there are hundreds of miles along this beach that are covered in starfish. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE"

After the old man said this, the young man grabbed another starfish and threw it into the waves... "But it makes a difference for that ONE" "

In life and on our missions ,we feel like we are small. We are just one person and theres billions of people on the earth. How can i possibly make a difference??

We have the ability to bring to help and bring souls to salvation. But we have to work at it. We have to try with all our might to help others come unto christ. 

D&C 18:16 

eu os amo!! Espero que fiquem bem e sempre sejam melhor cada dia. Tenham uma boa semana meus amados amigos! 

Com amor,

Élder Brandon Haroldsen 

The address to write him letter: 

Élder Brandon Michael Haroldsen

Missão Portugal Lisboa 

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Benfica, Lisboa

Portugal 

Photos: 

Almost Four Months Out!

Meus amigos!!!

Tudo fixe? Como estão todos?

How is everyone? Did you have a good halloween? Its already November!!! Thats crazy!!

This week went by reallyyyyy fast.. again. We had zone conference this week in a city called Barreiro and we had to take a couple different trains to get there. We had to wake up at 5:30 to catch the first bus to take us to the train and that was rough! It was a really good conference though. President Tavares is such a wonderful mission president!!! I love that guy. 

Halloween is way different here than in the states. There was literally only like 5 kids trick or treating. I was like what the heck!? I bet people thought we were supposed to be dressed up as missionaries haha...

Then this sunday Sister Tavares wanted to try something new for "O Dia Dos Almas" 

So we went to the local cemetary because thats the day all the Portuguese go there to spend some time with desceased loved ones. Well we had no idea how to get to the cemetary because we had to go to one outside our area and the Elders in that area were still in a lesson after church. So basically we had to wait for them then walk like 3 miles until we finally got there and by that time it was 4:30 and the place closed at 5. All the people were walking out already.. so we didnt get to do much sadly. But their cemetaries are way different!!! They have a ton of dirt mounds so i dont know if they actually bury the people deep down or not. It was really creepy lol

We found a new kid this week named Leonardo. His mom is portuguese and his dad lives in England so he speaks english better but speaks really British. It feels so weird teaching in english!!! I feel like its not as easy/simple. Anyways, hes 14 years old and he is super nice. He has a lot of potential I think and we are going back to visit with him this week. So we shall see! We have a couple others too that we are going to pass by this week. Hopefully we can get some marked for baptism soon! 

Today was a super legit pday. We went to columbo which is across the bay from where we serve. We all went as a district to go the the hugeee mall they have there and then to go bowling! It was so much fun! I always feel like im back in the US when i do fun things like that. We were jammin out to music they played over the speakers and it was an awesome time. Then we ate some burger king and came back to the church to email. 

Looking back on the past feels like a blink of an eye and looking forward to the future seems like I got forever to go on my mission, but Its honestly going super fast! I hit 4 months this month! I cant believe that haha But i totally love my mission. I love Lisbon and being by the ocean. Im super grateful for everyone who writes me every week!! 

Hope you all have a great week. Love and miss you all!!!

Lisbon!!!( across the bay from costa da caparica)

Moon pic of the full moon

Lisboa!!

Lisbon Temple Plan

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