Monday, July 18, 2011
7-18-11
Hello Family,
Well, we got transfer calls today and I am going to another area called Vila Real. It is still in the north of the country. Which is weird because I thought I was going to go south. But I will be serving with Elder Lefevre. He just got off a transfer on the Madeira Islands and we will be going to Vila Real. So, you all know what that means!!!!! We will be WHITEWASHING Vila Real. I have never whitewashed before because President Walton didn´t like doing them but President Torgan loves doind them and does two or three every transfer. But it will be an adventure, that´s for sure. And I have know Elder Lefrevre ever since I got here and he is a good worker and we should get a lot of work done.
But anyways that is pretty much all the news from this week. Just another week of finding. We worked a lot and got 40 hours of proselyting and only found a couple new investigators. And all the ones we found last week have gone away. But we did have one ray of hope named Gabi and his little boy Samuel. They are immigrants from Romania. Which would seem weird but it´s not. There are tons here and they are called gypsies or siganos in Portuguese. They have darker skin and usually are beggars and what ever else you would think about a gypsie. But Gabi is a good guy and knows the Bible really well adn has a desire to learn about the truth. Too bad that I will never be able to see his progress.
But I am really excited to go to Vila Real and do some work. That area has the reputation of being really over worked and I am excited for the challenge.
Well, thanks for all you guys do for me.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
PS: my new address
Elder Spencer Jensen
Avenida Cidade Ourense
Lot 4, Ent 1, 7ºDtº
Vila Real 5000
Well, we got transfer calls today and I am going to another area called Vila Real. It is still in the north of the country. Which is weird because I thought I was going to go south. But I will be serving with Elder Lefevre. He just got off a transfer on the Madeira Islands and we will be going to Vila Real. So, you all know what that means!!!!! We will be WHITEWASHING Vila Real. I have never whitewashed before because President Walton didn´t like doing them but President Torgan loves doind them and does two or three every transfer. But it will be an adventure, that´s for sure. And I have know Elder Lefrevre ever since I got here and he is a good worker and we should get a lot of work done.
But anyways that is pretty much all the news from this week. Just another week of finding. We worked a lot and got 40 hours of proselyting and only found a couple new investigators. And all the ones we found last week have gone away. But we did have one ray of hope named Gabi and his little boy Samuel. They are immigrants from Romania. Which would seem weird but it´s not. There are tons here and they are called gypsies or siganos in Portuguese. They have darker skin and usually are beggars and what ever else you would think about a gypsie. But Gabi is a good guy and knows the Bible really well adn has a desire to learn about the truth. Too bad that I will never be able to see his progress.
But I am really excited to go to Vila Real and do some work. That area has the reputation of being really over worked and I am excited for the challenge.
Well, thanks for all you guys do for me.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
PS: my new address
Elder Spencer Jensen
Avenida Cidade Ourense
Lot 4, Ent 1, 7ºDtº
Vila Real 5000
Monday, July 11, 2011
7-11-11
Hello Family,
We have been starting to do this thing called revelados or revealed. Where we have the names of everyone that has been to church at least one time and we pray over their names and choose the ones that we feel need to be baptized that week. Then, we pray over a date. So one of those is named Maria José. She is the mom of a returned missionary here named Claudia. So, we called Wed and they said they weren´t there so we went by Thurs and found her sitting on someones stairs. Well, we proceeded to talk to her and it went on for about an hour. We told her that we had received revelation that she needed to be baptized. But man she did not want anything to do with us. And we even prayed with her to feel what we were feeling and she did feel it. She just kept saying over and over that she didn´t wanna be baptized again because she already was in the Catholic church. So, we explained authority and then she goes on to say "My padre has just as much if not more power than you do." Well, that didn´t make me or Elder Nielsen happy so Elder Nielsen basically says the Pope is wrong and a liar hahahaha. She didn´t like that too much. So, we just told her to pray about it and that we would come back the next day. So, we did and she wasn´t home and so we called her and her and her husband yelled at us over the phone saying to leave them alone and then they told us their RM daughter told them to just tell us to never come back to their house. Wow! what kind of RM, and then we found out that Claudia was dating a nonmember and that she didn´t have a job but yet she was still moving out of the house. So, how does someone move out without a job??? So, we think she moved in with her boyfriend.
Then our other one that we had was the mom of a recent convert that we have. Her name is Maria (of course). And we were dead certain that she would be baptized that week. So, we set up an appointment go over and talk and it was a good lesson we taught the Restoration and all that stuff and did that same thing, we invited her to be baptized and she actually gave us a good reason. That she hadn´t read the BoM and that she needed time to read it. And dang it that is one of the best excuses I have ever heard. And she said that we can come back anytime but she just needs time to read.
So, then we do the name choosing again and it is like 9 at night and I get this impression that we need to go over to this one woman´s house. So, we walk about 20 min there and knock on her door. She opens tell us she doens´t want anything and then slams the door in our faces.
We have starting doing guided tours of the chapel in Guimarães. The chapel is right on one of the main roads in Guimarães. So, we just stand out there and as people walk by we ask them if they want a tour. Most people say no but we have a lot of people that say yes. So, we take them in, have a prayer and then watch "Finding Happiness", which is a really good movie. Talk about the BoM, and how it proves our message. And then we take then next to the baptismal font, talk about that for a second and then ask them that is they receive and answer from God if they will be baptized into Christ´s Church. Most of the time people say sure or that they were already baptized and then we go from there. But usually they work really well.
Well, that is all for this week. I love and miss you guys.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
We have been starting to do this thing called revelados or revealed. Where we have the names of everyone that has been to church at least one time and we pray over their names and choose the ones that we feel need to be baptized that week. Then, we pray over a date. So one of those is named Maria José. She is the mom of a returned missionary here named Claudia. So, we called Wed and they said they weren´t there so we went by Thurs and found her sitting on someones stairs. Well, we proceeded to talk to her and it went on for about an hour. We told her that we had received revelation that she needed to be baptized. But man she did not want anything to do with us. And we even prayed with her to feel what we were feeling and she did feel it. She just kept saying over and over that she didn´t wanna be baptized again because she already was in the Catholic church. So, we explained authority and then she goes on to say "My padre has just as much if not more power than you do." Well, that didn´t make me or Elder Nielsen happy so Elder Nielsen basically says the Pope is wrong and a liar hahahaha. She didn´t like that too much. So, we just told her to pray about it and that we would come back the next day. So, we did and she wasn´t home and so we called her and her and her husband yelled at us over the phone saying to leave them alone and then they told us their RM daughter told them to just tell us to never come back to their house. Wow! what kind of RM, and then we found out that Claudia was dating a nonmember and that she didn´t have a job but yet she was still moving out of the house. So, how does someone move out without a job??? So, we think she moved in with her boyfriend.
Then our other one that we had was the mom of a recent convert that we have. Her name is Maria (of course). And we were dead certain that she would be baptized that week. So, we set up an appointment go over and talk and it was a good lesson we taught the Restoration and all that stuff and did that same thing, we invited her to be baptized and she actually gave us a good reason. That she hadn´t read the BoM and that she needed time to read it. And dang it that is one of the best excuses I have ever heard. And she said that we can come back anytime but she just needs time to read.
So, then we do the name choosing again and it is like 9 at night and I get this impression that we need to go over to this one woman´s house. So, we walk about 20 min there and knock on her door. She opens tell us she doens´t want anything and then slams the door in our faces.
We have starting doing guided tours of the chapel in Guimarães. The chapel is right on one of the main roads in Guimarães. So, we just stand out there and as people walk by we ask them if they want a tour. Most people say no but we have a lot of people that say yes. So, we take them in, have a prayer and then watch "Finding Happiness", which is a really good movie. Talk about the BoM, and how it proves our message. And then we take then next to the baptismal font, talk about that for a second and then ask them that is they receive and answer from God if they will be baptized into Christ´s Church. Most of the time people say sure or that they were already baptized and then we go from there. But usually they work really well.
Well, that is all for this week. I love and miss you guys.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
7-6-11
Dear Family,
Well, things have changed here in my mission a lot. The two missions in Portugal combined into one and now we have a new mission president named Presidente Torgan. He is from Brazil and he is a famous politician in Brazil. And he is also famous for being really tough on crime and all the criminals fear him haha. He is a pretty big guy too probably 6´5" and 300 lbs. But he is a really nice guy and he is really stright forward and direct. And he has a very forceful leadership style but since he has been in Portugal he has helped baptize over 1000 people. Which is pretty dang good for Europe. We had a two day training about how things worked in the Lisbon mission. And we learned a lot of good ways to help people be baptized. He really focuses on goals and achieving them.
So we did a couple activities where we re made our goals.
And he gave us a challenge this week to find someone that has already been to church at least once (to be baptized you have to go to church twice) and get them to be baptized sometime this week or after church on Sunday. It is a really daunting task and will be really hard to do, but me and Elder Nielsen have prayed and we have a couple people that we think would be good to help be baptized this Sunday. Our goal is for two people to be baptized. And we also made a goal for 10 people to be baptized this month is Guimarães, which will also take a lot of work to achieve. But I know that it was revelation that I received to make this goal and that there is a way that I can achieve this goal that we made.
I didn´t get to do anything for the 4 of July because we had trainings and my mission president is Brazilian, but he did let us sing the national anthem during the training but nothing else. And no one in Portugal cares about the US so nothing else went on. Just a normal day.
Well, that is all for me today. I love and miss all you guys.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
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