April 30, 2012

So I was thinking, just real quick before I get started, that if you have a chance in the next package (whenever it is, don't stress...doesn't need to be anytime soon) if you could send me some more Swedish fish...turns out the people here only have Portuguese fish, and they smell bad!! ;)

Anyways...so thank you so much for all the information!! I love hearing about Grace...it's the bomb. Elder Weiss thinks grace is such a ridiculous place, but i love it! haha makes me laugh :) Sal took 10th in the nation?? That’s ridiculously amazing!!! I'm super proud of her!! And I feel so bad that Mrs. Hamblin isn't coming back. It makes sense, and I knew she was pregnant, but still....bummer! Sarah is a reading fool!! haha I love it! Sister after my own heart <3 hehehe and yes on the Britt rocking the dance recital!!! Way to start young! My only regret about dance.....was that I couldn’t do it my freshman and sophomore year! triste :( and Sarah needs to keep up that attitude though! Someone needs to keep the manliness in the family! ;) Man I’m all about emoticons right now eh? Don’t judge. Man that's rough about the Disneyland thing though.....it would be super cool for Britt...but I definitely understand your worry. That’s a rough one. No stress though...you'll figure it out. You always do :)

Man....here’s the deal. I need some hard copies of these pictures, cuz I have an incredibly good looking sister!! And it’s just a bummer that she's marrying a dork like Matt (haha just kidding....love you bro! :)) I can't believe the wedding is this week! my entire branch (yes all 30 of them) know that Steph is getting married this weekend, and what an amazing person she is, and what a stud ball player Matthew is, and they can’t wait for this weekend to be over so I’ll shut up about it! haha ;)

FRACK IS ENGAGED?!?!? What the heck man!! I'm not even in the country!! He couldn’t wait until I got back??? It’s not THAT long! haha just kidding :) man that's awesome!! I really can’t even tell you what a blessing it is, that all these soon to be married couples have a temple right there. It's so hard for the people here to receive the blessings of the temple, because so many of them barely have enough money for food and sometimes not even that, but then the temple is 6 hours away so it’s expensive to travel. But Elder Weiss and I have been working so hard and have been focusing on the temple, that there are a lot of people making plans to go to the temple here soon. It's an incredible sacrifice, but it really is amazing to see the changes in people as they start to plan and sacrifice. I'm so excited to get a temple in Lisbon!!

Oh man tell ash good luck!! Student body officer is dabomb.com!! And she'll win....no sweat! ;) Just be yourself Butch, and they'll vote for you!! :) put a picture of me up in the high school...like one of me being really good looking or something, and tell the kids that I’ll write them a letter if they'll vote for you....yeah...you'll win for sure! :)

So I haven't met with President Torgan yet....turns out that our interviews got moved until tomorrow...and this will probably be the only one I have with him...that's what Elder Weiss said...so we'll see. I'm super excited about it. I've heard lots of good things about President Torgan, and it will be nice to actually meet him.

K so update on Kamal and Jassy, and their 2 children Akash and Joselyn (the Indian family) they are AMAZING!!! I love them to death!! Kamal was able to make it to church yesterday. HIs family wasn't because Jassy wasn't feeling very good, so she stayed with the kids while Kamal came to church. He liked it a lot! He’s still trying to find out what is right for his family. We had a lesson with them last night and taught the restoration, and the spirit was super strong! We emphasized the Book of Mormon, and they agreed to read and pray, and were reading it when we left. So cool! So we stopped by this morning on our way to email, and Kamal wasn’t there, but Jassy said they read and prayed. She doesn't speak Portuguese very well, but she said she read and prayed and she it was really really good! And the look in her eyes when she said that....oh man it was awesome!! We tried to set something up to come back, but Kamal works so much it’s difficult, but we will...They're incredible!

So miracle alert!!! Another family!!! AMAZING!! so we were waiting to talk with this girl named Graça and she was late, so we were sitting there wondering if we should call her or what, and we saw 2 guys walking toward the store next to us....we recognized one as a guy that runs in the park next to our house. So we said hi and then they stopped....ok...sign number one. They stopped, and we talked to them they are from Guinea, and they both accepted the Book of Mormon, and then we got their numbers. So we were pumped and walking to our next appointment and Elder Weiss felt like he should talk to this lady walking the opposite direction from us...which he doesn’t do...so the spirit was really working on him. So we stopped her and talked to her. Turns out she's the girlfriend of the guy that we met with! (Girlfriend of 10 years....no one here is married...it's a plague.) But she's a member from a million years ago. She was baptized when she was 10 but her family never really was active....so now we're talking with them! They are super interested! The Lord has definitely prepared them!! Tavares is his name, and he used to play soccer professionally, but then hurt his knee so he's out. He can never play again. And right now he doesn’t have work and they are super humble, and super loving and super interested and we had a lesson with them last night and he wants to be baptized!! YES!!! Miracles! The Lord is preparing them!! The only thing they need to be married. And he's from Guinea and she's Portuguese, so before they can be married, he has to have a steady job. So if you could pray that Tavares will get a steady job so they can get married that would be amazing! Hey thanks!! :)

So I just want to tell everyone thank you SO much for the letters, emails, prayers, support, and love. I'm SO sorry if I haven't gotten back to you yet. I'm trying super hard, but I just haven't had a ton of time! I'm working on it I promise!! But I love you all...so much.