I hope you all had a fabulous week and are continuing to enjoy the summer.

This week we had interviews, which is always something I love because Presidente trains us directly in a smaller group, so it´s more personal and fixe. He talked about the progress of the mission in the year since they´ve been here. It truly is miraculous to see how things can change with effort and with increased faith. There is a prophecy about Portugal, Chile, and Brasil, that they will be the lighthouses of the respective regions. We talk a lot of how we can make Protugal the ´´farol de Europa´´ and the fulfillment of this prophecy.It´s already happening in terms of bapisms in Lisbon...but Presidente talked about how we need to be the farol de Europa in regards to retention as well. I was reading in Chapter 13 in Preach My Gospel today, and there is a quote by President Hinckley about the importance of retention of new members. Retention after baptism is so vital, because while baptism is the gate to the path of eternal life, it is the ordinances of the temples that enable us to receive exaltation. We need to have a vision beyond just baptism, but of herding the children of God into the temple and helping them to make even more covenants. Missionary work and temple work are geared towards the same end, but one deals with the living and others with the deceased. But all need the ordinances of the temple! As a missionary it´s a little easy to focus solely on baptisms, a primary function of our calling, but really what is necessary is not only baptism, but also (obviously) the perseverance until the end...increasing in faith and making more covenants with our Heavenly Father. This seems totally and really obvious to me now, and you probably already knew, but when Presidente Torgan talked about the importance of retention, and the importance of temples it was really interesting to me.

So on Saturday it was my birthday! It was pretty much a day just like any other...but it´s nice to get a little recognition :P We had lunch with a member (Irmã Lídia) who is incrível, and the best cook I´ve ever met, so that was fun! I´ll try to send some pics. But basically, it was a normal day and week.

Well, another week has passed and we´re almost in the end of June...this week passed like most weeks, without any extraordinary events. Teaching, procura...the normal things ;) But it was good. We focus a lot on finding families, and one way to identify if there is a family in a house is by the clothes that are hanging out to dry. We´re (well, at least I´m ) always on the lookout for clothes of children. But now we´re in football season here, and all the houses hang out their flags to support their teams. So it´s easy to see where are the Portuguese and where are the Brazilians. So we´ve done procura in the houses that have brazilian flags! So far its been working for us :) We found a new investigator on Saturday, a woman from Brazil, that went to church on Sunday and is already progressing. We also found other Brazilians on Sunday through the ´´flag method´´! Normally football is annoying because no one wants to talk with us during the games, but now I´m a little more appreciative of football!! Funny how simple things make a difference.

This week I´ve been reading a lot of conference talks from 2008 and 2009...these talks are so inspired! This morning I read President Uchtdorf´s talk from May 2009 (I am doing a great work and cannot come down), where he talks about the importance of focusing on the right important things, and fulfill our purpose and work. This really applies to all of us. There are so many things to do in life, so many distractions that are ´necessary´, but that remove us from our real purpose. The greatest works that we will do are in the Kingdom of God and in our family. I thought it was interesting that he said that he had no doubt that any preisthood holder would be able to give a good talk about ´´things that matter most´´, but the hardest part is aligning our actions with our knowledge and beliefs. Even as a missionary serving full-time, there are distractions that threaten to bring us down from the great work we are doing. Our calling is to invite others to come unto Christ by receiving the gospel through the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the holy ghost. Even still, at times it is easy to be distracted by other good things that we can do in the mission field, but that move us away from this great work. But when we focus on the thigns that matter most, the great work we have been called to do, all of us will move forward the Kingdom of God (and our family within it) and receive the marvelous blessings that await us. I would recommend reading the talk to all of you.

I hope you all had a fabulous week! Things are good here in Almada...on Tuesday we had zone conference, which I always love. The zone leaders, assistants, Irmã Torgan, and Presidente Torgan all did training, and it was really good. What Presidente Torgan talked about was really interesting. He read Alma 42:30, in which he says (my translation from Português) to Corianton that he should not seek, even in the smallest things, to excuse his sins and deny the justice of God. Presidente Torgan talked about how one of the weapons that Satan uses against us is excuses- we give excuses for why things didn´t happen, or for the way things are, and for many things, instead of accepting responsibility and allowing the atonement to change us. When we use excuses for our behavior or circumstance, we deny the power of the atonement in our lives. It´s really interesting that I had read the same verse last week, and the same thing had stuck out to me. There are alot of times we when do things wrong, or don´t do things that we should, and give excuses (at least to ourselves) to justify that behavior (or lack of action). But it is true that when we use excuses, we deny the opportunity to change, to progress, and to apply the atonement in our lives to instigate a mighty change of heart. The first step of repentance (or change) is to recognize the error or omission, and excuses don´t permit this first step to occur. The conference was like a major faca for me...all the things that I need to change!

But, fortunately, change is possible for each of us. As I think a lot of you noted, my atitude and perspective here needed to change. I am grateful for the power of the atonement that we can access every day, to gain strength beyond our own, more faith and love, and to change our hearts and desires. And through the atonement of Jesus Christ, miracles can happen!

Last week we did quite a bit of procura to find new pesquisadors. We talked with one man outside his house, and it was a contact that was pretty normal. As missionaries we have pamphlets about the Restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, for quite a while the mission office has been out of the First lesson pamphlets, which is really frustrating. So we´´ve been using pamphlets of the Joseph Smith history. We gave one of these to this man, and he said that he is lazy, but that he would read. We went back 3 days later when we had an appointment marked, and received a big surpise. He said that he had read the whole pamphlet, that he had prayed and felt good about it, and that also he had read in a small new testament bible that he has. He only read one verse, but it said something to the effect of ´´take this calice upon you...and be baptized´´. IT was in Marcos, but I don´t know where. But basically he said that he had recieved an answer and that he wanted to be baptized! We were both like...huh??!! He asked what he had to do to be baptized, and I almost didn´t know what to say, I was so surprised. It was like that moment in the Best Two Years when he says he wants to be baptized and they don´t know what to do...So, we taught him everything he needed to know to prepare to be baptized this week, and he was baptized yesterday! He is really different than anyone else that I´ve taught (of course they´re all different...but still). The other missionaries in the ward that meets in the same chapel had baptisms as well, so we did a joint batpsimal service. It was really neat. It is interesting all the people that the Lord places in our paths...

So, yep, that´s pretty much this week. I hope that you all have another fantastic week, remember I love ya, and enjoy the summer