For those of you that are curious Tyler emails from the church. There are two computers there the missionaries are allowed to use. They only get 90-min each P-day and Tyler is very obedient when it comes to that. This morning when we were emailing each other he said, "Dad, I gotta go my time is up, good bye."
This week we had our interviews with President Fluckiger. So we had to go down to Faro which is a city on the bottom of Portugal next to the ocean. All of our interviews went really well and so did mine. He talked with me about how I’m adjusting to the mission life and what my strengths and weaknesses are and how I can work on my weaknesses to make them my strengths. One thing that we talked about that I am having a problem with is understanding the language. He told me that if I can’t speak or understand the language then I haven’t made enough mistakes. He told me that you can only speak and understand the language if you give it your all. If you never speak Portuguese or listen to the natives you will never understand the language. He told me that the best way is to speak it whenever you can however you can and all the time. In the house in the street speak 24/7 Portuguese. He said think of it as a 2 year fast and instead of food it’s speaking English. And then we both laughed. President Fluckiger is a true man of God and I know that if I work on the things that he told me to do that I will be a greater missionary because of it.
On Sunday he came to the Beja Branch for church. After church The Branch President’s family, missionaries, President and sister Fluckiger all had a big Brazilian lunch. It was so good. There was steak, tomato salad, bread, and lots of treats. It was a very good lunch. Later that day we had a family activity at the church where we invited some members and all of our investigators. We had a short lesson then we played lots of games like signs, musical chairs, do you love your neighbor, all those fun games. Then after our fun we had some treats. Cuz what’s a family activity without treats, right.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving day this week. I want all of you to eat some extra turkey and pumpkin pie for me. Reason why is because in Portugal they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Yes I know it’s very sad :( But oh well we can do our own little thing here in Beja.
So we have 2 investigators who are doing really well. There is Alvaro, and Ana de Jesus. They both have a smoking problem but they are working really hard to stop smoking. They are both down to the single digits and are super close to being smoke free. What helps a lot with people trying to stop smoking is vitamin C. It helps the brain not want to be addicted to the nicotine. So that is helping them a lot. Smoking is a really big problem. Here in Portugal about 37% (I think) of the population smoke. That’s really high. But it is starting to go lower over the years. I’m very grateful that i don’t smoke and have the healthy body that I have. I want all of you this Thanksgiving to think of something you are grateful for and in some way show your thankfulness to God and tell him how grateful you are for him and for all that He has done for us, because without God there would be nothing to be grateful for. I love you all so much and each and every one of you is in my daily prayers. Let the Lord continue to lighten your life. And remember to always have the Holy Ghost with you.
With all my love,
Elder Rusnell