Well from the title of this email you can see that I have had a week of adventure. So on Monday I got a new companion Elder Doxey and he is really cool. He is from Sandy, Utah and loves the outdoors. He is a very big helper with the language. Our goal this transfer is to help me understand Portuguese, because that is my biggest challenge so far. I can speak the language pretty well but understanding it is harder. We practice really hard every day and I can see myself becoming better at understanding the language.
So we had a fire. On Tuesday I woke up and smelt something burning and I thought it was one of the Elders burning there breakfast so I went to the bathroom and when I did I looked to my left and in the other Elders room there was their heater on fire. As soon as I saw it I yelled FIRE and the other elders thought I said SPIDER! So they were all laughing, but then I said FIRE even louder and then they knew it was serious. Elder Doxey grabbed the fire blanket and threw it on the fire. Well it wasn’t going out so I started shoving the blanket into the fire with my hands and it eventually went out. I guess you could say I’m a fireman now haha.
This week we were also able to have Quentin L. Cook, one of the 12 Apostles come and speak to us. He had such a powerful talk and it was based on being a Disciples of Christ and learning how to plan efficiently can help us in our lives back at home as well. It was a really great talk. It put some tears to my eyes. I was also able to see some of my friends from the MTC there and it was really great to see them and how much they have changed so far.
So we convinced my new companion to buy a onesie and he did, he bought a wolf onesie and it looks pretty cool. But nothing can beat my blue dragon onesie. This week for p-day we went to a new castle and took lots of pictures of it. It was so beautiful. We also went to the boarder of Portugal to Spain and took some pictures of that as well it was so sick. So this week with our investigators we have been having really good success. We have about 3 investigators who could be baptized which is really good. One of our investigators name is Ana de jesus. When we found her she was having a really hard time smoking about 60 a day and a big problem with the law a chastity. But now she doesn’t have a problem with the law of chastity and she is down to 4 cigarettes a day soon to be 0. She is really starting to come around. Her mother is a member and has been for a couple of years. Another investigator we have is Alvaro. He is 21 and he is a pretty cool guy. He actually speaks really good English and loves speaking English. He has a problem with smoking as well; he would usually smoke about 20 a day and now is at 2 a day. He loves reading the scriptures and praying with us. We are now trying to have his mom join the lessons with us. She is starting to be curious about what we are talking about which is really great. Our other progressing investigator is Paulo, the son to Julieta our most recent member. We now have a baptism date for him which is the 20th of December. The reason why we have it that far out is because his older sister is coming to Beja from Paris for the holidays and he wants her to watch his baptism and be a good example to his older sister. He has a really good testimony and I can see it getting stronger every time we come and teach him. It’s amazing to see all the small and big blessings the Lord blesses us in our lives. I love the Savior and for everything that He has done for me and for the Atonement. I never realized how important the Atonement really was until I started to study it a lot more. Now that Thanksgiving is coming up we should realize how grateful we are to have the Atonement in our lives and how blessed we are because of it. As you celebrate Thanksgiving try to remember the Atonement and to be grateful for it. I love you all so very much and pray for you all each and every day.
With all my love,
Elder Rusnell
So we had a fire. On Tuesday I woke up and smelt something burning and I thought it was one of the Elders burning there breakfast so I went to the bathroom and when I did I looked to my left and in the other Elders room there was their heater on fire. As soon as I saw it I yelled FIRE and the other elders thought I said SPIDER! So they were all laughing, but then I said FIRE even louder and then they knew it was serious. Elder Doxey grabbed the fire blanket and threw it on the fire. Well it wasn’t going out so I started shoving the blanket into the fire with my hands and it eventually went out. I guess you could say I’m a fireman now haha.
This week we were also able to have Quentin L. Cook, one of the 12 Apostles come and speak to us. He had such a powerful talk and it was based on being a Disciples of Christ and learning how to plan efficiently can help us in our lives back at home as well. It was a really great talk. It put some tears to my eyes. I was also able to see some of my friends from the MTC there and it was really great to see them and how much they have changed so far.
So we convinced my new companion to buy a onesie and he did, he bought a wolf onesie and it looks pretty cool. But nothing can beat my blue dragon onesie. This week for p-day we went to a new castle and took lots of pictures of it. It was so beautiful. We also went to the boarder of Portugal to Spain and took some pictures of that as well it was so sick. So this week with our investigators we have been having really good success. We have about 3 investigators who could be baptized which is really good. One of our investigators name is Ana de jesus. When we found her she was having a really hard time smoking about 60 a day and a big problem with the law a chastity. But now she doesn’t have a problem with the law of chastity and she is down to 4 cigarettes a day soon to be 0. She is really starting to come around. Her mother is a member and has been for a couple of years. Another investigator we have is Alvaro. He is 21 and he is a pretty cool guy. He actually speaks really good English and loves speaking English. He has a problem with smoking as well; he would usually smoke about 20 a day and now is at 2 a day. He loves reading the scriptures and praying with us. We are now trying to have his mom join the lessons with us. She is starting to be curious about what we are talking about which is really great. Our other progressing investigator is Paulo, the son to Julieta our most recent member. We now have a baptism date for him which is the 20th of December. The reason why we have it that far out is because his older sister is coming to Beja from Paris for the holidays and he wants her to watch his baptism and be a good example to his older sister. He has a really good testimony and I can see it getting stronger every time we come and teach him. It’s amazing to see all the small and big blessings the Lord blesses us in our lives. I love the Savior and for everything that He has done for me and for the Atonement. I never realized how important the Atonement really was until I started to study it a lot more. Now that Thanksgiving is coming up we should realize how grateful we are to have the Atonement in our lives and how blessed we are because of it. As you celebrate Thanksgiving try to remember the Atonement and to be grateful for it. I love you all so very much and pray for you all each and every day.
With all my love,
Elder Rusnell