Boa Páscoa

Olá everyone!


I apologize once again for missing an email. It was a bit of a crazy Monday last week, but I'll write about that a bit later. I'll start with what I missed last week.


We had a cleaning check, and they usually send a senior couple to do those, but since our area is so close to the office/President Barcellos' house, Sister Barcellos came to do it. So, my comp and I spent a little extra time and effort cleaning. Fortunately, we passed and so they brought us out for lunch with them. We went to this really good Brazilian place, and they made some of the best food I've had so far on the mission. So that was a really fun day.


Then, we had General Conference which was absolutely amazing. Surprisingly we only watched one of the sessions in Portuguese because all the members we went and watched it with really wanted it in English. It was really good, and it's funny seeing how many water bottles everyone started crushing afterward. We even had a few of our friends watch some of the sessions which was awesome. But unfortunately, they didn't announce the Porto, Portugal temple as everyone thought. Next time though.


For the last p-day, we met with one of the members in our branch. He is an RM who served here, and he is really cool. He's from the central part of Bolivia so it's cool to hear about what goes on there. We all went to Castelo de São Jorge, which was fun, and then we just walked around Lisbon and talked with him. We ended up getting gelato too, and I decided to try the basil flavor, which was actually super good. It is now definitely up there with my favorite flavors. 


This past week was a crazy one. We had transfers, and my comp left to the south part of Portugal to a little town called Santo André. If you try and look it up on maps, it doesn't show up because of how small it is. So I got a new comp, Elder Madrid, and he's really cool. But on Tuesday, we found out that I'll be in a surprise trio for this transfer. One of the elders had to go home for health problems, and so they stuck his companion with us. It's gonna be a party.


On Friday, we went over to our branch president's house and helped clear out the apartment yard which was full of weeds. It was actually really fun, and I kinda missed doing yard work and stuff like that. Afterward, he brought us to a nearby shopping mall to get food and ice cream. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep as fast as I did after all that yardwork combined with about 9 miles of walking that day.


For Easter Sunday, we only had one hour of church. We had a LOT of visitors at that sacrament meeting. About 30-40 of them which almost doubled the size of our meeting. Later, we went and helped bring the sacrament to an Irmã in the branch who isn't able to leave home. So that was cool to be able to help her with that. She loves talking to us and showing us all of the crossword puzzles she has done. 


Pday today was pretty fun. We had to go drop off paperwork for one of my comps to get his metro card. That took a bit, but once we were done, we met with the rest of the district in Belém and got sandwiches to go eat in a nearby park. Afterward,  we went to see the Torre de Belém, which is always a fun thing to see. Later, we walked down to Lisbon to get some gelato. I've had so much of this stuff, but it's always fun to see the weird flavors they have. This time, I got a flavor with white chocolate, black pepper, and something called tonka, which I think is a bean of some sort. But it was super good. 


Scripture of the week: Moses 6:31-32
And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant? And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.


Even though we sometimes feel like we're not qualified to do something, especially in the church, Heavenly Father will always provide a way, and make us qualified to do His work. 


Tchau!


Elder Howard


Pictures:
- Torre de Belém 
- Lots of stuff we saw walking around town
- There were a ton of sailboats sailing all over the river on Easter. It was really cool to watch
- Gelato. Again





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