Mission Adventures

Welll..... Not much happened this week. We spent a lot of time walking in the street and trying to talk to people. We set up a lot of appointments for next week, so this week will be a good week and we will see the fruits of our labors for sure. 

BUT this week was also one of the funniest weeks of my mission. SO many funny things happened, so yea you have now just tuned in to the crazy mission adventures that literally nothing can prepare you for. *Maybe some aren’t the most appropriate things, but hey they’re real life stories* 

1. SO this week we knocked on this door and this lady answered. She was SO sweet and we talked a lot. But she explained that she believes in the idea of God, but not God completely because she doesn’t believe in Adam and Eve. So I asked her what she believes. She believes that aliens from other planets came to earth and started procreating and now we are here. So basically it is easier for her to believe that we all came from aliens than for her to believe that Adam and Eve were our first parents. Makes sense of course. 

2. So that member who lives in our chapel (who cut his hair in the baptismal font) well.. we found out this week that he also takes baths in the baptismal font. I think it crosses the line just a little bit hahhahaha. We gave the elders the responsibility to talk to the Bishop about that problem. 

3. So in Portuguese to ask the age of someone you would ask "How many years do you have" and they respond "I have # of years" . So this week with members who are a little older.  I wanted to ask about people in our ward who are less active that we can visit and help return to church, but I said "Do you know anyone we can help because you guys have so many years" basically calling them old, and then tried to correct myself saying "Years in the church, as members, here in Setubal" doing everything to save myself, but it already passed and my comp died laughing. 

4. I asked for a referral from the member who lives in our chapel (Jose Chagas) this week and he said he will talk to his friends and get back to us. I found a missionary tag from an elder in the past sitting around the office in the church, so I wrote Elder Chagas and gave it to him as a joke. The problem, he didn’t realize it was a joke and when we came to church on Sunday he was STILL wearing it the whole day. He said he wore it to go grocery shopping and everything. Hmmm.. 

5. We were visiting a less active this week who isn’t exactly there in the mind. I just finished saying the opening prayer when like 15 seconds after she looks at me and says "yea lets say a prayer" so I had to pray AGAIN. It took everything in me not to start laughing during my second prayer. 

6. Someone tried to kiss me. Like full on kiss me this week. He stopped us in the road and we explained that we are missionaries of the church and invited him to come to church with us on Sunday. As we go to leave and he grabs my neck and goes in for a kiss. I turn so awkward and do a quick head turn/double chin/step back motion. He apologizes so I give him my hand to give him a hand shake. And then he tried AGAIN. Man it was bad. In the end we got away kiss free, only to turn and start walking up these stairs in the road. I was a little shaken up from this kiss experience that I full on tripped up the stairs. What is my life? The whole time my comp was just there laughing at my luck. 

7. That same night we were trying a contact that we did in the road a few days before. We knock on the door expecting to find this cute lady. But no. A shirtless (of course, Portugal) man opens it a little too happy to see us. He invites us in to watch the soccer game and drink some wine and beer with him. My comp kindly explained that we are missionaries and our purpose is to help people know Jesus Christ better and he said "That’s not a problem, I am a missionary also and my mission is to help you guys procreate the earth" Luckily I was behind my comp and she kindly declined and left because man I wanted to vomit on his porch. We are staying away from the apartment. 

8. We taught a lesson this week to a lady who lives in a house FULL of spiders. We didn’t realize it when we entered, but in the middle of the lesson I saw a spider crawl across the chair, and the looked and found spiders in about every corner of her house. So yea, we ended that lesson pretty quick. 

SO yea, that is just a day of the life of a missionary here in Portugal. Stay tuned for more funny/inappropriate encounters in the future. I had no idea I was signing up for these experiences when I accepted my call to serve. 

Two weeks ago I made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon again before my mission ended. Well yea, I finished it last week. I don’t know how it happened, but I got addicted to reading it. Every lunch, breakfast, and an hour before bread my nose was in the Book of Mormon. I was so sad to end it because I didn’t know what I would do with my life without the Book of Mormon. I have started reading the New Testament and want to read it all before the mission ends. Its a little more challenging than the BOM but it will help a lot know the Bible better!

We went shopping today. It has started getting cold and windy at night, so I pulled out my jacket only to find it in a lot worse condition that I thought. But after using it for everyday for more than 4 months, I should of been expecting that. The zipper broke and so today I bought a new jacket (its really cute too) and a few more pairs of tights because I threw all mine out after last winter. In the end, it was kind of expensive SO you can take that money out of my personal account, or I can pay you back when I get home. I know the funds are tight at home and it was an expensive bill. Not quite sure what it is in dollars but it was like 62 euros in total.

Have a great week and remember nothing makes us happier than serving those close to us!!! 

Foto: Our ward has the potential to be a "Singles Ward" film, and these 2 mean (Jose and Nuno) could be the main characters.