Week 57

This weekend we had a cool experience to have a district conference
with Elder Morrena from the area of Europe presidency.  President
Tavares convinced him to go to both islands and do the entire
conference on one day on each island.  So we had a 70 in our chapel
with us and just about 60-70 people.  It was a pretty cool experience
even though we were pretty disappointed with the turnout that we had.
But it was pretty cool to get to spend 3 sessions with him and really
get a pretty personal training from a 70.  He came off a bit cocky but
we defiantly got a lot of good stuff and it was a powerful day.

We had a pretty crazy lesson this week.  I don't know  if I already
told you about Maria that was in church last week, But she is a really
cool lady that we didnt think that much of because we thought that she
was just really catholic.  But we had a lesson with her for the second
time after church and I just asked her if she had read the pamphlet
that we left with her and she said yes, then I asked if she had prayed
to know if it was true, and she just got teary and nodded her head.
So I being a little surprised just testified that it is true and that
was the holy ghost and then we hopped into the plan of salvation.  She
was getting it all and really accepting it all as is pretty normal for
most people but Manuel here drugged out step son was really not
getting any of it very well.  She was basically helping us teach the
lesson to him.  At one point we realized that it was ridiculous when
we got to life on earth, and she started getting on Manuel telling him
that they needed to get baptized in the Mormon church and up until
then we had not even talked about baptism that day.  So we were
getting pretty excited at that point. We kind of just kept going a bit
and as we were trying to explain the spirit world to Manuel, Maria
just told him that he just needs to quit worrying about the details
and all the stuff that is confusing him because all that matters is
that we are baptized in the Mormon church so that we can get to the
celestial kingdom because that is where we want to go.  He then
responded with the classic, but I have already been baptized response,
and she just told him it didn't matter, it doesn't count unless it is
is the Mormon church and taught him a little about the celestial
kingdom and how they needed to go there.  I was dumbfounded and to say
the least she has a baptism date planned for here shortly, and Manuel
now also wants to be baptized.  After the conference that they both
really enjoyed and after a fireside the next night, Manuel came up to
me and said, I know that my mom thinks that I need to take a little
bit more time to be prepared but whenever you will let me I will
accept being baptized.  It is really cool to have people just begging
you to be baptized. So hopefully we will be able to get him all
cleaned up and away from his drugs and tobacco so that he can be
baptized here shortly as well.  Wish us luck in teaching all of the
commandments. :)

Tivemos uma experiência maravilhosa esta semana.  Tivemos uma lição
com uma Senhora que já chegou na Igreja que quando fomos la para a
segunda visita ela disse no inicio que ela já tinha recebida uma
resposta sobre a restauração.  Depois quando nos estávamos a ensinar o
plano de salvação a eles (ela e a única filho que ainda mora na casa
dela) ela estava a ajudar nos ensinar a lição para o filho dela.  E
durante o mundo espiritual ela disse que ele tinha que preocupar menos
com as detalhas porque é importante que eles são baptizados na igreja
mórmon para que eles possam ir ao reino celestial.  Ele ainda tinha
duvidas porque já foi baptizado na igreja católica, mas ela só disse
que não interessa e que baptismo só conta se fosse na igreja mórmon.
E agora ela é marcado e também o filho quer ser baptizado só que ele
tem um pouco mais trabalho em frente dele para viver a palavra de
Sabedoria.  É tão doce quando encontramos aquele eleitos que são tão
preparados que eles ensinam se mesmos.  Continuaremos a procurar
diligentemente para estas pessoas sabendo que o Senhor vai colocar
lhes em nosso caminho deste que ele pode confiar em nos por causa de
nosso obediência.


I have been trying out a few new tactics to try and put a fire
underneath my comp and they have seemed to be working so far.  we are
getting good work done now and even though we are walking a lot slower
then I would like too (it almost hurts for me to slow down) but I have
been able to to a much better job this week with that.

We have been finding some really special people and that is just about
the most exciting thing that can happen to a missionary. one guy who
is a nature guide about six two.  gave us a fake number but later on
that day he texted us saying that he had read the pamphet and he
became interested and would like to know more and asked for the
meeting schedule that we have here.  so It really just goes to show
for me that the little things make a big difference for the people,
all we had to do was get him to read the pamphlet and the spirit did
the rest.  It really is an exciting game trying to figure out how to
best work with each and every person that we talk to and how the Lord
wants them to be taught.  I really is not easy but it feels great when
you see what you did was what you needed.

I love it out here and I am starting to get a little nervous because
the end of the transfer is in a couple weeks and I really do not want
to leave angra yet.
I am really growing some strong relationships with the members here
which is really special.

also some fun news on the portugese front.  they are coming out with
an official LDS version of the Bible so they will have the footnotes
and headings and all that wonderful stuff that we have had to suffer
without.  It is all good to go already on the app, but they are not
going to have them in print until march.  I guess it will just be
something that I will have to snag up after the mission.

I almost forgot I got to give Joel the priesthood this week which was
soo cool.  I was soo excited that he chose to have me give it too him
because he had already been taught about the line of authority and
wanted to join the old hobson branch of it.  Pretty amazing.

Com Amor Elder Hobson

Week 56

Well this week the weather was certainly better but unfortunately the
after effects of the rain and stuff did not end there. Because Elder
McGraw got sick and that was what was screwing with out work time this
week. 

Anyways, I put a few pictures of the garden in the drop box they are
of the of a garden that we walk up and down all the time that is
really steep but we live right at the top of it and the main part of
the city is right at the bottom of it. so it was just a really
beautiful morning and i thought that i better use it to take a few
pictures. We were able to see two islands away which made me really
excited until I talked to a old member that said it is an old proverb
that if you can see pico The second island then it is going to rain in
3 days. So hopefully the old proverbs are not true this time. 

 We have been working with the brodericks with several less actives as
part of my showing them around the area and helping them get situated
and find as many people as fast as possible. One family that is
fairly large and has a good number of members in it are really showing
a change of heart after the wife survived a really severe cancer
scare. They have plans to come back to church this weekend so that
was a really nice miracle to see. 

 I have been studying a bunch of books written by profets and apostles
and right now i am just starting on a marvelous work and a wonder. I
really love my study time and i always wish that i had more then the
hour that I have. The scriptures are awesome. 

Today we have a branch activity so we dont have too much time to write
sorry that it is short but gotta run! 

 Love you all
Elder Hobson

Week 55 Chuva, Chuva, Chuva! (rain)

So this week was really exhausting.  It rained and rained and rained.

The flooding left a good number of families homeless. and caused all sorts of problems, streets are destroyed, mud everywhere, cobblestones in the street everywhere, the whole town just smells damp and like mildew, and all of this was on the national news here in Portugal and we were walking around in it trying to knock doors and go make some visits which was not easy and not super successful . We have been soaking wet all week long including our house got flooded and we had to spend several nights up super late cleaning water off of the ground and eventually we were so sick and tired and just exhausted from moping and toweling up water that we went to bed with our house still just full of water.  Plus with the crazy high humidity and the utter lack of dryers.  We have been super exhausted and it has been really tough to work this week because for one we were basically supposed to be staying inside because it was flooding and cars were crashing and all sorts of crazy stuff.  I sure was glad that I chose to bring my rain pants on my mission.

This week as we have been suffering I decided that the best way to keep me motivated to go out and get soaking wet, walk around in water in church shoes for the whole day was to read and study about the pioneers and the early struggles that they had physically in the church.  Reading books about all the struggles that they went though as they walked around in the snow all day long with nothing but rags on their feet for the same reason made me feel a need to not complain about our struggles risking trench  foot out here as the soldiers of the Lord, because at the end of the day I did get to take a hot shower and hop into a only damp bed to sleep for the night.  So I guess it was a humbling week, that really tested us a little with our resistance and drive to keep obedient and figure out how to work even when mother nature herself seemed to be fighting us.  We talked to a bunch of people and they said that it was the worst couple days of rain in the last 40 years and it still is yet to clear up all the way.

As far as my comp Elder McGraw he is a really fun guy and I have been

enjoying working with him.   He is very different from the rest of my

comps and it has been a nice change.  As I told you he was a cross country runner and could run a 4 and a half minute mile, so I was pretty excited to go run with him in the morning and we took off on the first day and I totally broke him on accident.  I didn't mean to make it that difficult of a run but he was definatly in pain for a good couple days haha.  Hopefully I will be smart enough to work him back into it so that I can get him out there running with me again.

We had a couple presidency meetings this week to get President Broderick up to speed on everything here in the branch. (that process was once again left to me basically alone) and it was interesting to get to see how his style and knowledge made the meetings different then the ones that we had with President Cabral.  I am loveing my chance to get to learn how to work with leaders and how to be a leader.  The mission really does get you ready for all sorts of things that I never would have expected in the past.

Com certeza nunca podemos sentir satisfeito até o dia que o Senhor recebe-nos nos braços dele e aceitar nossa vida e esforço todo de seguir a Ele.

Fátima foi confirmada está semana.  Tivemos uma semana cheia de tribulações e desafios de natureza com toda a chuva que recebemos mas ficávamos com bom animo e seguíamos sempre em frente.  Temos uma piscina de ensina um pouco vazio agora mas vamos lá e encontrar com os eleitos do Senhor se não estamos a ver progresso vamos para a próxima pessoa até encontramos com a pessoa que o Senhor precisa na Igreja

dele nesta momento.   Eu amo o oportunidade que temos para prestar

testemunho a muitos mesmo se eles aceitem ou não, porque com o espírito estamos a fazer nosso parte e vamos ser abençoados.

Fátima was confirmed yesterday and I was able to do the confirmation.

She was in tears afterwards when she stood up.  It was a really special experience and I love the work and when I get to be with such amazing examples like that wonderful woman. She was interviewed by Elder Broderick right after church and he was also very impressed with her and her resolve to keep all the Lord's commandments.  Now we are just needing to find more people like her. That is always the goal!

Com Amor

Elder Hobson

P.S. Elder McGraw is really good about taking pictures so he has more pics of me now then I have taken in my first two transfers here.

Kindof nice to have a private photagrapher walking behind me all day long.

Week 54 - Changes - New comp, Elder McGraw

Well we had transfers this week and Elder Thomas headed on over to the
other island!  But I will be staying here with my new comp. Elder
McGraw.  He was also trained in the mission by Elder Durfee and he is
really cool and I am really looking forward to serving with him. He
will be flying in later today.  Which that has been a big confusion.
I thought that he was supposed to come in last night when we dropped
off Elder Thomas at the airport, but we waited for a bit and then
found out that he would be coming in today and I was to spend the
night with the elders in Praia.  So I just have my phone keys and
camera with me. Living the good responsibility free life for a day
which is kind of fun but annoying that I didn't have reading or
writing material. But anyways so now we are out here in Praia just
waiting on our comps to come in.  One elder that is coming into the
district is from Burley and I remember rooting against him in
basketball as Matt guarded him.

But where I need to get to is the bigger changes I guess.  We had a
change in our branch presidency with Elder LeSueur leaving the spot
open in the district presidency and the representative of the district
here on the island, and with elder Broderick getting here.  We now
have Elder Broderick as the branch president here and I am his 1st
councilor. So it is a little sad for me to not get to work with
President Cabral quite as closely but it will be a good change for the
branch to see how a presiding authority should work since they have
only really ever had a couple rough situations and missionaries as the
branch president here we plan to use this to train up a bunch of
younger members so that they can when it is their time step up and run
the branch properly.  But I am super excited about all the
opportunities that we are seeing here.

There is a scouting program in Portugal and it is actually really
strong here, but you are required to be a Catholic.

We would like to get some programs established, at least the youth
should be getting taught the correct curriculum and have regular
mutual and things.  We actually do have a addiction recovery group
that we recently established so that I guess counts as one program but
there is no planning or anything going into that on the branch level
as it is a district thing.  Also it is the Brodericks that have the
blog.  castingournets or something like that.  I will be working to
get into much better shape as well before I come home.  I am taking
sugar and carbs out of my diet and lets see where that gets me haha.

So Yesterday we did have a baptism and Fátima ponte was baptised
according to plan. She is so awesome. She passed through some trails
this week for sure.  She had to have a special meeting with Elder
LeSueur and Elder Broderick because she still has her ex-husband
living in the same house as her, so it needed to be verified by the
district to make sure that she was truly living the law of chastity
before she was allowed to continue towards baptism.  She also had a
major struggle with Tithing because she is the provider of the family
as the only one that works and she is supporting an ex-husband, and
two sons 27 and 20 years old.  It is really sad that they are such
bums that they are just mouching off of their sweet quiet mother. But
eventually after teaching and testifying to her a lot about the
blessings of tithing we prayed with her in the lesson and she came up
afterward, there were no distractions for us that day besides the fact
that my comp and I were completely drenched from walking around in the
rain all day, and immediately she just accepted the invitation to live
it because she knew that the law came from God.  She still struggled
with it more after that but she loved her baptism service and felt
super well loved by the whole branch.  Unfortunately we have not been
able to involve too many people in teaching here because some members,
particularly the ones that are going to be her peers, have a tendency
to try and slow down the process of baptism here so we decided that it
would be best to get here in the water and then strengthen her as best
as possible,  we already have several family nights planned for her
this week.

Anyways I am now with my new comp.  He is really awesome so far and he
is a cross country runner that is 21.  So finally for the first time
since my very first comp. i actually have someone that will run with
me and not have to force or beg them.  I am looking forward to a fresh
start here in the area.

Com amor eterno
Elder Hobson