Week 72

I decided to expand where I send out this family letter.  I was
thinking about all the comments about the reunion this year and I
thought that it is awesome how united our family is and I wanted to
start sending my letter to all of you from now on for the last year of
my mission. Thank you for all of the love and support that you have
shown me on my mission and throughout my entire life.

I am enjoying my time with Elder Nogueira. We are working really hard
and getting a ton of things done.  I expect that we will continue to
see a lot of success in our area.

This weekend we got to do a bunch of service.  We spent the morning
working on a house of a less active family that is moving and they are
needing help to get the last touches done so that they can get moved
in and get back onto a normal schedule. made me think of home a lot as
I was putting together light switches and plugs and stuff in there
house.  We went from there right on over to another service project
where we were ripping up all the overgrown parts of a less active
families yard.  It was a ton of really hard work but I really had fun
working with the young men that we have here in the ward, and it was
awesome because we had the entire family out to church the next day
which really shows the fruits of service.  I love doing service and I
know that it is really what we are out here doing every day. The
greatest service that we can possibly do for someone is to help them
to come closer to our loving Heavenly Father and help them have a
chance at having an eternal family.

This week it just happened to be that we taught a bunch of our
investigators the word of wisdom and we kept taking all of the coffee
out of their houses to help them get past the temptation.  It was
really interesting to see the different reactions that these people
gave us as they were accepting this commandment.  Alexandre and
Guilhermina accepted well without much of a challenge, and have been
going strong without coffee even after 70 years of drinking coffee
every morning for breakfast. It was really amazing to see them have
that miraculous success as they put their trust in the Lord to give
them the strength to get past their weaknesses.  Sonia and Sheila
eventually accepted the challenge, but they were super reluctant and
really went to show the lack of desire that they have to really do
what is necessary and make sacrifices to be able to follow the Lord,
and it showed the next day because they stayed out all night long
partying and did not make it to church because of that.  I really have
been studying about the commandments alot this week and I really liked
one story that was shared by one of the sisters that spoke this last
conference that spoke about her granddaughter that did not want to
wear her seat belt. I know that the commandments really are all there
for a purpose and that they are there to bless us and protect us given
by a loving heavenly father. Even if we may receive a commandment just
to give us a chance to show our love and obedience to Heavenly Father,
I know that He will greatly bless our lives and help our faith to grow
as we follow his commandments.

One of the highlights of this week was with the confirmations of
Nilson and Octávio.  They both chose me to confirm them so I did two
confirmations right in a row in sacrament meeting.  It was a cool
experience.  I was a little worried that I would basically give them
both the same blessing because they are both in really similar
situations in my mind and we had even done most of our teaching of
them both together, but when I gave the blessings they were actually
completely different.  It was a real testimony to me of the power and
actuality of the priesthood that it really is Heavenly Father acting
thought his children. I know that the blessings that I gave did not
come from me but were truly given from the Lord.  I am so grateful
that the Lord has made it possible for us to act in his name and bless
his children here on the earth.  I am so glad that I have always had
that opportunity in my house and in my life to be able to ask for a
blessing if I was needing one. I have really seen how valuable that
really is out here on the mission as I have had the opportunity to
give many blessings.

Com muito amor.
Elder Hobson

Great start to the new (and last) year

Well I have to say that I could not have asked for a better way to
start out the year then with those three baptisms.  Octávio and nilson
are friends that are always running around together and Nilson was the
only member of his family who was not yet baptized so we started
teaching him and octávio wanted to be baptized as well and now we have
a group of neighborhood kids that we are teaching and we have been
reaching out to their families at the same time and we are finding a
lot of really cool people doing this. It is really fun and we are
going to keep seeing a lot of sucess there I think.

Quick question...  Are you planning on passing through italy before
getting me or whatever happened with that in the end?

For the new year we did not do anything too special we had to be home
at the normal hour and we just had permission to stay up until
midnight so we basically just chilled at home for a bit and messed
around a little at night.

We have been working with a member named Rosa that moved here from
Cabo verde for a short amount of time and her friends.  They were all
able to come to chruch this weekend which was really cool and
hopefully we can get them to start progressing as soon as possible.
They are really fun people and Rosa is such an awesome example for
them that it makes it easy to see the blessings of the gospel in a
normal members life.  We are seeing several people that are growing
quite a bit and we are doing a lot of work with the members here
becuase a lot of them have family members and children that have not
yet been baptized and just need a bit of help to be able to take the
step.  The way that we work here is really awesome and it is just
really efficient and with our new leadership position and the way that
the missionary department changed the way that leaders work in the
mission just barely it is going to be really important that we keep
having lots of sucess in the work.

We also had transfers come in today. I will be staying here in cacém
(we live on rua ponte nova, Nº1 by the way) and now I will be working
with Elder Nougeira who is Brazilian.  We are now the zone leaders in
the zone and they moved the area of the zone leaders so we will be
staying here.  I am super excited for this transfer.  Also Elder
Pitcher my good buddy from the Azores is now going to be living in the
same house as me which makes me really excited.  All the changes are
really exciting and I am ready for the new set of challenges that I
now have and I am excited that I get the opportunity to keep working
with these people here in Cacém because we were able to get a lot
going here in a short 6 weeks even with all the Christmas distractions
and challenges and I know that this area has all sorts of potential to
baptize a lot of people.  So we are going to go out and get it done.

I just have to say that we are seeing lots of miracles happening right
now in my mission and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have
to be here working for the Lord toughing the lives of these people.
It is amazing to see people change and to have this happiness come
into their lives.  I do not have any doubt that what we teach is true.
It is so amazing to see people come to know these things as well, and
it always is really sad to see someone that thinks that they are
better off without the gospel in their lives.  I know that it is never
too late for any of us to change and to have everything that the Lord
wants to bless us with in our lives. I know that this is his church
and that he lives and loves us. I know  that he has a plan for us and
will bless our families eternally.  I am so glad for his guidance in
my life and I hope that we all can be attent enough to recognize it
and humble enough to follow it.  I love and miss you all.

Boas entradas! Com amor
Elder Hobson

Last one for the year

Funny as I typed out that title I was just thinking about the new
years eves that we would pass together in the Sandpiper house and I
was thinking about how all of the cousins would run around saying that
right before midnight doing random things and then do the same thing
right after with saying the first time for all that stuff this year.
Good old memories and I hope that you all have a wonderful time
together in Bear lake this week.

As for traditional portuguese food for christmas we ate a ton of
bacalhau com natas, bolo de rei, bolo de rainha, and random fried
deserts they love, one of which is called sonhos.  they do not have a
ton of lights because it is all apartment buildings here, they also
have trees and all that good stuff.  They do certainly have a ton of
chestnuts roasting in the streets and yeah it does smell wonderful.
The most common decoration they have here is a santa clause that they
hang from their balcony and it looks like he is a thief trying to
break into their house.  That is all over the place and people often
leave it up for forever so you see them in July as well.

Ohh and I have had a tooth ache for a bit I dont know if i want to go
to a dentist or not here though based on the teeth people have here...
Hopefully I do not have a cavity.

Yesterday for church we were running around all over the place helping
people get to church and I pulled 3 young men out of bed, we ended up
being late for sacrament meeting but it was worth it to get all of
those people there.  We should have a couple of baptisms here in the
ward this next week.  Hopefully everything will go well with Otavio
the boy that we have been working with to get ready. he is super
excited and his mom is going to sign the form tonight to let him be
baptized so it is looking good right now.

Yesterday after church we were doing some street contacts on our way
to go teach the seventh day Adventist uncle and aunt of one of our
members when we stopped one lady and asked her how here Christmas was
and she told us that it had been pretty rough. I told her sorry and
that we had something that could could make her Christmas a lot better
still, and that is when she revealed that she is a member, one of the
first families baptized in Capo Verde was her's and her dad has been a
stake president and all sorts of stuff.  She has been inactive though
for quite some time.  Basically she told us that she has never been
stopped by missionaries in the street before in Portugal (having seen
them before) and felt a little neglected. She has a daughter that is
11 that she wants us to get ready to baptize and she also wants to
come back to church.  It was really cool to see something so simple
turn into a miracle so incredible.   It really went to show me that it
is the little efforts that make all the difference and that the Lord
will really make miracles happen as long as you give him the
opportunity and are paying attention to be able to see it happen.

Temos dois famílias aqui em cacém com quem vamos trabalhar muito esta
semana.  Um é a família duma missionairo retornado que tem pais e
irmãos muito perto a serem batizados que estão aqui só para esta
semana de feirais. Vamos fazer tudo para conseguir a batiza-los este
fim de semana.  Também vamos trabalhar com um família que vamos
batizar o filho este semana e continuar a preparar o resto de família.
Estamos a ver muito milagres a trabalhar com os membros e estou a amar
a trabalho aqui.

We have miraculously found several long lost members recently and now
we are teaching their newly formed families and working to bring the
entire crew back to Church.  It is amazing how the Lord works.

I have been learning a lot about what it means to teach with great
power and authority recently. It is amazing how specific a lesson
needs to be for the needs of that particular person so that they will
be interested and feel the spirit.  It is cool how we get people to
the point where they are all ready with the desire and worthiness to
be baptized and then we just have to get through the rest of the
lessons so that they hit the requirements because those things are not
quite what interested them.  You really begin to realize how much
every little thing counts.  We have even been filming ourselves in our
practices and watching them like film for football. It is awesome and
I wish that I would have started doing that earlier on in my mission.
It helps on the gridiron and in the missionary field.

Anyways we will be working hard bringing in the new year.  lots of
food and partying this week is over with and now it is time to get
these people to take the last steps to be ready to do covenants with
God.

It really is a marvalhos work! Feliz ano novo!
Com Amor e muito saudades
Elder Hobson

Week 69

As far as the Christmas call I plan on calling yall at 5pm my time.  I
think that should be 10am your time.  hopefully that will work out
nicely.

Buying a suit and a new watch was fun today.  It was a little nerve
racking for me because I never spend much money but they were things
that I was needing to get before I go home and it seemed like the time
was right. We also had the big mission christmas party which was super
fun to be at.

This week defiantly was highlighted with Jair getting baptized.  It
was a fight to get him to accept, because he was getting all sorts of
pressure from his family with them saying that it was too early for
him to make that commitment.  But with a lot of testifying and really
doing everything that we could to help him accept it he finally did
and he had a super spiritual experience in the baptism even though we
had to have a quick ceremony because of the availability of the
members.  He is a really cool guy and he is just really humble with a
desire to learn more.  He kept saying in church and it is kind of like
a little catch phrase for him to never quit.  He is a really cool new
member and he is creating interest in his family as well.

As far as Alexandre and Guilhermina the older couple that Lisa asked
about, they are doing awesome!  unfortunately Guilhermina is still yet
to come back to church, but alexandre has been there the last couple
weeks and he was telling one member that he is friends with that he is
about ready to be baptized.  He was saying that he wants to mark a
date with us this week! Hopefully we will be able to get that all set
up well.  I love teaching in their house, we always have the most
powerful lessons it is awesome.  They are really smart people and
listen really well giving us lots of respect.  We had a really
powerful lesson this week where we studied 2 Nephi 2 together and it
is just such an amazing chapter that really teaches the atonement,
plan of salvation, and the gospel all really well, it is one of my
favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon.  I know that the spirit was
there and working really hard on Alexandre as we testified, it was
awesome and he should be getting baptized here shortly!

We are also working a lot with a young man named Edson.  He just came
to church a couple of times because of the invitation of a member and
he wouldn't accept to talk with us during the week until now and we
have been having all sorts of success.  We had a cool dinner with him
and that member, we took him to a stake christmas conference and we
have begun teaching him.  He is a really cool kid and is really
interested I expect him to be baptized shortly. He just has to get
past the difficulties of having lots of Jehovah witness influences at
home.  But he is really enjoying the church and we have high hopes for
him.

Next we have a less active family that we are working to reactivate
and to baptize the son that still hasn't been baptized, plus we always
meet some of the teenagers from the neighborhood when we are over
there at their house and we are starting to see some sucess with their
families as well.  I really think that we are going to see a lot of
success with those families here soon.  I am really having a fun time
in this area and it is really exciting to have so many people that
have so much potential to be baptized and help out the ward.  There is
a lot of missionary work to be done in this area that much is for
sure.

We are going to have a busy week with members babying us and we are
going to eat a lot.  Should be a blast.  Thankfully i am feeling a lot
better now.  Even though my health is still far from perfect.  I truly
love the christmas season as a missionary. It is sad to miss out on
all of the fun traditions with family and everything but, it really is
just so magical to see the joy that we are bringing into these
people's lives as they get opportunities to feel the spirit in their
lives and change themselves to become more like Christ and follow him.
I know that that is the secret to happiness if following him. it is
just that simple.

This week we celebrated Christmas as a mission. The whole mission came
together in Lisbon (except the missionaries in the Azores) and we had
a big Christmas Conference. It was the first time that some like this
has happened since Elder Cook visited us last year. It was very cool
to get together. A lot has changed since I have been on the Azores.
There are a lot of new missionaries that I do not reconize. I am so
excited for this Christmas. I will be spending it with great
missionaries. I really wish you all a very merry Christmas. Thanks so
much for all your love and support. I am sure blessed to have friends
and familly that are so amazing.~

Com Muitissimo amor
Elder Hobson

Week 68

I still do not know about the Christmas call as far as if I will be
able to use skype. I think that because the presidents main focus
right now is in helping us to avoid distractions he will probably not
tell us until the last minute so that we can avoid having our minds
wander too much.  As for the housing issue at BYU I have no idea what
my options are and what are the pluses or minuses and PRICES. Honestly
I am shooting completely in the dark. If you want you could send me
something next week with a little bit of an explanation or something
so that I could make the most informed decision possible and we can be
effective with our call..

I have not had that much time to respond to the people that I do not
even know that write me occasionally, it is a little strange but cool
at the same time.  It is good thought to get to hear a bit about where
you all are at.

Well this week was a little crazy and was not made any easier that I
have been fighting a pretty nasty cold.

We had two divisions this week and ever since the first one on
Tuesday, when I had to take a cold shower first thing in the morning
and then walk in the cold out to the train station, I have been
suffering some fevers and a sore throat.  I have not had too much of a
voice for a couple days even though I am getting better now.  Really
is tough to do missionary work when you cannot talk very well..

The divisions were pretty fun though, we were able to teach a lot of
people that have a lot of potential to be baptized and are starting to
progress and everything. One of the divisions when I was already
feeling sick was with Elder Soares who is my zone leader and was in
the Azores for a while as well. It is really fun to get to work with
him. He is a really aggressive little guy from Mozambique that teaches
really well and is a really good missionary that I have always had a
lot of fun with.  We had some real miracles happen and we were
teaching some people really powerfully and I could just see them
changing and having their hearts softened right before our eyes.

Ola Presidente
Este semana tivemos dois divisões.  O primeiro foi com Torres Vedras
B.  Foi bom.  Consigamos encontrar com various pessoas que eles possam
ensinar que tem potential e encontrávamos com algumas maneiras que
eles possam fazer uma trabalho mais eficaz. Espero que eles terão mais
sucesso como resultante destas novas estratagemas.

Mais tarde na semana também fizemos com os Lideres de Zona.  Eu tive
um tempo desafiadora com Elder Soares sendo que estava a lutar com os
efeitos dum febre e fracassa da saúde, mas realmente a sacrifício
valeu a pena porque colheríamos muitas bênçãos do céu.  A acumulação
de muito preparação e procura caiu com sucesso naquela dia.  Era muito
especial para mim começando com aquela divisão e continuando
especialmente durante as entrevistas baptismais  enquanto o Senhor deu
me a forca que era necessário para cumprir com os meus
responsabilidades e ensinar as pessoas que precisavam de meu ajuda
naquelas dias.  não foi fácil, nem sabia se tivesse forca suficiente
para ultrapassa-las mas realmente viu a ajuda divina na minha vida
esta fim de semana apoiando me quando estava o mais fraco.

I was blessed to get to teach a older couple that have quite a bit of
biblical knowledge and that are truly looking for the true church.  I
could really see the difference as we are teaching them I really think
that we are going to be able to help them come to the peace of heart
that they need because that is what an answer about the truthfulness
of the gospel brings to us.  I have really high hopes for them and I
am hoping that they will be able to make the changes in their hearts
to be able to accept the truth.  But becuase of the way that they look
to us as teachers you can see the humility in their eyes.

Have a wonderful holiday season.  I am happy and hopefully the healthy
will come back soon too!  But nothing is going to get in the way of
the Lord's work. Love you all!

MUITO AMOR E FELIZ NATAL
 Elder Hobson

Week 67

I got that christmas package and everything is in good shape.  Thank
you all very much.  I have not opened anything but I can already feel
your love.

To respond to your questions...
We have three Americans and one Portuguese elder in our house.  He
does also speak fluent English. The mission has been getting a lot
more português missionaries lately which is awesome, but we have been
losing a lot of our capo verdianos as well. So there is still a mass
majority Americans.  We have 2 portugueses, 1 Brazilian, and 5
Americans in our district.
yes we do have the Christmas video in Portuguese already. It is a good one.

Elder Collette and I were talking a bit about some deep doctrine and I
have a quick question that is not important at all but, do all
intelligences have free agency?

As for our house situation we should finally be getting in our things
from the other house and from the office today.  Hopefully that will
actually happen today becuase it has already fallen though several
times. I am super ready to get on the nice mattress that I have up
there.

Jair is an investigator that we are working with right now that is
showing a lot of potential and really enjoyed church and everything.
It  was a good time

Ola Presidente
Esta semana começamos com um amigo que está a progredir rapidamente a
cumprir com compromissos e a fazer sacrifícios para ajuntar com a
igreja.  Ele vai ser baptizado está mês acreditamos que temos
encontrado um dos eleitos que o Senhor nos preparou. E continuaremos a
procurar para mais.

Torres Vedras está a passar por muito dificuldades nesta momento.  É
raro que eles tem alguém para ensinar. Mudou os planos de divisões
para que puder ir lá e tentar a ajudar. Acredito que sejam boas
missionários obedientes e vou tentar fazer os possíveis para ajudar
lhes começar a ver sucesso.

Com Amor
Elder Hobson
This week I taught the Gospel principles class.  I was asked to teach
it right as it was starting so I had not even read the chapter yet.
Thankfully it was about the final judgement a subject that I really
like.  Unfortunately I think I took it a little too deep for the
investigators and members that we had there. I touched a bit on
transfiguration, requirements for being in the presence of God, and
also the differences in glory in resurrected beings. But for the most
part it went fine haha.

Well I am happy and healthy and the work is going along.  I would love
to tell you more but I am out of time. Have a nice week.

Love Elder Hobson

Week 66

This week was full of confusion and moving.  Right now I am still
living out of the suitcases because I do not have anywhere to hang up
my clothes yet in this house.  So basically in our area one of the
houses is really close to the chapel in one of the giant
neighborhoods, and then the other is about a 40 minute walk from that
in another neighborhood that has not been very successful ever as far
as missionary work.  So we got into our area and we did not know which
house we were supposed to be in.  So we went up and lived in the house
that is a long way away at first.  But then after having to
communicate with a ton of people about how we could do it we moved
back down into the other house, but the house that we are living in
with the other elders here does not have some of the things that you
need for a 4 elder house.  Anyways we are getting closer and closer to
getting it all organized and set up how we need it to be.

So I have figured out how I can keep up with what is happening on the
island.  Sister Broderick is responsible for receiving and
distributing the references that we get as a mission to other
missionaries and other missions.  So every time I get a reference for
a different area I get to call in and talk with her.  References are a
little more frequent here in Lisbon. then on the island.  So I have
gotten to call in twice already and Catia is progressing really well
towards baptism.  Also we got an announcement in presidents letter
today that missionaries can no longer have callings unless they are
the branch president.  besides that we are not allowed to have any
sort of calling.  So that is interesting I wonder how it will be out
in the Azores now with that rule.

Tenho sido a pensar esta semana bastante em baptismos.  Eu e Elder
Collette estão a falar sobre a baptismo muito e estou a sentir muito
animo e desejo para fazer a trabalho por causa disto.   Também os
membros aqui são incríveis. Em nossos esforços para conhecer a área
estamos a encontrar com muitos membros que querem trabalhar connosco e
também estamos a encontrar com familiares a amigos dos menos activos
que vamos começar a ensinar.

Estamos a morar na casa de cacem juntos com os outros elders para que
pudermos trabalhar mais perto de capela onde tem a maioridade dos
membros e onde a trabalho está a ser feito neste momento.   As
mudanças necessitarias para fazer isto tem sido um pouco desafiador
mas estamos quase sem problemas por causa de ajuda de algumas membros.
Tem sido a orar mais sobre onde devemos focalizar nosso trabalho nesta
área e estou a sentir bem que estamos no lugar certo. Vamos trabalhar
o mais possível com os membros especialmente os missionários recém
voltados a casa para pudermos completar as famílias deles e também
ajudar muitos dos amigos deles conhecer a Igreja e ser baptizado.

this thanksgiving we did not have thanksgiving dinner, but we did have
a really nice and large meal with the stake patriarch here.  It was
fun to sit down in his house and have him chat with us a bit.  It made
me feel more at home to be on a comfortable couch and talk to a more
elderly person.  He is a fun guy and is always really making very
revalatory statements in almost common conversation.  We get fed quite
a bit here form the members.  It is a very fun very young ward that
has a ton of recently returned missionaries that have all sorts of
desire to baptise all their family and friends.  It is going to be
really fun to get to work with all of them and helo them have their
family in the chruch as well.

Time to run!

Love You all
Elder Hobson