This week we got to start working with a family that recently got here
from brasil. We went over to get to know them for the first time this
week and we got to hear a pretty crazy story. The dad of the family
was assaulted in brasil and was shot twice in the chest leaving
shrapnel in his lungs and completely ruining his intestines. He had
tons of surgeries, and still needs more. he had to lay down
motionless for over 40 days without being able to drink any water,
which left him begging for water in tears but all the more that they
could do was to dampen his lips with a sponge. he has bald patches on
the back of his head from laying there for so long and basically he
really just got messed up and is a walking miracle. He has a young
wife and a little daughter who are really amazing. This man is just
so grateful for his life and for all that God has done to allow him to
be here on earth with his family still. He has a desire to find a
good church and begin going there all the time. This accident was in
November of 2014 if I remember right so he is still recovering and he
has not yet found a good church for his family. Basically they are
just amazingly prepared and it is super amazing to get to hear their
life stories. We are just starting with them, but we are really
excited to see where this family will go. The Lord really had
prepared them for us, that much is for sure, they are amazing and we
are hoping and praying that the Lord can guide us in how to work with
them so that they will be able to see for themselves that this is the
true church, that it is the one that they should join and will bring
them more blessings and happiness then anything else in the world.
We are teaching another young man that is really cool. his name is
junior. he was really anxious to get to hear about the book of Mormon
and what it is after going to Church for the first time during a fast
and testimony meeting where just about all of the testimonies were
about the Book of Mórmon form a bunch of humble young members. It was
cool to see how anxious he was to hear what we had to say and he
accepted the message really well. He is really tough to get time with
though because he studies and works almost everyday and he has to
travel a bunch to do both of those things. With people super special
like him though we know it is worth it and we
Quick update on some of my comps and good friends out here on them
mission this week...
Elder Empey got a package from his dad this week full of BYU football
team gear and a letter that was really hard on trying to get him to
change over to going to BYU to play football. (Elder Empey's dad was
an offensive lineman at BYU and is now the new offensive line coach,
so now he is trying to recruit his son since he will be coaching him
now. It is definitely difficult for us to not get distracted talking
about football since Elder Easton also played but ended with breaking
his back.) It is pretty funny to see him have to struggle with that
decision and not let it distract him too much while he is out here.
So this week one of the Elders in our house was sent home because of
depression. His condition was getting really serious. We have been
trying to help him in every way that we could over the last two months
that I have been here in Odivelas with him. He has been having a
really rough time. He was not able to get out of bed before about
10h30 every day. So he was really just sleeping about 4 extra hours
every day and was having a really hard time begin positive and started
rebelling against everything about the mission. It has been really
hard to see, especially for Elder Empey and for Elder Easton who were
with him in the MTC where he was apparently a completely different
person. He was a soccer player, student body president, skier, and
absolutely all around awesome dude that everyone just loved.
Unfortunately he got really sick with this depression and his hormones
got way out of wack and he is just completely different now because of
this sickness. Saturday night he was sent home being that he is just
no longer physically fit to be a missionary and he needs to get the
help and medical attention that he can only get from his family and it
the United States. He was not happy that he was getting sent home, he
wanted to stay out and has a strong desire to serve his full mission,
but it just wasn't going to be what was best. It was really hard to
work with and really confusing because I do not understand how
depression works. I have never really understood much about
depression and mental illnesses, I always just thought that people
just needed to snap out of it and choose to be happy and mentally
healthy, but out on the mission with this experience and many more I
realize that there is a lot more to it than just that. It was a bit
of a trial of patience but we did learn a lot of compassion and
understanding. I will never look at a missionary that came home early
because of anxiety or stress or depression in the same way ever again.
A mission is really not an easy thing. It is a challenge everyday and
we are constantly pushing ourselves to get the best out of every
minute and drop of energy and capacity, mentally, physically, and
spiritually that we have. That is what makes it such a rewarding
experience and how it can change the lives of missionaries, but
success and change and blessings come at a cost. thankfully I have
been blessed to be strengthened by the Lord enough to get through this
much. And I thank him every day for that and ask for the ability to
keep on going. A lot of the time I am not sure how we keep going, but
it sure is amazing to have the lord's help. I really hope that he
will get better quickly and prayers would be appreciated for Elder Lee
Holmes.
Ohh and the new elder in our house that took Elder Holmes spot is
Elder Oliveira or better known as Leonardo one of the young men that I
worked with almost every day when I was serving in Alverca. Should be
fun
Amo-vos a todos. segue sempre em frente
Elder Hobson
Alma 60:36
Atos 4:29
Mateus 21:21-21
Apocalipse 21:4
Éter 4:19
Alma 34:41
Mosias 29:20
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Week 85
This week we had a good time. We had a zone meeting that was a good
amount of work for us right off the bat to get done. We have a cool
zone and we were really happy to see the results of the meeting. We
had a huge spike in our results from the day because of the meeting so
I guess it was worth the time. We went out to eat with the
Assistentes when we got done with the meeting. They took us over to a
Subway which I didn't even know that they had here in Portugal but it
took me on a major flashback to the river days getting Subway in
Salmon. I have mixed feelings about those memories being that
anything associated with Salmon, Idaho, probably my least favorite
town in the world, cannot be all that great.
We got the new Bibles from the church that have some footnotes and
headings and things, as well as some corrections and stuff that make
this portuguese bible officially endorsed by the church. It is pretty
cool and is a nice tool to help with studies, but the english
scriptures still have way more helps and nifty things. I need all the
help that I can get to get to know the scriptures better so I was
really happy.
Tenho sido a pensar um pouco sobre arrependimento e como é que
funciona. Para ser um juízo comum de Israel é uma assunto um pouco
assustador para mim. Durante o tempo que eu tenho sido um missionário
já tive various oportunidades para entrevistar pessoas para o batismo
e em various destes ocasiões foi preciso uma entrevista especial
quando cheguemos a pergunta 4. Nesta ultima entrevista em particular
foi um pouco difícil para mim sendo que tinha que pedir um pouco mais
informações para saber se uma entrevista especial fosse precisa. Em
fim meus sentimentos foram basicamente que era mais difícil para mim a
perdoar ela do que era para ela a receber perdão de nosso Salvador.
Faz me a pensar como eu preciso alinhar meus sentimentos mais com o
espirito em todas as coisas.
Eu aprendi de Elder Moreira que esta vida é o tempo para misericórdia
e por meio de minhas experienciarias pessoais com arrependimento já vi
que muitas vezes O Senhor perdoa-me mais rápido do que consigo fazer
para mim mesmo. Sou grato para ter estas experiencias com tantas
outras pessoas a ajuda-las neste processo durante a missão para puder
ser um juízo mais justo no futuro.
We are teaching a single mom that is pretty awesome. It was cool to
see how well she was getting the message that we were teaching about
the restoration. She just really understood. It really blows me away
how confused some people can get about the things we teach because of
the barriers that they put up and the other beliefs that they have
that are blocking receiving any further instruction or inspiration. I
find it sad that so many people are not even willing to open up their
hearts and give it one shot. But with her she was just getting it and
taking it all in like a sponge and then basically spitting out the
next things that we were going to say. It was an awesome experience.
I think that it will be what was needed to be able to get her to make
some sacrifices and especially finally have the courage to go out and
look for another job that will allow here to live a healthy lifestyle.
Right now she is working from 3am until the afternoon when she has
just a little time before she has to go and get her kid and take care
of her for the rest of the night giving her the opportunity to sleep
for about 4 hours a night. But we are already working with her to
get her to walk away and get something that will be more reasonable
and allow her to go to church.
My main thought right now is just on how much a difference the gospel
really does make in people's lives. Being a missionary, which I think
basically automatically makes you more sensitive to the spirit, as we
go around house to house we can feel the difference in the homes of
these people. We feel all sorts of levels of love and peace and
comfort in the houses of these people, but when you go to the house of
a strong family in the church it is completely different. I see a
major difference in how family members treat each other in their
relationships when they are members or not. As a general trend the
people that we meet that are truly living the gospel are much more
positive about life and their situations, more confident, more
supporting, happier and much more confident. It is not that these
people have perfect problem free lives, or even close to that, most of
the members here struggle immensely financially, are immigrates a long
ways away from their family and culture, and usually have many other
struggles as well, but with the help of our Lord and Savior, their
burdens are lifted a little to make them possible to overcome and they
have hope because of the knowledge of the eternal plan that we are in
right now. I wish that everyone could see the effects of the gospel
in the way that I have seen them and am continuing to see right now,
because if everyone saw this they would know that there is really no
better way to live life, that these things have to be true and will
only enrichen their lives if they put them into practice. I hope we
can all be able to get this same vision and feel and see the
difference in our own lives. I love all you and I am so grateful for
the wonder family that I have. I truly hope and pray that we will all
stay together for eternity because that is the best thing that I could
think of having and I know it is possible
Love
Elder Hobson
Presidente Tavares is having us choose and read a scripture to our
comp ever single night right before we go to bed and then report those
scriptures to him. This is my list from this week, thought I might as
well share them with you all as well.
Salmos 16: 10-11
1 Pedro 2:6
D&C 20:38
Moisés 6: 32-34
D&C 25:15
3 Néfi 17:3
Alma 20:17
amount of work for us right off the bat to get done. We have a cool
zone and we were really happy to see the results of the meeting. We
had a huge spike in our results from the day because of the meeting so
I guess it was worth the time. We went out to eat with the
Assistentes when we got done with the meeting. They took us over to a
Subway which I didn't even know that they had here in Portugal but it
took me on a major flashback to the river days getting Subway in
Salmon. I have mixed feelings about those memories being that
anything associated with Salmon, Idaho, probably my least favorite
town in the world, cannot be all that great.
We got the new Bibles from the church that have some footnotes and
headings and things, as well as some corrections and stuff that make
this portuguese bible officially endorsed by the church. It is pretty
cool and is a nice tool to help with studies, but the english
scriptures still have way more helps and nifty things. I need all the
help that I can get to get to know the scriptures better so I was
really happy.
Tenho sido a pensar um pouco sobre arrependimento e como é que
funciona. Para ser um juízo comum de Israel é uma assunto um pouco
assustador para mim. Durante o tempo que eu tenho sido um missionário
já tive various oportunidades para entrevistar pessoas para o batismo
e em various destes ocasiões foi preciso uma entrevista especial
quando cheguemos a pergunta 4. Nesta ultima entrevista em particular
foi um pouco difícil para mim sendo que tinha que pedir um pouco mais
informações para saber se uma entrevista especial fosse precisa. Em
fim meus sentimentos foram basicamente que era mais difícil para mim a
perdoar ela do que era para ela a receber perdão de nosso Salvador.
Faz me a pensar como eu preciso alinhar meus sentimentos mais com o
espirito em todas as coisas.
Eu aprendi de Elder Moreira que esta vida é o tempo para misericórdia
e por meio de minhas experienciarias pessoais com arrependimento já vi
que muitas vezes O Senhor perdoa-me mais rápido do que consigo fazer
para mim mesmo. Sou grato para ter estas experiencias com tantas
outras pessoas a ajuda-las neste processo durante a missão para puder
ser um juízo mais justo no futuro.
We are teaching a single mom that is pretty awesome. It was cool to
see how well she was getting the message that we were teaching about
the restoration. She just really understood. It really blows me away
how confused some people can get about the things we teach because of
the barriers that they put up and the other beliefs that they have
that are blocking receiving any further instruction or inspiration. I
find it sad that so many people are not even willing to open up their
hearts and give it one shot. But with her she was just getting it and
taking it all in like a sponge and then basically spitting out the
next things that we were going to say. It was an awesome experience.
I think that it will be what was needed to be able to get her to make
some sacrifices and especially finally have the courage to go out and
look for another job that will allow here to live a healthy lifestyle.
Right now she is working from 3am until the afternoon when she has
just a little time before she has to go and get her kid and take care
of her for the rest of the night giving her the opportunity to sleep
for about 4 hours a night. But we are already working with her to
get her to walk away and get something that will be more reasonable
and allow her to go to church.
My main thought right now is just on how much a difference the gospel
really does make in people's lives. Being a missionary, which I think
basically automatically makes you more sensitive to the spirit, as we
go around house to house we can feel the difference in the homes of
these people. We feel all sorts of levels of love and peace and
comfort in the houses of these people, but when you go to the house of
a strong family in the church it is completely different. I see a
major difference in how family members treat each other in their
relationships when they are members or not. As a general trend the
people that we meet that are truly living the gospel are much more
positive about life and their situations, more confident, more
supporting, happier and much more confident. It is not that these
people have perfect problem free lives, or even close to that, most of
the members here struggle immensely financially, are immigrates a long
ways away from their family and culture, and usually have many other
struggles as well, but with the help of our Lord and Savior, their
burdens are lifted a little to make them possible to overcome and they
have hope because of the knowledge of the eternal plan that we are in
right now. I wish that everyone could see the effects of the gospel
in the way that I have seen them and am continuing to see right now,
because if everyone saw this they would know that there is really no
better way to live life, that these things have to be true and will
only enrichen their lives if they put them into practice. I hope we
can all be able to get this same vision and feel and see the
difference in our own lives. I love all you and I am so grateful for
the wonder family that I have. I truly hope and pray that we will all
stay together for eternity because that is the best thing that I could
think of having and I know it is possible
Love
Elder Hobson
Presidente Tavares is having us choose and read a scripture to our
comp ever single night right before we go to bed and then report those
scriptures to him. This is my list from this week, thought I might as
well share them with you all as well.
Salmos 16: 10-11
1 Pedro 2:6
D&C 20:38
Moisés 6: 32-34
D&C 25:15
3 Néfi 17:3
Alma 20:17
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Week 84 General Conference
First off I have good news and I just wanted to thank you all for the
many prayers for Ihita and Ivan. They were able to move and have a
roof over their heads still. They are so awesome. I actually had
another experience with muslins this week again, thankfully this one
was a more positive one. We actually baptized a muslim man in our
zone and I was able to get to go to his baptism. The baptism was
really cool because there was a ton of people there to see general
conference since they had to do it in between sessions. When he came
up out of the water he stayed there standing still with his head bowed
for about 2 minutes. It was an amazingly powerful experience for me
as I was aware of the significance of his decision to convert away
from being muslim. Most of the congregation was just confused but for
those that knew what had just happened it was a really powerful
experience. After he changed back into his Suit that he had recently
bought for church, we ended the meeting with him bearing his
testimony. He bore a very powerful testimony of the holy ghost and
the confirming witness that he has received that he is making the
correct decision. Even though he did have some things that were a bit
confused in his testimony that will have to be straitened out later,
he has a very strong testimony that this is truly the one and only
true church. He explained a bit about the difficulties that he has
been going through with his parents and family members back in Africa
that did not want him to change and did not support him whatsoever in
this decision. It was amazing to see a man turn his back on his
culture, people, country, way of life, and family all because of his
love for God. It is inspiring and I hope and pray that he and his
family can be blessed and protected in this life and in the next for
this decision knowing that it will not be easy for any of them. The
rules that we have to be able to teach and baptize a muslim are really
long and ridiculous making it almost impossible but he was able to do
it. Hopefully he will be able to continue to make the correct
decisions and progress.
This week has been fun to get to know a couple new missionaries and
work a little different. Transfers are always a good refresher filled
with tons of new challenges which is a good thing. I had to bring a
ton of things back to our area for our zone like copies of the book of
mórmon and things like that and because I was stupid and loaded up my
bag with about 120lbs of books and such I had one of the tires on my
big luggage bags blow out. I am going to try and fix it, but just
kind of a bummer and a burden that comes from having to try and help
these other missionaries.
To respond to your question Dad, there has not been too much press
about the temple and stuff since the ground breaking ceremony. It is
still in the very beginning stages of construction and I am sure as
they get more to the point where the walls are up there will be a lot
more commotion about it. It has come up from a few people here and
there already on the street but it is still not out there super well.
I sure am excited to see where it is at more at the end of the summer,
hopefully it will have the basic structure visible by then.
We had a cool experience with Veronica a member from the azores that
is here for college now. She had a boy that had come down from a
different town to visit here this week that we found her showing him
around the church. We took advantage and taught him a bit and then
after he came back for general conference we taught him again. He is
really cool and as of now he claims to not really believe in God, but
after talking to him for 5 minutes that changed, and then after
watching a bit of General conference he recognized the answers that he
was receiving from the holy ghost and knew that it was definitely
something different and special. Funny that he came down to Lisbon
this weekend to meet a girl and basically spent the whole weekend
getting converted to Jesus Christ. That is what I call good dating,
well done Veronica.
We are working hard out here and having fun. Thankfully now I have
finally caught back up on sleep after transfers and I am getting back
onto my typical schedule. I am excited for this transfer and I really
want to make the most out of it because the weeks are flying by and
time is running short. I feel more and more like President Hinkley
every day when asked why he walks fast and he said, "if you knew what
I know then you would walk faster too". There is just too little time
to be able to help give as many people as possible a chance to hear
about the gospel as possible. gotta use every moment well becuase we
do not have any time to waste and this life goes by really quickly
with all of its eternally significant decisions continuing on forever.
"You can have what you want now or something better" -Elder Holland
"DECISIONS DETERMINE DESTINY" - President Monson
Christ is always the right choice.
happy choosing
Love
Elder Hobson
many prayers for Ihita and Ivan. They were able to move and have a
roof over their heads still. They are so awesome. I actually had
another experience with muslins this week again, thankfully this one
was a more positive one. We actually baptized a muslim man in our
zone and I was able to get to go to his baptism. The baptism was
really cool because there was a ton of people there to see general
conference since they had to do it in between sessions. When he came
up out of the water he stayed there standing still with his head bowed
for about 2 minutes. It was an amazingly powerful experience for me
as I was aware of the significance of his decision to convert away
from being muslim. Most of the congregation was just confused but for
those that knew what had just happened it was a really powerful
experience. After he changed back into his Suit that he had recently
bought for church, we ended the meeting with him bearing his
testimony. He bore a very powerful testimony of the holy ghost and
the confirming witness that he has received that he is making the
correct decision. Even though he did have some things that were a bit
confused in his testimony that will have to be straitened out later,
he has a very strong testimony that this is truly the one and only
true church. He explained a bit about the difficulties that he has
been going through with his parents and family members back in Africa
that did not want him to change and did not support him whatsoever in
this decision. It was amazing to see a man turn his back on his
culture, people, country, way of life, and family all because of his
love for God. It is inspiring and I hope and pray that he and his
family can be blessed and protected in this life and in the next for
this decision knowing that it will not be easy for any of them. The
rules that we have to be able to teach and baptize a muslim are really
long and ridiculous making it almost impossible but he was able to do
it. Hopefully he will be able to continue to make the correct
decisions and progress.
This week has been fun to get to know a couple new missionaries and
work a little different. Transfers are always a good refresher filled
with tons of new challenges which is a good thing. I had to bring a
ton of things back to our area for our zone like copies of the book of
mórmon and things like that and because I was stupid and loaded up my
bag with about 120lbs of books and such I had one of the tires on my
big luggage bags blow out. I am going to try and fix it, but just
kind of a bummer and a burden that comes from having to try and help
these other missionaries.
To respond to your question Dad, there has not been too much press
about the temple and stuff since the ground breaking ceremony. It is
still in the very beginning stages of construction and I am sure as
they get more to the point where the walls are up there will be a lot
more commotion about it. It has come up from a few people here and
there already on the street but it is still not out there super well.
I sure am excited to see where it is at more at the end of the summer,
hopefully it will have the basic structure visible by then.
We had a cool experience with Veronica a member from the azores that
is here for college now. She had a boy that had come down from a
different town to visit here this week that we found her showing him
around the church. We took advantage and taught him a bit and then
after he came back for general conference we taught him again. He is
really cool and as of now he claims to not really believe in God, but
after talking to him for 5 minutes that changed, and then after
watching a bit of General conference he recognized the answers that he
was receiving from the holy ghost and knew that it was definitely
something different and special. Funny that he came down to Lisbon
this weekend to meet a girl and basically spent the whole weekend
getting converted to Jesus Christ. That is what I call good dating,
well done Veronica.
We are working hard out here and having fun. Thankfully now I have
finally caught back up on sleep after transfers and I am getting back
onto my typical schedule. I am excited for this transfer and I really
want to make the most out of it because the weeks are flying by and
time is running short. I feel more and more like President Hinkley
every day when asked why he walks fast and he said, "if you knew what
I know then you would walk faster too". There is just too little time
to be able to help give as many people as possible a chance to hear
about the gospel as possible. gotta use every moment well becuase we
do not have any time to waste and this life goes by really quickly
with all of its eternally significant decisions continuing on forever.
"You can have what you want now or something better" -Elder Holland
"DECISIONS DETERMINE DESTINY" - President Monson
Christ is always the right choice.
happy choosing
Love
Elder Hobson
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Week 83 Transfer day, but staying in Odivelas
So today is transfer day, but I will be staying here in Odivelas for
another transfer. I am really excited because we will be getting some
new elderes in the house that are really cool and it should be lots of
fun to work with them this transfer. One of them is Elder Empy who was
one of the district leaders that we had in the zone last transfer, but
now he lives in our house. He is a cool guy that is signed on to play
for Utah on the o line after the mission, but his dad is now the new o
line coach at BYU i think so he is having a bit of second thoughts,
but will probably still go to Utah. anyways he is huge! My new comp
will be Elder Easton.
This páscoa (Easter) was wonderful. It is always a blessing to be
able to be a missionary during these holidays when people are thinking
more of Christ and family. We also woke up and had an Easter egg hunt
in our house put on by Elder Holmes (apparently the Easter bunny comes
in Portugal too;) ) It was pretty intense. I ended up winning
because I found the giant golden egg that Elder Holmes had hidden. We
also had a ton of little tiny chocolate eggs that were super hard to
find. after church we had a bunch of farewells to do as Elder Reni is
heading out, but it was a pretty nice day and we managed to visit a
lot of people that we have worked with over the transfer. We had
daylight savings happen here this weekend so that really has been
pretty tough with transfers and with the loss of an hour we have been
pretty stinkin exhausted this weekend.
This week was the last week of Sister Bakker's mission and we visited
a lot of member's houses to have lunch and say goodbye to them all.
One of them included Ihita. She is a recent convert from Bangladesh
so they made us a bunch of curry and stuff that was really good that
we all sat on the floor and ate with our hands. They live in a lady's
house where they only have half of one room where they have their
stuff, and they do not have very much. They keep going through their
little mini market but they are really having a hard time getting by.
It was a really cool cultural Experience to get to do that with them
and a real honor as it is quite a big deal with their culture.
Unfortunately we got bad news later on in the week that the owner of
the house found out that we had come over and because we are
Christians and the owners are muslins they told Ihita and her husband
Ivan that they have 4 days to get out of the house. It is tough to
see how rough it can be for them, but thankfully they will only have
to leave their house and they will not be killed like would normally
happen to muslins that convert to Christianity. We feel terrible
because we had no idea that this could happen. The sisters are
constantly going over there and it has never been an issue, but since
Elders are much more recognizable and well known, I guess it was a
problem immediately afterwards. So prayers for them would be
appreciated so that everything can work out well for them. Sometimes
following the Savior and choosing the right can be a lot more
complicated and lonely seeming then it should be when your entire
family and culture completely reject you.
I am about to finish up my study of the new testament as I am reading
in revelations, which is Apocalypse in portuguese. It has been really
interesting to read and to understand how the Lord really has a
different view of things. We can see that a bit just from the little
things that he shared with John and the organized vision he has as to
how everything is going to work itself out. It really in comforting to
know that the Lord with this infinite knowledge and wisdom is willing
to take the time to listen to our prayers individually and really show
us all individual love and care. It just blows me away to get to
develop such a personal relationship with our loving Heavenly Father.
I am so grateful to have him as a part of my life and I hope that we
can always continue to show our love and thanks to him by keeping his
commandments.
love you all! Enjoy general conference weekend!
~Love Elder Hobson
another transfer. I am really excited because we will be getting some
new elderes in the house that are really cool and it should be lots of
fun to work with them this transfer. One of them is Elder Empy who was
one of the district leaders that we had in the zone last transfer, but
now he lives in our house. He is a cool guy that is signed on to play
for Utah on the o line after the mission, but his dad is now the new o
line coach at BYU i think so he is having a bit of second thoughts,
but will probably still go to Utah. anyways he is huge! My new comp
will be Elder Easton.
This páscoa (Easter) was wonderful. It is always a blessing to be
able to be a missionary during these holidays when people are thinking
more of Christ and family. We also woke up and had an Easter egg hunt
in our house put on by Elder Holmes (apparently the Easter bunny comes
in Portugal too;) ) It was pretty intense. I ended up winning
because I found the giant golden egg that Elder Holmes had hidden. We
also had a ton of little tiny chocolate eggs that were super hard to
find. after church we had a bunch of farewells to do as Elder Reni is
heading out, but it was a pretty nice day and we managed to visit a
lot of people that we have worked with over the transfer. We had
daylight savings happen here this weekend so that really has been
pretty tough with transfers and with the loss of an hour we have been
pretty stinkin exhausted this weekend.
This week was the last week of Sister Bakker's mission and we visited
a lot of member's houses to have lunch and say goodbye to them all.
One of them included Ihita. She is a recent convert from Bangladesh
so they made us a bunch of curry and stuff that was really good that
we all sat on the floor and ate with our hands. They live in a lady's
house where they only have half of one room where they have their
stuff, and they do not have very much. They keep going through their
little mini market but they are really having a hard time getting by.
It was a really cool cultural Experience to get to do that with them
and a real honor as it is quite a big deal with their culture.
Unfortunately we got bad news later on in the week that the owner of
the house found out that we had come over and because we are
Christians and the owners are muslins they told Ihita and her husband
Ivan that they have 4 days to get out of the house. It is tough to
see how rough it can be for them, but thankfully they will only have
to leave their house and they will not be killed like would normally
happen to muslins that convert to Christianity. We feel terrible
because we had no idea that this could happen. The sisters are
constantly going over there and it has never been an issue, but since
Elders are much more recognizable and well known, I guess it was a
problem immediately afterwards. So prayers for them would be
appreciated so that everything can work out well for them. Sometimes
following the Savior and choosing the right can be a lot more
complicated and lonely seeming then it should be when your entire
family and culture completely reject you.
I am about to finish up my study of the new testament as I am reading
in revelations, which is Apocalypse in portuguese. It has been really
interesting to read and to understand how the Lord really has a
different view of things. We can see that a bit just from the little
things that he shared with John and the organized vision he has as to
how everything is going to work itself out. It really in comforting to
know that the Lord with this infinite knowledge and wisdom is willing
to take the time to listen to our prayers individually and really show
us all individual love and care. It just blows me away to get to
develop such a personal relationship with our loving Heavenly Father.
I am so grateful to have him as a part of my life and I hope that we
can always continue to show our love and thanks to him by keeping his
commandments.
love you all! Enjoy general conference weekend!
~Love Elder Hobson
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Week 82 Edson from Angola
We had a really good week out here. We were able to teach a ton of
lessons to people that are really starting to progress. We had a
division this week where we had a threesome come into our area and
work with us and so we had to get a ton of things marked so that we
could fill up one day with two companionships in our area since that
is the training model that we are using now. We really received some
cool blessings in doing that. We had a couple recent converts call us
up the day before and say that they had a friend that would be in
their house that we could come by to teach. I was really excited and
I was looking at all the plans that we already had and it basically
needed to be at 4pm to be possible for us so I started chanting 4! 4!
4! and about 20 seconds later they texted us and asked if it could be
at 4pm! I was really excited to see how the Lord can really just rain
down the blessings when we are giving it our all. She came to church
this weekend and we have her marked to be baptized next sunday. She
is really cool so hopefully everything goes smoothly.
We had a good scare this week as well. I woke up at about 5am to the
phone ringing on Saturday and answered it to the sound of one of the
sister missionaries in the ward sobbing in pain. She just told me
that she was in a ton of pain right above her hip and asked if we
could come and give her a blessing. So we ran over to her house and
found her curled up in a ball on the floor moaning in pain. We gave
her a blessing and while we were doing it I was praying with all my
heart that she would be ok and that we could have the blessing that
she could be healed immediately of her pain but besides a good
blessing instant healing was not promised. She ended up having a
kidney stone that she actually has already passed. I kept thinking
that her gull bladder had ruptured which would be worse being that we
are here in Portugal. It was pretty sad that they called us, we got
dressed, ran to their house and gave her a blessing then got
everything ready and took her down the stairs and waited for about 5
minutes and then the elders from the office showed up to give her a
ride to the hospital. We had already called portuguese 911 when she
called us and they did not even respond to the call until about 10
minutes after we had already sent her with the elders and gone home..
I have very little confidence in portuguese health care but I am glad
that she was alright and that I was able to participate in giving her
the help that she needed as a priesthood holder. It is always a
special experience to be able to participate in these things. She
only has a week left in the mission too.
We have another guy that we are teaching called Edson. He is here
from angola and is studying engineering and is totally doing awesome
with the lessons. He really studies the things that we leave him with
be a pamphlet or chapters in the book of Mormon he always has it all
marked up with notes in the margines and everything when we come back
in the next visit. He is really cool and we are truly seeing the
light of the gospel coming into his life. Unfortunately he did not
make it to church this week, but he should be getting baptized soon
still.
We also had a member here that got his mission call to Moçambique this
week. It is interesting how the traditions with these things are soo
different here then they are in the United States. We had the chapel
full of members from all over the stake and Lisbon area there to see
him open his call. It was a cool experience and fun to see how it is
different then how we have it in the USA being that it happens a whole
lot more. But actually here in our ward we have 3 young men that have
their mission calls and our waiting to go out into the field. It is
exciting to see the growth and to be able to help these boys get ready
for the mission.
Sorry it is short but we were out playing with the missionaries that
are going home next week. Plus I locked the keys in the chapel for a
bit! sorry!
Love you all and have a wonderful week
Com muitíssima amor
Elder Hobson
lessons to people that are really starting to progress. We had a
division this week where we had a threesome come into our area and
work with us and so we had to get a ton of things marked so that we
could fill up one day with two companionships in our area since that
is the training model that we are using now. We really received some
cool blessings in doing that. We had a couple recent converts call us
up the day before and say that they had a friend that would be in
their house that we could come by to teach. I was really excited and
I was looking at all the plans that we already had and it basically
needed to be at 4pm to be possible for us so I started chanting 4! 4!
4! and about 20 seconds later they texted us and asked if it could be
at 4pm! I was really excited to see how the Lord can really just rain
down the blessings when we are giving it our all. She came to church
this weekend and we have her marked to be baptized next sunday. She
is really cool so hopefully everything goes smoothly.
We had a good scare this week as well. I woke up at about 5am to the
phone ringing on Saturday and answered it to the sound of one of the
sister missionaries in the ward sobbing in pain. She just told me
that she was in a ton of pain right above her hip and asked if we
could come and give her a blessing. So we ran over to her house and
found her curled up in a ball on the floor moaning in pain. We gave
her a blessing and while we were doing it I was praying with all my
heart that she would be ok and that we could have the blessing that
she could be healed immediately of her pain but besides a good
blessing instant healing was not promised. She ended up having a
kidney stone that she actually has already passed. I kept thinking
that her gull bladder had ruptured which would be worse being that we
are here in Portugal. It was pretty sad that they called us, we got
dressed, ran to their house and gave her a blessing then got
everything ready and took her down the stairs and waited for about 5
minutes and then the elders from the office showed up to give her a
ride to the hospital. We had already called portuguese 911 when she
called us and they did not even respond to the call until about 10
minutes after we had already sent her with the elders and gone home..
I have very little confidence in portuguese health care but I am glad
that she was alright and that I was able to participate in giving her
the help that she needed as a priesthood holder. It is always a
special experience to be able to participate in these things. She
only has a week left in the mission too.
We have another guy that we are teaching called Edson. He is here
from angola and is studying engineering and is totally doing awesome
with the lessons. He really studies the things that we leave him with
be a pamphlet or chapters in the book of Mormon he always has it all
marked up with notes in the margines and everything when we come back
in the next visit. He is really cool and we are truly seeing the
light of the gospel coming into his life. Unfortunately he did not
make it to church this week, but he should be getting baptized soon
still.
We also had a member here that got his mission call to Moçambique this
week. It is interesting how the traditions with these things are soo
different here then they are in the United States. We had the chapel
full of members from all over the stake and Lisbon area there to see
him open his call. It was a cool experience and fun to see how it is
different then how we have it in the USA being that it happens a whole
lot more. But actually here in our ward we have 3 young men that have
their mission calls and our waiting to go out into the field. It is
exciting to see the growth and to be able to help these boys get ready
for the mission.
Sorry it is short but we were out playing with the missionaries that
are going home next week. Plus I locked the keys in the chapel for a
bit! sorry!
Love you all and have a wonderful week
Com muitíssima amor
Elder Hobson
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Week 81 Philemon v21 Obedience
 |
| Rogerio in Cacem |
teach the restoration to a lot of people. Unfortunately we are having
a hard time getting the second lesson right now because they are just
not wanting to put the gospel into action in their lives. Basically
means that we are going to have to keep finding a lot of new people to
teach still. We have been teaching a lot of people that go to
evangelical churches which are basically Brazilian gospel churches, it
has been fun but it is also a little tough because we teach it all
really clear as to how this is the one and only true church of Christ
that gives us the opportunity to return to him and have eternal life,
but then we get to the end of the lesson and invite them to come to
church to see what they agreed must be the true church and they say
that they cannot because they have their own church to go to. It is
a bit of a test of our patience but we are going to work with them so
that we can get them to have the experience that will make all of the
difference for them once they just come to church!
today for P day we got a big group of missionares together to
celebrate a sister from France's birthday and to play soccer then go
and get some japonese food. It was a fun day but I am really not good
at soccer. One of the sisters in our zone was on one of the middle
fork trips with me. It is funny that I was her guide before the
mission and now she is in my zone in the mission. Small world.
This week in my studies of the bible I found a cool scripture that I
really liked. It is the one that I attached in the picture. It is in
Philemon verse 21. I really like what it teaches us about obedience,
which is something that the mission is designed to help us learn and a
principle so important to our eternal salvation, it seems like it is
just getting done what is asked but true obedience is more then just
that. When we are truly obedient we are going to work to do the things
that should be done and go above and beyond, not a principle too
foreign to me because I have been told constantly all throughout my
life to not just ..go through the motions.. as I have played sports.
So I am glad that it is not a foreign concept to me but it is a good
reminder that this principle needs to be applied to the gospel as
well.
Caro Presidente,
Em nosso trabalho este semana temos sido a procurar novos famílias
para ensinar. O Senhor abençoou-nos com varias famílias mas
infelizmente estamos a ter dificuldade a encontrar pessoas que
realmente estão dispostos a fazer sacrifícios e cumprir com
compromissos, mas vamos mudar um pouco nosso ensino para focalizar
mais em fazer as pessoas a começar a converter-se por cumprir com os
compromissos.
We have been working really hard trying to find the people that the
Lord has prepared for us. We know that they are out there and that he
will help us find them, it is a fun challenge and really makes it so
that we need to stay paying good attention to all that is going on
around us so that we can take advantage of all the opportunities that
the lord is giving us. We are going to keep working with a bunch of
college kids that are here from Angola who have been showing a good
amount of interest hopefully we will be able to bring a couple of them
into the chruch. It is really cool to see these young guys that
really want to have the spirit in their lives and that want to
straighten out their priorites so that they can have happier lives.
I am happy healthy and I love and miss you all. Thank you for your
love and prayers and I hope that you all keep doing all these
wonderful things!
Com Amor,
Elder Hobson
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