Week 91 Elder Bednar

Well this week was definitely highlighted by the visit of Elder Bednar and the two days basically completely focused on him.  Both meetings that I was at were basically question and answer format in a really interesting way.  It was a wonderful experience and it felt just amazingly personal for talking with an apostle.  He of course taught us a lot of wonderful things, but the things that stood out the most to me was that he taught us how to learn from the spirit.  It was really amazing to watch him teach and see such a masterful teacher that has had so much orientation and mentoring with Apostles and prophets on top of his years of teaching as a profession.  It is amazing because I almost felt like it was really simple things that were being discussed all of the time, but afterwards looking back I see that that is not exactly the case it is just that he does such a wonderful job of elevating those in the congregation to be able to be there and understand what he has to teach us.  Giving us a little peek into his vast reserves of knowledge.  It was a really fun experience.  It was also interesting to see the members that are newer or less active there in his presence when he was talking to the stake in a special devotional.  I had to explain to Amelia that lady that we baptized a couple weeks ago the rarity of this and how special it really is to get to see an apostle.  A lot of the members really just did not quite comprehend exactly what was happening, but I am sure that it seems like the same thing for the authorities that travel the world when they come to our parts and they see how we often lackadaisically frequent the temple or pass by as if it is nothing in comparison to these members that cannot stop talking about the temple even thought they most often only get to go once or twice a year.   It is interesting how the church and the doctrine are the same no matter where you are in the world, but the culture of the church really is a different thing in all places.  

On the way back from the Bednar visit in the Bus I was sitting next to Amelia talking a bit getting to know her a little better and having some good laughs when we got talking a bit about some of the things that Elder Bednar and Elder Johnson of the Seventy and their wives had said in response to the questions that were made.  (Very cool how the wives have a major responsibility in teaching as well as he gives a very large amount of time to the women to answer the questions that the people ask him)One of which talked about how the parents can help wayward children and how leaders can encourage youth that are struggling to come back to the straight and narrow. They explained that we cannot take away their moral agency (not free agency because that is a false doctrine) in anyway clearly, but that the righteousness and obedience of the parents to their covenants can have a spiritually enticing, motivating, and pulling effect on the children encouraging the Holy Ghost to continue working on the child to try to get them to choose the right.  It is amazing to me the power that ordinances and covenants have in our lives, especially the sealing powers that make eternal families possible.  Anyways I was telling Amelia that I was seeing this affect take place with her two daughters being that one had finally accepted baptism during this week and the other is starting to soften up a little. We then were making a bit of plans as to how we were going to strengthen her daughters even more when the younger one who is really tall, but only has 12 years sat up from being basically asleep during the entire bus ride and says out of nowhere that she has decided she would like to get baptized with Yara.  It was really cool and crazy that she, being a really shy girl said something like that so suddenly and so boldly out of nowhere.  Amelia and I had a fun little celebration.  This family was really difficult in the beginning but it has been so amazing to get to see them making these changes lately. Both of them are scheduled to be baptized next Saturday which is super exciting. 

Ihita and Evan will be moving to France this week in search of work. Sad to see them go but I will be able to keep in touch with them and keep talking with them.  I got to see the Brodericks (the senior couple that I have served so much with) at the conference with Elder Bednar.  It was a really wonderful surprise.  They are still calling me their trainer which still makes me laugh really sad to basically say goodbye to them now that there is basically no chance that I will see them again before the end of the mission being that they are heading back out to the acores.  We tried to help one of our really awesome investigators quit smoking and we wanted to fast with him but he could not resist taking a coffee which was really sad and it all went down hill.  so sad to see how people let their freedoms get taken away because of their decisions.  Another man that we are trying to help him save his family relationship as he is having rough patches with the mother of his daughter.  (that is why you get married first)  That is basically how I have really learned the blessings of the commandments is getting to see so many people suffer from disobeying these laws.  I really know that it is all a blessing now. 

WE got to have our meeting with Presidente Tavares and Presidente Gustavo this week. (I sent a message to president Tavares after church to make sure that he did not forget this time.. he got a good laugh out of that one)  It was a good meeting where Presidente Gustavo was basically prepared to tell us how he wants us to do things and what information that he wants us to get so that we can work well and have effective meetings.  So he gave us a really specific assignment as to what to bring next time.  But since I actually had gone to one of these meetings with him on a weird division situation with the zone leaders about a year and a half ago I had remembered basically what it was that he had asked for and how this meeting usually went so we had already prepared a couple reports (which was exactly what he had finished asking for all typed up and organized with several copies).  He was really shocked and gave us a weird look as to how we had gotten this revelation out of nowhere or how we had known what he was going to ask for.  It was a really cool thing and we really gained a ton of his support and  confidence because of that simple move. It is amazing how little things to get prepared like that can make all of the difference.  The mission really does get you prepared for all sorts of situations in life and I am so grateful for all that I have been learning every single day.  It sure is a pleasure to get to work with such wonderful leaders and I have learned one thing is that when you get chances to make a good first impression and set the tone of meetings you better not show up without having prepared something.  I think that is a good way to look at using this life as a time to prepare to meet God once again.  It would be rather unfortunate to make a poor returning impression with the supreme all powerful creator of all things.  Best we prepare well, I know it will pay off in the end and we will be blessed for every little effort that we give.  Gotta always be doing our best.

Love Elder Hobson

PS congrats to Christina and Kyle for graduating! (and anyone else that I have not heard about)

Week 90 Temple week

As predicted this week was a little challenging because of all of the
members that we usually work with going to Madrid to go to the temple,
but is was a good week still. We had transfers and we had a lot of
changes continue to happen throughout the week. We now have a new
elder that is in our house that is from Canada.  He is a really cool
and he already understands the language really well.  It helps him out
that he already speaks french and English fluently, but he really is
an example.  he has been here a week and I still have not had to speak
to him in English and it is the first week of his mission and he is
able to understand us all well enough to keep up conversations with us
all day long.

Oh by the way Ihita went to the temple and then bore her testimony
about it in sacrament meeting. I got to translate her testimony for
her which is super challenging because her English does not make all
that much sense most of the time, but it was a cool experience with a
unique spirit there.  Her husband Evan went with her as well and just
sat on the temple grounds while she was in the temple. It was really
cool to get to see the glow in their faces as they came back. They
really do love the church and each other. they have lots of challenges
and really rough life, but they are almost always happy and they find
that joy in really simple things as the trust in God to lead and guide
them. We also had 4 members that went and did their endowments this
week as well as two of them are about to leave on their missions to
cabo verde and Mozambique.

we have been seeing some really cool people recently.  We got to know
a little better a member here that is a little less active and seems
like a really simple man especially because he has a hard time
speaking Portuguese because he is from gunie bissao but he is a really
amazing artist and he is also a musician.  Sometimes I get a little
bit distanced from the people as we are trying to get them to accept
to hear about the gospel and they consistently are rejecting us, but
when I take a minute to step back and to remember that these are
amazing people that I am getting to know and getting to talk to.  When
I have those moments and remember that I have the opportunity to bless
the lives of these people all day every day even if it is just because
I can give them a joyful smile when they are having a rough day. It is
really an amazing opportunity to get to serve a mission and be out
here with these people.

Yesterday we had a meeting planned with the stake president and
President Tavares, the mission presidente, with the other zone leaders
in the stake, and we all were there except for president tavares.  I
gave him a call to see where he was and he had completely forgotten.
Funny thing to get stood up on the mission by our own Mission
president not something that happens every day.  It sure gave me a
good laugh and humanized him a bit more when I heard him make a yelp
on the phone when he realized that he had completely forgotten about
the meeting.

We have been studying a ton of Elder Bednar's talks about faith and
prayer in preparation for his visit this week.  It has been wonderful
to get to really focus so  much on these gospel principles that are so
basic seeming but really are the essence of everything and the doorway
to everything else.  I am really enjoying as I am trying to do better
with my prayers so that I can really pray with faith looking to make
actions and align myself more with the savior.  I am really looking
forward to getting to hear a little more about these super important
topics this week personally with Elder Bednar.  I am going to get to
see him on Friday and on Saturday since Bishop asked that my companion
and I helped out on the bus that we are taking for the devotional that
is for the members.  The other missionaries are not getting to go the
the second meeting but since we had a special request from our bishop
and from the stake president as well to do this we get to go to the
second meeting as well.  I am super excited for this week.  It is
going to be hot and sunny and we are going to be getting to see an
apostle several times so I am not sure what could be much better then
that.

Love you all
Elder Hobson

Week 89 A chegar

We had our transfers this week and I will be staying here with Elder
Easton for my second to last transfer.  It is crazy to think that I
only have one more call that I could get to pack up and leave before
it is on a long plane ride.    I feel like I should still have a lot
of time left in the mission, but it is winding down quick.

So this week we had the baptism of Amelia.  It was a pretty strange
baptism honestly.  We had a really tough getting it all prepared
because we had her committed to be baptized firmly only with about 15
hours before the baptism.  She had already decided that it was the
right thing for her to do during the week much earlier on, but we were
not sure if she was ready.  Thankfully she was basically perfect in
the baptismal interview and so we did not have any doubts that is was
the right thing to do to go forward with her baptism.  We had to fight
against the rain to get the baptism done, but we did manage to get
them to to chapel.  It was a really good experience for her daughters
who are more reluctant in getting baptized because they are just a
little rebeldes. One of them even stayed to watch a missionary open up
his call and then for a farewell party that we had for another
missionary. The girls are starting to get a little bit more open with
us and they are also starting to feel really comfortable in the church
with all of the members.

This week could be a little tricky trying to work with the members
because most of the members that we usually work with will be spending
the week in Madrid at the temple.  A lot of the young men will be
getting their endowments done so it is really exciting, but a little
tough for us to have people to teach with us.  But really good news is
that Ihita will get to go was well. She is the lady from Bangladesh
that is becoming a good friend of mine since it is usually me that
translates for her during sacrament meeting.  She is really excited
and ready to get to see the temple.  What a special experience for
her.

At church this week we had a new less active come back.  He is being
well received by the bishop and he is already making lots of progress
especially as his sister in law is getting taught by the other elders.
He is an ex pastor of an evangelical Church in Brasil.  He was
converted by a friend that is a member but because of all the
rejection that he had from his family for making the change he became
inactive for a couple years.  Now he is trying to come back and he is
just so awesome.  He is super humble and ready to accept help and get
taught from young men and others that are much less experienced then
him in things such as biblical studies being that he has a degree in
theology.  It was really impressive for me to see so much humility
coming from a man like him.  Really a pretty rare case for someone to
be so willing to accept having to do a pretty major restart on all of
this something that has been so central to his life for so long.  I
really like him and have high hopes for him.

We are sad to see that Elder Empey was transferred out of our house,
but on the bright side it will make it a lot easier for us to get to
bed on time since we have been really bad about staying up really late
recently with him talking for a long time.

 We have been studying a bunch of stuff from a worldwide training for
missionaries that we had earlier this year in preparation for our
visit with Elder Bednar. It is cool really see how simple this work is
and how many times that we have to study the same things to be able to
continue to get revelation about what we need to do with our missions
so that we can do well in representing our Lord and Savior.  I think
that is it amazing how we learn and grow and how we are revealed the
things that we need to know in the right moment when we are doing what
is right.

Here is a quick quote from Elder Empey's dad that has to do about love
that Elder Empey shared with me.

I love you pal.  It was so good talking to you my man!  You look and
sound great!  Good luck in your new calling and territory.  I read a
book on energy and leadership this week.  One part of the book said it
is a scientific fact that when you have love in your heart, it sends
out an electromagnetic energy that can be measured up to 10 feet away.
The idea is, that if you have love for the people you lead, serve, and
work with they can tell and they will feel it.  Focus on that love and
send it out bro!  The missionaries you lead will benefit from feeling
your love for them.

Let them feel it.

Love you all
Elder Hobson

Week 88 Jardim Zoológico

Today we went to the zoo!  I felt like I was at home in the Boise zoo
as a 4th grader running around with all the school kids that were
there on a Monday morning.  It was weird to be there Because it felt
like an amusement part in the united states, but then they would have
announcements and everyone around was talking in Portuguese.  The
coolest part was defiantly the dolphin show that they had.  Made me
really want to go swimming, especially because it is pretty warm out
today, but it was definitely worth going and seeing.

One day this week I was doing a division with Elder Empey and we had
stopped to get a quick snack for dinner as we were walking to the next
lesson, but as we were walking I was still handing out pass along
cards to everyone that walked by, without even saying anything.  (I
find it really interesting that people are much more likely to accept
a card if I do not say anything and just hand it to them.  Whenever we
try to talk to someone and they do not really want anything they
always make a big scene and do not usually accept the cards. So now,
when we do not have any time to stop and talk to people I have the
habit of just handing out cards with a smile as we walk by.  lots of
the time we get thank yous while we are doing that which is always a
refreshing and encouraging change)  Anyways I am saying this because
this week we saw the fruits of these little efforts to spread the
word. One of the guys that I gave one to had been walking a little
behind us and when we stopped to cross the road he turned the corner
and I gave him a card as he went up and we went down.  We got about 20
yards down the road and I looked up to see if he was looking at the
card.  He was.. then he stopped looked up into the sky for a second..
looked at the card a little more and then glanced back at us really
quickly.   on the second time that he glanced back I caught his
attention and smiled and waved.  He waved back and then motioned for
us to come over to him. We got over and he explained that he was an
active member all of his youth.  It came to the point where he had to
choose between going on a mission and joining the army and he chose
the army where basically things started to go a little away from the
church from that point on.  Until just 3 months ago he had been living
in England but his father recently passed away and so he came down to
Portugal to be with family and try to rebuild some long lost
relationships. He realized with the death of his loved one that he
needed to put more of a priority on his family.  It just happened to
be that the card that I handed him was one that talks about family
history.  And he just ended up saying that he wants to come back into
activity now.  It was really a miracle to see how the Lord really does
find a way to touch the lives of his people and guide us in really
marvelous ways.  It was a testimony to me that he magnifies our
efforts and that all efforts in his work are worthwhile and no little
thing goes unnoticed.
This week we had a good zone conference that we had to put on.  It
went nicely and every meeting that we have to do gets easier and
easier for me to prepare.  It is cool how we learn how to do so many
things like this on the mission.

We were able to have a lot of people come out to church this week.  It
was a cool experience to get to see these people making progress and
making the right decisions.  I know that they are getting close to
baptism.  Hopefully some of them will accept to be baptized or take
the last steps to be able to be worthy of that blessing here quickly.

I have wonderful news about our Bangladesh friends. Ivan, Ihita's
husband has decided to be baptized in the church and become a
christian.  He is now reading the Book of Mormon and would like us the
elders to help him get rid of his doubts and questions as he gets
ready to be baptized and leave behind his atheist beliefs.  He is
saying that he is ready to have "mormon life and mormon family."
unfortunately they are facing a lot of persecution, they had their
store robbed and Ivan has gotten into a couple fights as he is
defending his beliefs.  I gave Ihita a blessing today after church
that was a little scary to me, when I blessed her with the ability to
recognize the promptings of the spirit as to when to run and when to
hide.  I realize that they probably still have a long fight ahead of
them, but I know that the Lord will take care of them as they try to
do what is right.

I have been studying a ton about love recently.  I want to develop
more and more love for my companions and for the people that we are
serving and meeting every day in the road or in their doorways. I have
always felt a love for them, it has never been that hard for me, but I
want to really come to one day look at these people as Christ truly
looks at them.

Teach, teach, teach, that is basically all that we do all day long
every day.  and the funny part is that a lot of the time the person
that is learning the most is me.

See you on Sunday at 17h00 our time, 10h00 your time.
Love Elder Hobson

Week 87 Verão está a vir.

Well it is starting to finally have some amazing weather out here
after quite a bit of rain and clouds up until this point. (really it
has not been that much rain, but Portugal is pretty well known to have
a ton of sun for being so close to the ocean)  But right now it is
absolutely beautiful and I am enjoying being out and about with
nothing more then a white tee shirt finally.

We had a good week of work where we taught a ton of lessons even
without getting to be in our area a ton.  We missed a day when we had
to go to the Assistentes area for a division.  I did mine with Elder
Welch.  He is a new assistente this transfer and he is also really
pretty new i the mission.  It was a little strange to have an
assistant  giving me advice and whatnot that was having a bit of a
struggle with portuguese, but he is a good missionary and a good kid.

I got to go back to Alverca again this week.  It was fun to get to
seem some old faces and familiar places once again.  We were there
because the areas there are definitely the ones that are struggling
the most in the whole zone, so we decided to make a zone activity and
go out to Alverca and work all together for a couple hours on Saturday
morning to talk to a ton of people and get it so that they will be
able to have a ton of people that they can teach and work with so that
they can get their spirits up a little and start to see some success
for the first time in months.  Hopefully it will work out.  It was a
good thing to get the missionaries to feel a little bit more united in
working for the same cause.  I think that it was a major success. We
had to run to catch the train both going there and coming back.
Thankfully we all caught the train except for the sisters on the way
back. I was the first one in the group to get to the train doors and
so I had to hold them open as long as I could while all the others
piled into the train.  I was getting slammed repeatedly by the doors,
but I managed to fight it to keep it open even with some complaining
portuguese people behind me long enough to get all of the elders into
the train.

So this week we got to continue helping João get ready for baptism.
he is making great changes and he is really close.  We are going to
keep pushing to get him ready to get baptized next weekend if he comes
back down to the city again.  Hopefully it will work out right.  We
taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity over skype with
his girlfriend Veronica sitting right next to us.  It was pretty funny
and thankfully he did accept.  ( the law of chastity thing was already
basically on the table since Veronica had been good in setting the
standard when their relationship began. but it has been cool to have
her really doing a wonderful job to keep him reading and praying and
making sure everything is going well with him all the days that we do
not have the chance to talk with him.

We are still teaching a family that is really wonderful and are
accepting everything really well up until baptism.  They are coming to
church all of the time, but they are not quite ready to accept the
baptismal commitment still.  We will see how they are feeling after
having going to church again this week.  They are getting some more
support and love from the members now more and more so that is really
going to help hopefully.

We had one lady come to church this week that was really cold to us at
first and made some strange proposition for us to come and talk at a
public event with some really strange religions in like an organized
bible bash, but we basically just invited her to come over to church
in the meantime while we thought about whether or not we would be able
to take her up on her offer.  But it just happened that she showed up
right on time for me to teach gospel principles on what we believe are
important characteristics of the church when Jesus was on the earth
that we believe are still in place today. It was the perfect lesson
for her,  it was just a little disappointing for me because I was
given 30 seconds notice that I would be giving the class so I did not
get to prepare and make it as good as it could have been. But she did
ask us to come by her house this week so I think that the spirit had
touched her heart.

One of my favorite stories this week was one of our investigators who
is about 60 years old and Portuguese named Carlos francisco that we
have been teaching for a little while now.  This week he finally was
able to make it to church, but since he lives a long ways away and he
has to go and take care of his older sister on the weekends he had to
travel for over 3 hours to get to church for the first time ever.  He
is a man that has always smoked and drank a lot of coffee.  We taught
him the word of wisdom and he said that he was going to leave that
lesson to go and have his last ever cup of coffee and he is now
diminishing the number of cigarettes that he is smoking everyday.  He
said that he has tried in the past to quit but has always failed
miserably and gotten really angry with himself, but I know that this
time he will succeed because now he is not doing it alone. He will
have the power of the Holy Ghost lifting him and making it so that he
can do things that he would never be able to do on his own.  I am so
grateful for the miracle of the atonement and for the power of the
holy ghost in our lives.  I know that Carlos is feeling it and that it
is more motivating for him to invite that into his life then any other
drug could be so he is managing to overcome age old habits.   I love
when I get the chance to help make the difference in the life of
someone that really needs the changes and is willing to do everything
for the help of the Lord.  when we put our lives in the Lord's hands
we cannot go wrong. that much I know.

Love
Elder Hobson

D&C 59:23
D&C 24:12
João 5:21 Lucas 20:38
Alma 42:22
2 Néfi 9: 51-52
Jacó 4:8
3 Néfi 28: 34

Week 86 Chuva e Despedido de Elder Holmes

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

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