Week 74

I am happy and healthy and the members here are taking good care of me
so do not worry mom :)

Yesterday I got good news. I got a call from Costa da Caparica my
first area and they told me that they were finally able to get
permission to baptize Romão, Jelson's little brother who we had found
and started teaching..  He asked that I and Elder Dufree came back and
were there at his baptism.  Elder Durfee has been home for a while
already, so he cannot make it but Romão wants me to be the one that
baptizes him. So hopefully if everything goes well I will get to go
back and visit the old area and perform his baptism next weekend.  It
is a wonderful feeling that he has stayed strong for so long and that
our efforts there are going to pay off finally.  It is really special
to see the aftereffects of our efforts, because if I have learned one
thing it is that most of the time we will never realize to what extent
our service will make a difference because the fruits of our labors
just keep on coming forever.  But I am sure glad that the Lord blessed
me to be able to see this one hopefully.

We found one guy knocking doors yesterday that was baptized when he
was 12 and has been inactive for years and has his family that he
married into that is all catholic and has gone back to being a kindof
lazy catholic that works a lot.  He has a really awesome family (he
looks just like the rock) and his wife is really cool and interested
because of some of the stuff that she has heard from family members
that she has that are members of the Church in the united states.  I
think that they have lots of potential and I am so glad that the
elders 20 years ago made that link in that man's life to the chruch so
that we were able to get in his door and meet his family.

We had a really tough time this week with the silva family.  We really
dedicated basically all of our attention to them and I got super
obsessed over trying to find solutions to their problems so that we
could have them baptized this weekend.  It was a real fight but the
Dad is just really prideful and stubborn and even threaten to call in
like a child services thing or something if they did not let it go for
now.  He has definitely hit his children before and so we are being
very careful with him so that he does not do anything to hurt those
wonderful children.  I get so sad when I hear his children talk about
him, a three year old yelling to him that he is a bad man and that he
does not like him, also a 10 year old saying that he will call the
cops the next time that he hits him, and a 13 year old praying that
the evil spirit can leave the man that is holding them back from being
baptized.  It is really tragic.  We fasted with the entire family to
have their father's heart softened and allow them to be baptized but
the situation is really complicated and we were not successful in
getting his permission still for this week. We had his verbal
permission but when we tried to get his signature on the baptismal
forms he realized that he had some authority and decided to abuse it
immediately.  I got really depressed about the whole situation and not
being able to help these wonderful children and it really made it a
tough couple of days, but we got out of it and we are going to keep
working with them, I know that it will all work out in the end and
that they will get what they truly deserve.

Ola Presidente
Este semana tivemos algumas dificuldades. Nos focalizávamos demais em
fazer tudo para que aquela família fosse batizado mas não conseguimos
por causa de falta de permissão do Pai. Fomos mesmo ousados com ele, a
família inteira jejuou connosco e fez tudo para ele aceitar, mas ele
não deixou e ameaçou para ligar alguma associação e criar muitas
problemas. Vamos ter muito cuidado com ele porque ele tem um historia
de abuso com os filhos e certamente não queremos isso. Foi mesmo
deficil para mim a ver a família a chorar que não podiam ser
batizados, e fiquemos muito desanimado e atrapalho a trabalho, mas
aprendemos e arrependemos e especialmente com a tua carta esta semana
sabemos o que temos que fazer e nunca mais deixaremos para
desanimar-nos.

Sempre estamos a aprender e vamos continuar a por todo a nossos
corações neste trabalho. We are going to work hard this week and do
everything to be more possitive in our challenges and be able to
always be finding new people to teach and to baptize.

That was my main lesson from this week was the importance that being a
father really has. I find it so sad how lightly most people in this
world take that important responsibility of being a parent.  I never
want to give my children any reason to hate me and I never would want
to hold them back from making good decisions and having the happiest
lives possible.  It hurt me deeply to see children begging their
father for something wonderful and he not even hearing them out even
when they are in tears and being super sincere and respectful. He just
kept saying that they are not prepared even thought his 10 year old
can explain the plan of salvation and they all have been reading the
pamphlets and everything.  They have taken the stuff we leave with
them with them to school and kept reading even when they get teased by
their peers, they really are truly amazing and just because of a
stubborn father they are not getting the opportunity to be baptized
still.  This man is a father, but he does not really deserve the title
in my book, because he is not fulfilling the role he chose to be out
parting instead of loving his family,  he came home at 7am on Sunday
morning and got angry when after a half an hour his family got up to
get ready for Church, he lies to us to try to get us to give up on his
family and verbally is rough on his children.  We want to put an end
to this and bring the peace of the gospel into the lives of these
kids.  They deserve better.

I am so glad that I have the gospel in my life to help guide me in my
preparation for being a father one day.  I am also so grateful for the
examples of wonderful loving fathers that I have in my life.  I know
that I can always go to my father and get the help that I need that my
dad is always there for me ready and anxious to go out of his way and
make sacrifices on his part to be able to help me out.   I know that
the Gospel helps us so that we can be the best that we can be,  it
takes away our pains and regrets, it gives us hope, fills our lives
with love and stability, and keeps us going in the right direction
always. Thank you all for being such wonderful examples for me, for
lovingly creating and blessing your families especially you dad.  I
hope that one day I will be able to be a man like you and give my
children the father that they deserve as I was given.

I love you all so much

Com Amor
Elder Hobson

PS  I love you too Mom, and the same goes for you :)