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
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