New Area, New Missionaries, New People!

Hey everyone!

This week has been, man, I´m trying to think of a good analogy to describe this week. 

Its been crazy, hows that? 

With a brand new area, new companions and new work styles, things have been quite interesting. It feels like undergoing waterboarding simultaneously while riding Space Mountain.

But anyways, to the good stuff! What is happening?

My new companion is a way cool guy. Really friendly and good to talk to! He wants to train to become an Army Ranger when he gets home which is after next transfer. We sometimes like to play basketball in the morning even though both of us are awful. 

We have a couple of people on our radar right now. We have been visiting a part member family. They are from Cabo Verde I think? The household has so many kids I'm not sure who is actually her children and which kids are cousins. We have been helping this nine year old towards baptism in the family and working on reactivating some of the older teenagers. There are two young adults, one who is very interested and one less so, however this one seems to have a ton of history according to the area book with the missionaries and the lessons. We are trying to get them to come to church and want to set up a time to talk with them individually without the entire family. We showed up at their house early this Sunday to help them come to church. The mother came with three CRAZY kids. Almost terrifyingly crazy. As well as the daughter (neice?) who is in a wheelchair and has some mental issues. The older kids didn't come because they didn't want to go to church with the crazy young kids. One, the more enthusiastic one, really wants to but doesn't seem willing to have to deal with all the kids. We'll work on something to get them to come. Working with that wheel chair and the cobblestones and the bus was really hard. Apparently she comes every week doing this. My respect for her rocketed. She is truly incredible to be able to do that. Her patience is great.

We have a member who has provided food for us and has come to teach with us once. When we arrived some Jehovah's Witnesses were already there! It ended up that in one room was my companion, the husband, and I and in the other room was the member, the wife, and the two Jehovah's Witnesses! A house divided indeed! We had a good talk about the Word of Wisdom with this man, Eduardo. The couple (we are working on getting them married) are awesome and pretty set on the church and good friends with this member we were working with. At the end of our lesson with Eduardo we went into the other room to save our member who was doing all she could do to be kind and patient with the Jehovah's Witnesses but were throwing all sorts of scriptures at her. We carefully bore testimony of Christ and our Heavenly Father and left when we could. We will return to teach the Namy, the wife. She only had them over because they had asked if they could come by when they met in the street and they were to kind to say no. They are great people! Very humble. We had to explain why the sun changes color throughout the day and moves from one side to the other and disappears to him. Very interesting discussion.

Funny story, we are standing on the bus and standing with us is a bit grungy looking man and sitting down next to him and the door is this old lady. We are all just standing when the bus arrives at the bus stop; not ours. He looks outside, looks at the old lady (who is looking out the window), he looks back outside, casually lifts up his leg and kicks the lady in the face and walks out. We were taken back! What just happened!? The lady felt her face and looked around agahst. She wasn't hurt or anything, just got a fat lip. We were all like, "Do you know him?" And she's like, "No!" Then all the old Portuguese people on the bus start gossiping about what happened talking all sorts of things about crazy people. The old lady starts going off about "If my leg wasn't as it is I would go running after him and blah blah blah, let me tell you about this one  time, I was somewhere and this guy came..." and she goes off telling a story and all the people are all throwing in whatever word of wisdom comes to them. It was really funny to hear all the Portuguese people going off on something. The kick itself was less funny. The whole thing was super random. The guy hardly thought about it it seemed.

We were talking to an older member outside of her house as she was leaving. Elder Dayton simply introduced me and as we were leaving I had the feeling that I need to ask her for references. I shook it off and kept walking. Soon I couldn't ignore that feeling. I turned back and called for the member and asked her if she had any references or anyone that would be willing to hear about the gospel. Low and behold she rattled off a list of everyone in her street and who would be willing to listen to the gospel! We are going to try to set up a time when they can meet with her in her house and we can talk to them as well. Friends I've decided is the way to get past the hard shell a lot of Portuguese have! Follow the promptings of the spirit!

Also, for preparation day we went to this sweet castle! The Castle of Saint George I think its called. Then, after that, we went to a sweet old Catholic church. Usually you have to pay to get into the cloister but I think the guy saw our name tags and just let us in. In the back they have this massive archeological dig! It was super neat! Elder Jones was really thrilled. That was his element. I'll send a photo with him there!

Anyways I have been doing a whole lot more studying then ever! Lots of insight and lots of learning experiences! The mission is good at putting you out of your comfort zone I'll tell you. It will push you and pull you in every direction! All of your guys' support means so much! You guys are great!

Love,

Elder Cordon

Zone Conference Aug 2015

Elder Jones at a historical site