Hello Dearest Family!!

Hello again from the Lighthouse! Seixal really is a wonderful area to serve the Lord! The Church is growing and moving on despite whatever challenges we might have.

Once again, it is always great to hear from ya`ll, be it via email, letters or packages! Speaking of which, last Friday we had divisions with our zone leaders, and we had stopped by their apartment, and I found out some lovely mail – letters from Mom, Dad, and Emily! Friday I also received the cool little package from Mark and Aup – thank you!! That picture was very nice Mark – I will remember to work now and rest later! And this coming Friday is zone conference (my first normal one), so I will probably get the other package(s) from Mom and Dad and whoever else might have sent me stuff. Thanks again for all the love! And HOORAY for Nolan!! I am so happy to hear that he is on the mend!

Life is great! The divisions with the zone leaders went well. We were able to teach this one man from Cape Verde for the first time. Previously we had had some difficulties getting a hold of him and meeting up with him. But all went well! His name is Filiu, and he really is interested and understanding of what we taught him. We talked with Ana, our current investigator marked for baptism, and we moved her baptism back a week to make sure she will have ample time to understand everything and be prepared to make the wonderful covenant with God and be cleansed of her sins! The really big challenge is her schedule. Like a lot of other foreigners that are working here, she has ridiculous hours which makes it difficult to set up appointments with her, let alone make sure she can come to church and get everything else ready. But the Lord will provide a way! Osvaldo and Daniel came to church again and are well received and befriended by the members – go members!! Anyways, the work goes on. Another thing I am excited about is working with the members to help get other things going – like getting a ward mission plan, PEC meetings, and other stuff like that. Life is great being a missionary!

Well I love you all and am again so thankful for all of your love, advice and support. I know that God lives and He loves us and will work with us as we strive to do our best to serve Him and His children around us. I will partially echo the words of Rachel – be the member missionary that you wanted to have around when ya´ll were missionaries! Give rides, accompany lessons, befriend investigators, and continue being awesome! ´´Let your light so shine``!! Love ya´ll

--Elder Ellis V
CM&SBF&FDP