Escapé... funny, that´s spelt the same way as escape!

Hello Beloved Family!!

 

No, I do not want any kind of escape from mission office drudgery. Just the beaurocracy (sp?) of Portugal.

What shirts were Mom talking about?

CONGRADZ to Joy and Darrell for having a girl! In process, anyway. Now those four great boys you have can be even greater as older brothers to a baby sister.

Thanks everyone for the updates, blog pictures & news, and everything. Elder Mateer, one of the executive secretaries, is Scottish, and I was happy to tell him that I have an uncle and aunt in Scotland but was slightly abashed not knowing the specific location. Thanks Rob and Christa!

 

So life in the office is fine. Pretty good. Ok. Could be worse... frequent headaches and beaurocracy holdups are indeed frustrating, but in the strength of the Lord I can do ALL THINGS!! The happy place / silver lining is getting out and really being a missionary! We found two new investigators last Monday, one of which was a reference of other missionaries. Stélvio (said reference) had moved into our area, and is a good guy. Gildur, his friend who was there Monday night, also liked to talk, but we might need to get his information since with our follow up visit he wasn´t at Stélvio´s house. Could be that he lives there and just wasn´t home, but we´ll double check next time. Benvindo hasn´t changed yet - still wants to get baptized and knows this stuff is true, but wants to wait so he won´t mess up somehow and bring greater condemnation upon himself. In other ecclesiastical news, Isabel, a recent convert who I interviewed for baptism, is awesome, wants to serve a mission, and is praying about her family, friends, and acquaintences that are ready to accept the gospel. Team success: Holy Ghost (team captain), members (life-blood of the team), and full time missionaries (offense... in a good spiritual way). Well, that´s all the bit of news I´ve got. Much love!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Hello!

Hello beloved family!

 

Well, everything´s going pretty well in the office, and with the missionary work we still get to do outside of the office. No driving problems yet, since I´m still waiting for the Portuguese driver´s license - which will look really cool, by the way. This really awesome member family has wanted us to teach the lessons to their adorable and very energetic daughter Filipa who will be baptized this Saturday. She´s still 8 and will not count as a convert baptism, so I guess the members want it to have a bit more ´official sense´ by being taught by us full time missionaries. But oh well, it´s good to serve the members, and we´ll be asking for references soon. Other than that, everything is ... dandy. Today we went with the exec secretaries and the assistants and played around, tossed the frisbee and kicked the soccer ball around. But no ultimate frisbee or soccer games, infelizmente.

 

So with Benvindo´s plight - we´re not dropping him (leaving him/not teaching him), because he still wants to be baptized. What is ya´ll´s advice for him specifically? Is it so bad to wait til his birthday in May? I´m still convinced he should be baptized asap, and we´ve been talking about doing the Lord´s will instead of ours, and when we do we´ll gain the help we need to resist further temptation... any other ideas? (Thanks Kit for the input on how if we don´t hearken to promptings we won´t receive them as much later on.) But anyways, since Benvindo is kind of putting off baptism, we do want to focus on finding those who are ready to go. Thanks again everyone for your great emails and blog posts. Have a great week! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hello Family!

 

Our baptism fell through this last Saturday because Benvindo wants to be baptized in May, close to his birthday, and still has a lot of anxiety over messing up after baptism and receiving the ´greater condemnation´. Despite our explanations and bearing of our testimonies, and praying with him and us all feeling the Spirit, he knowingly said he wants to do it ´his way´ instead of the Lord´s way (sooner than later). Very sad, but nothing else we could do. He came to church and is still meeting with us and wants to be baptized, in May, so I guess things are ok for now. We´re going to try to help him be baptized sooner, but also keep working with the members to find, teach, and baptize those who are ready to go - now.

 

Well I hope everyone in Brazil is having a fun time! Office life is fine. Don´t worry, I haven´t driven at all since that time a week or two ago. We´re largely waiting for my Portuguese driver´s license to come through. Then the fun will begin... I´m getting the hang of the financial things, slowly but surely. Other than that, life is great! Have a great week everybody! Much love,

--Elder Spencer Ellis

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Office life...

Hello Beloved Family!!

Congradulations to Rachel for finishing her great mission of full time service! Love you, Rae!

Well, life in the office is interesting. I´m learning as I go, and I´m getting the general ideas of most things. But all in all I´ll follow Mom and Dad´s simple advice: get it all done as it is supposed to, and keep working as a missionary! Speaking of the real work, the ward of Amadora/Queluz is great! Big, strong, interactive, lots of support for us via dinners and accompanied lessons, and we´ve got some investigators really coming along. One is named Benvindo (welcome!) who is marked for next weekend. He could´ve been baptized a good while ago but has fear/anxiety about getting baptized and then messing up, stuff like that. We shared David vs Goliath last night, and we´re gonna keep focusing with him on moving forward with faith, and ´power, and love, and a sound mind´. Thanks everyone for the great emails. Once again, all snail mail and packages can be sent to the mission office, since that´s where I am! [Rua Jorge Barradas --------PORTUGAL] Well I love all ya´ll, and hope you all have a great week! Tchau!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

Goodbye Linda-A-Velha!

Hello dear family!

Rafael Carvalhaço Piçarra Monteiro was baptized this last Saturday! It went great - his mom and little sister came and enjoyed it, as well as Ricardo (Rafael´s girlfriend´s sister´s boyfriend). Members came and gave support, and after the service was done almost all of them personally congratulated Rafael with handshakes, abraços, beijinhos, etc. Life is great! And on that happy note I will be leaving this great area of Linda-A-Velha. President Torgan was at church and told me that I will be transferred to Amadora and serve as one of the financial secretaries. So close to here - just north and still in the same district in fact - and yet I´ll be in the office, learning to drive stick (!!) and handling the mission´s finances. I thank you for the many prayers already offered in my behalf, but I certainly ask for more - especially with learning stick in Portugal!

Quite the bit of news. Keep going Rachel, and sprint to the finish! You´re awesome! Also, this email - is the new and improved email account where you may now direct all the many cool personal emails and news blogs/updates. Yippee! Thanks Mom and Dad and Em for the package. I´m doing what you said and eating lots of vegetables, mainly chocolate. (Sugar cane, a vegetable, and caucau bean, also a vegetable, are combined to make the supreme vegetable called chocolate!) And that package was almost nothing but chocolate, so thanks for helping me have a healthy diet! ;) Just kidding, I´m eating sweets in moderation and truly healthy things in abundance. So, thanks again and I hope ya´ll have a great week!

--Elder Spencer Ellis

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.