Hello!!

Hello beloved family!
Another week flown by, and this email reporting for two weeks in one! Sorry I missed last week, but these past two weeks have been the calm before the storm and the breath before the plunge. The storm and plunge I refer to is the fact that this week and next will be very busy. This week we have Elder Teixeira (who was a mission president in São Paulo while I was still around) coming to do a mission tour. He arrives today, there will be a leadership council tomorrow, a tri-zone conference on Wednesday, a typical bi-zone conference on Thursday (typical except for the fact that a Seventy is here), all back to back with organizing materials and lunches, etc etc. During and after said conferences we´ll also have to keep on top of our other financial duties, opening and closing houses, getting money, preparing payments, and monthly filing. Next week will be interviews, meaning the lunch stuff will happen all over again. YAY! "All things shall give thee experience, and be for thy good," right? Maybe all this financial experience is a suggestion from Upstairs saying I should look towards that kind of career? We´ll see soon enough...

Anyways, that was just the teaser for this week that´s starting. What happened the past two weeks included getting a new house for the Amadora elders and getting them moved in; getting a new checkbook; finishing moving the utility deeds to our name for Amadora and another missionary apartment, continue the search for an apartment in Vila Franca de Xira, sending our supply order for the month, updating the financial secretary manual/guide, and focusing on the investigators we´ve felt are closest to being baptized. We also had a cool street meeting by the train/bus station in Amadora with the Amadora and Linda-A-Velha elders.... And I turned 21 years old!! Now I´m completely legal, including being able to rent hotel rooms in the state of Indiana. But I´m not planning on doing anything in Indiana anyways, so no worries. My birthday celebration included lunch at Chili´s in Telheiras and phone calls from President and Sister Torgan and other well-wishing missionaries. Oh, and last Monday we cooked up some fajitas with that seasoning stuff Mom sent, and they (fortunately) turned out delicious! Thank you Mom and Dad!

Thank you everyone for your happy birthday wishes, and the usual awesome emails, prayers, and all other support! Congradz to Mark and Aup with the healthy little boy in the oven! I hope everything is going well with everyone else and their moves, studies, work, babies, and other great things! Love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Tchau!
--Elder Spencer Ellis

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Amadora ... Queluz? Take 4!

Hello happy family!!

Due to the snippets of emails I´ve received, I´m guessing everyone is having a fabulous time at the lodge! (Where this mysterious and fun lodge is, I know not, except it be somewhere in the land of Utah.) Well, the menus looked scrumptuous, and I´m sure the games and other activities will all be very fun... so enjoy! Meanwhile in the land of the Portuguese, things are going well. Elder Dias and I have looked at the office necessities for most of what we´ll need to do in the next 6 weeks, which will include a mission tour from President Teixeira (who was a mission president in São Paulo a few years ago - one of his office elders is in our ward by the way!), with interviews the immediate week after, and the other stuff. Lots of stuff to do! Yipikiyay!

Missionary work wise, we´re pretty excited. Like I said last week, our ward is receiving another pair of elders (who are the zone leaders now), and the area is divided and ready to be conquered - let´s go with converted! (By the Spirit, of course.) Also yesterday, President Torgan came to our ward for church and spoke in sacrament meeting, and told an allegory/story of him and his best friend for eternal life João (John). They were waiting in the pre-mortal existence waiting for their mortal mission calls, and when they got their call packets they found out Pres. Torgan would have the privilege of being born into a family already members of the Church and would be taught the gospel in his youth. João on the other hand was very solemn and anxious when he found in his mission call, he would not have that privilege of being raised in the gospel. João turned to Pres. Torgan and urged him to find him in mortality and bring him all the blessings of true happiness found in the Restored Gospel and Church. Then President Torgan invited the ward members to be diligent and find those Joãos and Marias who are really so dear to us, and need the gospel in their lives too. One member of a big less active family we´ve been working with came up to us after sacrament meeting and pointed to an investigator we´ve been working with (Vaníce) and said ´She´s one of those Marias!´ It´s great to have the members excited and to work with them!

Well, I wish you all the best, and a very fun time, at the lodge or elsewhere. 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!

Hello wonderful family!

Well, life is great in Portugal! This is the preparation day before transfers, and there´s a whole lot of stuff going on in the mission, lots of changes, lots of stuff to do. For example, our ward will be receiving another pair of elders (who will be the zone leaders too), so our area will be divided up. That will be great so that there can be a pair of missionaries to work fully in the area instead of being tied down so much with office stuff. Let the work move forward! But among so many changes and with so many missionaries coming in, that means new areas are opening up and Elder Dias and I have to find the houses for them. Looking things up on the internet is good but slow for getting feedback, calling up people/businesses takes a lot of time, and (besides Amadora) the areas are too far away to go house hunting ourselves. But, as Dad said, it´s great to be alive! So, we´re working on that a lot, and doing what we can to work with the members in our ward, especially strengthening the less actives and working with their friends.

Well, love all of you, and I´m happy to hear things are going so well with all of you! Keep going!
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.