Um... less than two months til Christmas!

Hey everybody! We had another great week here in Carregado! Fábio is doing great - yesterday he was ordained a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and will bless the sacrament this coming Sunday!

So last week we stayed in Santarém and did divisions there, so that we´d be ready to go for interviews with President Torgan on Tuesday. Before we split up Monday night all 8 of us Elders were singing hymns to people we contacted, and unfortunately my voice/throat got a bit strained, and then I caught a widdle code (a little cold) but I´m all better now. I was really happy with interviews seeing that the Spirit was guiding President Torgan in what to ask, and we both were guided in looking for ways I can do better, including praying more frequently for the Lord´s guidance. Great stuff!

Well I love all of you! Thanks again for the news and emails! I don´t know who those ´long lost relatives´ were that Darrell sent the youtube video about, but we are ALL family, right? Haha, have a great week everybody! Tchau!

--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

Yipikiyay!

Helloooo greatest family!! I LOVE LIFE!!

So, this week went fantastically! (Please forgive the spelling errors.) Mom, I got the package you sent, which included the cd Kit, Kev, and their girls sent on Tuesday October 13. Boy oh boy, the shoes are FABULOUS!! Thank you thank you thank you! And thanks Kit & Kevin, and Rob and Christa for the video-picture clips. It is so great to see ya´ll! And thanks again to all who have sent personalized emails. They´re amazing.

Fábio Ferreira Santos was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday at sacrament meeting. We had a great turnout at the baptism - practically the whole branch was there, as well as two friends of Fábio, Jenaeína (the married 17 year old young woman) and a 23 year old guy, I can´t remember his name. And Ivan and Sorene and André and Manuela came. Splendid! Haha, we started late mainly because we had trouble fitting Jaimir Olivi into the clothes so he could baptize Fábio. Poor guy. He´s big, and even if he lost some weight he´s still just super thick. But it went well! The only downside was Lucas, Ivan and Sorene´s adorable 1 and 1/2 year old, ran outside and fell down the stairs and had a nasty scrape on his forhead. But what doesn´t kill him only makes him stronger, right?

Well everything is going well. I´m low on time from checking out photos and stuff, but I wanna let ya´ll know that I love you and am praying for all of you! Thanks for your emails, updates, prayers, and everything else! Have a great week! Love,

--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

Happy Family!

Hello wonderful family!!

Natalie, I loved that recent blog. Subject - my jeans fit! Whole of message - that is all. Brilliant! Reminds me of that one quote from Cats and Dogs, but I´ll quote that after the mission.

So good to hear from everybody! I´m so grateful for such great examples! Haha, just before Elder Sagebin and I came to do internet, we stopped by a drycleaning place that we normally go to whenever we need stuff done, and the owners are a Brazilian couple. Elder Sagebin wanted a pair of suit slacks to be tailored, and while I was waiting the man asked if I was married and had kids. I said ´not yet, but in a couple of years, probably´ which scared the heck out of me, but also made me think of the great examples of siblings and siblings in law that I have of being awesome parents, not to mention the incredible duo Mama KK and Papa Stan!

Anyways. Life is great in Carregado! Unfortunately due to beaurecratic paperwork André´s baptism is postponed until he and Manuela finish up all that stuff to be married first. But Fábio is taking everything in stride and we have the plans and most everything ready for his baptism this Saturday! It is quite exciting.

This weekend we did a group fast with Ivan and Sorene to ask for God´s help in speeding up the paperwork stuff so they can get married. It was Ivan´s first fast and he didn´t make the whole 24 hours but I´ll still give him an A for effort. We even proposed them/him taking a smaller amount of time to try first but he said he´d try. We´ve also been really blessed with steadily finding more people. We met and had a first lesson with a couple who seem very prepared. Our follow up appointment with them yesterday evening fell though partly because they had been taking so much time and effort to get her legalized (she´s Brazilian) and the both of them married, all on their own! And leaving their house a lady in her ´back yard´ (the closest thing to one) just started talking to us, and we´re gonna teach her and her husband tonight. Life is great!!

Thanks again everyone for the news and updates. Keep ´em coming! Have a great week! Much love,
--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

I love life!

Hello wonderful family!

First off I would like to put Elder David A. Bednar´s counsel to practice and let all of you know I LOVE YOU! Mom, Dad, Joy, Darrell, Warren, Jared, Cameron, Nolan, Kit, Kevin, Ryn, Elle, Eden, Matt, Natalie, Sam, Ethan, Mia, Mark, Aup, Tea, John, Laura, Brian, Caity, Anne-Lorenne, Nora Jane, Cosette, Rob, Christa, Rachel, Emily, Grandma Turtle, Uncle Bob, Clay, Uncle Kelly.... EVERYBODY! Thank you for being such wonderful examples and influences in my life! I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that His Church was restored through Joseph Smith the Prophet, and that we can have all the blessings of God´s love if we comply with His eternal laws!

This has been a great week. Last Tuesday we had zone conference in Lisbon, and we were invited to increase our faith so we can better do the Lord´s work His way. And we prayed many times to set meaningful goals, which brought `pray always´ to my mind several times throughout the day. We set a goal for 5 baptisms for the month of October. We had a lot of searching to do throughout the week, but we´ve also been very blessed. Conference alone, even missing a session or two and only watching in Portuguese, was still a tremendous privilege since we could watch it in our own chapel. And the Spirit can testify to us no matter what language we´re speaking/listening to! And along with that we were blessed in marking a date for Fábio to be baptized! Which is a big step since he´s been an investigator for a long time (at least several months) and has always shied away from baptismal invites. Now he feels sure about it, and he will be baptized on October 17, along with André! I´m super happy for them! And that´s two of our goal of 5!

So yeah, life is great! Thanks everyone for the updates. Always a pleasure to hear from you! Have a great week!

--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

Our God is a loving God of miracles!

Hello lovely family!

It is so great to hear the good news about Mia Vera, Nora Jane, and Cosette. And I´m happy everyone´s been having such a great time!

Thanks Aup for fixing up the email and blog thing. I owe ya!

So, this has been a great week! The baptsim for Vanessa Alexandra Regueiras Ruivo went very well. It started late, but better late than never, right? Since there is no baptismal font here in Carregado, we went to the Church building of Alverca and used their font. We had a good number of members there, and our wonderful Brazilian investigating couple Ivan and Sorene with their adorable little boy Lucas went, and the Alverca Elders had a Portuguese investigator couple there as well. I gave a talk on baptism, Elder Sagebin baptized Vanessa, and a young woman of the branch named Brenda gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. But rewinding a bit for our other miracle - before we left for Alverca to prepare the baptismal font, André (boyfriend of Vanessa´s mother) sent us a text saying he ´was no longer part of our family´. Confused and worried I called to see what was the matter, and he said Manuela (Vanessa´s mom) was kicking him out. I pleaded for him to try and stick around so we could talk to him again, but he didn´t go to the baptism. Right after I hung up the phone Elder Sagebin and I offered a kneeling prayer and straight up asked God for a miracle and the intervention of His angels, seen or unseen. We don´t know what happened, but God answered our prayer and André was at church the next morning sitting next to Manuela holding hands, and we´ll be visiting with them again tonight. Yay!!

Well, life is great. I´m very happy for everyone, and always eager to receive news! Keep it coming! Oh, and Rachel - that picture of you in front of the hotel was awesome. Elder Sagebin and I managed to take some cool pictures too, one in particular being each of us in front of a bill board political advertisement that says ´chegou a hora da verdade´ -- the Hour of Truth has arrived! Haha, so ya´ll will get to see it soon enough. Anyways, that´s the main hunk of news. We´ve got zone conference tomorrow, and are figuring out how we´ll watch general conference this weekend. I´m excited! Have a great week everybody!

--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

I lack a good subject title, but it´s better than nothing!

Hey beloved Family!!

This has been a great week! Thanks Mom for the package of the Apple Jacks and the dvd of Aunt Becky. I got that last Thursday morning - it was pretty funny, we were walking on the streets and we were rounding a corner when a mailman we´ve seen before stopped and looked at us. Quite the inquisitive look he gave, too. Then he opened up the trunk of his car and whipped out said package from Mom and gave it to me. Quite the pleasant surprise! And I just watched it today before coming here to do email. Unfortunately the sound wasn´t working so I couldn´t hear anything, but it was a pleasure to see that slideshow. THANKS! And Kit, you look great with your haircut! Sadly, I haven´t seen any pictures of Em´s haircut or the newborns, but Cosette has a mighty small diaper!

One quick change ya´ll might want to take into consideration, my preparation day is being moved to Mondays, just like Rachel´s. So this is the last of the Wednesday ones, and starting Monday the 28th P-days will be on Monday.

Rachel -- THAT is your mission president?! That is awesome! Such a small world!! I had forgotten that man´s name, and it turns out he´s your mission president! Wow! And whatshisbucket from that stake ´track meet´ thing. He could be a number of guys, but if he´s the same guy I´m thinking about, he´s a big one.

Anyways. Life is great!! Finally THIS Saturday, September 26, Vanessa will be baptized! With Sebastião we´re not so sure. He is busy trying to save money to move back to São Tomé soon, and he said he hadn´t received an answer yet, and he wants more time to read and pray and get his answer. With respect to that essential need, we will also have a kneeling prayer with him tonight and continue to work with him before he leaves. But moving forward with Vanessa, everything looks great and all systems go! She selected Elder Sagebin to baptize her and she wants me to give one of the talks. Always a pleasure bringing people to Christ!

Thanks again everyone for all of your support, love, and prayers. And I echo Rachel´s words -- keep being awesome parents! I wish all these parents here could see your great examples of parenting! Keep it up! Love all of you, and have a great week!

--Elde Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H

Blasted public services

Hello beloved family!!

In explanation of the subject title, today I am using a public library computer, which frustratingly has not allowed me to see any of the photos ya´ll sent. So I will await and see the beautiful pictures of Kit and Em´s haircuts, the twins Cosette and Nora Jane, whatever pictures Natalie sent, and everything else next week. I haven´t seen them but I know all of them, including Kit and Em with new haircuts, are wonderfully beautiful!

Ah, so good to hear from everyone! But to keep the good emails coming, I need some HELP right away! (MOM -- will you copy the emails and purge them from my myldsmail account asap? I´m at 94% and I don´t want to miss any emails from anybody! THANKS!)

So we found out yesterday that Elder Sagebin and I will be staying together here in Carregado for atleast another 6 weeks! Yahoo! We´re really excited to keep working hard and especially focusing on preparing and baptizing Sebastião and Vanessa on the 26 of September. And every other elect we find too!

Well today was pretty fun! Elder Sagebin and I made the trip over to Caldas da Rainha for Elder Bell´s very last Preparation day before going home, and we went bowling and also squeezed in a game of pool. I´m terribly rusty in both games, but we still had fun.

Well I love all of you! Have a great week and I hope to keep hearing wonderful news! Tchau!

--Elder Ellis V
CM SBF FDP S&H