Week 26 - Viseu

Hey Family!

This week was pretty good, we passed by a lot of people and everyone here is super lazy but that is Portugal for you. We finally got one of our investigators in church and his name is Delfim and he is pretty cool. He has been taking the lessons and I really think he will be baptized because he is the only one who shows up to appointments hahaha. He is already really good friends with one of our recent converts so that is really good. His baptismal interview might be a little interesting because he I think he killed someone.... he told us he was in prison and he told us the story but a couple words went over my head and my comp didn't understand anything. He didn't even know he was in prison until I told him after so we will see where he goes.

It was Valentines day this week and no one really wanted to talk to us because they were either on a date or feeling bad that they couldn't get a date. I guess it's kinda a big deal here because all the restaurants were full haha. At least this year I did not spend it with a girl because it's against the rules and not because of my lack of ability to get one to go on a date with me like every other year haha just kidding!

Not much else happened this week. Next week we have stake conference which should be pretty cool but we are singing in the choir for it which should be pretty interesting. We have rehearsals like 3 days this week and turns out I am pretty good! The choir instructor was worried I would not get it because they have been practicing for weeks and I just got here but now I am caught up and everything! Despite it being in Portuguese, I kinda like choir, it's a little bit of time where I get to relax and don't have to walk in the cold streets. I can almost hear mom say "I told you so!" Well that is all for this week! love you guys!

Love, 

Elder Ruggles

Week 25

Hey family!

This week was pretty good but it was pretty long. I am still getting to know this area and we get lost all the time because my comp doesn't know it too well either, even though he has been here for 3 months. I love the ward, there are a ton of way cool members and they really want to help the missionaries and the work! There are a lot of youth here and they are super funny and we have like a family night at least once a week with dinner and we have one tonight as a matter of fact. It is nice to not have to cook for myself.

We did service the other day for a less active and her family and she is way cool but her family are not members. She has 3 boys, one is 20 one is 18 and one is 10. we helped them move houses all day and the boys are awesome! They love me and they want to know more about the church. I don't know if the mom will come back to church, there is some drama there but the boys want to come next week so we will see where they go! The oldest one and I really click, his name is Wilson and he is hilarious. We talk about this girl he likes and he is super cool. The 18 year old reminds me of Jon and they are the coolest investigators ever. I really hope they get baptized and maybe end up going on missions. The coolest part is we helped them move way close to our house so we will be passing by them quite a bit!

My comp is cool, we are a little different but we seem to get along. He has 8 months in the mission and his Portuguese is lacking a little. I feel bad because people always tell him straight to his face that mine is better and it makes him feel a little bad so I am helping him speak better. Today I had to pay 2 water bills from previous missionaries who neglected to pay them. I went to the water place with one bill in my hand and started talking to the lady because Elder Poston can't speak very well and she says, "Oh you have another one to pay from October...." I just got here and I am out 80 euros until I get reimbursed. Missionaries are so dumb sometimes. Thanks everyone, keep writing.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 24 - Transferred!

Well Fam,

A lot happened this week! On Tuesday we had a division with the district leader and I went with Elder Crist and Elder Cluff went with Elder Muni. It was super fun and for lunch all four of us got together and we cooked hamburgers with grilled pinapple, bacon and grilled onions! Needless to say it was one of the best lunches I have ever had here in Portugal hahaha. Me and Crist had some fun and we found some people with some potential so hopefully the elders there talk to them again.

On Wednesday we had a zone meeting in Santarem so we all piled in the car and drove an hour and a half to get there, I love road tripping with the district! We got there a little early and we talked with the zone leaders about transfers and stuff and one of them ended up leaving which was sad because they were the best zone leaders ever! Right before zone meeting was about to start the zone leaders were talking about a surprise for me and then my old trainer walked in! It was way cool to see him and now that we both speak Portuguese we spent a ton of time telling stories and other stuff. After zone meeting we went to McDonalds like we always do and that is the best part of the zone meeting!

On Thursday Cluff and I were walking and we found a new part of the small city behind the school, we thought there was nothing out there but there is a sick lookout point and some buildings.

Monday I was transferred. I got the call on Sunday that I would be coming to Viseu. This city is a lot bigger than the last one and don't you worry family, it has 2 MCDONALDS!!!!! I am so happy to be here but I will miss the members in the last area. I went by some of them Sunday night and said goodbye. I went by the branch president and signed a book of all the missionaries who served there and then I went to the Mendes family. They are that African family who always feeds me. I went in there and I was talking to the mom and I said "Mom, I am getting transferred." She was super sad to see me leave but we hung out for an hour with them and got some pictures and we said our goodbyes! 

My new comp is dope and we have a really big house! He is the district leader over me and 2 sisters. He has 8 months in the mission but has trouble with the language. I am already better than him but he tries really hard and he is super cool! 

Abrantes is in good hands though because after I left they got another dupla of elders so there are 4 there now. They also got a missionary couple so Abrantes got stacked after I left. They have six missionaries there now and Cluff said that there will be more missionaries than members at church now, but he was joking. Cluff is training this transfer so he is going to Lisbon to pick a brand new missionary and is going to train him in his last transfer, which sucks because I wanted to "kill" Elder Cluff. Oh well, this transfer is going to be sick! Love you all lots! Keep writing, I will get you the address next week so you can write! 

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 23 - Always Tired

Hey everyone,

This week was a pretty hard week. I have never been so exhausted in my life and every night that I got home I just hit the bed and went right to sleep. I don't know why this week was different than any other week but I was more tired than usual.

This week we had a cool activity in the church on Saturday where we watched a movie and we had a pretty good turn out so they said that they are going to do a movie activity once a month! That should be sick if I don't get transferred. Transfers are in a week so we will see if I stay another one or leave. Cluff and I both think that I will leave. The movie that we watched is a new movie called The Son of God. It is a new one about Jesus and it follows the bible really well so it doesn't favor one church over another! It was really well done and the actor who plays Jesus is from Portugal so everyone loved that....The Portuguese are a proud people haha.
We invited all of our investigators to the movie and had a couple who said that they would come and no one showed up! I was pretty upset when we had just members at the activity but it was super nice to sit down and rest while I watched the life of our Savior. I really recommend the movie, it is super dope!

This week in church was kinda the same thing, we were expecting 4 investigators who all said that they would come to church for sure and we even passed by their houses and only one of them came. Then we got to church and an investigator who we hadn't invited and hadn't talked to in a long time decided to come to church! He is way cool, his name is Phillipe and he is friends with some of the members. He was marked to be baptized a long time ago but he has a serious smoking addiction. He left church like 8 times to smoke and it is super nasty. The funny thing is that his friends who invited him to church were not even there so he came alone!
I got that package that you guys sent with the fiddle stick in it! Love you guys lots!

Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 22 - Zombie Slayer

What's up Family?

This week was a pretty hard week. It was cold and rained a ton here which made it even colder. I can't complain too much though, at least I don't have a hole in my shoe like Elder Cluff over here. He comes home with numb, soaked feet every night. Our numbers were pretty low this week too. We tried to do a ton of finding but we could not find any new investigators. We still have no contact with Jose because he has been super sick so hopefully today we can go pass him.

We have been teaching a lady named Celeste and she was liking the lessons and let us come and teach everyday. When I say she likes the lessons I mean she likes the part where we said that God will bless you. She had no job and no money so she said, "Yeah I need God" but last week she got a job and has the attitude that she does not need God anymore so she won't let us come by anymore. We were super sad to see her drop us like that but she will realize how much she needs Heavenly Father some day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

This week our phone froze and so we took the battery out to reset it but when it restarted it asked for a pin. We tried the pin number on the back of the phone and it didn't work so of course we tried the pin 10 more times and then the phone said it is locked for good so they have to send us a new SIM card so we haven't had a phone for the past couple days. Turns out those things are pretty important. We call our district leader on the phone at the church and then run home to get home in time.

On a lighter note, the other morning we looked out the window and saw that it was super foggy and so we thought, "Hey this is perfect zombie weather" so we went to the cemetery. We decided since we didn't have any baptisms in our area we would do some baptisms for the dead which actually worked out really nice haha. Some of the old people there were not buried, they were put in little coffin houses and you can look in the glass windows and see bare coffins. One of the little buildings was super old and breaking down and one of the coffins was broken open but it was too dark to see the body. The cemetery is super old and we saw graves from the 1700's. That's all that really happened this week. I didn't take many pictures so sorry but here are some from the zombie graveyard! Love you guys, keep writing!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 21 - Working Hard or Hardly Working

Hey Everyone,

This week was pretty great, we were a little sad to leave Lisbon last week but Abrantes is almost just as good. But my prayers got answered so we will be going back to Lisbon tomorrow so I can go and get my residency. Maybe they will have a suit that I want when I get there and I can go after I do residency and buy it.

I have decided to start adding titles to my posts because one of my critics last week destroyed my post and said that it was dry. So yes I have been working hard haha. This week we worked super hard and walked up and down this mountain like a hundred times. I was super tired this week and pretty much had to go to bed right after planning. It has been a good week but we still don't have any progressing investigators. We went to the area book but didn't have much success there so we are just hoping that the investigators we do have start progressing.
This week I took your advice dad, my comp and I decided to make a true Portuguese dish so we asked our zone leader, who is a native Portuguese, to give us the recipe to make francesinhas. We made them and they turned out so good. A francesinha is a sandwich with beef, ham and sausage in it all smothered in cheese and then topped with some amazing sauce. They were super good and I will be making them for the whole family when I get home!

The other day while we were walking by a large feild full of sheep we noticed that there was a hole in the fence and that a lot of the sheep were not inside. It was chaos, the sheep were running wild causing all kinds of mischief like stealing cars, robbing banks and eating everyone's plants. So I took it upon myself to take a break from being a shepherd of men and try being a real shepherd. I ran into a book store and purchased "Sheep Herding for Dummies" and got to work. I chased all of them back into the fence and saved the day. Turns out that it is a lot easier than missionary work so I think I am going to quit my day job. Just kidding, it is not as rewarding.

All in all, it was a good week except the fact that we have not heard from Jose for a couple days and we keep passing his house. He has a lot of medical problems and he always has doctor appointments so we are thinking he is at the hospital because he won't answer his phone and is never home and he missed church. We are a little worried about him. Thanks everyone for writing and supporting me. I love you guys

Love,
Elder Ruggles

Week 20

Hey everyone,
This week was better, we went by Jose and he is doing a lot better. Now that he is sobered up he will listen to us again and he felt really bad for drinking. We told him it's not over and that he can start again so he is feeling a lot better. The work is progressing pretty well here. The other elders in our district baptized a family of 3 this week and our zone is the 2nd highest baptizing zone in the mission and we are the 2nd smallest! I found out last week that our mission is going to split in June of 2015 so there will be a Portugal Lisbon mission and a Portugal Porto mission. I still don't know how they will split us up but I really hope that I am in the Lisbon mission and that I am still with Ty but we will see how things turn out.

We have a kinda new investigator, she has been an investigator for a while but we recently started visiting again, her name is Celeste. She lost her job and is now struggling with depression so we can't get her to do anything. All she wants to do is sit in the house but I think if we can get her to church she will start to see the blessings that the Lord has in store for her!

On New Years we got home and fired up the charcoal grill we found in the attic and started to grill. We grilled up some burgers like true Americans! They were pretty good! There was a party going on down the street so we heard a ton of people dancing to music that I knew and people were getting wasted. But they did the countdown and on 0 they lifted up the tent that the stage was under and it released 1000's of balloons into the sky with flashing lights on them and it looked super cool! <">This last week we had a conference in Santarem which is an hour drive so the elders from Portalegre came and picked us up. Elder Crist was driving and we were all sleeping but he said "I think I just hit a bird" but no one listened to him because he is a super weird elder who just says things just to say things haha. When we got out of the car there was a dead bird in the grill haha. It was so funny but his comp was super upset and sad. But don't worry, we made him tag his kill. Today we went to Lisbon for p-day and we were looking for nice, new European suits and they did not have the one I wanted but elder Cluff got a nice, new black one. Hopefully next time I go they will have it. We also went to a cool American store where they sell peanut butter and American sodas so I bought some Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew and an IBC rootbeer! Going to Lisbon made me realize how much I want to serve there because of how big and cool it is but it made me appreciate the small city of Abrantes. I do like it here and I wouldn't mind staying here one more transfer with Elder Cluff but we will see when transfer day comes. Well thank you for all the support and letters! 
Love you,
Elder Ruggles

Week 19

Hey Family!

It feels like I just barely talked to you guys... sorry for that awful joke but I just had to. Skyping you guys was the best Christmas present that I could have asked for and I am super happy that everyone is doing so well! After Skyping it was a little hard to get back to work because my mind was a little at home but now I am back to being a missionary so it's all good.

As you know my recent baptism had some trouble on Christmas with drinking. We went over there and he was super drunk and he was yelling at us and being a jerk so we just left after telling him how sad we were and we went over there the next 2 days just to talk with him and see what the problem was. He was having some trouble with being alone on Christmas and he told us he smoked too. He is on the path to repentance and he is doing a lot better. Hopefully he will keep to the straight and narrow but keep him in your prayers.

Next p-day we are planning on going to Lisbon to go to Zara. It is this super high class clothing store, we are going to buy suits there while they are having their after Christmas sales. I am super excited to buy a nice gray European cut suit. My comp and I are going to get matching ones and he said he is going to wear it to my homecoming haha. I am super stoked because I have only been to Lisbon 1 time and that was when I first got here so I still haven't been in Columbo, the huge mall in Lisbon! It should be super awesome.

Do you guys have any great New Years plans? We sure do! We found a small barbeque in the attic so we will be grilling burgers at midnight and shooting off confetti cannons you can buy at the Chinese stores here. We will also be buying sparkling cider and we will bring in the New Year like Americans. Hopefully there will be fireworks here but I doubt that this small of a town does fireworks. Well, I hope you all have a great New Years!

Much Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 18

Hey Everyone!
This week was awesome! We finally baptized Jose and he is doing great. He was comfirmed a member of the church yesterday and he said it was the best day of his life. He talked to us about his wife that he divorced and said if he had known about this gospel when he was married it would have been a lot different. He has a ward family now and we are going to go over for Christmas so he doesn't feel so lonely and I am making him a photo album of his baptism. Last week he had the desire to smoke when he looked down at one of the pamphlets we had given him and he opened it. He opened the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and read, "Preserver until the end" and he loved it and he said it helped him quit smoking. It just so happens that that is one of my favorite phrases to say. In Portuguese it is "Perserverar ate o fim" and I am going to write that on the photo album. I am so happy that I was here to see how far Jose has come. There is a definite change in this mans life. The first week I saw him he was a grumpy smoker who was drunk all the time but the light of Christ has changed him into a kind-hearted man. The gospel can help anyone.

This week we also had the opportunity to go to a Christmas conference in Coimbra! It was super fun because I was going a little crazy in this small town. Coimbra is a huge city with the oldest university in the world at the center and the students there have to wear cloaks and the school looks like a castle. It is the very school that inspired JK Rolling to write Harry Potter. We had a great conference and didn't have a bus home so we slept over at Santarem with the zone leaders. They are some of the coolest missionaries. 

This next week will be the first time in my life that I am not with you guys for Christmas and I thought it would be super hard, but the branch here has some very nice families and we will be spending Christmas eve at the branch president's house. They are making turkey which will be super good and also bulcalhao, which is cod fish.... I don't love it but I can force it down. Then we are going to Irma Rosa's house for Christmas and we will Skype there. It is not the same without you guys but it will be close with the great families here and Skyping you. Don't worry mom, I haven't opened the package yet, I am saving it for Christmas! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 17

Hey everyone,

This week was pretty hard, my trainer left and I got a new comp. He is way cool but I am the only one who knows his way around this city, I totally got lost a couple times but I think I am getting the hang of it now. Abrantes isn't that big but it is really confusing near the middle of town. My new comp looks a lot like Collin Toyn and I asked him if he knows him and he said he saw him once but everyone in the mission says that they look alike so it is way cool.

This week was a slow week because no one is really home around this time of year, everyone goes to visit their families and a lot of people go to Lisboa. We knocked doors for hours and no one answers so we end up getting a pastry and sitting on a bench. People aren't outside their houses either because it is too cold here so contacts are scarce. If it wasn't for our investigator Jose we would have zeros all the time. And on Sunday there was a huge soccer game (Bemfica vs. Porto) and everyone was at home or in the cafes and I have never seen the streets so empty, we tried to contact a guy and he said, "I don't have time, the game is on." Then he invited us to watch with him in a cafe so we sat and watched it for the last 30 minutes of the day and gave him a pass along card. Bemfica won because they are the best team in Portugal so I decided that I am now a Bemficista! Porto and sporting suck haha!

I am guessing that it is my last transfer in this area because my comp has 2 transfers left and if I stayed one more I would kill him and stay for 3 because I don't think they would white wash Abrantes but we will see. I really like the members here but the area hasn't baptized in almost a year. But me and Elder Cluff are going to change that very soon. Our investigator Jose has a baptismal date for the 20th of December and if he can quit smoking it should go through. We also started talking to this lady named Celeste and she is very nice. She is recently out of work and needs the help of the Lord more than ever. She is taking the lessons well and said when she knows the church is true she will get baptized but she didn't come to church this week. We even passed by and knocked on her door but she wasn't there or didn't answer.

I was talking to my new comp and he told me that Abrantes is where elders go to get banished when they do something wrong. It is a joke in the mission but there have been some pretty bad elders who have come through this area in the past but I didn't do anything wrong so I look at it as president sending me here to change the way people look at this area. Hopefully we baptize 4 this transfer but we will see.

The cool thing about this city is that they are getting into the Christmas spirit. They put up a ton of lights all over town and they put up big speakers all wired throughout the city. They are blasting Christmas music and it is not like crappy Christmas music its stuff like Micheal Buble and stuff like that. They also just opened a new sandwich shop across the street from the house and we ate there today and it is awesome! This week should be good especailly if we have a baptism! Thanks everyone for writing.
Love,

Elder Ruggles

Us skipping rocks at the Tejo