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