Week 29 - Dunking Them Pretos

Hey family,
This week was good but it was super long, we had to do a lot of stuff to prepare for the baptism and then at the last minute, everyone bailed on us. The Portuguese members don't understand that we need them so they flake out a lot and just get super lazy haha. This week our numbers kinda sucked because we were super stressed about the baptism but we went and taught that lady Carla a couple times and she is still reading everything that we leave her. She said she wants to be baptized but she wants to see how church is first, so we got her to church on Sunday and she liked it. She also went to the baptism so that was good! This week was super warm so we wore short sleeves. It was the first time I have worn a short sleeve shirt since Oeiras so it has been super nice. It was way nice walking around without a sweater and all, so hopefully it continues to be nice weather.
On Friday I did a division with one of the zone leaders in Coimbra so I went over there to sleep over and it was super fun. I was with Elder Cabral from Cape Verde and his comp went to Viseu! We had a ton of fun and Elder Cabral goes home in a week. He is way good at contacting people and one thing I learned from him is to talk to everyone like they are your best friend. We had a ton of fun and he tries to speak English with me but all he can say is "Blacks" and stuff and he calls our zone "Black Nation" he is super funny!!! On Sunday we had a baptism and it went pretty well despite everyone pulling out last minute but we got her dunked. The ward was there and she had a good experience! It was a blessing to see her baptized because she has been investigating for a long time and finally took the plunge. Transfers are next week so I will let you know if my comp and I stay here together. Love you guys, thanks for everything!
Love,
Elder Ruggles

Week 28

Hey everyone!

This week was super awesome! First, we had Zone Conference and that was super awesome! Everyone in my zone is super cool and I would love to serve with some of them at one point in my mission. The zone meeting was in Coimbra and that city is super cool. It has on of the oldest universities in the world and it is the school that JK Rowling based Harry Potter off of but we didn't get to go see it. It is still a beautiful city and I would love to serve there! 

I am super excited for this Saturday. We will be baptizing one of our investigators named Gracia and she is from Cape Verde! She is super cool and has been investigating for a long time. She went to stake conference and afterward told us she wants to better her life by being baptized this Saturday!

I have been seeing a lot of miracles lately and I would like to share one of the biggest ones. The other day we were knocking doors and having no success and so we just kept knocking. We were on the last floor of a building and we knocked a door and a lady named Carla came out. She was nice and we talked for a long time. We asked her if she needed any help and she started to tear up. She invited us back and before we left she asked if we wanted her number (which never happens). She also told us that she will never go to another church because she is faithful to hers. We came back another day and she had read all of the pamphlet we left her and told us her life story and how her kids don't want to talk to her after she divorced her husband and she feels like she has no one. She told us that before when the missionaries knocked her door she would always shut it but when we came she said she couldn't shut it and after we left the pamphlet she thought to herself, "Could this be the path I am supposed to take?" She told us the other night that she will come to church this Sunday so we are pretty excited!

This work is full of miracles, keep faith and keep praying because Heavenly Father is ALWAYS listening. I have a very strong testimony about families and it is getting strengthened because many times the people here don't have families or don't talk to them. I love you guys! 

Love, 

Elder Ruggles

Week 27 - 6 Months

Hey family,

As I have been informed by many of you, this Friday I hit my 6 month mark so I guess I am 1/4th done with the mission but who is counting? This week was long and exhausting haha but it was good. We had Stake conference in our chapel and so we had to go and help set up. They didn't have enough chairs in our chapel so they had to get some from Porto. We heard a lot of cool people speak and someone from the Quorum of the Seventy came and he gave a great talk on how the members can work with the missionaries. Hopefully people start helping out a lot now. Then, our mission president and his wife spoke and they did a really good job. We had a couple investigators there and they both loved it. Whatever one of the speakers said really worked because after stake conference was over, one of our investigators who has been investigating for a long time said she wants to get baptized and make her life better so that is super exciting.

Earlier this week we got a call from the zone leaders and they asked if we could go to Castelo Branco to do a baptismal interview which doesn't make sense because they are not in our district and we are pretty far away from them, but we went. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride there and their district leader is only an hour away but we don't know what's going on over there, we think they are having some difficulties. We got there and Poston did the interview then we had dinner with a member there and it was way good food. The Elders in Castelo Branco are super sick and it makes me miss 4 elder houses. After dinner we went to the castle on the top of the hill and took some sick pictures. We slept over there and in the morning we got on a bus and went back to our area. 

Yesterday after conference we had lunch with the bishop and his family and they are super sick. Bishop is pretty young and he loves playing Playstation so we just talked about cool video games and stuff. Then, we got invited over for dinner by Miguel Silva and he is super sick! He is so funny and they had pancakes and we just joked around about my comp having 3 girlfriends but a lot of the conversation went over his head so I had to translate quite a bit haha. We did some card tricks with them because their daughter loves doing magic and then we went home. I hope we keep having member meals because the members here are super dope. And I am super excited because it looks like we will have 2 baptisms this transfer! Well, that is all for this week guys. Thanks for writing, love you!

Love,

Elder Ruggles