Week 47 - I Saw a Pillar of Light

Hey Family,

Well this week was a little slow. It started out pretty good and we found a couple new people to teach and we set up some appointments so everything looked like it was going to be a good week especailly for numbers but all the appointments we planned fell through. We even had members to help with the lessons and the investigators just straight up did not show up. That is inconsiderate and we felt bad that we had members there and we were wasting their time. People here tend to have their priorities a little mixed up but that is what we are here for haha. The people here love their sleep but who doesn't love sleep? 

We were walking the other day and we found this new neighborhood out in the boonies that I had never knocked which is rare because I have knocked every building here haha. We didn't know if it would be very successful because it was a very affluent neighborhood but we tried anyway. After many closed doors we knocked this one lady's house who we set up a return appointment with. We came back the next day and had one of the best lessons I have ever been in. She asked all the right questions and said all the right things. She asked us if we believed in baptizing babies and we said no and she said, "Neither do I, babies don't have sins..." and then she said she wants us to help her quit smoking. We invited her to be baptized when she knows the church is true (we call it the suave invite) and she said when she knows it's true she will be baptized! When I was telling her about the first vision I said the first words, "I saw a pillar of light..." and the clouds opened up (it had been cloudy all morning) and a huge ray of light lit up the whole room and she just started to laugh a little and the spirit was super strong! She even gave us cake after the lesson!!! I hope she will be baptized but if she does the invites we give her she will be! It was a blessing from the Lord. Her name is Elsa like from Frozen for all of you Disney fans out there and she is expecting her first kid. 

We also had a zone meeting at the beginning of the week and our new mission president still hasn't arrived. So as of right now we are without a mission president... you know what that means.... NO RULES!!! Me and Elder Jones have been going crazy. Just kidding but he did get his Visa and is supposed to arrive tomorrow (Tuesday). Because he is just getting here he has extended the transfer so looks like I am staying here a couple more weeks! He seems cool, we watched a video he made and he was an AP in his mission for more than a year which is nutz and he baptized every weekend for the last 50 weeks of his mission. We will see what he is like next week! Well that is all for this week! See you guys next week! 

Love you all,

Elder Ruggles

Week 46 - 4th of July

Well Happy 4th of July Family,

I just want all of you to know that while Portugal is great and all that, America is still #1!!!! I hope that the 4th of July party went good, it looks like we had a good turn out and although I wasn't there, I didn't miss out too bad seeing as we had our own 4th of July party here. I thought I would show Portugal just how great the United States of America really is so we decided a while back to throw a 4th of July party for all the members and investigators. After a lot of prepping and stress we had an awesome party!
We spent the week teaching Etó the lessons and preparing for her baptism. It was a little bit of an oversight marking it for the 4th when we knew we had a party to do but I work best under stress....kind of. We taught her everything and on Friday we had 2 elders from Coimbra come down and do the interview and it all went well. Then, on Saturday we were all running around trying to get the party together. A lot of the members were in Coimbra for a stake activity that was planned AFTER ours which made us mad because the Stake Pres. tried to make us cancel ours. Anyway, there were a couple members who made the party possible because of all their help!
At 4 we had the baptism but they showed up way late, so it started at 5 and then right after that, the party started. The baptism went fine and she chose me to baptize her. I don't love dunking people but if they ask me to I do. I usually recommend members doing it especially because missionaries leave but oh well.
When the party started, there was almost no one there at 6 and we were really worried that no one would come but we still started the charcoal grill in faith and filled up water balloons. After a while people started to show up and then Etó's mom started calling people! Their whole family showed up and extended family! We had a ton of Africans there! I love Africans!
We had music going, a whole bunch of food, and water balloon volleyball which turned into a water balloon fight. We had a ton of investigators there and they loved it. Afterward we had a spiritual thought and everyone went home at 9. It was one of the funnest but most stressful days on my mission!
Love,
Elder Ruggles