Week 48

Well family,

This week was good, we did a lot of finding activities and didn't have a ton of success but we keep working. Although it is hard to stay in an area for a long time, Viseu feels like my home and it will be hard to leave this area. I especially love the ward here and how awesome the youth here are even though they are super lazy and just play video games, they have become some of my best friends.

In other news, my mission president finally got here, only 2 weeks late and like I said in the last letter, he delayed transfers for another few weeks. I will be meeting him this week and having an interview with him, which should be cool but it is a little nerve racking. Elder Bianucci said he is cool so that is worth something. He also said that our new mission president will be buying the mission a roller coaster so I don't know what to believe.

Not much else happened this week so I will tell you all a story of love, laughter and straight up apostasy.

About a year ago, one of our members in this ward passed away which was very sad but with the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation the ward was not heartbroken. This particular member was the only member in his family and most of them were Catholic. The family members told the ward they would be doing a Catholic funeral and the ward was invited. They respected the wishes of the family and humbly attended the funeral in loving support. During a part in the funeral, I am not sure what or when but a little dispute in doctrine which should not have been a big deal but the Portuguese tend to be a proud people. Anyway, a couple of our more outspoken members started to argue a bit with this family and the bishop was trying to calm them down but was quickly losing control. It became an all out religious war, each party was bashing the other with scriptures and profound ideas about how the other religion would be going to hell. This small funeral home in a Catholic chapel became a war zone of religious debate. It escalated to the point of screaming as many of the members became enraged when suddenly our Elders Quorum president raised his arm to the square and commanded the lady he was arguing with to shut up in the name of Jesus Christ... I for sure have never heard of the priesthood ordinance that he attempted to preform and I have done a lot of research on the subject and have found no scriptural evidence of it being a real priesthood act but I could be wrong. Nevertheless having later been asked about the event, the Elders Quorum president said after he did that he could no longer hear the woman... 

There you have it! Your weekly apostate story hope you all enjoyed it! Stay safe out there!
Love,

Elder Ruggles