Week 65 - Taxi Driver

Hey everyone,

This week was a ton of travel, I am so sick of having a car. We have to pay a ton for gas so we always run out of money before the end of the month and it's stressful to drive here in Portugal. We always have to do baptismal interviews because we are the only ones who can travel anywhere but then we don't have gas money. Oh well, patience.

This week we had a division in Tomar after our district meeting. I went with Elder Law and he is a super cool guy. He is new in the mission so it was fun to see him learn Portuguese and get to know the people. The next day we traveled some more to an area called Elvas which is so close to Spain I could almost touch it. It is right on the border next to a Spanish town called Bod de Joz (I think that is how it's spelled). We visited some less actives out there and it was way dope. The sad part is that this area is bigger than the city we live in and has a huge castle. We should just move our area there haha.

We had a normal day in our area after that but then we had to go do some baptismal interviews for 2 people in Abrantes so we decided to do a division while we were there. It all went well and they passed the baptismal interviews. This week was just divisions pretty much. The next morning we were supposed to go home but the elders didn't have a ride to get to Santarem to do the baptism so we got permission to give them a ride there. I felt like a taxi driver. It killed our day because we got home way late that night. President was in Santarem during the baptism and decided to pay us a visit and kind of chastised me a little for not having investigators at the baptism. 

P. is doing fine, we taught her some of the commandments including the law of chastity. It was easy for her to understand but she has a boyfriend she has been dating for 2 years so it won't be easy to follow. She said she would talk to him about it. We talked about getting them married but they are young and it doesn't look like too much of an option so we will see how it plays out.

That is all from me, I am just here in Tomar doing a P day with the district because one of the elders here is going home next week so we are doing one last hurrah! We went to a dope castle here, in fact it is the castle where the Templars actually started (like the ones from Assassins Creed) so there are a ton of dope things and secret rooms. I hope all is well with everyone and I hope grandma feels better. Love you guys.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 64 - Family Night at the Farm

Hey Family,

This week was pretty good, we definitely had better numbers all around which was good to see. We have been teaching P. a little but she doesn't have a lot of time because she works at a beauty salon but she is progressing really well and she came to church this week. She has talked a little bit about baptism but says she is still not ready but she is already doing missionary work and inviting friends so you tell me if she is ready or not haha.

We haven't done anything too exciting, we did get contacted by a girl who was taught in the past and wants us to start teaching her again. She is pretty cool, her name is Janete and we hadn't heard of her because she went back to Africa during the summer but now she is back for school and wants to come to church.
This week was kind of boring, we had 10 people in church which was good. After church we were all invited to one of the members little farms outside of the city to roast chestnuts so we drove out there and all had a good time. We even had some investigators there including P. It was a good time and the members are doing a really good job making the investigators feel welcome and comfortable. 

In other news, me and my comp are trying to eat healthier and work out harder to try to lose some weight but in the end it just feels like we are fasting all the time. Kind of miserable because food is the only thing you can indulge in on the mission but oh well, sacrifice, patience and hard work is the key to the celestial kingdom and in this case a chiseled body as well. Well, that is really all that I have for this week, like I told you not much haha but hopefully something exciting happens this week. Love you guys! Don't forget to write haha.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 63 - Coming Home Wet

Hey family,
This week was alright, we fell back an hour here too because of daylight savings but it doesn't feel like we slept an extra hour, it just feels like we work one more hour during the night because it gets dark so early. It has been raining quite a bit too, I will need to buy a better jacket this week so I will be looking into that. I guess I am just sick of coming home wet. 

This week was not great on the teaching and numbers, which sucks because President is really on us about numbers and making goals and sticking to your goals. He wants us to do everything we can to achieve the goals which might be a little harder here in Portalegre. That or we will have to make lower goals. This week we had almost no one come to church, only 8 people which is nothing compared to last week's 14. I don't know what happened. We had a lot of people who said they were coming but it rained and a lot of people went to their ancestors graves for all saints day so maybe that was it. The worst part was that President of the district, President Telas, who usually comes once a month to evaluate the branch, was there to do an evaluation. They are evaluating it to see if it needs to be shut down and unfortunately we had 8 instead of last week's 14. Oh well, next time.

Our investigator is doing amazing. P. has been reading and praying a lot. Sadly, she could not make it to church because her family went to cry at their family´s grave sites but she said she will come this week for sure. We still haven't gotten her a baptismal date but that is only because she says she doesn't feel ready. We are pretty sure she is ready. We taught her the word of wisdom the other day and she doesn't use any of the substances, doesn't even like iced tea or coffee. She is pretty elect. We just need to get her a date! I am super excited for her because she is really gaining a testimony of the gospel and everything.That is pretty much all for this week. Thanks for all of your prayers and if you are reading this it is probable that I am praying for you too! Love you all and remember that the Lord never leaves us to fight our battles alone!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 62 - Reunited

Hey Family,
This week was pretty great! During the beginning of the week we had a couple good lessons and even though we don't have a lot of members we are getting some of them to help in the testifying aspect. They have never done it before so it is kind of shaky but they are getting the hang of it. It is awesome because I have already been seeing it strengthen their testimonies and it's helping the investigator! 

Last week I got a call from the office because they needed to renew my residency so I could stay in the country legally. To renew the residency we have to go to Porto for a day and sign papers and take finger prints. Because my residency was about to expire, everyone who came in with me was in the same boat. They did everyone is groups on different days so I wasn't sure who I was going to see in Porto but we got there late Wednesday night after a 3 and a half hour drive and got to the mission home to be greeted by Elder Bianucci. We had not seen each other in about a year and it was so good to see him again. We hung out a little after we did residency and went to an all you can eat pizza hut buffet and it was like good ole times.

This Sunday we had the most people in church that me or my comp have seen here. We had 14 people and one was our investigator P. who loved church and the other was a less active named Panka who has not been to church in over a year! We were way happy to see everyone and the meetings were just happier and everyone was participating.

Today we saw that it was raining and foggy so we decided to hike the nearest mountain to see if we could get above the fog. It kind of worked out and we got into a couple clouds and out of the rain but we got some sick pictures! All in all it was a great week! Love you guys and I love the gospel! Make sure you always read your scriptures!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 61

Hey family,

This week was pretty good, we did a lot of contacting trying to get the work going here because there aren't many investigators who are progressing. This week we have been working with a family who is from Lisbon but moved here because of a drug problem. They are really cool and seem to be interested but they don't answer the door all the time and they have a new baby so it's hard to teach them.

After P day last week we hiked a big mountain during a super cloudy day and we hiked into a cloud. I got some super dope pics but I forgot my camera in the car so I will send the pictures next week.

This Sunday we got to church and we only had 2 members in church which made us pretty sad but my comp's class was about being a pastor for lost sheep so we all got in our cars and went and visited our members who weren't at church and got some more there. In the end we had 4 members so we doubled our attendance!

After church we went to a lady's house who approached us in the grocery store the other day and told us she wants us to teach her daughter. We went there and her daughter is really cool and wants to know more about the gospel so we are going to try to help her come to church. 

Today we are in Tomar for district P day. We are going to play volleyball and go to the castle and it's also why I don't have a lot of time to write or send pics but I will fill you in next week! Love you all.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 60 - Killing Laban

Hey family,

This week was pretty eventful, it started off kind of slow, we basically just had a division with the zone leaders which was good. I went with Elder Elderidge, he is from Tooele, Utah and he is pretty cool. We did a lot of contacting, passed a couple recent converts and passed by some cool people. The other zone leader is Elder McColley who has already served here in Portalegre so he went and visited some members and then we had dinner at the end of the night with the Ferreira family which was way fun. 

During the past couple weeks we have been trying to pass by the people we have been contacting during the transfer. We had contacted a cool guy in the park named Nuno and we had been trying to pass him for a while but he didn't have a doorbell so we would just knock pretty hard but he never came down. The other day we finally were able to talk to him and he let us up and talked to us for about an hour about his life. This guy has been through it all. He was a drug dealer in Lisbon and got into some crazy stuff but he said his wife changed him and now he is a law abiding citizen with 2 daughters and one is only 2 weeks old! He really liked the lesson and we will be going back this week. I have a lot of hope for this family!

On Thursday we went to Abrantes to do a division and sleep over for Zone conference the next day. I visited some members and it was way good to see all of them. At zone conference we got some new trainings from Pres. which were interesting. Then we had interviews and I asked him to serve with Bianucci again but I don't know how much he liked that haha. He told me not to ask him to change revelation but I am just asking him to receieve specific revelation that is convenient for me haha.

In other news, this week we bought a live chicken because a friend of ours said he would cook it for us. We went and bought one and named him Laban. We had to keep it a while because we had a zone conference so we left him in the house which might have been a mistake. He got out of his cage we made out of cardboard and decided that the couch was a much more comfortable place to take his craps so our couch was covered in chicken dumps but that is the beauty of pleather, easy clean up. Saturday we took him to our friends and slit his throat. The prophecy of the Book of Mormon came true. He wasn't that good and I wouldn't do it again because we basically paid 7 dollars to clean our apartment and eat some alright chicken with rice but the killing was cool. Tobler got to restrain him while our buddy killed him. All in all it was a fun week! That is all. Also, I got the package at zone conference and it was awesome! Thanks so much guys I loved all the letters and the American food!

1 Nephi 4:13 -  Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked (chickens) to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one (chicken) should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 59 - Mario Cart

Hey family,

This week was pretty good, it went by pretty fast and I can't believe there is only one week left in the transfer. It feels like I just got here. After emailing last p-day we all got in the car and went to the go cart place in Abrantes which was one of the best p-days I have ever had! The carts went 70 km/hour which converts to about 40 m/hour. We were hauling on those things and they had a lot more power than we thought, so most of us ended up drifting into the grass. After getting the hang of it we were taking the corners pretty fast and drifting almost every shallow turn. Do you remember the scene from Cars when Lightning McQueen drifts in the race and pulls out of it? That is what it felt like. After that, we all hung out and played soccer. I ran into my recent convert from Abrantes and we all went home and played cards!

The next day we had district meeting which went well. After district meeting we did a division with Tomar, which was my first division as a leader because I have always had sisters in the district. It is nice to have elders for a change haha. We had a ton of fun and I went with Elder Whitaker, he is super dope and he is going home soon so I learned a lot from him. We slept over there so in the end me and Tobler had a double sleep over which was super fun but it made us tired sleeping 2 nights on the ground and on couches. It was nice coming back home.

We have been trying to pass Lucio but he has kind of been dodging us which is sad but we are going to try to get him to come to seminary or something. We had a couple people who said they would come to church this week but none of them showed up which was sad. We have been really struggling to find new investigators but I feel like that is always the struggle and it is very real. We have been doing contacts a lot and trying everything but no one is really listening. What we need is member references but the members here are still really new, which means they have a lot of friends who still haven't had contact with the missionaries but it also means they don't know how to share or why they should. We are going to try to help them with that so they can start bringing their friends to church!

I really liked the little bit of conference that I did see. Sunday we were supposed to have the Saturday sessions already downloaded but they still weren't up so we went early in the morning to download them but it took about an hour to download. We had to delay church a half hour and we all went to the church and watched the Saturday afternoon session. I really liked Elder Hollands talk about Moms because everyone has a mom and they always deserve a shout out. Shout out to Momma Ruggs and I also liked Oak's talk about the atonement. I will have to watch more of them and listen to them this week. Hey, also I sent you guys a package today that should get there in a couple weeks! Love you!

Love,

Elder Ruggles