Week 98 - 4th of July

Well family,

This week was super crazy, we were in Porto for a lot of it and not much happened in our area so it is going to be a short letter. We taught a nice lady named Ana and she invited us over for lunch the next day so we had a little get together with her and one of her students which was super fun. We still can't really find Paulo but he did this last time so when we find him we are going to have a good talk with him and tell him he can't run away from God haha.

We spent 2 days in Porto just chillin and Elder Bianucci bought a slick new suit. It was a lot of travel this week so we are super tired and out of money until the office gives us our reimbursements. I am pretty sick of travelling but that is pretty much all you do here because of all the meetings and the areas are so far away from each other.

Funny story of the week. Sunday night we were walking around and we walked out onto the pier to look at some boats and the ocean for a little. I saw some rocks and some wave breakers and the little kid in me decided to start jumping on the rocks. I was having the time of my life when I felt something slip down my leg. Turns out my pocket had a small hole in it and it got bigger as I was jumping around. I could only stare as I saw the phone fall very far into a huge crevice of rocks never to be seen again. We told the office so they are getting us a new phone but it has been very inconvenient. Anyway that is all for now. Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 97 - Reunited!

Hey Everyone,

This week was super great. I stayed in Caldas with the district until Tuesday when we got transfers. I guess all my prayers, fasts and requests worked because I was put with Elder Bianucci for our last transfer here in Peniche! I was so happy when I saw the transfer sheet. He got here on Tuesday night so we only had 5 days to work but I have never been so happy working and it really showed because we got the best numbers I have ever seen in this area.

We have been finding a lot of new people to work with and it is crazy how much work you can actually get done. We have both agreed to make this the best transfer of our missions. I could not ask for a better last transfer and last comp. The only problem is that since he got here we have been having a nonstop conversation so we end up staying up very late just talking in the dark so we get pretty tired.

We have been teaching Paulo again and he said he wants to be baptized still. We tried to mark him for this Sunday and everything was in order. We taught him everything but when Sunday rolled around he was gone. We went to his house several times and tried to find him but he was harder to find than Manti Teo´s girlfriend. We were pretty bummed but we are going to find him this week and remark him for the end of this week.

We played tennis this P-day and Ty showed me a thing or two and I figured out that tennis is a lot harder than I thought. I got the hang of it and I think I will play a little more when I get home! That is all I have this week! The church is true, and prayers and fasts WORK! That´s how Ty and I got to serve together. We are out here having a great time feeling like JC and his Bud on their missions!

Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Ruggles

Week 96 - The Kill and Haunting

Hey Family,

This week was pretty awesome! It started off with district meeting and it was Elder Neighbor's last one so we had a funeral for him. I had never "killed" my companion before and it was pretty fun but I would not want to do it again. I was just blessed to always have new missionaries I guess.

I am proud to say that Neighbor and I worked until his last minute! The best thing about dying is that all the members want to feed you so we had a lot of member meals. One member made us 2 giant steaks each and it was one of the best member meals I have ever had. We even had an investigator feed us some sardines which were good. It was just awesome being treated like kings!

We are still trying to teach João but like I said before, it is really hard to find him on a good day. We keep passing and he was supposed to come to the dinner with the investigator but he felt sick. It is just difficult to help someone who "feels" like he can't be helped but we spend a lot of time testifying that God can help everyone.

In other crazy news, this Sunday, while putting in some info and tithes into the computer with the branch president, one of my friends walked in the door. My friend Collin Toyn from Salt Lake City came to visit me. He is here visiting some members and converts from when he served here but he "died" over 2 years ago so I guess you could say he came back to haunt me. It was awesome to talk with him and even though we served at separate times, we could still talk about the same people and areas! S/O to Collin for still reading these emails, when I thought everyone stopped after my first transfer. Flush twice buddy.

Today I am just here in Caldas with the other elders waiting for transfers. We are going to get transfers tomorrow so I am going to sleep here and chill in the tripanionship. Mission rumor has it that President Amorim is putting Ty Bianucci here with me in Peniche to "die" together and I really hope that it is true!

Well that is it, love you guys! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 95 - Storming the Castle

Hey Family,

This week was a really good week, we taught a lot of lessons which makes me feel better at the end of the week. The main reason we taught a lot is because we have an investigator who practically never leaves his house so we went there a lot and he loves it when we come over so it is really a win win!

Our main investigator is João, he is really cool but just doesn't really do much. He wants to come to church but he has some problems that limit him from leaving the house so we are trying our best to help him. He is an awesome kid though and if we work hard with him I think him and his mom could be baptized next transfer. Unfortunately Elder Neighbor won't be here but I will send him pics.

Only 1 more week left in the transfer and needless to say my comp is pretty excited to get rid of me. It will be the start of my last transfer which will be super weird. I wonder who my next comp will be. I have written President the last 3 weeks about serving with Ty Bianucci and I have been praying really hard so there is a good chance that I will be serving with him haha.

As you guys know I received my travel plans this week which doesn't feel real. Turns out that I am coming home on the 2nd of August instead of the 3rd but I am not too mad about that haha. Don't get too trunky though guys. Still got 7 weeks but who is counting?

Today was really cool, we spent my comp's last p-day in the mission doing whatever he wanted to do. He decided to go with the district to Óbidos. Óbidos is a midevil castle pretty close to our area. We walked around a really old city inside the castle walls, some elders bought swords and we got on top of the wall while we quoted Lord of the Rings and Braveheart. All in all it was a really great week. Well that is all for this week, Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 94 - Missing Island Life

Hey family,

Sorry I didn't have a lot of time to email but today we went out to an island off the coast of Peniche! It is called Berlenga and it was awesome. I guess I just missed the islands too much but I like Berlenga more than I liked Madeira haha. We got on the boat at 11:30 and it took a whole hour to get there. When we got there we went to a fort and to the lighthouse. The water was super pretty and we had to stay away from the beach to keep ourselves from swimming but maybe one day I will come back and swim! Unfortunately we forgot sunscreen so we got fried but at least I will come back tan!

This week was pretty good. We were finally able to talk with an investigator named Ana who turns out to be super cool. We taught her a little last week and then this week she called us and asked us to help us move some furniture around in her house so we went over and talked to some other people who were helping as well. We met a teen named João who is really cool and funny. We have already taught him twice and he is super excited to come to church and is always excited to read the Book of Mormon with us! We have to limit him to 3 chapters with us because he just wants to keep reading while we are there. I have a lot of faith that he will be baptized soon.

Not a lot else happened this week. I am still not too trunky, and I think I have been pretty constant throughout my whole mission but I can feel the early stages of trunkiness. Haha I still work hard and follow the rules, don't worry. I just think about the boat sometimes and Jake going home but I will be fine. As Justin says, trunkiness is part of the mission haha. 

Well thanks for all the love and support, I am glad the package got to you guys and you all liked it! I will write more next week when we have more time! Love you!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 93 - Single Digits...

Hey Family,

I am super happy to hear that you guys received the package that I sent. I am even happier to hear that the plate I sent Grandma didn't break. This week was OK, we had a lot of good plans but something you learn in the mission is that things don't always go according to plan haha. We had a lot of people who weren't at home when they said they would be but we also found a lot of cool new people!

This week we taught a lot of less actives which was awesome because they already know what they should do, we are just there to remind them. Plus they always feed us! We have some really cool members here in this area but they all have a different "excuse" to not come to church. There is never an excuse to break a commandment, but I always tell them that salvation depends on them and Christ and they make the choice. I don't know if it helps, they still don't come so maybe I will try a different tactic haha.

This week we had a cool activity about health. One of the members in our branch is a nutritionist from Italy and has been studying the body for 35 years so he gave a free class on how to eat healthy. We invited a lot of people but not too many people showed up. We took advantage of the class and tried to learn a couple things for ourselves. He talked about staying away from too much protein and almost killed us when we told him we have been taking protein shakes... My comp is going to stop because the guy said it was causing his allergies but I am feeling fine, plus I need to look good when I get home so I think I will continue haha.

In other news, we finally got a hold of Paulo this week and he has been avoiding us. He was sad when we talked to him and he told us that he didn't want to come to church anymore and he wants to stay Catholic... We were pretty sad and we tried to talk a little more with him right then but he had to go so we asked if we could come back and he said yeah. We will try to pass by this week and see if we can figure out the real problem...

We found an awesome lady named Ana this week who is a personal tutor. She doesn't have a lot of time but is super nice. She just met us and already said she will come to church and wants to have a party at her house when my comp leaves... I have a lot of hope for her.

You all may be wondering about the title of this email. Well I no longer have double digits of weeks left in the mission, not that I am counting but it is getting really close haha. At least I don't have 3 like my comp!

Anyway, thanks for everything guys. The end is just around the corner so don't worry but don't get too trunky! I have been talking to president about serving with Ty so we will see if he lets us be together on our last transfer! Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 92 - Ole Friends

Hey Family,

This week was really awesome! We were able to talk to Paulo last Monday and we had a really good lesson, we haven't really talked to him since. He is never home and doesn't have a phone so we just have to pass by and hope that he is there which doesn't work out too well. He still lacks a lot before he can be baptized so it is safe to say that it won't be this week but we are going to move his date back so he has more time to prepare.

On Tuesday this week we all packed our bags and headed to Porto for a mission wide conference! We got there at 6 and we did some shopping and I ended up buying a nice new black suit. We walked around for a while and enjoyed the city then we went to our hotel. There were a lot of missionaries staying at the hotel so as you can imagine we got little sleep that night. Everyone was in each others' room and telling stories and stuff, it was awesome. Unfortunately Ty wasn't there because he had a bus early in the morning the next day but I still saw a lot of my friends.

The conference was amazing. I saw Ty and we sat next to each other making jokes like ole times. Elder Bednar did a great job. He did a question and answer instead of a talk. A lot of people asked some good questions and Elder Bednar had great responses, almost as if he had written a talk about them. The best part was the end when he let our mission president bare his testimony and Bednar went after him. I have never felt the spirit so strong when he said "I give my special witness that Christ lives". The conference was great.

We didn't want the fun to end so we all went to the mall to eat lunch. Ty and I just caught up for a while and talked like ole times. It was one of the best afternoons ever! Sadly, we had a bus to catch so I said goodbye to all my buds and the goodbye with Ty was especially hard. It might have been the last time I see him until the end of our missions.

We got home and worked but most of the week was destroyed by the conference. You can imagine how our numbers were but this week we should have some good lessons lined up!

Today for P-day we walked to the other side of the peninsula where the cliffs are super high and took some beautiful pics! The camera doesn't do this place justice. I wish I could send all the pics in one email but look at all of them on the Dropbox! 

Love always,

Elder Ruggles

Week 91 - Bem Fica Tricampiões

Hey Family,

This week was alright. At the beginning of the week we went to district meeting and got transfers to see where everyone is going. Me and my comp stayed so it looks like we will both be dying here in this area but I am OK with that. The whole district stayed except the sisters area got turned into an elder area and one of the elders who came in is one of my past companions so pretty much no newbies to get to know haha.

This week we walked a lot and tried going out to some areas a little farther to see if we could find some new people who aren't contacted everyday by the missionaries and we had some success. We actually found a cool family that said we can come back this week. We also found a very nice man who not only said we could come back but looked at his schedule, verified with his wife and then wrote down our appointment on a piece of paper to give to US. That has never happened to me before so we will see how that goes!

Paulo has been pretty hard to get a hold of this week, we actually weren't able to teach him at all so this next week we are going to have to cram some lessons in if he still wants to be baptized. It is hard to contact him because he doesn't have a phone and he was partying all week with the fans of a certain soccer team. He didn't come to church because of the partying but we will talk to him about that too haha.

The soccer team I was referring to is called Bem Fica and they are one of the biggest club teams here in Portugal. They are a team based in Lisbon and the people here love them and go crazy for their games. This week was the end of the season which means the team with the most points is the champion of the Portuguese league. Bem Fica was only 2 points ahead of Sporting but won their game on Sunday so the whole town went crazy. There was free beer, cars honking, and crazy Bemfiquistas in the street so me and my comp took the long way around the center of town. Fortunately, the detour we took involved walking on the beach so it worked out, but these Portuguese soccer fans are crazy!

Anyway, that's all for now, I am sending a package this week so keep your eyes out for a brown box full of surprise and wonder! Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 90 - Moms are the Best!

Hey family,

Not much to fill you in on because I talked to all of you last night for Mother's Day but I will just tell the rest of the world who didn't have the privilege to talk to me. It is funny how much you can miss someone while you are gone but I never thought someone could be missed as much as a mom while one is serving a mission but I am super glad that we get to Skype twice a year! It was awesome seeing your faces and meeting some new ones. Bad news is we won't be doing any more of those Skype calls but the good news is that I will be home in 3 months.

This week we have been trying really hard to find some new people and our district leader is really helpful so he decided to have the whole district work here for a day. We had 6 missionaries in Peniche just contacting everyone and inviting the whole world to be baptized. We had some success and we are still working through the references but it is really nice to see so much support from the district.

We are still teaching Paulo and everything is going really well. He has come to church the last 2 Sundays and he is really liking it. He really is a good man who is very ready to change his life and many decisions he has taken in the past 2 years have really showed that desire to follow Christ. He is marked to be baptized on the 25th of May so if you could all pray for him and that date we would really appreciate it.

On Saturday we had the storm of the century. Rain with 80 mph winds and Peniche being a peninsula got the worst of it. Me and my companion got soaked but we knocked doors and we were able to find some cool people who felt bad about us being soaked in the rain. Other than that the weather was nice.

Well that is all for this week and everything else I already told you guys during the Skype call. Thanks for all the support, it was so nice just to talk to you guys about everything and anything last night, but from here on out it is just emails haha. Love you guys.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 89 - Seagull Powers

Well family,

This was one of the best weeks we have had in Peniche even though we had a lot of things to do, we still found time to teach some really meaningful lessons. We started out the week going to Caldas for district meeting and sleeping over for interviews with president the next day. Interviews went well and he gave me some good advice for the end of my mission.

This week the sisters in the district had a baptism so we left our area once again to go and help them out. Despite not being in our area a lot we still were able to do some work. On Wednesday we were contacting trying to do a baptismal invite because we have to do one every week. We contacted a man named Paulo and he said "sure." We taught him and he is really humble and he has been trying to change his life for a long time. He has been clean of some hard core drugs for 2 years and he is really excited for his baptism! We are also excited.

We also have some other really cool investigators we have been teaching including that one lady Adelaide. She loves listening to us but unfortunately does not want to come to church. She blames it on her husband but we think she just likes hearing us and nothing more. We also started teaching some really cool guys from Cape Verde. They work a lot so it is hard to talk to them.

Things are going great here in Peniche! I love it here, all this success has brought more happiness to the work and has helped resurrect my companion, kind of. I will tell you all the secret to my success. This week me and my companion climbed up a cliff in search of seagull eggs! We finally found some and took them home and fried them up while quoting Nacho Libre a lot! For those of you wondering, they tasted awful and I would never do it again but now we can "summon our (s)eagle powers" whenever we need to!

Love you guys and can't wait to Skype this week!

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 88 - Happy Bday Pop! 35 Never Looked so Good

Hey Family,

This week was pretty good, it is going slow here in Peniche but hopefully we can get going this week. We have been exploring a lot more of our area and it is so beautiful here so be ready for some awesome pictures. If I wasn't a missionary I would just spend all day walking around and finding cool scenery in this town! Like I said last week, all we need is progressing investigators.

As a matter of fact, we do have one lady who seems to have some interest in the church and really likes it when we come over to her house. I don't know if she wants anything more but we have been passing by there pretty often to talk to her. Her name is Adelaide and she has a husband in a wheel chair. Because me and my comp are both old guys in the mission we have been teaching really well together, some of the most spiritual lessons I have been in. This lady is getting bombarded with spiritual truths and she really likes it but says she can't and wont come to church but we will see about that. She was out of town this week but next week we are going to get her here.

Today we attended a soccer tournament of one of the youth in our branch and it was really fun. It reminded me of when I would play LAX or go to a basketball game. The competitive spirit you feel at sporting events is awesome and very much missed here in the mission field haha. I wanted to jump on the field and play with them but I thought better of it haha.

We also have been talking a little bit to that couple who is related to the branch president who showed up to the baptism last week. They didn't have a ton of time this week so we only said hi to them while they were working but this week we will actually be teaching them!

Other than that, nothing special happened, I really like the area and my comp so now all we need are investigators but I really am not complaining! I am super happy here so don't y'all worry about me! I will pray for you guys especially with the end of the school year coming up. Also S/O to my dad for his birthday on the 24th! I ate a pastry in your honor! Love you all!

Love always,

Elder Ruggles

Week 87 - The Big 2.0

Hey Family,

This week was really good, one of the best weeks we have had here in the beautiful land of Peniche. Me and my companion have been working pretty hard to find some new people to teach and we finally think we have found a nice couple that is willing to hear the message but we will see this week.

The beginning of the week was good, we went to Coimbra for a zone conference and we got some trainings from President Amorim. One of the trainings he gave was about teaching one of the lessons and he needed an example so he asked everyone who had more than a year in the mission to raise their hand. Me and my comp were the only companionship where both of us had more than a year so President said, "let's see how 'experienced' missionaries teach" haha. He evaluated our teaching with the rest of the zone and they all just told us what we did wrong so it was pretty humbling but now we know what to improve.

On Thursday nothing too special happened, we went to a members house and she fed us a lot of food and then we went to another members house where they fed us some cake. I have no idea why we were given so much food, I think it was some special occasion or something. For those of you who can't read sarcasm, it was my birthday and the members here treated me very nicely. It is crazy to think that I am 20 and no longer a teenager but I will continue to act like a teenager until the day I die! We will just say that I am 19 still. I received a very nice birthday call from President and Sister Amorim, it was really nice. During the call President asked me to put the phone on speaker and told me and my comp that he enjoyed our practice in the zone conference and he thanked us which was nice because we felt pretty bad about that training haha.

This Sunday our branch president's daughter was baptized so we all went to the next town over because they have a baptismal font in their chapel. It was cool, we hung out with some other missionaries and got in trouble because the baptism program was poorly planned even though we don't plan member baptisms, just investigator ones but I don't know if they understood us when we explained that 5 times. We met some of the branch president's family and we got a lot of references, one of them is that cool couple we are going to try to teach! Anyway thanks for all the prayers guys, I know that they help! Thanks for the birthday wishes as well, I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Ruggles