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

Week 86 - I Would Walk 500 Miles

Hey Family,

This week was good, we walked around Peniche a lot. We visited a lot of people and did a lot of contacts. At the beginning of the week we had zone meeting and district meeting which means we traveled a lot and that also means we woke up early a couple of days. I guess you could say I am very tired, I feel like a new missionary again. On the bright side we will be travelling tonight to Coimbra to go to a zone conference... just kidding I am sick of travelling.

This week we did get a lot of work done, we have been working a lot with the member list and we actually found a cool family. We tried to make a return appointment but one of the sons wasn't home and he is the less active member so we told them we would come back.

In other news, I am still enjoying this area, it has some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The only problem with this city is that it is very windy and rainy but they say that it should get better in a little bit.

Today it was really sunny so we decided to take advantage and head to the beach. We got some cool pictures and watched some cool surfers catch some waves. I wish I could go out there with them but we left before I could suit up and rent me a board but it was probably for the best haha.

This week we had fast and testimony meeting, and although me and my companion forgot to fast we still had a good time. The members all welcomed me to the branch and some invited us over for lunch. There are not very many members here but the ones that are active are amazing. It is like being with family. I wouldn't mind this being my last area, I just hope that we baptize here because it needs it. Love you guys and happy birthday to Sam!

Love, 

Elder Ruggles

Week 85 - Transferred

Hey Family,

This week was great! I got transferred off of the island. We wait until Tuesday after district meeting to get transfers and I was transferred to Peniche. This town is so sick, granted it is very cold and Madeira was warm but it has something that Madeira didn't, SAND. This area is a little peninsula right above Lisbon and is one of the best places in the world to come surfing. I am living the dream here with surf and skate shops on every corner!

My new comp is named Elder Neighbor, he is pretty cool and we get along really well. He served with Elder Bianucci a little while ago so I guess you could say he is very blessed with dope comps haha. I am guessing that it is the closest that I will get to serving with Ty so I guess I will take it. He is ending his mission in 2 transfers and I end mine in 3 so it looks like I will kill him here and then die here right after. I have no problem with this being my last area except that it is very cold but I heard it should warm up.

The members here are cool, they have a youth named Alexandre who is really cool and he helps out a little with the work here. Other than him and another family, there are a lot of less actives here to reactivate. We have a total of about 6 active members and the area hasn't baptized in a while but that doesn't have me down! I am excited to work here, this is like my ideal area.

I had the privilege to watch every session of conference this weekend and I loved all of it. I loved the talk by Dallin H. Oaks about the law of opposition. I also noticed that Thomas S. Monson talked very briefly, he gives his whole life to the church and it really takes its toll on him. I love the prophet and the apostles! Thanks for all the support guys! Pray that we can baptize here in Peniche! 

Love always,

Elder Ruggles

Week 84 - Gringo Culture

Hey Family,

It was a great week this week! We spent a lot of the week planning and helping with the missionary activity we did with the whole district. The theme for the activity was a cultural festival! We have a lot of people from different cultures here on Madeira so we thought it was a good idea. The activity went really well, the spiritual part was about how we are all different but in the end we are children of our Heavenly Father. We talked about if we were not different the world would be boring and everyone shared something from their culture. The different cultures we had included; Portuguese, America, Cape Verde, Angola, Romania, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Guinea Bissao and some others!

Everyone brought a traditional food from their country so of course we made hot dogs. I helped my comp with Mexico so we made salsa and a pinata. We had presentations for all the countries which mainly involved awesome dances. The Americans taught everyone a line dance and when we got to the Brazilians everyone went crazy with the Brazilian dances so in the end it turned into a stake dance but I had so much fun and there was a lot of food. We had a lot of investigators there between all the missionaries and the members loved it. All in all, it was a great activity.

We didn't have a lot of time to talk to all of our investigators this week and they all gave the Catholic mass excuse for Easter so they are still the same. One of my old companions, Elder Poston, ended his mission this week. It was sad to see him go and we had become really good friends. 

Right now I am still in Funchal because president extended the transfer for a couple more days, who knows why. I am here with Garcia and Jones (another past companion) whose comp went home. We are chillin' but we should (emphasis on the SHOULD) be getting transfers tomorrow so I will let you know next week but if not, just be patient haha. Love you guys so much! Hope you all had a great Easter and listen carefully and take notes during general conference.

Love,

Elder Ruggles

Week 83 - Happy Fathers' Day!

Well family,

This week was good, it has been raining a little bit in Madeira which I guess is usual here but the other day it rained so hard it almost knocked me and my comp off the road. Despite the weird weather I have had a pretty good week, we are still on the search for the elects as always and they always show themselves at the end of the transfer haha. The other night we were walking through the center of town and we saw an old investigator I haven't taught in a while but we talked to her for a little and she is doing well. It was the end of the week and we have a goal to do a baptismal invite every week so my comp invited her to be baptized and she accepted! Granted she doesn't know anything about the church still but last time we talked we taught her how to pray and she has been praying ever since and she said it made a difference in her life. We will have to pass her because she lives in another area but I just hope she accepts everything.

In other news, some of the other areas have been having baptisms which is always good to see especially the smaller areas. We have been able to get some of our investigators to the baptisms and they really liked them. Hopefully they will take the plunge in a little bit. They were really spiritual meetings and I always love being in a baptismal service whether it is mine or not. One of the baptismal services was pretty stressful because last minute the font started to drain and wouldn't fill back up but they fixed it and the man was dunked in cold fresh water but the colder the water the more sins it cleans haha just kidding, that is not doctrine.

Next week is transfers so I will let you guys know who stays and who goes. Also this week we worked a lot on a piñata that we are making for a cultural activity that we are having! It should be fun and we had fun making the piñata. We named him Pépe!

It was Father's day this week (at least in Portugal) and it just reminded me how great of a Father I have. I love you so much dad, I miss playing catch in the front yard and I am so glad that you raised me in this gospel. I am grateful for your loving example and all that you do for the family. I also love my Heavenly Father who gave me everything I have. I have the best example in the world!