Elder Lindquist 12/21/09

Hey gang how's it going? Hope you had a great week ours went well here in Corroios we had a baptism yesterday and it went very well. I'm so dang excited for Christmas it's going to be awesome, and even though there is not snow here it is so cold here. Oh my goodness. Anyway we had a great turnout in church yesterday with over 10 investigators. Our investigators are amazing but we had some problems this week with a few investigators telling their family members that are in Cabo Verde that they're investigating our church and their family freaked out on them because they're breaking the family tradition of being catholic, (non practicing..) so that is kind of annoying because it bums people out ya know, then we have to go over and encourage them to follow what they feel is true. But things are going great especially during Christmas time. I got bombarded yesterday with members asking when we can eat at their house, I love serving in a ward it's amazing. And even though we still don't have a ward mission leader we're coming along pretty well. I have other good news, Ana's mom from Caldas da Rainha, got baptized a few days after I left! We had been teaching her but I didn't think she'd be baptized that soon, or in the ocean. Poor old lady but also a girl that Elder Wheeler and I found in Torres Vedras got baptized last Saturday so I was stoked on that as well. It is cool to hear about what happens after you leave areas. I felt like Amulek and them when they said are our fruits few? I say unto you no, they are many. Or something like that I'm trying to translate it in my head from Portuguese. So I'm super excited to talk to you guys on Christmas just remember that it's always better to give than receive. There are so many people who have nothing here it amazes me. People here have so much more faith than me. Like one African lady we found the other day in a ghetto place by our house, (that's basically little Africa) she promised us she'd go to church and yesterday morning she didn't have electricity in her little hut thing so to take a bath she poured cold water in a tub thing and bathed her daughter and herself early in the morning (when it was about 32 degrees) so they could make it to church. I feel really humbled to be here and have these experiences and meet these awesome people. I'm grateful to be a missionary and I'm grateful for my savior and for all of you and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!