My week has been quite interesting. Last Sunday night I received transfers for my district and we were all staying. It was a party!! About 5:00 Tuesday afternoon, I recieved a call from Elder Madsen who used to be my Zone leader in the Algarve and is now an Assistant to the Presidente. He asked me if I wanted to start doing contacts  on another island. I tried calling his bluff, but this time he was serious. When he was my ZL he did that to me right before a zone conference and I called his bluff, I did good. Anyway, this time I tried calling his bluff again, but I guess he is Assistant now. :) So I left Lisbon at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and rode an airplane for 2 hours and arrived here in the Azores at 9:00 am. I am now here with Elder Kaelberer from Holladay, Salt Lake City, training, his second transfer. I am also District Leader for 6 missionaries, 2 are sisters. So I have nearly been here a week and I am really enjoying it. It's green again. :) But being DL might drain me again. Oh yeah, and the other elders are the ZL, so just a little pressure. ;)

One thing I have learned this week is: Always take a third person look at yourself every once in a while. Look at yourself as others would. Always be aware of the Appearance of Evil. You could be doing anything super innocent, but if you look at it in another way, you might see that it doesn't look that good. For example, a guy was supposed to deliver a bouquet of flowers to a bar but said he wouldn't do it. The boss understood his religious beliefs but responded saying that he would be walking into the bar with flowers and people would know that he is working. The deliverer replied saying he would be walking out of the bar without them and anyone could assume anything. Take a third person look at yourself and ask yourself if you would be alright with parents, or the Savior, seeing you do that. 

I also really enjoy the new Mormon Message that is being advertised on the Church's home page, "Am I Really A Good Man?"  Look it up! 

Love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Lee

Transfers were today.  I stayed here in Sacavém with my comp, Elder Viehweg, from Idaho.  Sacavém is in Lisbon.  We had a good week. . . hot . . . and wet. We got one baptism yesterday. The next one should be this coming weekend, so we will see.  I was called as district leader again..... 

A spiritual experience I had was during studies learning about the youth of the church. There are millions of talks and discourses about the "Hope of Israel" is in the hands of the youth. All of the kids from 12 to 18 years old should and need to realize how to listen, hear, and follow the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. He is the way our Heavenly Father talks with us and helps us guide our lives according to His will. 

And now, I would like to say a little on how you can do this, it is NOT easy. It is a work of a lifetime, but you NEED to know how to establish habits to be in tune with the Spirit. I will tell you how to do it, and all of you will say, "Elder Lee, that's just a primary answer." Then I ask, "Why aren't you doing it?" You all know the answers. 

I will give you one more answer that all of the women in the church are striving to do and I see them being examples to the faithful, as they should and are taught. Now young men, you have the same resources that they have. They have Personal Progress that helps them with many spiritual habits and studies. How are your studies young men? Are you just going through the motions and reading your 1 verse per day? You have something equivalent to the Young Women's Personal Progress, which is called Duty to God. Do you know your Duty to God? Do you know that the presidents of the quorums have keys to the priesthood? Do you know you can be ministered by the angels of God.? If not, read the last talk from President Monson. 

I am looking at the world in a different perspective here on a mission and as a missionary. There is nothing better to prepare to serve a mission or enter the Temple of God than the Young Women's Personal Progress and the Young Men's Duty to God. I love you all. These things were inspired by prophets, let's use them to our advantage. Read the Hymn "Hope of Israel." Who does it talk about? "Oh be wise, What can I say more?"

Com muito Amor, 

Elder Lee

This week was great and long. I don't know why but these last few weeks have felt like a drag.  Honestly I have just about knocked every door here in Beja in our area in walking distance. We still have this week or next to get the rest of them finished then restart. Many of them don't answer so we need to do it again anyway. But I don't like going down the road knocking every door I see. I heard one time that an elder said, "you aren't exercising your faith if you hit ever door on every street." so I have been putting that to the test. We found some pretty solid investigators, well, potential investigators. Better than nothing. It's the best week I have had on getting more solid potentials, instead of the people that roll their eyes and say,"yeah come back another day, when you want," wink wink nod nod. That happens a lot. But it's all good. 

The weather is hotter than I would like. It is perfect in the mornings when we go out to run. But by working time comes, it is too hot. We don't have a thermometer so I couldn't tell you the temperature. 

We actually did one little thing of service this week, we got to take someone's trash out. When we ask to do that, only maybe one in a hundred accept the help. And we don't even get the opportunity to ask much anyway. :) So it's rare.

This week has been great, but tiring, as usual. We didn't get baptisms or anything, but the other elders had a baptism. We were supposed to have the interview Friday night, but he didn't show up, and we couldn't get a hold of him. Saturday, his friend called the elders and asked, "Do you want to speak with him?" So clearly they did. We met them in the church, taught the last lesson, then immediately after, had the interview. About 2 hours after that, we had his baptism. :) It was a fun, long day. We ended up spending about 4 hours in the church for that, but it was worth it. :) 

Transfers were this weekend and nearly all of us stayed here.  We have four in this house. From what Sister Jeffers told me, was, as of last Friday, we were all staying here. But last minute, President transferred Elder Darrington up north.  I will receive my companion this Thursday, Elder Sanderson (from what I know).  It's going to be three straight transfers that I have trained. Maybe this time I will do it right.

Nothing really big happened this week other than on April 1st we had a zone meeting. Before it started we all decided at 12:00 we would stand up and walk outside, no matter what we were doing, and to not say anything. Well the zone leaders put on a show for us during the announcements like they were getting pretty mad at each other, they did a great job, but it was "April Fools." We caught it easy. Anyway, so at 12:00 exactly we were supposed to separate into groups to do these practices, or the role plays, right, and exactly at that time, we all stood up and walked outside. It was the funniest thing ever. I loved it. :)  ~ April Fools ~

After the Zone Meeting the two zone leaders came to our area and we did a division. Elder Madsen came in six weeks before I did and he is from Spanish Fork. He went to Dixie for some school before the mission. He is awesome. I got the privlige to be his companion for the division. He is an amazing missionary. 

We watched all sessions of conference except the last one because we had to be home before 10:00. I was having a hard time taking notes so I didn't get to choose a favorite but a lot of them talked about families. I wonder how many missionaries got "trunky" at this conference. :) 

Thanks for everything. Everything is great here. Love you all.

Elder Lee

Our week was good. Mais ou menos. My hardest problem is finding new people to teach. And that's what we need now. I came here, finished the work they did before me, now I need to start something, but I don't know how to do it. P-days, we study in the morning until 11:30. Then afterwards we usually either clean the house or buy food for the week, eat lunch about 1:00 or 1:30, go do email, and look for things to buy around the city. We don't have much to do here in Beja. Not many stores or many attractions.

Have a great week.  Keep up all of the good work.  Love you all.

Elder Lee

Sorry I didn't have time to email much last week. I was transferred and had about an 8 hour bus ride, on 2 buses.  After one hour on the bus, I arrived in Porto, where two sister missionaries jumped on my bus, so i went back with them and we talked for that 4-hour bus ride. Those sisters saved my life that day. One of them is from Price.  Her name is Sister Nielson.

My new area is Beja, Portugal. My new companion is Elder Gregory Darrington from Idaho. His family is a huge ranching family, so we have quite a bit in common with our work before the mission. It's fun to talk about that. 

Last week was draining.... we ended up having about 20 lessons in total. We had a baptism of a woman named Fátima. She had been marked for baptism for the past 6 weeks and we did the work to get her baptized this week. It was a struggle making commitments and everything.  Now her husband should be baptized this coming week. We will see. :) Elder Darrington got to baptize her and I got to confirm her a member. It was interesting, She only had seven words in her name. :P

I am now district leader here in Beja. It is hard work. I haven't written in my journal for a long time. I took personal study today to write for the past week.

I am in the middle of nowhere. It reminds me of home actually. :) It is country land, farms and stuff. But it's more agriculture than animals and a lot of olive trees. The weather this last week was a bit cold. Being here away from the water when the sun goes down, it gets cold. But with the sun, it gets really hot. so yeah, like home. :)  I am in another branch, just about the same size or a bit smaller than my last area.  We have a senior couple here in our area. It's awesome. We bought them pastries today. P-days, we don't get any rest. I am sick of it. All I want to do is sleep for a bit. But that won't happen. 

Thanks for everything. Love you all. Until next week,

Elder Lee

I was transferred to Beja. I was in the farthest north area in the mission and now I am near the very bottom. I only traveled for 8 hours on the bus. Man it was long. My new companion is Elder Darington from Arizona. I will be finishing his training here this transfer. I am also in a four elder house again with Elder Jones, who is being trained for the last 6 weeks as well and with Elder Hansen, who was in the MTC with me. So we have two elders that have 2 transfers and 2 elders with 6 transfers. It's going to be a blast. We will see how it goes. Well I don't have a lot of time today, so I will write more next week.

Thank you. Love You All. Have a great week.

Elder Lee

We had a baptism Saturday! It was really, really, really stressful. We had planned to do the baptismal interview just an hour before the baptism. We received a call at 11 o'clock that morning that we didn't have a place to baptize. We didn't know what to do. It isn't our responsibility to get a place, but at the last minute it was. During this time we were working on the baptismal program. The other elders arrived and we went and ate out for lunch with them, and that was good. We made it back to the church at 2:00 to have the interview and to tell them that we didn't have a place. But they arrived late, but not to stress too much, the interview went quick. Olindo, the old guy getting baptized is 82 years old and we didn't have a place with warm water so we asked if he would be baptized in the river that goes directly into the ocean. He said he didn't care so we decided to do that at 4:00. So everything eventually worked out fine. We finished everything at about 6:00.  I was just so tired, and the Church was messy, so we decided to clean the church. We left the chapel at 8:00 and did a little bit of work. The next day I was more tired. Baptism is a lot of stinking work. But everything was good. The son-in-law of Olindo baptized him, who is the husband of a recent convert. So it was really cool.  And yeah, I gave a small talk on the Holy Ghost.

I got pretty sick this past week.  Thursday we went to Porto for interviews with the President.  We didn't have time to eat lunch so we ate lunch at about 8:30 that night.  It was raining and just a bit cold, so after that is when I got a bit sick.  I received the package from Grandma Lee with those Vitamin C packs and juice stuff.  They were really good and helped me a lot.

We will be having a baptism this coming Saturday for Irmão Olindo, father of a recent convert.  It is going to be great :)

Well the first full week of training was good. I am now realizing how much I wasn't taught very well, so I am learning too. Next week will be even better and the next month will be better because I now know what I am doing, mais ou menos. :) Elder Michelsen is learning a lot and already speaks better than I did. He told many stories already in Portuguese to me. It's great. But it has also made me realize how far I have come.  I have realized that I can actually understand everyone, for the most part, and I can say basically what I want. Elder Michelsen is doing awesome, and next week is going to be great!!!

This last Saturday, or Valentine's Day, the youth of the branch put on a date type of thing for all the old people. We got invited and to invite investigators. Unfortunately no investigators came. but it was fun. The pizza in Portugal is so strange, but good, and nearly everyone eats it with a knife and fork. We didn't.

Being Senior Companion I have realized that it is a lot of responsibilities - to keep track of all of the recent converts, less-actives, all of the investigators, and invite members to come to a bunch of lessons. And as many of you know, I don't like calling people that much, but I think I am getting used to it.

Well I haven't personally written on this for a while. But I will write a little agora.

I am in the same place, Viana do Costelo, the coldest area and the farthest north area in the mission, and probably the largest area as well. I am now training Elder Michelsen from California and I am only in my 5th transfer. I don't know why I was picked. But I do know that the Lord provides a way for everything. I know I was assigned to this position for a reason. I just don't know why. :) Our area here has a lot of recent converts and less-actives. Our teaching pool is really small. If any of you have any ideas on how to find new investigators, please let me know. :)

The Gift of Tongues is real. It's only been 6 months and I can speak a new language fairly fluently. We have a goal with Elder Michelsen that he will be fluent by the end of this transfer. It's going to be awesome. 

I don't really like doing these mass emails because I never really know what to say and I don't have enough time to say everything. 

I hope you all know that I love each and every one of you.  You are a special child of Heavenly Father, and if he can love you, why can't I. :)  You all have played a special part in my short life and you all are helping me on my mission. 

Eu agradeço por tudo. vocês são incríveis. Eu amo cada um de vos, com todo o meu coração. desejo que eu pudesse expressar meus sentimentos a vos. Mas, é difícil. guardeis todos os mandamentos e vocês vão prosperar em tudo fizerdes.

Com muito amor,

Translated, the above says,  "I thank you for everything. you are amazing. I love each of you, with all my heart. wish I could express my feelings to you. But it's hard.  May you keep all the commandments and you will prosper in everything you do.

"Much love,"

Elder Lee 

It's been a rough month for Elder Lee . . . here are some things he has said:

December 10: The baptism didn't happen. She has an addiction with smoking.  We were ready to baptize her but she got really sick and couldn't go to church. The other family keeps changing our times to meet with them. I haven't ever seen them go to church, but I am sure they are going to go this next week. I don't know how. But we will see. 

The most important thing in the world is to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day. Without those things each day, the world will shoot arrows and spears at you and you won't have that prayer to block them. 

December 16:  This past week has been the worst week for the mission in a long time. We only had three baptisms last weekend. Our baptism fell again. The investigators keep getting annoyed with us and I don't understand why. We talked to them about it, and got it all figured out, but they still have that little feeling. I think we will end up trying to mark her the 27 or 28 of December. That family was sick last week. The father said he would go, but he didn't. We had a lesson with him Friday about prayer and it was amazing. We hope to keep talking with him and keep his desire to be baptized.

December 22:  It's been the worst week I have had in the mission number wise ... we didn't have very many lessons, but contacted a lot of people, just never could get a hold of them again. It's hard ...

Go to this website. I am in one of the pictures (bottom picture) with all of the missionaries. middle row towards the left.

https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-cook-reports-europe-area-focused-on-work-of-salvation?cid=HPWE121014557&lang=eng

On Christmas Day we were able to Google Talk with Elder Lee.  He looks good and had a hard time with some English words.  He has a cough but says that is normal this time of year.  He doesn't seem to be homesick and is learning to like fish.  He will stay in Viana do Castelo at least until the next transfer which will be February 2, 2015.

Viana do Castelo is one of the farthest cities north.  The mission averages between 10 and 15 baptisms a week.

Please pray for Elder Lee and his investigators.

If you haven't noticed already, the church came out with a new message called "He Is The Gift." If you haven't seen it go to christmas.mormon.org and watch that video. This Christmas the church is going world wide with this "initiative." 

Every one of your jobs is to watch the film, and like it on every social media site you have to show the entire world. Also, invite at least one friend specifically to watch this, come to a family night, or go to church with you. The Church believes in Every member a missionary. So do your part. Help the missionaries out. They need every bit of help they can. I am here in Portugal and the only investigators that are progressing have a relationship of some sort with a member. Members are the reason people get baptized NOT the missionaries. 

Please, #ShareTheGift with everyone you possibly can. Share the joy you get from Christmas and being a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They are your brothers and sisters. This will impact their lives, please help them.

Thank you, Love you all.

Eu sai que Igreja de Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Ùltimos Dias é a igreja do Senhor e por meio do Evangelho do Jesus Cristo, nós podemos voltar e viver com Deus para sempre em Sua presença. Por Favor Ajudemos todos as possoas. Em Nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.

Com Muito Amor,

Elder Lee

Written November 17, 2014

Well the first week in this area was pretty good. Elder Fish has had a family here being taught the lessons and can't keep their goal to be baptized on a certain day, but they all have been to church at least once - some more than others. Anyway, the first night I got to meet them we gave them a date to be baptized.  It's a family of 4, two girls and the parents. The parents aren't married yet but the girls are marked for this coming Sunday after church. They are excited. The parents are expected to be married before the 27 of this month so they can be baptized on the 29 and all of them can be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost the same day. That's our goal. I am praying it works out. It will be the first baptisms for Elder Fish, and we will complete a family which President is really strong about. Also we got a reference - that really never happens.  It's the son of one of the recent converts. He has heard bad things about this church and he just wants to know the truth. We have taught him the first and second lessons and he is reading the Book of Mormon and trying to figure out which is the best way to study it. He actually asked us that question. 

Written November 24, 2014

No baptisms. Those marcados were two daughters in a family. And they decided to be baptized as a whole family, but the father, we think, is getting annoyed with us. We really need the members help now, because the father needs to stop smoking and also get married, and he says we are pushing him. It's difficult. So we don't have any progressing investigators right now, but we definitely will next week. 

We ran out of milk Saturday and we didn't have time to buy more. So Sunday morning for breakfast we ate oatmeal with water.  It wasn't too bad but this morning we went earlier than usual to buy food for the week, and I still hadn't eaten breakfast.  When we got home, I was excited to eat, but they don't refrigerate the milk here (milk lasts about a year without being in the fridge). I poured my cereal and ate it with yogurt instead.

I am leaving here today to go to Lisbon to do residency, so now I won't be living here on a visa anymore. Wish me luck.

Love you all!

Thank you much!

Elder Lee

I have been transferred and assigned to Aviana do Castelo, the farthest area north.  I have heard it's the biggest area in the mission, so we will see how it goes. My companion is Elder Fish from Nevada. We were in the same house in Setúbal, so we already know each other. This is his 6th transfer and hasn't baptized anyone, so we are changing that this transfer. Also, this transfer is only 4 weeks.

In Benfica we had progress. Before I left we met a married older couple that came to church and to the night of movies at the church last night. It was great. Also a woman named Catia that just finished school. She loves to read the Book of Mormon with us, but hasn't been to church and she is leaving this coming weekend to Holland. But she has plans to attend church there already. Also, Vilma. she has a boyfriend and one little boy. She is ready and knows she needs to be baptized, but she lives so far from the church, and it's an hour ride by bus to her house. So it's pretty difficult, but we will see what happens. 

Being selfless is crazy difficult. It's a pride problem, if I haven't said that before. It's difficult because there are two sides to it. When you put everyone literally above yourself, its not good, but if you put yourself above everyone else, that's not good either. There is a scripture that says let others praise you, not yourself. It's fine if people start talking highly about you, or you about someone else, but if you talk about yourself so highly, then it becomes a problem. There is a point between being humble but also being confident. People say that Nephi was a little boastful because he says a couple times that "I am of large stature, full of strength, and preferred of the Lord." Its not boasting or being prideful, it is being truthful. It's very difficult and I don't know how to obtain it, except always pay attention to what I say and try not to win an argument, of who had the most beautiful goal, who writes faster, who wakes up earlier, or who studies more.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Preach My Gospel says, "quit comparing yourself to others." Its like track or cross country - it's all about you and your times. You are trying to improve YOUR time, not anyone else's. So in life, first look at where you started, then look at where you are now. Have you progressed? or have you stayed the same? It doesn't matter who else is better or worse than you. What matters is you.

Yesterday was stake conference. We have had just 1 normal Sunday here in Benfica and its already the 4th week of the transfer. Yesterday we had the best day yet.  We contacted a reference from the other missionaries.  She wasn't really interested but said the closing prayer. We will see if we can still continue with her. Just after that we encountered a man walking into his house and asked if we could share a little message. We started with the importance of prayer right after the opening prayer and lead to Joseph Smith.  They accepted the Book of Mormon and will read 2 Nephi 31.  They only have time to talk on Sunday's, so that's a bit of a downer. But we will live. Anyway, Sunday we ended up with 5 new investigators and 5 lessons. It was a good day.

The work in our area is good. We have 2 progressing investigators so far, but we encountered a family last Friday night.  They are considered investigators because we had a quick lesson but haven't been back yet, and we definitely will.

If you love rain, come to Portugal. There is rain every day. And if you think the weather changes fast in Utah, haha, it's not that fast, compared to Lisboa.

One thing I learned, Always Wash Your Hands. It had never occurred to me how dirty everything really is, especially public transportation. Yuck!  People are disgusting. 

Well, I don't know what more to say.  

Have a great week. 

In Portuguese we say, Boa semana