"Well it is my first week in Portugal!! WOW! That is what i have to say!"

Hello everyone!  Well it is my first week in Portugal!!  WOW!  That is what i have to say!  When we got here we went to President Fluckiger's house and had an amazing dinner and little testimony meeting after and then we got to go to sleep which was especially great because of our long travel over here!  Then the next day we woke up ate some breakfast and went to the church and met our new companions and our areas!  My area is a place called Coímbra!  It is awesome and beautiful!  We have some "mountains" (hills) here which look really cool and the river runs though the city!  It has one of the oldest Universities in the world!  It is funny a lot of the students here wear the robes that you see in Harry Potter and my companion said that they got most of their ideas for the movies from the University that is here!  Very cool!  My companion's name is Elder Jacobsen,he is from San Diego California and has been out for like a year and a half!  He is a very hard worker which is good for sure!  I am definitely learning how to not be lazy with him!  We talk to pretty much everyone we see in the streets.  Although it is like everyone says, this is not the same language that I was learning in the MTC.  Haha they all speak so fast and words like clumped together I can't tell what in the world they are trying to say!  So yes keep up the prayers for the gift of tongues for me!  But yeah anywho so the first day that we got here we had a meeting with the bishop.  The bishop and ward I am in are the best in the country according to my mission president.  So that is exciting!  After that we went and had dinner at a members house and let me tell you all.  The food is amazing here!!  I haven't had fish yet, but we had this like chicken stuff at the members house and it was amazing.  The juice and the fruit especially, here are so much better than they are in the United States!!  I don't know what it is about them but they are just more fresh and great!  THE FRUIT IS AMAZING!!  Also the bread that I have had here is super good too!  Like the sacrament bread we had tasted like a gourmet dinner roll or something!  It is awesome!  The Chapels here are a lot different than in the US  they are almost like houses but not.  They are beautiful and awesome though!  But yeah right now we have a lot of people that we are teaching and I am still trying to learn all of their names but I know that there are a few that are ready to be baptized soon so hopefully we will see that happen soon!  On Saturday I committed an older lady named Laura to be baptized on the 14th and she accepted!  But sadly she did not show up to church this week so will are going to have to wait a few more weeks until she can get baptized, but she will for sure!  ON Sunday we confirmed two people members and they recieved the gift iof the Holy Ghost.  It was awesome and powerful!  Hhmmm what else....  Oh so last night we went to visit a member and while there she had a lday over that didn´t believe in God at all and her and my companion started going on this super involved conversation and I had no idea what they were talking about of course but anywho later that ladie's Daugther like fell over and fainted and felt really sick and so we gave her a blessing.  I am glad I had my white handbook with the words to day because I did not know them in Portuguese!  So yeah that was an experience!  OH another amazing thing that happened was we went to teach a couple recent converts and their daughter was there and we started talking to her and she is really interested!:)  So hopefully we can get here baptized with her family that would be the best thing ever!  Her name is Miriam and her parents that got baptized are named José e Fátima.  Fátima always makes lemonade when we visit so that is amazing!  BUt yeah i am sure I will have more stories as I go but those are some for now!  I am loving it and the works is hard but I am loving every second that I am out here! Here is my address for letters.  I will be at my house for like 6 more weeks for sure but might change so if you arenºt sure where to send something just send it to the mission office but I will get it much faster if you send it to my house just fyi.  I love this work! I love all of you and I will write you all again next week:) 

Com muito amor

Elder Brandon Eldredge

My house

Rua Carlos Seixas Nº 169 2º Esq.

3030-177 Coímbra

Portugal 

Mission office

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14C

1500-370 Lisboa

Portugal