One more week of work & miracles!!

Ola Familia e amigos! Como é que vai?  

Hey everybody!  One more week of work and miracles!  This week went by super fast for me and we had and especially awesome Sunday here in the ward.  We had a frequency of 50 people yesterday, which for us lately is really really good!:)  It was awesome to see the chapel a little more filled up:)  We were also able to have 6 investigators there which was a big blessing and many of them with some great potential.  Also I got the happiest feeling during sacrament meeting as we watched the ward sustain Luisa, our recent convert of almost 2 months, as the relief society presidencies 2nd counselor!  She is going to do so well with that calling!  Luisa is amazing, she has already shared the gospel to Beartiz who ended up getting baptized as well and also Luisa brought another friend to church yesterday!  She is such an awesome instrument in the hands of the Lord she will be a great second counselor for the relief society!  

Just to let you all know Thomas did not end up getting baptized this last Saturday because at the last minute on Friday his boss called him and he had to leave to the sea to go fishing and won't return until next friday night.  So his baptism will be next saturday and we are going to go there early in the morning to make sure that he doesn't "misbehave" ;)  Really Thomas is such an awesome guy and as he applies the atonement more and more in his life he will become a strong priesthood holder.  

I really really love this area and it has been awesome to serve here with Elder Ricci but I have a feeling that I will be leaving this next coming monday seeing as I have been here for 6 months or so but we will see maybe I am supposed to stay!  

Anywho know that I am well and that I keep you all in my prayers and many of you by name!  Prayer is such a powerful thing and is a wonderful way for us to know better the mind of God.  Or be it, prayer is not to change the will of God but to harmonize our will with His.  He will guide us and give us more confidence in our choices as we seek to every day speak with our Father in meaningful prayer.  Like in Jacob 4:10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand.   

Prayer is power.

With much love in our Savior

Elder Eldredge

Pictures!

P Day in. Viana

 

Brandon by a cool wall

Cool tower

Peek a boo!!

P day rocks!

Cool missionary

Planking in Viana

Beautiful place

Faith is Power

Hello family and friends this week I will share just a few things as today we spent most of our time in Viana and we do not have much time to write.

The faith of Children is incredible.  There is this little boy named Samuel here in the ward and last week he got a pretty high fever and some other symptoms of what looked to be like the flu and was not feeling very good at all.  We got a call from his Mom to see if we could give him blessing (her husband is not married and so does not have the priesthood in the home)  of course we gladly accepted.  We went there and Samuel wasn't looking to good but still had the cute little smile on his face he always has (he is 6).  We gave him the blessing and soon after appeared to be acting better.  They said thank you and his mom said to us... "Samuel had a high fever and wasn't feeling good but turned to me and said.. Mom call the missionaries I know that if they give me a blessing I will get better."  That is when she called us.  Come to find out, his symptoms has all disappeared completely including the fever and the cough the very next morning.  That is faith, trusting in the power of the priesthood without any doubts.  I was very humbled and reminded of another example of powerful faith in a child of my little sister Cami.  We used to always say, if you need something from Heavenly Father ask Cami to pray for you because when she prays things happen.  It is beacuse of the faith the she prayed with.  This is faith.  I was very humbled knowing that many times children have such greater faith than we as adults.  It also goes to prove that we truly need to think about the scriptures that say "become as a child".  You kids out there are powerful!:)  It was such and awesome little experience to be a apart of that grew my testimony and also that of his mother's

IN other news thomas is now on track to be baptized this coming Saturday so we will be working with that in mind all this week!:)  

Love you all lots and lots!:)  Be happy and have faith in Chirst!:)

Elder Eldredge  

Mais uma semana maravilhosa!

Hello friends and family!  I hope you all had a great week!  I had a very tiring week.  It is good because it means we worked hard and we did!  We were able to find a lot of potential investigators and also start teaching some new ones that have some great potential.  I noticed a bit of a difference in my work this week.  I truly tried to start every day with a prayer in my heart promising that I would do anything he wanted me to do to be able to find those you are ready to accept the gospel.  As I did this his hand was shown many more times than just once.  We were out tracting one day and happened to contact two people brother and sister and I found out that HE had been investigating the church a while back and was actually going to church pretty regularly but lost contact with the missionaries and never was baptised but by the end of the conversation they were kind of in a hurry and the sister turned to us and said "sorry we really do have do go right now but we WILL be talking to you guys more next week"  She left us her number and address and we will be visiting them this week.  I was about to pass them by on the street, focusing too much on our next appointment but I remembered my commitment to do ANYTHING so last second I stopped and talked.  That is just one little example of the mini miracles that I have been seeing.  I know that we are instruments in the Lords hands... we ALL are not just the missionaries.  We are all instruments it is true but the question is "are you one of the dependable tools of the Lord?"  Are you living in a way that when he needs someone to be an answer to a prayer, can He depend on you to do the job?  Can he trust you?  Think of any instrument that we as humans use, instruments of music or woodworking or whatever it may be, we use the instruments that will do the will of his master.  If you have two pianos available but one is completely out of tune and the other is nearly flawless which one are you going to use to perform for audience to play your carefully written and planned masterpiece?  The Lord uses those that He trust's will do His will and i am coming to know that personally here on my mission.  So my question is.. Can he trust you?  Are you living in a way that He can call on you at any moment to fulfill parts of His masterpiece?  That was kind of my spiritual thought for the week! 

Well today we spent a lot of our time and we will even go right now to our friend Thomas whose Mother passed away this morning.  Very sad especially for him who will be left basically alone now but our recent converts Luisa and Beatriz are doing a wonderful work with helping Thomas and also as us and them did a little service by cleaning Thomas's house.  basically our recent converts are truly amazing and full of love, it makes me so very very happy!:)

I Love you all and hope you stay happy and full of faith in Christ!:)

With much love

Elder Brandon Eldredge     

Brandon LOVES octopus!!!

Brandon's response to some questions about his pictures: "Ok just to respond to some of your questions really quick

In that sauce:  It is funny you should ask It depends on who makes it but it always has some sort of whiskey or beer in it so that adds a good touch;) (alcohol cooked off;)) but other than that i think just some tomato and water I am not really sure but the taste is really good!  I need to learn to recipe and make it when I get home! (there also has to be something online jsut look up francesinha sauce all the ingredientes should be there)

That octupus:  LOVED IT.  It was my favorite Christmas dish!  Seriously it was made really well I am sure you all would like it.  it is super expensive too!  Like 60 euros for one octopus! (decently sized, feeds a family)

I will for sure send more picures of the organs!  there are tons! I can't believe Alexis is getting home...  wow tell her Hi for me!;)  How are things there at the house what are you all up too?  Thanks for the pic!:)  Tell dad I WILL get a letter sent to him!

 

Love ya tons!:)

Elder Eldredge

 

Christmas Pictures!

A cool nativity

Another cool nativity

Our homemade francesinha

A cool Catholic Church

Awesome skype day

Octopus!!

Christmas Jammie's

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve at David's house

Christmas eve

I know that as we trust in God, He will lead us where He needs us

Hey everyone I hope everyone is safe after the new years parties and what not!  This week was alright for us.  Many people were still out and about during the holidays so the work was a bit slower and harder but still rewarding.  The story that I wanted to share with you all this week is our miracle that happened on Saturday that was a testimony to me of both the power of prayer and that the Lord guides his work.  So we had an appoinment saturday night that was about an hour away by foot of pretty much evrything.  But they were new investigators with some good portential so it was more than worth it and was a pretty solid appointment.  We get all the way out there knock on the door and they said that they still didn't read what we left them and tghat they were eating dinner so it would just be better to come back tomorrow.  So... here we are away from everything and it is about 7 30 or so at night and not many options to do.  I turned to Elder Ricci and said... well what should we do.  First thing he said was pray.  I felt power in his simple answer and agreed that that was the best thing we could do.  So we stopped there in the middle of the street while Elder Ricci offered a wonderful prayer asking for guidance on what we should do.  We finished the prayer and I honestly didn't feel anything strong pulling me to one fixed idea so I asked Elder Ricci what he thought and he said well Beatriz was that first name that came to my mind.  There were one hundred and one reasons why it was not the most logical choice to go all the way to her house seeing as she lived about and hours walk away and we had just talked to her a while before and she seemed well and excited to go to church the next morning.  Despite all the doubts and reasons not too we followed Elder Riccis prompting.  WE came and found a very broken different beatriz.  She was crying and crying expressing doubts about herself and about continuing the effort to be in the church.  As we sat in her home and conversed with her and her husband offering counsel and comfort I knew she needed us that night.  They day after she bore her testimony sharing that she was about to give up on everything in the middle of these thoughts we knocked at her door.  She said after we left she felt she needed to open the Book of Mormon.  She found the strength and peace she needed to go to church the next morning and bear her testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

I know that as we trust in God he will lead us where he needs us.  be wherever we may be in our lives on a mission, in high school or looking for a wife or career or whatever.  The promise of Alma 37:36-37 is real.  "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings....and He shall direct thee for good"  I am grateful to be His servant and His instrument.  Never forget the importance of prayer or the Book of Mormon together they give us power to overcome all of lifes swerves and curves.  

I love and miss you all.  Thank you so much for your support and prayers.

With much love in Christ,

Elder Eldredge

Be wise, be happy and of a good courage!

Hello everybody I hope that you all passed a wonderful Christmas this year and are ready to pass over into 2015, pretty crazy to think that I spent a lot of 2014 living in Portugal!  Now I get to see portugal in every month next year!!   Anywho our Christmas was really fun and we got to see the differences in hoe they do traditions which was interesting!  They eat cod and octopus here instead of the Ham and turkey that we usually eat back in the USofA.  Other than that the work was kind of slow, not a lot of people wanted to talk to us and a lot of our investigators were off to other places to pass Christmas.  

The highlight of the week was definitely talking with my FAM for the first time in 8 months!  It was so good to see all your faces!  It is amazing how that time flies!  But I am glad to see that you are all looking good and had a wonderful Christmas and got some snow on Christmas Day!  

IT was pretty cool being a missionary and passing Chirstmas.  You definitely don't have a lot of time to focus on the material aspect of Chirstmas a lot.  I mean of course we received gifts and whatnot but we really got time to focus on "the reason for the season"  which is our Savior Jesus Christ.  He was the first present given to the world and continues to be the present in each and every one of our daily lives.  As you all think of your new year resolutions that you will make don't forget to include that part of your spiritual life.  Think of how you have come closer to Christ this last year and the things that you did to include him in your life and then think of some goals that will help you become even more of what he wants you to be for this coming year of 2015.  Do this in the spirit of prayer and I promise that you will find little things that you can do that will have a huge impact on your life and those around you and it will be an awesome year!  I can't wait to spend it as a missionary!  

I love you all so much and wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful new year with new opportunities, adventures, and beginnings.  Be wise, be happy, and be of a good courage!

With much love in Christ,

Elder Brandon Eldredge