HOTEL!! :)

Hello everybody once again!  Another great week in the mission field!  I am super happy out here, we are having some troubles in our work!  Julio was not given permission to be baptized this week but he is so awesome!  He said that that doesn't change him.  He will still keep coming to church and doing everthing right and he says that the day will come for sure.  He has so much great faith!:)  Other than that we found a great guy named Jorge!  He his going through some rough trials in his life right now and said that after we got done talking he didn't feeling burdened and that he felt something, a spark of hope, something he hadn't felt before.  He was also my testimony builder this week that I will share here in a second.

Just in other news, so this week we had to go do some baptismal interview for one of our DL's in Mirandela.  So we went there and did one for this awesome young man that had a great testimony and was baptized this past weekend.  BUt the other one we went to the womans house and she was not there so we went looking.  We went to her sisters house and asked and she said she didn't know, so we continued looking until late that night.  Well Mirandela is like 2 and a half hour bus ride from Gaia and we missed the last bus of the day.  So we were like alright we will just sleep here.  Which normally would be fine but the Elderes there didn't have extra beds.  So Elder Brown was like, " I am not sleeping on the ground!"  So he called the office Elders and he got us permission to sleep in a Hotel!!!  Now that isn't that crazy for you normal people but for missionaries it was a pretty cool change!  The best part was the free continental breakfast in the morning!  It was so great for us al the other missionaries were super jealous of us! So that was fun!

Then today for p day we celebrated thanksgiving with a turkey bowl!  WE played at this indoor soccer place that was super cool.  BUt it felt great to celebrate Thanksgiving some way!  I can't believe how fast November is flying by.... kind a scary! 

SO going back really quick to the story of Jorge.  First off, I feel that within the chruch there may be a few exagerations at times and these things sometimes give people a wrong idea or understanding with important principles of the gospel.  The example that I will give has to do with promptings of the spirit and on the spot revelation.  When I came into the mission field I expected to have many experiences where I would feel randomly to turn down a road or knock a specific door or talk to specific person.  Up to this day I have not had an experience like this, but I had heard so many stories about this kind of stuff!  I thought many times Am I just a bad missionary, am I just not worthy? Why am I not recieveing more clear promptings to tell me stuff.  But I have learned a few things about this and let me jsut stress that this is my personal opinion.  Now I believe that these kind of experiences but I, with Elder Bednar, believe that they are more rare than common.  For example:  ON thursday Elder Brown and I were working in the morning and our appoinment fell through so we just kind of started walking, then we came to this round about and we stopped and I was like do you want to knock this building (pointing to the building closest to us) then he was like I don't know we can knock one of these ones.  Then I was just like eh why not this one?  (In that moment I do not recall any prompting telling me which building to knock it was jsut the closest one) So we went and rang like 20 doorbells with few responses.  Then while almost halfheartedly pushing buttons one of the last ones i pushed was Jorges.  He came down let us in and we had a great first lesson with him and he was really accepting and seems to have a lot of potential to progress and really accept baptism.  Now with this story I could have exagerated my experience a little bit saying that an overwhelming feeling came over me to knock that building but that is not what really happened.  What happened what that me and Elder Brown were being good boys and doing what we wer supposed to be doing.  When we are doing that the spirit guides us almost unconciously more times than being specifically prompted to do stuff.  anywho we are getting kicked out but I love you all!  

Elder Eldredge 

The Atonment carries us!

Hey everyone!  One more week in the mission field!  There wasn't anything too much different other than I went to our leadership counsel that we have every month with all the Zone Leaders, Assistent to the Presidente and Sister training leaders

It was a great and inspiring meeting where I felt the spirit super strongly!  I absolutely love President Amorim , his faith and example really motivate me to be my best.  Even though he is tough with us, it is all to push us to reach our potential.  His main message for us was that we had a really bad month in October as far as number results go, but he stressed the ĩmportance that just because we didn't do well today donesn't mean that tomorrow we can't do amazing.  There is a need for opposition to teach us and help us grow and deepen testimony and faith.  there is a video that has come to be one of my favorites out here in the field called the Atonement and missionary work.  Elder Holland is speaking and speaks in a way that touches my heart with such power that every time I watch it I am brought to tears.  He speaks of why it is so hard....  Why isn't any easier?  Why can't people flock to the font and our only problem be that of pnemonia because our missionaries never leave the water?  Isn't there another easier way? He says these are questions that a 19 and a 20 and 21 year old will ask because they are also things that Elder Holland has asked.  He then gave his personl thoughts to answer the question.  He answers that Salvation is not a cheap experience.  Salvation was NEVER easy.  As he speaks those words images play of the Saviour suffering in Gethsemane.  He explains that for the Living Son of the living God it wasn't easy so how can we calling our selves follwers and disciples expect it to be any different while we walk the same path.  Not saying in any way that anyone will ever pass what Jesus did or even close but every missionary and investigator on their road to salvation will have to come to know a little and turly just a little of how Jesus felt.  So when we ask those questions of why isn't it easier?  Why dont our lives go the way we plan?  Isn't their and easier way we ned to remember we are not the first ones to ask that.  Someone a long greater..... and a lot better than anyone of us pleaded "take this cup from me" as if to say is the no other less painful less sorrowful, easier way?  And for Jesus there was no other way and so perhaps for us there won't be either.  But that is the way it is suppposed to be. OUr lives and our existence.  It is more than a superficial pass here on the Earth it requires something more than that, something of the soul as for us to become something greater.  And so for this we can know that wehn we are rejected when we are spat upon when we are humiliated and tired we can know that we are walking side by side with the greatest missionary who ever walked on the face of the Earth our Saviour Jesus Christ.

MY Friends and family I know that this work is hard.  Really hard.  BUt I know that I am walking side by side with my Captain and King.  I have felt his hand and HIs grace uphold me many times on my mission.  I know He is there and is helping us to climb heights up heavenward on the path of progression.  We will fall,  I have fallen many a time, but I know when we get back up and keep going we bring the smile of heaven down upon us and that He will enable us to be and do good far more than our own capacity allows.  SO trust in Him.  Excercise you faith this week and I promise you will feel HIs power and be more converted.  I love you all so much and these are the thought I wanted to eleave you all with for this week:).

Com amor

Elder Eldredge

ps all of these things can be easily applied to all situations not just missionary work:)

Picture time!

Thus is a Elder a Brown getting his 

"Trunky" call

This is my zone!!!! :)

They are all awesome missionaries

Making my life easy as their leader!!

Grace (11/2/2015)

Hello everyone!  This week was a fun one!  I went to a place on tuesday calle Peso da Regua that was really pretty and cool!  In that city the church is very small only about 6 members in the city that are active and make up that group.  But it was geat and we had a good division there.  Then We spent a lot of time making preparations for our halloween party ( I will send pictures)  that was a huge success we had a really big turn out with a total of 14 investigators from the whole city! We played a lot of games including NOAH'S ARK that select members of my family should know well!  The members here loved that game!:)  yaya for family parties at gma and gpas church building!:)  We all had a great time and it was a wonderful weay to spend my last halloween on the mission! I still can't believe how fast time is going by but we will talk very little about that:)  

Something else that I forgot to tell you all about was that I went to Porto a few weeks ago to become a legal resident again here in Portugal and there I met up and spent the day with one of my favortie companions Elder Ricci!!!!  I was with him in Povoa de Varzim for 4 and a half months!  I missed him tons and it was great to catch up.  I love you Elder RICCI!  

Other than that the work is going here, but slowly, we are still trying to find peeps to teach and I feel that the Lord is really testing and pushing me.  He wants me to grow and I know that if I put in work and effort that He will magnify my efforts and make me into a more Christlike person.  Speaking of that I had a great study this week on grace thanks to my companion Elder Brown who gave me a talk called His grace is sufficient by brad wilcox.  I will copy apart of what I sent in another e mail about this study:)

I actually had a really good study on grace this week that opened up my eyes.  I read a talk by brad wilcox that you probably know called my grace is sufficient.  In that talk he makes a comparison from Christ and His grace, to a mother paying piano lessons for her child. The mother paid the price in full to the teacher but it is now up to the child to practice.  The joy of the mother comes not from "repayment" but from seeing her child use the gift she has provided for him and seeing him progress and improve all with practice practice practice.  Just like us,  Christ has payed the price for us in FULL nothing lacking on our part.  But we like the child need to always practice.  With practice come a lot of failures as well, but from failures we learn, we get better, we are perfected.  All we are doing is preparing ourselves to meet God and if we don't apply the practice that Christ teaches we will not be prepared to stand in God's presence.  If we are not prepared we will not even want to be in His presence, we will hide, we woçç want to run away.  It isn't so much us begging Jesus to let us in like some think but more of Jesus pleading for us to stay, to use His gift to be able to be with Him.  During judgment I don't imagine anyone will be too surprised at what kingdom they are awarded because that is where they will feel the most comfortable.  People that lived telestial lives will never be able to feel at peace in the Celestial Kingdom.  Hell isn't and inflicted punishment, it will be just as any child who started taking piano lessons but failed to practice because of laziness, worldy distraction or pride and somewhere along the way got lost and gave up that then sees others playing beautiful arrangments and pieces of sweet music and thinking..... that could have been me with just a bit of practice and perserverance.  That is what hell is.  Knowing you could have attained a higher level of being but didn't because you did not practice, you did not prepare, you didn't keep trying.  So don't give up, keep practicing, keep loving, keep presing forward and like Elder Pearson stated "stay by the tree".  Jesus is pleading don't give up I am here, and when you hit the wrong notes don't become discouraged, it is all part of your learning.

Anywho that really helped me understand better a few things.  It is never too late to start practicing again, especailly as long as you are breathing here on the earth:)  It is all part of progession:) Our weaknesses make us strong.  Practice truly does make perfect.

My favorite scripture this week:
2 Cor 12:9-10

 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I love you all so much and all you do!

COm muito amor 

Elder Eldredge

Description of the pictures

Halloween costumes
Halloween party
Reunion with Elder Ricci, Elder McColley
Roof selfie
Reunion with old companions
This is gloria and marcos!  Really cool peeps here in gaia!  
And the other elderes in our house got home late like 3 days in a row show we had to show it to em!;)

Halloween party

Hello everyone!  This week was a fun one!  I went to a place on tuesday calle Peso da Regua that was really pretty and cool!  In that city the church is very small only about 6 members in the city that are active and make up that group.  But it was geat and we had a good division there.  Then We spent a lot of time making preparations for our halloween party ( I will send pictures)  that was a huge success we had a really big turn out with a total of 14 investigators from the whole city! We played a lot of games including NOAH'S ARK that select members of my family should know well!  The members here loved that game!:)  yaya for family parties at gma and gpas church building!:)  We all had a great time and it was a wonderful weay to spend my last halloween on the mission! I still can't believe how fast time is going by but we will talk very little about that:)  

Something else that I forgot to tell you all about was that I went to Porto a few weeks ago to become a legal resident again here in Portugal and there I met up and spent the day with one of my favortie companions Elder Ricci!!!!  I was with him in Povoa de Varzim for 4 and a half months!  I missed him tons and it was great to catch up.  I love you Elder RICCI!  

Other than that the work is going here, but slowly, we are still trying to find peeps to teach and I feel that the Lord is really testing and pushing me.  He wants me to grow and I know that if I put in work and effort that He will magnify my efforts and make me into a more Christlike person.  Speaking of that I had a great study this week on grace thanks to my companion Elder Brown who gave me a talk called His grace is sufficient by brad wilcox.  I will copy apart of what I sent in another e mail about this study:)

I actually had a really good study on grace this week that opened up my eyes.  I read a talk by brad wilcox that you probably know called my grace is sufficient.  In that talk he makes a comparison from Christ and His grace, to a mother paying piano lessons for her child. The mother paid the price in full to the teacher but it is now up to the child to practice.  The joy of the mother comes not from "repayment" but from seeing her child use the gift she has provided for him and seeing him progress and improve all with practice practice practice.  Just like us,  Christ has payed the price for us in FULL nothing lacking on our part.  But we like the child need to always practice.  With practice come a lot of failures as well, but from failures we learn, we get better, we are perfected.  All we are doing is preparing ourselves to meet God and if we don't apply the practice that Christ teaches we will not be prepared to stand in God's presence.  If we are not prepared we will not even want to be in His presence, we will hide, we woçç want to run away.  It isn't so much us begging Jesus to let us in like some think but more of Jesus pleading for us to stay, to use His gift to be able to be with Him.  During judgment I don't imagine anyone will be too surprised at what kingdom they are awarded because that is where they will feel the most comfortable.  People that lived telestial lives will never be able to feel at peace in the Celestial Kingdom.  Hell isn't and inflicted punishment, it will be just as any child who started taking piano lessons but failed to practice because of laziness, worldy distraction or pride and somewhere along the way got lost and gave up that then sees others playing beautiful arrangments and pieces of sweet music and thinking..... that could have been me with just a bit of practice and perserverance.  That is what hell is.  Knowing you could have attained a higher level of being but didn't because you did not practice, you did not prepare, you didn't keep trying.  So don't give up, keep practicing, keep loving, keep presing forward and like Elder Pearson stated "stay by the tree".  Jesus is pleading don't give up I am here, and when you hit the wrong notes don't become discouraged, it is all part of your learning.

Anywho that really helped me understand better a few things.  It is never too late to start practicing again, especailly as long as you are breathing here on the earth:)  It is all part of progession:) Our weaknesses make us strong.  Practice truly does make perfect.

My favorite scripture this week:
2 Cor 12:9-10

 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I love you all so much and all you do!

COm muito amor 

Elder Eldredge

10/26/2015

Hey there everybody!  This week wasa great test of faith that pushed us to our limits to strengthem our faith.  Last week (so like two weeks ago) we didn't find a single new investigator.  We did not like that so we did a lot of planning on what we would do to change that.  We decided that we needed to try some new things.  So as we were sitting in our companship study I was thinking and I got an idea that came a little from my curiousity....  Let's do a survey!  My companion liked the idea so we started with this idea... well the lady in the internet store just told us the place is closing soon so I have to stop:(  BUt just know we did a cool short survey to do contacts in a different way and because of it we found 6 new investigators this week!  It was an aweome experienced acompanied by a fast so it was a great testimony builder to me of dillingence and faith!   We also marked a man for baptism this week for the 14th!  His name is juloi and we have to get him married and quit smoking but we will do it for sure! Love you all!  sorry about the short letter! Elder Eldredge

Pictures from. 10/19/2015

Me & Taik the elders quorum president

A cool recent covert family

Bowling on p-day

Paulo Guerra

October 19, 2015 New Companion

Hey everybody!

So this week was my first week of work here in Gaia.  It is a pretty big and busy city so that is different than most of the areas that I have had plus we have the downtown part which probably makes it seem so different!  But anywho I met this week a lady named Gloria.  She is an italian lady that moved here a while ago and has been investigating the church almost 7 years but never has been baptized.  She is unlike anyone I have ever met, her personality is very hard to describe.  She is very strong in her opinions and very straight with her words... she is kind of intimidating.  Anywho the Elders had told me about here long before I got there.  Anywho we had our little lunch hour there and then she invited her Baptist husband that is a brazilian to give a spiritual message.  But you know as missionaries we also wanted to have an opportunity to get our word in there too.  The Elders had told me that she usually doesn't invite the Elders to give the message and especially not out of the Book of Mormon.  Anywho I, already having this in mind, was trying to think of a way to have a chance to speak.  So when the time of the message came I had an idea.  i casually asked, as her husband Marcos opened the bible to give a message, "Gloria, what is you favorite story in the Bible..."  She answered and then I asked Marcos the same question, he also answered.  Then just as I had wanted Gloria asked me... Elder Eldredge what is your favorite story...:)  Then I took advantage of the opportunity to share with them my favorite story of Jesus and his disciples on the bank of the sea of galilee after his resurection.  When he asks peter 3 times... "Do you love me?" and the lessons that we take from that story.  i used many ideas from Jeffrey R. Hollands talkcalled "the first great commandment".  While I was speaking i could see a light in both Gloria's and Marcos's eyes.  As I testified of conversion love and service I was on the verge of tears, but the sweetest part was to see tears streaming down Gloria's face as I spoke.  I know she felt the spirit in that moment.  Later after the conversation was over she told me that no other elder has ever spoked with such feeling and power as I did.  Now I am not saying this as to brag or boast because I have given that same message to various other people all with different outcomes in the end.  I know that I was sent here for a reason, I know that I have something to offere the work here.  Ever since that day Gloria has invited me to do the thought and many times tears have been shed.  I have made a strong connection with Gloria very quickly, I have strong feelings that because of the love I have for her I feel that I cannot leave this area without seeing her be batized.  It will not be easy, she has had 7 years of being taught by very powerful missionaries.  but something different was felt on both ends, I don't know everything but I will do all I can to fulfill my purpose through her.  She is amazing!

keep us in your prayers we have been having trouble finding new investgators, we would love some extra prayers on this behalf:)

I love you all! my scirpture this week is    Proverbs 15:1  1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Amo-vos!

Elder Eldredge

p.s.  This is a picture of me and my companion.  this picture has also a story, we are trying to contact people in diferent ways so we asked someone to take our picture and then after talked to them about the restoration:)  We are smooth!

October 12, 2015 Transfers!

Hey everyone I will just send out a quick e mail this week because of transfers!  In the end I was transfered.... (sad face)  I would have loved to stay a 4th there in Santarém I loved it there just as much as I loved Povoa, made memories and friends that I can never forget.  It is hard but hey it is part of the mission experience.  I will now be serving in an area that is called Vila Nova da Gaia which is very close to Porto.  The good thing is that There are a ton of missionaires around here so we can always get togtether on P day, today we went and played soccer with a bunch of Elderes including Elder Gomes my old companion so it was great to see him again!

This last week was sooooo crazy.  I went to Portalegre on Tues and the on Wednesday I had to go all the way to the other side of the country in Peniche.  Anywho I can't write more because the store is closing but I will let you guys know a bit more about my last week in Santarém next time!:)

I love you all tons!  Be awesome and ponderize a scripture mine for this week is Alma 29:9

Elder Eldredge