December 7th, 2015

Hey everybody!  This week went well!  We had to do a surprise zone meeting that we had to organize and throw together (the president didn't tell us until last minute)  But it went well and I think the message made a difference for the missionaries in our zone.  Then we had a rougher week trying to find and teach people but me and my companion made some specific things that we are going to sacrifce and do to have a better week!  We had a wonderful testimony meeting yesterday!  Also Gloria and three other people from her house decided they would give us a surprise and come to church!  I had one of those strong feelings to share my testimony one of those ones where your heart pounds inside of you and you know it is your turn.  I shared a story that a long time ago my best buddy Duncan shared with me about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.   I don't have time to write it all out right now but if any of you get the chance Duncan might remember. the one about the girl in the room with a bunch of filling cabinets and Jesus (I know that sounds weird).  But to shroten the story when I was bearing my testimony Gloria started crying and after the meeting went and spoke witht the stake presidente and the bishop about her desire to be baptized so it was awesome!:)  i am loving this area!  Also yesterday I got permission to call Luisa and Beatriz from povoa de varzim!  Yesterday was there one year mark of baptism!  They are both in need of your prayers but especially Luisa.  I can explain later but just shoot a prayer out for Luisa.   I love you all sorry for not wirting like I usually do !  I have had many surprises as of late;)  Have a great and happy week! Elder Eldredge

November 30, 2015

SO I won't be sending a giant e mail this week:(  I know I just don't have time today but I did learn some big lessons and there were some dang big miracles!  Gloria called us over and sat us down and one thing led to another and we got on the subject of baptism and in tears she said that she will be baptized!  That was an inredible miracle!:)  The only thing is that she didn't say when nor would she accept a date (she is a stinker sometimes;)  BUt I love her to pieces she just told me it would be before I left portugal!;)  So I hope I stay in this area until the end of my mission to be able to be here to watch it all happen!  But for her it was a huge step for sure!  Today is her birthdya so you should tell her happy birthday!  Also don't you worry I went to her house and she came up and was like sorry Elder and she gave me a big hug and I was shocked and then she was like that is from your mom!:)  Haha it was great;)  

Also we had a baptism this week!  We did very little tohelp him.  The sisters area got closed and he was already on track to be baptized!  So we just kind of put the cherry on top but it was great to see for sure:)  I am going strong tell Dad that I love him a lot andI want to see him again and give him a big hug!  tell him we still have a ton of boating trips to do;)  Even if we don't have a boat we will find a way;)  I miss you all can't wait to talk with you guys on Christmas!

Elder Eldredge

Baptism! (11/30/2015)

Very awesome to be able to perform the baptism

For this man whom the sisters had worked really 

Hard to bring him to baptism

One more down (11/29/2015)

Hey friends and family!  Hope you all had a wonderful week!  Well today marks the start of a new transfer!  I will be staying here in Gaia but I will be serving with a new companion Elder João he is from an African country called Angola!  It should be really great!  He is a hard worker so that will be good for our area!  Also the sisters area here is getting closed down and so we will be picking up and teaching all of their investigators which will be a big work load but it will make the time go by fast, and I love spending time teaching, definitely my favorite part in missionary work!  Other than transfers nothing too crazy is happened this week!  

One thing that I really liked this week was a lesson that we gave to the priest quorum on sunday at church.  The bishop told us we could teach whatever we felt was right so at night I was thinking about what I could teach and I cam across a talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf called the WHY of Priesthood Service.  I thought perfect!  We had a great lesson with them about the why of the gospel and priesthood.  I told all of them there that the reason I chose that was because if I were a priest again I wish that I would have understood the why a little bit better.  There are whats and whys in the gospel.  We can learn and even do all of the whats in the gospel but when we understand the why of the gospel we will actually desire to do the whats and do them for the right reasons.  The whats can be the commandments, teachings, assignments, and other various things on the average Lds to do list but the why has to do with an eternal perspective of one day dwelling in the prescence of God.  When you understand the real WHY you feel more motiviated and inspired to fulfill the WHAT part.  It reminds me a lot of the talk music of the gospel, we can learn the steps to the dance but if we don't learn to hear the music we may give up dancing and eventually walk away.  I hope you all know WHY you do what you do in the church.  It makes for a lot deeper conversion and a more valiant defender of the faith and if you don't know, find out.  Will a bit of reflexion and pondering and an honest mind you can find you answer and know how to act from there.  I'll say it again if you don't truly know WHY you go to church or pay your tithing or read you scriptures or do home teaching or anything,  Find Out because there is always and eternal reason that when understood and grasped brings us peace and understanding.

I love you all tons!

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!!