Chapter 32 - Título Esperto

Bom Dia, Alegria! How is the world this week?

Terceira Ilha is still just about the most beautiful place I've been to (although I think I still like Goblin Valley more. Maybe I need to play hide and seek tag with my siblings here to really compare it to Goblin Valley) and the work is going well. I have a personal goal of giving a Book of Mormon to everyone on the island before I leave. A lot of people already have one (I think almost everyone has already talked to the missionaries, especially in Angra). But it's cool. I´m actually going to send pictures today. And just a special shout out to Rusty and everyone else who likes Canada, we found a big house with a huge Canadian flag and an inukshuk in the yard. People from all over come to live here in paradise.

Well, I didn't find any super cool doctrine that I want to share with you guys this week, but we had a super funny experience with a practice we were doing. Elder Tanner was teaching me about Jesus Christ and the Atonement, and after explaining that we are all imperfect and make mistakes, he asked me to read Mosiah 3:17. It should have gone like this:

"Everyone makes mistakes in life, becuase we're all imperfect. Could you read verse 17?"
"17)And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."

But it didn't happen that way. I misheard. I thought he said 27, and so it went like this.

"Everyone makes mistakes in life, becuase we're all imperfect. Could you read verse 17?"
"27)And their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever. Thus hath the Lord commanded me. Amen."

It was almost as good as mixing up 1 Nephi 3:7 with 3 Nephi 3:7 (you can go ahead and read those ones on your own. 3 Nephi 3:7+baptisimal invite=aguinha)

Anyway, I´m still doing good. Next week were going to have Zone Conference in St. Miguel, so I´ll get to see another one of the islands here. It should be cool.

I love you all!

Chapter 31 - Terceira Ilha

Boas! How is everyone? This week was awesome. I almost died more times this week than in the rest of my mission. The Azores are awesome.

We flew out Tuesday morning and at 11h30 we arrived in Terceira Ilha (which literally just means "third island" since it´s the third island in the chain). This gave us plenty of time to work, so we jumped right in to it. I didn't get to see much of the island the first day, since it was super foggy, raining like crazy, and the wind was blowing so hard we could hardly walk against it. It got bad enough that the zone leaders called to check on us ("Hey, is it raining where you guys are?" "Yeah, it´s pouring!" "Okay, just keep up the good work and try to warm up when you get back home tonight!"). But then, the second day was as clear as it could be, and I learned very quickly that this island is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I think I took a total of two pictures, it´s so beautiful (yeah, sorry. I´ll take some more today). So I´m loving it.

As for almost dying, the number one danger here is dogs. Big ones. And they bite (or at least they bite normal people. I´m convinced that we have angels gaurding us because these monstrous, bear sized dogs will come right up to us, looking ready to rip us to shreds, and then back away suddenly like something scared them. It´s super cool.) A lot of houses have "Beware of Dog" signs, so when they don´t, we just walk right up, and sometimes the lack of signage doesn´t accuratly reflect the lack of dog. One lady even protected us with her car to stop a huge dog from running us down. It was pretty cool. But I have complete confidence that God is not going to let me get eaten by hounds, especially when I´m facing them to try and share the Gospel.

One of the best things about Terceira Ilha is the other missionaries. I´m once again in a house with four Elders, and it´s so much better than just two. I´ve liked all my companions so far, but it´s just nice to have a mix of different personalities. And all three of the others have special gifts that are really helping me. Last transfer was a hard one for me in terms of stress management, and God has answered my prayers with these three elders. My companion, Elder Tanner, is super chill, and really similar to me in personality, and so we get along great. One of the best things for my stress before the mission was running, but until now, no one wanted to go running. But Elder Anderson loves it like nothing else, and so now I get to go running every day! It´s awesome, and I´m feeling way better. And the last elder, Elder Payne, is one of the funniest people I have ever met. He remindes me a lot of Tyson Jones, if you know him. I can´t pass five minutes with him without laughing.

Anyway, this transfer looks like it´s going to be a good one, and I´m super excited to keep learning and working.

Wow, this email was nearly normal. I talked about what happened during the week and everything. Oh, yeah, we almost had to walk 2 1/2 hours to get home (we missed the bus) but then a less active member found us and gave us a lift (more blessings!). As for cool doctrine, I can´t think of anything this week. I´ll study some more and try to send something cool next week.

I love y´all!

Elder Lofthouse​

Chapter 30 - Ligação de Felicidade

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? Things are going great here. Last week was pretty good, but it's been raining a lot and on Thursday I got really sick and was in bed basically all of Thursday and Friday. But other than that, everything has been great.


We got transfer calls yesterday, and I'm finally leaving Alverca! Alverca is amazing, and it will be very sad to part with the members here, but I'm super excited because I got transfered to the Azores! For those who don´t know, the Azores are a group of islands in the Atlantic ocean, basically between Portugal and America (at least one of the islands is closer to America than Portugal). But it´s part of our mission, and I'm going there! I´m super excited.

So, this week I was reading in the scriptures, and on Tuesday I read something super cool and thought, "This is great, I´m going to put this into my weekly email." But when I got sick I forgot everything and I didn't write anything down, so I don't remember what I wanted to share with you.

Today I was thinking about imagining, and our ability to think of things that don't exist. I was actually thinking about the phrase, "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it." and trying to decide if I agreed with it. And as I thought, I realized that imagination is a gift from God, and He gave it to us for a reason. So what is the reason? Well, the scriptures teach us that all things are created spiritually before they are created physically. So I think that imagination is how we create things spiritually! It´s the planning phase before we do anything physically. And anything that can be made spiritually can be made physically, especially with the help of God. And so, I believe that with God, we can achieve anything we imagine.

Anyway, that was just a random thought I had today. A little bit later Elder Buarque locked our keys in our house. That´s always fun.

Well, have a great week everyone! Next week I should have some cool pictures of the Azores.

I love you all!
Elder Lofthouse