New Photos! Week #18 Brings Photos!

Some awesome photos sent to us this week by the missionary. This make our Thanksgiving all the more thankful!

Baptism of Rodolfo

Elder LeBaron, Elder Johnson, Elder Valentine

Elder Valentine by "Super Gorgeous Portuguese River"

Elder Valentine's New Companion Elder McGhie

Week #18 Family Email

Hey family!

Man! New transfer! I'll try and get you guys some pictures real quick - sorry, we had to let some sisters email before us, so I had to write this a little later. Thanksgiving! woah! They don't even celebrate that here! Dang! I'll probably be preaching the gospel while you guys are eating yummy food, so enjoy it for me!

Dad - Thank you. I'm glad to see that you aren't afraid to man up and eat. For me. *tear* Haha I love you! 

Mom - wow! Congrats on the calling! I'm so excited for you! I totally agree - new callings in the church are huge chances to grow! If you think about it, missionaries get new "callings" every six weeks with transfers and new companions and new families and everything - I have totally grown so much out here because of it! So I am super excited for you! I don't know how thanksgiving will work out - I guess I'll tell ya what I did next week! Thanks for all of the scriptures! I love you!

Kimber and Kevin - I'll pray for you guys for sure! Good luck with your baby and house decisions and everything! Thanks for writing me!

Anna - I already wrote you, but I love you! Remember what I said!

Ethan - sup! Bro! Love ya! You look like a stud in cross country! We run every day for excercises, so I'm doing the same thing! 

Okay family! I love you guys! Have a SUPER GOOD THANKSGIVING! Love you love you! I am SO grateful for an amazing family! Bye! Have fun! Eat lots! Tchau! Ate logo! Fica bem! Boa semana! Amo-vocês!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Week #18 - Baptism!

Exciting news from Elder Valentine this week! Read on!

Dear Everyone,

We had a baptism this week! Woo hoo!!! Rodolfo (or Celso Rodolfo Loureiro Castro Sousa, as I had to memorize for the confirmation) was baptized on saturday! He is the brother of Mª DoCeu, and is super firm in his testimony and we are just so excited for him! I confirmed him in church yesterday, and I was worried that my Portuguese would be bad during the blessing, but the Lord blesses us SO much, and it went fine. I love seeing people progress in their knowledge in the gospel, from taking the first lesson to being baptized, and seeing their spiritual growth! I wish that everyone here in Portugal could see the changes that come to people who live the gospel. They just become so happy and loving and it's so great! 

Today is transfers, and we just sent my companion, Elder LeBaron, home. It was super sad. You gain really great friends on the mission and it is super hard to say goodbye, even though you only know them for a small amount of time. But the work must go on! Elder Johnson and I are still companions and we are with the other AP now, Elder McGhie. I don't know why I am so blessed to be with awesome missionaries right now, but it's so great! He works super hard and I'm super excited to serve with him.

I have been reading Jesus the Christ lately, which is an amazing book if you haven't read it. I have really come to know my Savior through my studies of His life! One of my favorite teachings of Christ is in Matthew 7, when he talks about the good tree bringing forth good fruit and bad trees bringing forth bad fruit, and Christ states in verse 20, "wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." I have seen this story working in my mission. So many people have a religion but are confused about doctrine or don't live what they believe, or believe something that doesn't bring forth good fruits. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is only good fruits! You can test them by studying the Book of Mormon and praying. But these are ACTIONS. Too many people are unwilling to test the fruits and receive the blessings because they are just lazy or say "oh, I don't have time for that." Of course you do! Man, I hear that answer so much and I really don't like it. Christ should be your number one! Your life will be blessed beyond your comprehension as you follow the example of you Savior. So ACT! Do something! Christ and your Heavenly Father will bless you as you do.

Have a good week. :) I love my mission! I am so grateful for my opportunity to act 24/7 and serve my Heavenly Father. Until next week!

- Elder Valentine!

Portugal Week #5 - Two Short Family Messages

Elder Valentine must be working hard, because his messages are getting shorter! He sent two short family messages this week:

Email #1:
Hey family! So I'm writing this a little early today, you'll all be asleep unfortunately. It's like, 3 in the morning or something for you guys!

Real quick, thanks farnsworths and grandpa and grandma folkman for writing me! I love to hear how everything is going for you guys! Grandma, I hope your hand gets better quick! I'll say lots of prayers for you! 

Mom, I think that one of the best presents that the elders here talk about is just a bunch of pictures from home! Like in a photo book or something. And I totally agree! I don't have a lot of other ideas besides that, but pictures are super nice. Always! I LOVE pictures, probably as much as you guys love mine. 

Okay so This was way short, but I'll be writing again around 5 today (or like 10 in the morning for you guys) so if you want to write me anything before I come back, I'd love it! I didn't hear much from the family this week, I hope everything is going well! I'll talk to you later!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Email #2:

Hi family! Dang! I don't have as much time as I thought, but I can answer a couple of questions! 

Mom - we have Rodolfo marked for the 22nd, and hopefully Anibal and Conceição, but they still need to get married, so we'll see how that goes!

Dad - The shirt rules are actually pretty chill. The whole words thing isn't a big deal, and people have pretty casual stuff to wear around!

Kevin - haha I actually don't have a tablet... but tudo bem! I had one in California but here we are sharing two computers between the three of us at a little church building today! Thanks for all of your advice with the book of mormon and pictures and everything! I will totally implement them into my missionary work!

Kimber - I'll pray for ya! Man! your kids are so big! (oh, kevin's kids too) The weather is pretty irregular, it gets hot one day and cold another. Like Utah!

Amanda - I'm so excited for 20 months from now to really see your baby! My portuguese is seriously getting better every day. I have a ways to go, but I feel like I'm progressing fast! I have eaten "bacalhau" which is cod fish - that's like the Portuguese staple. There are 10,000 ways to make it and it all tastes like cod fish. Mmmm..... I'm so excited to talk to you guys too! I can't wait to see everyone! 

Okay! Haha thanks for writing me, I didn't mean to sound like impatient or something, I just love you guys a lot and love hearing from you! I'll talk to you all next week! Bye!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Week #5 Group Message

Hey everyone!

Wow! I gave my first blessing in portuguese yesterday, and it was way awesome! I gave it to this little boy Gonçalo. His mom and dad split up a while ago, and now they have to have a court meeting to see where he will go, because apparently his mom doesn't have legal custody of him or something. It's all very complicated, but I gave a blessing to him for comfort and it was super cool! I definitely have a testimony of the Gift of Tongues, and that the spirit will guide our words when we are doing his work.

Mª DoCeu and her brother Rodolfo (it sounds like "Holdoulfoo," and I found out his name is Rudolph in english; haha!) are SO ELECT! We had a lesson on tithing this week and Maria said "Oh, I was wondering how I could give something back! Can I pay right now?" man. So good. Rodolfo is being baptized this week, but Maria has to wait because her boyfriend is from Brazil and they can't get married until they go to Brazil for the papers... so january. But they are so good! 

Portugal is just so funny. I would say that about 80% of the people are above the age of 60, and 100% of those people have bad knees, a total of 3 teeth in their mouth from smoking, and a mental illness. It's actually kind of sad sometimes to talk to people who are just out of it, but most of the time it's hilarious. The portuguese culture is very to the point; if you say "hello!" they say "speak." so you start talking about Jesus Christ and they say "Ah, leave me be, leave me be!" and run off at a grand speed of 2 miles an hour on their bad knees. Super funny. 

We came in contact with 2 or 3 jehovas witnesses and a couple baptist or christian people, and they all love to argue about the bible and how the bible is all we need and will never need anything else and wo unto you because you have more scripture. But let me tell you, I am SO grateful for the Book of Mormon. It solidifies and clarifies the teachings of the Bible, and adds to the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Through this book, I know that this church is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and we receive guidance from a loving Heavenly Father TODAY for our eternal happiness. If you haven't read your Book of Mormon for a while, READ IT! God will bless you so much when you do. You can gain a stronger testimony of everything our church believes just through this book. I love the Book of Mormon and am so glad to know that Heavenly Father guides us right now! 

Okay, that's all for this week, I'll talk to you later!

-Elder Valentine!

Last Set of Pictures from Porto from Week 4

Here's the last set of pictures from Elder Valentine from Week #4. The picture of Spencer by himself is particularly cool, because he took it at the mission home right before emailing us! So it felt like we were right there with him. Very cool!

Here's Elder Valentine's always interesting commentary:

1. My room with Elders Poteet and Wait - the typical messy missionary room 2. our kitchen - we are the only house in the mission with a dryer! How blessed are we! 3. THEY HAVE MILKA HAHA IN YOUR FACE FAMILY! I can just go to the store and buy a milka bar for £1.50 which I totally did today and ate it all. Be jealous! Also I am sorry. That was harsh language, I'm sure it makes you cry because you can't have this delicious german chocolate goodness. BUT IN YOUR FACE! 4. Where I am right now, in the mission office, with some elders. These two are Elder Merkle and Elder Hicks. Elder Lebaron is sitting down. 5. A really bad picture of me right now!

At the Mission Office with Some Elders

Elder Valentine's Bedroom

The Kitchen!

Yummy "In Our Face" Treats!

Elder Valentine on P-Day, November 8 2015

More Pictures from Porto!

I've included Spencer's very interesting commentary about the pictures. Enjoy!

1. I think this one might be the government building here, but I'm not sure, 2. my district, Elder Mghie, Johnson, Krull, LeBaron, Me, Poteet, Wait, Sister Waddell, Sister Jones 3. a "maria bolacha" which is this cookie that you can buy a package of like 150 cookies for a euro. Not even kidding. They will be my downfall. 4. a francesinha, which is a sandwhich with 4 kinds of meat, cheese, an egg, this crazy sauce, and batatas fritas (french fries) 5. a lesson with an RM Isabell (on the left) and her mom (in the middle) and Isabells sister (taking the picture) and us missionaries (the ones with the name tags except you can't see mine, but that's okay because you know which one is me, unless you have forgotten what I look like, in which case I will be sad) 6. A picture at a baptism of me and my companions, Elder LeBaron and Elder Johnson, and Elder Hicks is on the right... I don't actually know why he is in the picture but tudo bem.

Francesinha Sandwich

Lesson with RM Isabell and her Mom

Maria Cookie

Elders at a Baptism

Unknown Civic Building in Porto

Elder Valentine's District

Pictures from Porto!

Pictures from Porto! These are so fun! I've included the captions exactly the way Elder Valentine gave them.

Place in Porto, Spencer Forgets Where

One of the Many Alleys in Porto

Back of the Mission Home

Paralalapipido (cobble stone) Roads

Nicest Chapel in Whole Country, Where They Attend

Portuguese Hill From Freeway by Big River

Pictures! Pictures from the Flight to Portugal!

Pictures! Pictures! The first pictures from Elder Valentine in Portugal! These first two are from the flight out.

Seattle Space Needle- From Elder Valentine's Flight

Elder Valentine's Flight Dinner

Here's what Elder Valentine said about these pictures: 

This was on the flight, I saw seattle and the Space Needle, and a cute little dinner that they gave on the flight.

Portugal Week #4: Family Email

Hi Family!

How are you all? I don't really have a lot specific for you guys this week, I hope you are all doing okay! 

Dad - I have been talking to Elder LaBaron about the new Star Wars movie, and he's way excited, and I'm super jealous. I have kind of decided that I just want you to tell me everything about the movie because there is NO WAY that I will be able to last two years without knowing, so yeah. Haha! 

Mom - how is your nanny job going? How are the Powells? I had the opportunity to play the piano in sacrament meeting and for some baptisms... let me just say that I wished that I had practiced more. haha. Oh man. But playing the piano always makes me think of you! 

Amanda - your baby is way stinking adorable. I can't believe that I won't be able to see her until she is almost two! It's crazy! I also showed the elders in my apartment some pictures of our family, and they all said you were very cute. I thought it was weird, but most of them are in their twenties, so I guess it's just a little less weird, but still. 

Kimber and Kevin - how's your fam? Kevin, I'm SO excited to speak portuguese with you on Christmas if you're there! It'll be so fun! 

Anna - Hows the play going? Dad sent me a pic of you and mom and ethan and you are SO TALL. STOP. 

Ethan - my man! My stud! My Bro! Home skilly! Your hair cut is bem sheik (very attractive) you lady killer you. Be careful with those crazy 8th grade girls. That's the age that they start to like you. Haha how are you? I'd love to hear how school and everything is going!

Okay family! Eu amo vocês muito! I'll talk to you next week! Bye!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Portugal Week #4: Group Email

Ola todas as pessoas! Esta semana foi super bem! Man, I have grown such a testimony of how the Lord prepares people to hear the gospel. This week, during our lesson with our investigator Mª DoCeu, she told us that the night before she had decided that if she were going to get baptized, she should probably stop smoking. All on her own!!! Our lesson that night was literally going to be the Word of Wisdom, and we basically had the easiest lesson ever because she said "I prayed about it and felt like I should stop!" Man! It was so cool! The people who are being prepared to here our message are SO ready. It was a super cool experience! Haha on the other side of things, we taught this family we have been teaching for a while about Joseph Smith... and it was rough! The mom is like super old and the son is always drunk, so we literally said "Who is this man??" after talking about and showing a picture of Joseph Smith over 20 times, and they didn't know who it was. Oh man. The portuguese people are crazy. Also, trial of faith on Friday - Elder LeBaron had to go to Santarein which is 2 hours away for a division on Friday, so Elder Johnson and I were alone the whole day trying to teach lessons and find new investigators. Talk about a long day! Two trainee missionaries out teaching by themselves! It was actually pretty cool because normally Elder LeBaron does most of the teaching, so Elder Johnson and I had a lot of opportunities to do teaching and contacting without his help. We didn't have a lot of success that day, but it's all good. It was about faith, I hope! Haha! We also taught a Testemunho de Jehovah (Jehovah's Witness), which was a very interesting lesson. She was fine up until we talked about peter, james, and john restoring the priesthood to Joseph Smith, and she freaked out and started going off on all of these tangents about Christ not having a body after he was resurrected and all of this stuff... I will just say that I am very glad that I know the truth about God's plan and the gospel. It's sad that people are so confused that they don't know basic truths about the nature of God. 

I ate pig ears, tails, and little squids this week at an inactive members home. Ew. 

I love 1 nephi 8 about the tree of life. It applies really well to missionary work, because once Lehi tasted the fruit, the first thing he wanted was for his family to taste it. It's like missionaries wanting people to hear the message of the gospel! We are helping people come back from the mists of darkness and cling again to the iron rod. Super powerful!

Okay! Those are the highlights. Have a good week everyone! I'm loving the mission! So many blessings! Bye!

-Elder Valentine!

Elder Valentine Mailing Address

Here's Elder Valentine's mailing address, as reference to you all:

Elder Valentine

Rua Amalia Luazes #23 Sala 1 

Porto 4200 - 52

Portugal

A Personal Note from Elder Spencer to His Daddio

I was able to email Elder Valentine immediately after receiving his email this Monday (November 2nd). I'm sharing his reply to me, because it so perfectly captures Elder Valentine's personality!

Here it is:

Dude! dad! Bishop! Love ya! I am way sorry about the pictures but I will so have them next week! Sorry! I love you!

love, your home toaster washing machine son Elder Valentine!

Portugal Week #3: Family Email

A bit shorter than usual . . . hopefully next week the FAMILY gets the long email! Still, always so awesome to hear from Elder Valentine!!

DANG IT! I`M SO SORRY. I FORGOT MY CAMERA. I´m an awful son. There´s just so much to think about here! :( next week for sure!! 

But hi family! I´m so happy for you guys to have Halloween! It was weird not having it this year for real - people don´t do that here!

okay! I don´t have very much time today, I´m sorry! It´s weird how the whole emailing thing is working out, I´m trying to figure out the best way to do it, I might just send the big one to you guys next week like mom suggested, but for now I´ll try and answer some questions quickly!

Dad - I ponderized Mosiah 3:19 this week! It is very direct and specific about putting off the natural man and I really love it! Thank you for sending me yours! I love hearing your spiritual studies and thoughts and stuff! Thank you guys for praying for our investigators. I really can feel the blessings for them that are sent through the power of prayer! Thank you! Also, thank you for always sending pictures! I love seeing everyone and Ryleigh especially! 

Mom - the investigators are doing well! They are all progressing so good! The crowded apartment is a struggle - I can´t remember if I already said it, but we got ANOTHER elder, so it´s seven, and one shower, and lots of food being eaten, and wow. It´s crazy! I am understanding more of the language each day! It is super super cool how much I am learning! I am SO FAR away from being even close to fluent, but I am learning more and understanding and it´s all super encouraging! They transfered a bunch of old missionaries (like elder lebaron) to this mission, so they have some experienced ones, but I heard that there is a huge gap between the old and the new of like no missionaries so our "generation" will have a lot of work on our plates when all the old missionaries leave!

Anna - wow! 104 days now! Thanks for telling me, I actually had no idea, haha! Time flies, huh? Landon comes home in 8 weeks! Crazy! Um, I definitely told both of my companions (LeBaron and Johnson) that you said hi, and LeBaron said to give you his email... I said no. Haha he´s 21. Gross. But it was a brincadeira! A joke! Still gross! We have a car! also, it is spelled Tchau, but it sounds the same and is the most common way to say goodbye. I really like it!

dang. I´m way sorry. I gotta go! I will definitely write to you guys first next week, because this really stinks how everything is working out. But tudo bem - I´ve got 20 months to figure it out! Bye family! I love you so much and I pray for you guys always! Love you!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Portugal Week #3: Group Email - Spencer Robbed??!!

Elder Valentine gave us a fascinating tag-line for his latest email. It was a real attention-getter! It about caused his parents a heart-attack! This isn't the first thing you want to hear from your son!

Email title: "Getting Robbed in Week 3"

Ola todas as pessoas!

Haha wow. This has been a crazy week! First off, we got our car broken into on Tuesday, so that was cool! Fortunately, my companions and I didn't leave anything valuable in the car, so we didn't get anything stolen, but one of the Elders in our apartment, Elder McGhie, got THEIR car broken into as well, and got £200 (in euros, 230 american dollars) and a nice GPS stolen! Sinto muito! But he got it reimbursed, so that was good. Haha! Portugal is crazy. But it has been a really good week besides! We had a crazy Halloween party on Saturday, which was super fun! The people here in Portugal are SUPER superstitious about EVERYTHING (for example; if you shake hands with someone over another two people shaking hands so your hands cross over each other, they think it is bad luck), so witches and anything halloween is pretty sketchy for them, so we had to make sure the party was super chill. We had a bunch of fun games and lots of food and we invited everyone we met to it, and we had a good turnout! I definitely bought a wookie pajama suit for the party. Way good. We have been teaching a ton of lessons and finding a lot of new investigators, who we will be teaching this week! Also, all of our investigators are progressing very well. I love the people here! Anibal and Conceição are so accepting of everything we have to teach them. It rocks. We taught them about tithing last week and they said "finally! We were wondering what we could give to the church!" How cool is that?? Everything about the church is that way for them! They are quitting smoking and getting married and doing all of these things so willingly. The only downside is that Conceição really loves to make fun of me because I can´t speak Portuguese. But that´s a small price to pay for their eternal salvation! We have their baptisms marked for the 22nd, if I haven´t already said it. Whoo! Conceição also cooked us this "soup." Ahem. At first, it looked great. It was just a strange grayish - brown, but I was pretty optimistic. Then she explains that it is made up of pig intestines, and all of the organs of a pig, blended together, thickened with congealed pork blood. Yummy. It definitely had a strange texture. Haha Conceição said "Nos portugeses têm o melhor comido no mundo!" or the portuguese have the best food in the world. She was very proud. Unfortunately, Conceição, not everyone in the world loves blended pig parts, but tudo bem. I will say that the pastries are to die for. They´re like 50 cents and are always delicious. ~

This week, I have been reading a lot about Christ and how he was chosen from the beginning to be the Savior and all of this awesome stuff about Him and His ministry. It amazes me that someone could be perfect and willing enough to pay for the sins of every person who has lived on earth. I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for His sacrifice for us. I am so grateful to know of it, too! This gospel is His gospel! How blessed we are to know it, and to live it! Because he suffered, he knows exactly how to bless us and help us when we need Him. Take advantage of this gift our Savior has given to us and become more like him. I am starting a 40 day fast of everything that I feel is keeping me from being 100% the best missionary I can be, based off of a talk that our president gave us. There is SO much to improve on. But I know that because my Savior knows me, He will help me with this fast. I encourage you to better yourself through your Savior, because He WILL be there to build you up into the person that God sees you as. 

Okay! It´s been a great week, and I´ll talk to you all next week! Peace out!

-Elder Valentine!