Elder Spencer Valentine: January 2017

Monday, January 9, 2017

Happy 18 Months on Your Mission (Spencer and Mom) Jan 9 2017

Hi mom!

It was a good week! We didn't get to talk to Carlos and his famiy this week, unfortunately. They were busy and couldn't talk, but we've been in contact with them. We'll see if we can teach them this week, because I won't even be in my area because an elder fractured his skull and is staying at the mission home, and Elder Judd is going to go "replace" him for this week until the other elder is better, and I'll be in a tripanionship with Elder Yoder and Elder Wait until the next transfer, which is next week! Woah! Also Elder Yoder is going home next week. It's insane because when I started serving with him, he was at the point of his mission where I am! Blah! How scary is that? Do you remember me getting into the office? Yeah, that's how much time I have left! AH! But we've been talking to ANOTHER family, Paula, Tiago, and Carlos, who are the sister (and her nephew and son) of an awesome member in the ward. We're really excited about that too! We taught them the first lesson and after she told us that Carlos, who is 16, liked us a lot better than other missionaries who had taught them, and that he was excited to talk to us more, and she is super nice and Tiago was the same way as Carlos, so that's been good! And we shared a powerful message on faith to the Bishop (Bispo Carvalho) and his family, and he is really excited to work with us.

That's so cool that Adam has transcribed Grandpa Bob's journals! I remember Grandpa Bob a little bit. It's been a long time! It really shows how the spirit of Elijah is turning "the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the fathers to their children." I love that!

I have currently written in my journal every day too! Yay us! Thanks for sharing your goals - I like them! I haven't made any goals for after the mission yet... I haven't really thought about it honestly!

Wow. Anna's hair is insane. Good job! It's super gorgeous! Man, I wish I could see this play. But I'll have fun seeing next year's!

This week I tried to make a Chicken Tetrazinni thing but then I found out that our darn apartment doesn't have any cooking supplies. It doesn't have a single oven-proof dish! How the heck am I supposed to use an oven with nothing to put in it? Haha so it was more just like a chicken pasta thing, kind of like alfredo. We've eaten some leftover ham and rice and salad from New Year's meals, and some tuna stuff haha we haven't really had time for a lot!

Spiritual experience - we went out on Saturday night to work, and things weren't really working out and we were deciding where we wanted to go, and I remembered an old investigator (his name is Virgílio, I think I have mentioned him before) from a while ago that we hadn't passed by recently, so we went and knocked on his door, and he finally opened and let us in, and told us that his younger sister had just passed away and how it was only the last of a lot of deaths in his family - his parents, his son, his sister - and we were able to testify to him of the truthfulness of the plan of salvation and how it could bless not only him, with the knowledge and peace it brings, but also for his family. It was awesome because I just had the idea to go there, we didn't have it planned, but it was just the right moment to go and talk to him.

I will need a new black belt really soon! Haha the one I'm using is on its last legs. It's basically hanging off of a tiny piece of leather. It'll probably break in the next few weeks. Also I don't know if we could still do that scripture cover thing, or if it's too expensive (like €50) but yeah. :)

The weather is super good! Like, 50´s today! In winter! Insane! No rain!

Elder Judd is leaving me for a week to go work with one of the AP's because the other (Elder Gabbitas, who came in with me to the MTC) literally broke is head. He fractured his skull from a morning run and getting clotheslined by an iron bar and falling and hitting his head! So I'm in a tripla with Elder Yoder and Elder Wait until the next transfer starts next week.

I meet all the new missionaries being in the office because we do a training thing when they get here, so I know Elder Luiten and Elder Bates (though they might not remember me because it was their first couple days which are just the worst haha) but Sister Maingot I know really well!

When you don't clean, or work, or do cakes, or do choir and sing/play the piano, do you like to do anything? :)

Okay! I'm gonna write a couple more people, but thanks mom! I love you lots!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Hiya Elder Valentine (January 9)

Hi dad!

I think that is such an awesome idea to get the youth involved in teaching and doing family history work. It's funny because even though I had been going to mission prep and I had been studying Preach My Gospel etc., I realized when I got into the MTC all the steps to teaching and following the Spirit don't come through study, but through doing! Practice! Real lessons! So to give the youth the opportunity to teach will do SO much good for them. That's awesome!

Zone Conferences - we'll get two or three zones together and We'll start with a hymn and a prayer, then President Amorim will always go through his "agenda" for the meeting with us so we know what's going to happen. Then he will take 10-15 minutes and let missionaries ask him any question they might have about the work or just stuff in general - rule clarifications, questions about teaching situations, his ideas on a good way to teach, whatever. Then we will have 1-2 hours where President will teach us what he wants us to focus on for the next little while. Our last zone conference, he had everyone stand up, look at all the other missionaries, and then asked "what do you see?" and people answered "servants of God" "good young men and women serving selflessly" "humility" "love for god" etc. and then he went through a bunch of new testament scriptures that talked about judging righteously and unrighteously. Then he will talk about how we are doing with mission goals about baptisms or whatever, and we'll talk about the next month or two and what he wants to see. Then we will do a practice on a topic or teaching principle that he thinks we need to learn as a mission (ex. The second lesson (plan of salvation) as a topic, "using the scriptures" as a teaching principle). Then he will give a last message with his wife, usually about faith or hard work or something showing how we can accomplish everything we talked about in the meeting, and testify of it.

That's like a pretty basic outline of a zone meeting! If you have any other questions I'd love to answer, because I was just thinking about doing it with youth and some fun ways you could apply it and I think it would be super awesome.

Wow, busy life! You're insane! What kind of stuff do you have to prepare for RootsTech? And in your meetings at work, what do you talk about every day? Haha it seems like you're just always in meetings and that you should run out of stuff to talk about. What do you do? Actually yeah, what do you do at work? I know you're the senior vice president of records and partnership relations or whatever, but what does that entail for you?

Okay, that's about it for now, I guess! Love you dad!

- Elder Valentine!

Happy New Year (Spencer and Mom)

Hi mom!

Thanks for the two big letters! I think a lot about how blessed my family is. I'm so grateful for the good lives we live - and when I think about it like that, it makes me understand how much more God expects of us, you know? As members of the church with a big happy family and with our knowledge of the Gospel, God wants us to share our blessings with others, because the brighter our "light on a candlestick" is, the more people can be effected by it. We have the brightest candlesticks in the world as members of God's church, so we should share our light with as many people as we can, whether it be through sharing the gospel or just serving God's children by listening, sharing what we have, anything.

We didn't really do anything exciting for New Years since we have to be in bed by 11, but I was definitely up at midnight with all of the fireworks going off! We said "happy new year" to each other and then went to sleep haha! Portugal makes excuses to make any day a holiday - for example, today no one is working just because it's the day after New Years, so it's like a 3 day celebration. I haven't even thought about any new years resolutions yet unfortunately, except that I want to write in my journal every day until I get home, since I've been going at about 1 or 2 times a week, which is lame. So there's #1! and I didn't fail yesterday so we're off to a good start. :)~

We taught that brazilian family again - Carlos, Ana, Julio, Juliana. They are super devout protestants but they accepted the book of mormon and said they would read, so we'll pray that they will get an answer!

I'm so sad that the Tower of Terror is closing!! Anna told me in her letter that she put in the package. I also bought some berry jam today, so I can officially open my peanut butter tonight! :)

What are some of your new years resolutions? Thanks for answering my questions by the way. :) You're the best! I love you so much! I'll go write dad real quick while I still have some time. Have a fantastic week mom!

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 5:40 PM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

So we left at 7:30 am on Monday morning the 26th. Kimber and Kevin met us at our house and we stayed together the whole way (in our separate cars). We had good weather to drive in, but when we got to the Las Vegas area there was a huge traffic jam so it took us an extra two hours to get to California because of it. But we still went to IHOP at 9:30 pm and ate dinner!

Tuesday morning we woke up early to use our "magic morning" early entry. We were in the park by 7:15! The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies, and we had jackets on at first, but it warmed up by 9:00 or so and we didn't need our jackets until it got dark again around 5:00pm. Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear ride instead of our tradition of going on Space Mountain first because of Lincoln and Porter. We wanted to make sure we mostly did stuff they could enjoy too. But we still did all the big people rides too- the baby swap pass is super awesome. Two of us would always get to ride twice so we took turns being those two lucky ducks.

Apparently the week after Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year so it was pretty crowded, but it didn't lessen our enjoyment. It was a great first day! Whenever there was a parade, they had to open up some extra walkways to keep people moving so several times we got to see behind the scenes a little. One of them was through the area that they are building Star Wars Land! It looks like it's going to be amazing! There's always a "Day 2 slump" so Kimberly's kids were a bit cranky the 2nd day and they went back to the hotel early that day. The rest of us stayed until around 9:00.

Day four of the trip, Thursday, we went to Universal. I don't know if you remember when we went there before, but you've been to Universal in California and Florida. If you recall, we didn't love it the first time in California. The employees were grumpy, it was dirty, and all that. Florida we mostly just went for the Harry Potter land, but it was so narrow and cramped it was hard to enjoy. Well, I'm happy to say, they have improved greatly! This time we had a great visit! It was clean, the employees were really nice and helpful, and Harry Potter land was exactly the same only slightly more spread out. It was crazy busy there, but we ended up getting some "front of the line passes" from a few different employees and we got right on some of the rides when the wait times were two hours! Thanks to Kevin who can sweet talk anybody! 😉 Because we were there in the "winter/Christmastime", they were serving hot butter-beer so we got some of that. It was delicious! We ride the main Harry Potter ride (remember how awesome that was?) and a few others. I mostly stayed with the little kids while everyone else rode, but there was this one Jurassic Park ride that they went on and I wasn't gonna go on it because it involved water, but they talked me into it because when they went on it the first time they didn't get wet. So I went and stayed dry the whole time until the end and then a dinosaur at the very last part of the ride squirted me right in the face!! Just me. No one else!! Haha.

On Friday was our last day at Disneyland/CA Adventure. The Tower of Terrir ride is ending so we tried to ride it as much as possible. At night they make it so you ride in complete darkness! It's so fun! One of the times we were in line, we laughed so hard because Dad leaned against a gate and it wasn't locked so he fell in an everyone looked because the gate slammed against the wall super hard and made a very loud noise that drew attention to it. We were laughing so hard. Dad was embarrassed but he played it up and made it funny.

We came up with some new "FOD" words on the Soarin' ride- they were good ones but I can't remember now! You would have liked them. One was with the F standing for Faith! I wish I could remember. The other was Star Wars related- First Order Droids I think. I love it.

I wish I could tell you more but I think that'll have to do for now! Lincoln and Porter were so fun to have with us. They were the cutest and they loved Carsland the most of course. It was just such a great trip! We talked about you the whole time. There was even a guy working on the Star Tours ride that looked just like you and acted like you too! Kimberly took pics of him so I hope she sends them to you. We can't wait til we go again and YOU will be with us!!

On Monday, January 2, 2017, Spencer Valentine <spencer.valentine@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Mom,

Haha just real quick in case you have some time, dad didn't tell me anything about the trip - he said "mom will tell you the details!" haha so if you want to tell me that would be great!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 4:54 PM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Elder Valentine/Son,

Christmas was a whirlwind! It has gone by SO fast. But it has been GOOD! We are so blessed!

Dad told you about the trip- it was so good! The weather was in the 70's except one day it rained a bit but we were glad cuz it was much less busy!😊 It was really hard to come home to 20 degree weather and ice everywhere!

Since that's all we did this week, there's not much to say about our week. One thing I will say about the trip - it was really different and extra special because 1) Christmas, 2) Happiness and everyone got along so well! 3) I saved all the money I would have spent on Christmas gifts and we used it for treats and souvenirs and it was fun to be able to buy pretty much anything we wanted the whole time we were there! I spent my portion on ornaments for our Christmas tree since we are trying to make it Disney themed. Ethan got a super awesome light saber, Anna got a cute sweatshirt. Dad didn't really want anything, so he mostly got food! Anyway, usually we are trying to be frugal while there, but this time we didn't have to be so it was extra fun and stress-free.

Okay, so last time you asked me a few questions which I will answer now. 😊 In case you forgot what you wrote, here it is:

"How is the nanny thing going? How long are you planning on doing it for? What's your favorite hymn? And your favorite scripture? I'll ask you some more questions next week. :)"

My nanny job with the Powells is still good. The kids are getting easier as they get older. Especially Damian. He's gone through a lot of really annoying and difficult phases, but he is four now and he's mostly just a cute and well-behaved boy. Naomi is the same age as Ryleigh, and she is in a hard age of getting into things, getting hurt a lot from falling down or climbing things, and she's pretty stubborn so she cries a lot when you tell her know or you have to take something away from her. But overall it's getting easier. I'll admit that there are days when it gets tedious and I don't want to do it, but there are also days when it's fun and I really don't mind it. And I get paid well so it's a great job. As far as how long... it's hard to say. When I got the job (four years ago!) They said they were hoping to hire someone who could stay until Damian was in school. Now that they have Naomi, I'm sure they are hoping I'll stay until SHE is in school now too. Which would be another four years. Honestly, there's always the possibility something could change and I won't continue for that long, but I probably will. It would be hard to end it without a really good reason, especially since they live next door! So we'll see! I probably will stay for the long term. The thing that makes it a good job is that if I need to go somewhere or pick up Ethan from school if he's sick or whatever,I can put the kids in the car and go. I can't do that with any other job I would get. And it's always the same schedule- other jobs I would have to work varying shifts. And it's in the morning. I'm off by 3:00pm, so I have my afternoons and evenings free. That's one thing I did not like about teaching piano- it tied me down in the afternoons!! So there you go. I'm sure I answered that in much more detail than you really wanted. But get used to it! It's how women are and you'll have a wife one day! 😉

It's hard to choose a favorite hymn, but I think if I had to choose just one it would be "Where Can I Turn For Peace". A close runner is "All Creatures of Our God and King". That one might be tied with "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I love the hymns so it's hard to choose. But those are all favorites.

Favorite scripture:

2 Nephi 25: 26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our cchildren may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Love that one!

I love that you asked me questions I can answer. 😊

Do they celebrate the new year in Portugal? What did you do to ring in the new year? Ours was a bit anticlimactic because we got home from our trip at 11:50pm so we carried all our luggage in the house and watch the clock turn to midnight, then said "happy new year" to each other and went to bed! 😬

Well, I love you tons! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Love, Mom

Happy New Year (Spencer and Dad) 2017

Read this one from the bottom up:

Dang it dad!

You make me cry like every week! You turn me into a big booby blubbering missionary (or B3M).

Disneyland sounds like a ton of fun. I'm devastated that the Tower of Terror is closing but I guess it has to be.

Here in 3 days I'm going to hit my "six months to sexy," (which is six months to work out and get fit before going home, which is not something I made up, it's an old thing, so get that disgusted look off your face) but how crazy is that?

Thanks for the inspiring and inspired letter, Dad, for real. Like you said, I need to get what I know in my head to what I feel in my heart; and I feel like that applies to all missionary work! I KNOW that God can perform miracles and do His work through His servants, but is that a part of me? I don't want to get in my own way of being God's instrument! So thanks again!

What are some of your New Year's Resolutions, dad? My first (and only so far, unfortunately! I'll do more!) is to write in my journal every day until the end of my mission, and I did yesterday, so 1 day down, 6 months to go! I'll make some more today and tomorrow and then tell you next week!

Happy new years, dad!

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 5:38 AM, Stephen Valentine <ValentineSJ@familysearch.org> wrote:

Dear Elder Valentine,

Happy New Years! You left on your mission in 2015 and now it's 2017! That's amazing!! Also amazing is that you will be turning 20 this year! That's officially old!!

As you know, we spent the week in California at Disneyland and Universal. Mom will be sending you some pictures. We had a really great time. I'll spare you the details, but just know that throughout the week we kept saying: "We can't wait until Spencer can be here with us!" One fun thing is that the Star Wars Land is coming along pretty well. It may be done in 2018. That should be really awesome. Also, there is now a Harry Potter area in Universal Hollywood that is better (I think) than the one we visited in Florida. So when you're back and we can go to California you can see that, too.

Also very fun this time was Porter and Lincoln being with us. They are so cute! You are going to love getting to know them. They made the whole trip really fun because it's like reliving your childhood to see their excitement and enthusiasm for everything. Kimberly is really a good Mom, and the boys love their Daddy. Kevin is a really good Dad. We all had a great time together. No drama! No tension! No hurt feelings! Just fun.

It was so amazing to talk to you on Christmas. You may not see it in yourself, but I saw some real growth in you. I mean, you are growing spiritually, but also you are seeming more "like a man"! You are looking older and more mature. You left a boy and are coming home a man!! Wow, that sounds like a huge stereotype, but I think it's true.

I wanted to share some additional thoughts about your current assignment. I know that you're struggling a bit being in the office. But I also know that your mission president has keys. Since he has keys he is entitled to revelation for where God needs his missionaries. Since that is true, and you know it is true, then you are exactly where God needs you. Now I know that you know this in your head but I want you to know it down deep in your heart.

As an example, I was talking to a ward member a few days ago in my office at the church. We were talking about some challenge that she is facing. Then she said something really inspired. She said: "Well, I know that God knew that this was going to happen to me. He knew this even before Iw as born, so I guess that's why he brought (so and so) into my life and made all these other things happen, because God knew I would be having this trial right now." This is a true principle. Because God already knows what will happen in the Porto Portugal mission, and because he already knows what his children in Portugal needs, and because HE can hasten his own work, and because he knew all this before you were even born, and because you were called to this very mission because of your specific skills and talents . . . THEN because of all of that, of course being the executive secretary is EXACTLY what God needs from you right now! One of the key reasons you were called to this mission was to be the executive secretary. Again, I know that you know this, and you're thinking right now: Dad, I get it. I have faith. I know this is true. But I still wish I could be out there doing "real" work right now . . . The thing is, Elder Valentine, this is the REAL work that God needs you to do right now! You know it, but do you believe it? Do you have sufficient faith to believe it and not feel impatient or as if somehow you're not achieving your full potential? This IS you fulfilling your potential.

I'm not trying to be pushy here. It's just that I KNOW IT and BELIEVE IT at a level so much deeper now than I ever have before. In Nehemiah the Lord calls many different families to build their portion of the wall of the temple. Every person is called to do their part, in their portion, with what skills they have. This is true now for you. So never despair. All that you need to do is magnify the assignment you are given. And I know you are doing that! Your mission president trusts you! He needs you! You are keeping the whole mission going! What an amazing responsibility that you have!

I say this so often that perhaps it is losing it's effectiveness . .. but, once more, I want you to know that I am SO proud of you! I could not be more proud (in all the righteous ways!). There is a part of my heart that is imprinted by you, and it makes me happy every single day. Thank you so much for all you are doing to inspire and bless me!

The year of 2017 is going to be an amazing year for you, my son. I know it! You will complete an honorable mission giving a full offering acceptable to the Lord. You will return to a loving family. You will start college! You will have many great new experiences serving the Lord. It will be a wonderful year for you.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. You have work to do now! So get out there and get back to your desk and do your very best. I will do the same in my own portion of the vineyard, on my own portion of the wall.

I love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Dad

Feliz Ano Novo!

My people!

Apologies for any Spanish speakers who are offended by that title. It makes sense in Portuguese.

Happy New Year! Holy Camoly! It's 2017! Time to make some resolutions! I wish a very successful year of resolution completing (unless you have already dropped out on yours, in which case, shame on you, you uncommitted weenie).

A quick funny story that wasn't funny for me - on Wednesday our Cape Verdian travel agent called me at 10:30 PM to tell me that the next morning, at 7 AM, two missionaries going to the Spain MTC were showing up at the airport and that I needed to go pick them up. Jolly good. So we got up at 5 AM to get to the airport by subway since we don't have a car, and when we got to the airport I couldn't find the flight number, so I called said agent and he said "oh, sorry, they are arriving in Lisbon, I thought you were the Lisbon Elders." What a blessing. So I quickly called the Lisbon Elders and they told me that said agent had already called them last night, and that someone had forgotten to tell us!

I want to share a new years thought that I stole from a new mormon message (privilege of sitting in front of a computer 7 hours a day!) about new years.

Scripture: "Remember Lot's wife," followed by "look not behind thee." Christ specifically told us to remember Lot's wife; why? Look not behind thee - we are at the start of a new year! It's a new beginning! You have a new chance to make a difference, or BE a difference! And you don't need to look back at all of your faults and unaccomplished dreams - make this new year the year you DO. But more importantly, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, EVERY day is a new start for you! Wake up tomorrow and be better. Wake up tomorrow and be changed by Christ. And then do it again every day for the rest of your life - you are constantly starting new days and new weeks and new years, if you think about it, and today is the first day of the rest of your life - so make the first day the best day, every day. Go be different tomorrow! In fact, go be different NOW. Because Christ made it possible.

Happy changes!

- Elder Valentine!

Christmas Pictures!

Here's how Spencer described the pictures:

Some fun Christmas stuff!

I don't know the order, because I can't see them... but

1. President Amorim dressed up as Santa Claus in our Christmas conference!

2. Proselyting on Christmas eve!

3. Member lunch on Christmas!

4. My whole MTC district was at the Mission Leadership council as STL´s, Zone Leaders, and one of the AP´s. And me as the lonely Executive. Haha :(

Natal (December 19)

Dear Everyone,

Merry Christmas!

It's not Christmas yet but I won't be able to say it beforehand so take it now. :)

Elder Judd and I had a really fun week of talking to absolutely everyone. We had a ward Christmas party and a Devotional this weekend, and with the invitations we made we invited everyone to go! For example: There is a big soccer stadium by our house, and there was a game going on last week, so a lot of police officers were standing in big groups to control crowds. We were passing by a couple hours before the game started so the only people on the road were the police, so we invited all of them to go to the parties! They were way nicer than most people actually haha. And Elder Judd forgot his bus pass a couple of days ago, so he sweet-talked the bus driver into letting him go without paying in exchange for an invite to the ward party, and it totally worked. It was a ton of fun!

Well I gotta go now haha I planned my time poorly, but have the most Merry Christmas without Elder Valentine! I know the Gospel is true, and I love my Savior! I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the Gospel to let me remember Him during this Christmas time!

- Elder Valentine!

"We Wish You A Merry Christmas" Email from Mom

Hi there mom!

It sounds like such a good December week! The weather has not decided what time of the year it is yet haha so that's been great. It's been pretty cold and rainy but then we will get a random day of heat when I'm all bundled up so then I am too hot from having too many clothes on... haha it's been really funny!

I'll save the package for Christmas! Woohoo! Haha you know what's funny? I get notifications of most packages that come through since I have the mission email, and I saw the one that said "stephen Valentine" and I got pretty excited!

I currently have a nice big fat zit on the side of my face. It's great. Love it. Good first appearance, as I always say.

Or not.

I'm glad that Ethan is liking the trumpet! How long has he been playing now?

I asked Dad too but what's up with Ethan's bullying issue? That makes me sad.

Well for some thoughts on joy - I have no idea if I am stealing a General Authorities quote or something, but I think that joy is not the absence of trials, but the presence of Christ. The angel Gabriel proclaiming Christ's birth came to the Earth bringing "good tidings of great joy," and with a little help from James E. Talmadge in Jesus the Christ, I payed attention to the chorus of angels praising God, Singing "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will towards men. This is what James E. Talmadge said:

"Tidings of such import had never before been delivered by angel or received by man-good tidings of great joy, given to but few and those among the humblest of earth, but destined to spread to all people. There is sublime grandeur in the scene, as there is divine authorship in the message, and the climax is such as the mind of man could never have conceived—the sudden appearance of a multitude of the heavenly host, singing audibly to human ears the briefest, most consistent and most truly complete of all the songs of peace ever attuned by mortal or spirit choir. What a consummation to be wished—Peace on earth! But how can such come except through the maintenance of good will toward men? And through what means could glory to God in the highest be more effectively rendered?"

And I love that! Christ's birth started a 34 year long journey of bringing peace to Earth through the consumation of Christ's mission. He came to bring peace and joy to all man, through His Atonement. His life ended with all of the Pharisees and Jews against Him, which in the moment was probably not very peaceful nor joyful, but that wasn't the point - Christ was doing it for something far greater! And that's the example for our joy - we can be stuck in the middle of not very peaceful nor joyful times, but when we have the bigger picture with Christ in the middle, joy comes instantly. I wrote in my study journal after reading a bunch of Atonement scriptures a few weeks ago, and even though it was a hard week and a rough time with a lot of stress, my heart opened up and I praised God through my words into my journal. I just felt so much love and understanding through Christ after studying about Him that I couldn't not be filled with joy! It happened because I understood and pictured in that moment how insignificant my trials are in the face of the Atonement. When we let our burdens be swallowed up in Christ, they don't dissapear, but we become stronger and more joyful through Christ to carry them. I love my Savior! I hope this made sense to you. :)

Okay gotta run real quick, but I love you mom! :)

Love, Elder Valentine!

Pre-Christmas Email (December 19)

pop skadidilly doo dad,

Heyya ther! Ah dun got me sum ´tings tuh say ter yuh tuhday!

Can you translate that sentence?

Elder Judd and I have been having a good time working together. One of the families that we were teaching is from the Assembly of God (if that's a thing in English) and they were doing pretty well, but we haven't been to them in a while because... well it's a long story but we'll be going back soon, I hope! And the other family (Cardoso and Susana) have been really busy working and will stay so until January. I found out last week that here in Portugal, just about everyone works the entire month of December, even Saturdays and Sundays. It's like some law to make it so that the people who work during the week normally can go shopping for Christmas stuff. I don't know if I have told you, but Portugal is has a crazy economic situation. It's like the second poorest country in Europe, and it shows sometimes. We meet people who work for €1.50 an hour! That's nothing! And they work like 14 hour days, so they'll get like 20 bucks a day. It's sad!

Funnily enough, there aren't a ton of service opportunities, because there aren't a lot of agencies that do stuff for the poor, but we look to serve where ever we can! Yesterday we carried a table for a couple that was moving, and we carried it uphill for like a mile, which was so fun! I love serving because people don't expect it and they get a lot nicer when you serve. :)

STAR WARS!!!! Haha oh man. I saw a part of a trailer for it a few months ago at some store, and then I kind of forgot about it until last week when we saw a big billboard with a poster of it! I actually thought it came out a while ago since I hadn't heard anything about it after that one trailer. Gah I'm so excited to see these movies. But I really like being far away from the American culture, because it will be a fun culture shock getting back home! Mom is awesome for making those costumes. Speaking of trunky movies, are the new Sherlock episodes coming out soon? I'm excited for those too!

Ethan told me that he is having some bullying problems, has he told you a lot? I feel so bad for him!

Yeah I remember AP tests being during the same time as musicals and how stressful it was, but it was also a lot of fun. I hope Anna is enjoying being a busy teenager! It's 100x better than being a lazy one!

Yeah I've got your username too! I'll be able to call you on Christmas 8 PM my time, 1 PM yours. Speaking of that, we are having a big Christmas Devotional this week, for which I put together a big mission slideshow for the year. It reminded me of all of the projects that you do! And on Christmas Eve, Sister Amorim invited us to a dinner at 9 PM at the mission home! Whoop! I'm excited!

Well that's all for now, if you have anything else until the SKYPE CALL!!! just message me! Love you dad!

Love, Elder Valentine!

December is in Full Swing (December 12)

Dear motha,

Was that movie about like a hawaiian girl? If it was, then it's called "Vaiana" here. I don't know why if they are the same!

Wow that's awesome that Parker and Cooper both went to the temple!

I also hope that I can pick the violin back up when I get home. Sometimes I just really miss being a part of music!

Haha I would make a comment on all of the stuff you wrote but it would take a while. But it was all cool and I am way proud of Anna and I am excited for those tacos.

We have had to do a ton of stuff with transfers this week! it's been a big rush of going to training meetings, picking missionaries up from the airport, updating mission stuff, etc. I gave a couple parts in the training meeting for the new missionaries so that was fun! We got 15 new missionaries this transfer, so that was stressful, and next transfer we get 17, which will be even crazier! But it's been good. Elder Judd is super awesome! He is an awesome missionary and works hard! He's just sad to be in the office haha he was on Madeira (which is an island) for 7 and a half months, and then got sent here to be my comp, and he's having a hard time with the 3 and a half hours of work time we have every day. But we will work our hardest and everything will be just dandy! He is from California - super cool story, he is from Benicia, which was included in the YSA ward that I served in last year, so everyone that I talked to there knew him! He even remembers Elder Adamson being there, since I got to California the same day he went to he MTC! So it's like a super cool connection. Small world! He is a swimmer and water polo-player, is tall, and is super cool. We've been friends since the beginning of the mission so I'm excited to serve with him! Elder Yoder is still here in the office, he is serving with Elder Wait now. He just kind of bounced areas. He's always excited and is just a hard worker. I love it!

the decorations aren't all the same, but they are good, especially here in Porto! I think the whole world just kind of starts using American cultural stuff and implements it wherever, which is kind of the case here, so year by year Portugal gets more lights and more presents and stuff like that. I heard the song "last christmas (I gave you my heart)" while I was getting a haircut today haha!

Stuff... well I actually bought the scarf already today - it was 10 euros! Sorry! I just used some money I had lying around because it's really getting colder! Sorry! But as for other stuff, um, a new belt would be nice, but that's something I could buy here if I needed, like I always say I love pictures, yup well that's like all I can think of haha. A tiny bottle of maple syrup would be pretty cool. I have some pancake mix and no syrup! Favorite candies, sei lá. :( Sorry haha I'm so unhelpful! Just fun homey stuff! I loved anna's quotes for example, I love letters, and dad's letters with pictures are always good.

Well I want to write Anna and Ethan real quick, so I'll wrap up! Love you mom! Have the best 3rd week of December ever!

Love, Elder Valentine!

Pre-Christmas Greetings

Hey daddio!

Christmas time in Porto is way better than it was in Coimbra last year! I mean, last year I saw like 2 strands of lights in the whole city, but here they are putting up a bunch of big trees in plazas and lots of road decorations and stuff. Also, everyone puts out a red flag with the same baby Jesus on their balconies. I'll attach a picture of it. There are still no strands of lights, but I guess it's hard to have them when almost everyone lives in an apartment, and anyone who doesn't has a house with 0 access to the roof. So yup. My Christmas plans?? I have no idea! Christmas has snuck up on me like a fat guy trying to take the last piece of cake without anyone realizing! Haha I just realized yesterday that we should take an office christmas picture and buy like gifts or something but I have no idea when that is gonna happen so...

We can do the skype call after church (for you guys) if it works! Elder Judd's family has early church so we can just do it at night here and I think it will work out!

Fun trip! That must have been a super spiritual experience. What is your goal at work? Like, what are you working towards? Does that make sense? In your trips and your many marvelous meetings (M^3) and stuff, where is it that you and your team is trying to get to?

Yes, Dad, I do miss american hamburgers. Lots. The problem in the end will be that I'll probably just gain 20 pounds in the month after I get home because I will be eating so many long missed foods! But who cares about that?

I like that thought on Eternal Marriage! Trunky! I miss going to the temple!

Okay so some thoughts. You know what's cool that I kind of forgot to mention? I have been doing a big study on Jesus Christ and the Atonement lately, using a big list of scripture references and Prophet/Apostle quotes that I found, and it has been so amazing! First, I know that Christ's is the only name by which we can be saved, because no one else who has ever lived has come even close to making the same type of sacrifice as He made for us. It is through Him only that we are saved because it was by Him only that every wrong, every bad thing, every negative and imperfect aspect of us was felt, and He overcame it all. People pray to Saints or Mary the mother of Jesus or whoever, and it makes me wonder if they understand what Christ really did. I love Alma 7:11-13, but so does everyone!

I read an awesome talk by Elder Bednar about (long talk short) a mom who almost lost her son, and had to not have faith that God could save her son, but actually that he could not - and if He didn't, that it would be according to God's will. Christ taught this type of contradiction at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, by saying things like

"3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

And He gives the example to his apostles by washing their feet, showing them complete humility, even though He was the greatest of all. Elder Bednar says that the gospel is full of these types of "contradictions" or paradoxes, and that this woman gained greater faith in God when she understood it. I love it because it means that even though Christ is our Savior and encompasses all with His greatness and majesty, He knows the very number of hairs on our heads and our names, and this is possible because of His Atonement.

Ask me again next week because I want to think about it some more, but that's the jist. I love my Savior!

Mom really is talented! I hope I can have a wife as talented as Mom. #trunkyagain but it's true, Mom really is amazing. And everything that you said in this letter was all for other people - none of it was for herself! She is truly amazing!

Well, I gotta write mom now, but I love you Dad!

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 6:32 AM, Stephen Valentine <ValentineSJ@familysearch.org> wrote:

Elder V.,

How is Christmas-time in Portugal? Are you seeing many Christmas lights or other decorations? Do the Catholics come out and attend church at Christmas? What are your Christmas plans?

One important thing that we need to coordinate right now is the time for the Skype call on Christmas. Our sacrament meeting is at 11. So the best time for us would be if you could call at 9 our time, which would be 4 your time. OR you could call after church for us, about 12:30 our time or 7:30 your time. This would also be fine. We just don’t want to miss it! There’s nothing more important that receiving your call! So please let me know how we can coordinate this.

I had another pretty crazy week. I spent Monday and Tuesday in Washington DC. I’m going to email you some pictures. I mentioned the trip last week in my email. The visit was really awesome. The Museum of African American Culture and History is an incredible place. The spirit was really strong in the museum. We gave the museum (which is a Smithsonian museum) the copy of the Freedmen index that the church created for them. It was a big ceremony that the Archivist of the United States spoke at and Elder Christofferson. I attended the ceremony and had dinner with Elder C. and Elder Keetch of the 70 along with my boss and a bunch of people from Church public affairs. It was pretty cool. I want to take you all to the museum when we visit Washington DC in the summer.

Wednesday night was meetings at the church, then visits. Thursday was Anna’s violin recital and then dinner at Crown Burgers (I bet you miss a good American hamburger!!!). Friday Mom was working on a wedding cake and then we took Anna and Ethan Christmas shopping. Saturday was Meagan’s wedding and then Anna’s voice recital and then a party with some of my friends from work. Today I was at tithing settlement until 6:30, then was finally able to spend a little time at home. Tomorrow I’m having a party with all of my work staff at our house, so even tonight was spent preparing for tomorrow. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a busy December!

Meagan’s sealing was really amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the Spirit so strong in a sealing. One thing that the sealer said really stood out to me. He said that Eternal Marriage is God’s marriage, because Eternal is God’s name (we know this from DC where he says that Eternal Punishment is God’s punishment). But I’ve never really applied that to Eternal marriage to translate that as “God’s marriage.” Isn’t that great? This is the type of marriage that we are entitled to have in His holy temples. A marriage blessed by God! Wow. I love that!

Here’s a request for you: I’m speaking on Christmas (so is Mom!) on the Savior. Please share with me any thoughts that you have about Jesus Christ. This could be any insights about Him, any favorite scriptures, just anything at all. This request goes for Mom as well!

Your Mom made Meagan’s wedding cake and did an amazing job! She played the piano for Amanda’s song in sacrament meeting today and did an amazing job! She played the piano at Anna’s voice recital for a father and son who didn’t have a pianist—and she did an amazing job sight-reading the music! She is now decorating the house for my party tomorrow and is making a little gift that I’ll be giving each couple who come, and do you know what? She’s doing an amazing job! You have a very talented mother!

The Clayvilles and the Talbots wanted me to wish you Merry Christmas!

I’m going to email you a few photos now from my trip. I’m really looking forward to your email tomorrow. Have a great P-day! Love ya!

Dad

December 12 "Untitled" Email

Dear Everyone,

It's been a crazy few weeks! The office is great but it takes up a lot of email time so you can all forgive me and it'll be great. :)

Transfers happened, and I'll be with Elder Judd! He's one of the missionaries that came into the country with me a whole year and a while ago, so he's just one transfer younger than me since I served in California for my first transfer. He's a hard working missionary and is not excited to be in the office, haha but I'll convince him it's a good thing! He's going to be another finance secretary, so I shall continue my work as the lonely executive!

We've had some great opportunities to teach lately, and we will just have to keep teaching and practicing and following the Spirit until the end!

I had an cool realization whilst reading the Book of Mormon; I just got done reading the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi in Portuguese, and I laughed when, in chapter 25, Nephi says that he delights in the plainess of the words of Isaiah. I mean, lets be honest, it's a struggle in English, let alone a second language. But then Nephi says the following:

" 4 Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of thehouse of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy. But I give unto you a prophecy, according to thespirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy accordingto the plainness which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold,my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn."

This scripture applies to my mission because investigators won't understand God's doctrine the same way I will struggle to understand Isaiah, unless we have a spirit of prophecy, which to me means that we have to be open for the Spirit to "prophecy" to us, and that as a teacher I need to be worthy of teaching with the Spirit to allow that process to take place. Nephi later says, in the same chapter, that the purpose of his writings is to prophecy of and rejoice in Christ, that his children might know to what source they might look for a remission of their sins. In all honesty, my good friends, what good will all of the school books and classic novels and interesting reads to for us if we don't know where to look for a remission of our sins? Or, in other words, what is more important; our worries about life and the world, or Christ? I understand here more than ever that people really do struggle with hard problems, many of them people that I know personally. I am sorry for all who have these times - but they are not forever, and Christ is our source for true happiness! The moment that you go through a hard time, do something for Christ. Serve someone, read a scripture, say a prayer, whatever. But look to Christ. Because without Him, we have nothing, and with Him, we have it all!

Oh I thought I would pitch in my two cents on the #lighttheworld campaign - do it! It's so amazing and inspired! I'm loving inviting people to follow Christ this Christmas and you should too! Anyway, y'all have a great week!

- Elder Valentine!

December 5 Email (Spencer and Dad)

Hey you big fart!

I hope you don't open this next to Elder Christofferson... that would be awkward for him to see.

That sounds like a way cool trip! It kind of seems like you are doing biweekly trips to places, is that right? So, this is not like a trunky question or anything, but will we be able to go to the Smithsonian on our trip? If not, tudo bem, but if yes, that would be super cool!

What a fun party!

I can't really lie, I don't remember Bonnie Alison super well. :( Could you send me a picture? But that sounds like a really awesome spiritual experience that you had with her. I think I'll want to visit people in whatever ward I'm in for the rest of my life, because I have visited so many people here on the mission and it's the best feeling to help people feel the Spirit and help them progress.

Oh duh! So this week transfers came out on Sunday night and not Monday, so that's why I have a bit of time to write. So I did all of the travel plans yesterday, I did SEF (residency stuff) today, and once I got here there was a bunch of other stuff to do... work never ends! What a depressing thought haha! But one of the office elders, Elder Moeller, is finishing his mission tomorrow, so we will get a new office elder here. Elder Yoder, who has been my comp for the last 3 transfers, will be with Elder Wait, who came in last transfer, and Elder Judd will be my new comp! He is one of the elders that came in with me to Portugal (not the MTC because of California) and he is super awesome. Transfers won't officially happen until tomorrow, so I'll be with Elder Yoder and Elder Wait tonight, but I'm pretty excited. Elder Judd was a zone leader on Madeira island, and is super hard working and we are already really good friends just from coming in together and stuff. But he'll be a new finance secretary - I'm still alone as executive! Haha it's not necessarily bad, but it means that I'll be in the office for at least 5 transfers, because this is my 4th, and I still haven't been able to train anyone, so that's a problem. It has been a super insane last two days and will be a still insane next couple of days. I have never had to think about so many things at the same time in my life. Last night I literally was just trying to leave the office but everytime I got up to leave, I thought of one more thing I needed to get done! Haha it's been pretty funny.

Sister Roque, the Brazilian Senior Sister here, said that her son was an office secretary in his mission as well, and that he liked it so much that he followed a financial secretary office job for his career and is now very successful because of it! Haha but it's really funny that you say that because it's exactly what I was thinking...

I'll be waiting for those trump pictures! Love you dad!

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 5:42 AM, Stephen Valentine <ValentineSJ@familysearch.org> wrote:

Elder Valentine,

Hi! I didn’t get a chance to email you last week. Now you aren’t having your P Day tomorrow so you likely won’t get a letter from me this week either! Bummer for me!

I’m headed to Washington DC in the morning. The Smithsonian just opened a new National Museum for African American History. FamilySearch created an index of freed blacks after the Civil War and we are presenting it to the Smithsonian tomorrow among much ceremony. Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of 12 is traveling with us. I’ll be with him, my boss, and the Managing Director of Church Public Affairs tomorrow and Tuesday. Sounds fun, but also a bit stressful! I’ll send you some pictures of me and Donald Trump!!

What a busy week! Mom will probably send you pictures of our epic ward party. It was so much fun! The ward member seemed to really love it. I love doing “big” things for our ward, because I think it draws us closer together. The next big thing will be our Valetines Social. You will be home in time for our summer party! Hooray for that!

I had a ton of things going on at work this week, but probably the highlight of the week for me, even more so than the ward party, was taking Bonnie Alison to the temple on Saturday morning to do sealings. You remember her? She’s nearly 80, a really sweet old sister. You home taught her with me. Her husband recently passed away. She has never done sealings before, so Mom and I took her with us on Saturday to do sealings for my family and a couple of Mom’s. The truth is, I wouldn’t have gone at all because we’ve been so busy, but I wanted to take Sister Alison to the temple. The Spirit was so strong! She really enjoyed it, and I could tell that she felt the Spirit. We are going to help her do the baptisms for her family. It’s so awesome! On Monday we had the Brough family over to our house and I helped them find family names. It’s so much fun!

Your little brother was pretty awesome in the Shakespeare play. I didn’t get to see it, but Mom showed me the video. I went with GP and GMA Valentine on Saturday (after the sealings) to see Amanda receive her Associates Degree at the Air Force. I got to see her plane. It was cool.

I’ve been doing tithing settlement the past three weeks. I was at the church until about 6:40 tonight with tithing settlement. I love it because I get to talk to so many ward members. It’s fun!

I’m eager to hear about the transfers, and to learn if anything changed for you. I hope you’re still having a good experience in the office. Remember how your Patriarchal blessing said you would learn about your career decision while on your mission. What have you learned? That you don’t want to work in an office??

Well, for a short letter this was kind of long. I’ll write you about my DC experience with President Obama and President-Elect Trump. I think we’re going to hang out Monday night.

Love ya, son!

Dad

December 5 Emails (Mom)

Elder Valentine and His Mom:

Hi mom!

Well, one more p-day where I don't have a lot of time. I've got about 30 minutes. Next week will be transfers so I won't have p-day next week... whew! I'm going to grow gray hairs here!

I'll definitely pray for dad! His life is way more stressful than mine probably haha so I've got no room to complain.

Thanksgiving sounds like lots of fun! We had a zone conference that was accidentally scheduled for this last Thursday, and some missionary reminded President Amorim about it, so we (kind of) had a thanksgiving dinner! I say kind of because I didn't even get to stay for lunch because I had to take two Sisters to get their residency that day, because they always mark the appointments at the same time as EVERY meeting I should be attending, and then we waited for 2 1/2 hours for the appointments just for me to get into the room and have the ladies there tell me there system went down that day, and so we had to come back for the same appointments in like 3 weeks. Ridiculous!!! Ooooh, I was (and still am) SOO frustrated with SEF!!!!! (which is the organization that does the residency stuff)!!!! We had to skip the whole conference for nothing because SEF didn't inform us. So lame. I ended up getting to eat it later that day because Elder and Sister Roque (that brazilian couple here in the office) were super nice and saved us some. There was turkey and potatoes and stuffing and a portuguese version of pumpkin pie! So that was nice!

But anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun! Haha Abbie wrote me a letter saying she went up with you guys and had to take a train by herself to Layton! How was that? Where was Zach?

It's been raining about every day super hard with lots of rain and it's been really cold! Can I buy a scarf next week?

Wait jk I don't have pday next week. The next then? I have gloves and a hat but not a scarf. It would be nice because it's cold! Except suddenly yesterday and today felt like early fall again. We went to a beach and played volley ball because it was such nice weather! It was pretty fun!

I've been pretty excited to talk to Kevin in Portuguese. It's going to be fun to have someone to keep practicing with! The first councilor in our ward is from venezuela, he is only like 24 and he got here earlier this year and speaks portuguese really well already, but he went back to Venezuela a couple weeks ago to go get married to this 20 year old venezuelan girl, and then he brought her here, and now they live here and she doesn't speak ANY portuguese, just Spanish. So we talk to her in broken Spanish! It's so fun! I want to learn Spanish so bad after the mission! It's fun to listen to spanish because I can understand some of it, especially if it's slow. That was one of my random facts. :)

Haha I only heard that Hailey was getting baptized like 2 weeks ago! She kind of forgot to tell me haha! But I'm way excited for her. I thought for a while that it would take a while longer for her to get there but she's already decided! I'm so happy for real.

Some places in Portugal get snow, but it's only far up north or inland or on the mountains, which doesn't include a lot of Portugal. There are probably just like 3 or 4 areas that actually get it. I miss snow! It's so much better than rain haha! That's pretty funny about sacrament meeting. Dad does well as Bishop!

Thanks for those scriptures! I think about the scripture missionaries sometimes, and laugh at myself because they (the sons of mosiah) served for 14 years and I am only serving for two, and they had so many different difficult experiences, and they are just such great examples of faith in the face of hard times. So thanks mom! :)

Okay so I gotta run, but I love you lots! Send me a quick message if you're on! Love you! :)

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 7:00 AM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, Elder Valentine!

How are you doing? How was your week? Did you cook any 'Merican food for your Thanksgiving? Did you get invited to any Thanksgiving dinners? How is it going teaching the two new families you started with? I can't wait to hear!

I had the whole week off from work last week, so the first two days, Monday and Tuesday I spent putting up the Christmas tree and getting ready for the trip to Denver. I don't think I've ever put up a Christmas tree BEFORE Thanksgiving before! But I really wanted to get a head start on the decorating since we were going to be gone the rest of the week for Thanksgiving and would not have had time until the next week if I didn't! So the tree is up! I still need to do the rest of the decorations around the house, but the tree is up. :) I can't believe it is the Christmas season already!

The trip to Denver was pretty good! We left early on Wednesday morning and it's a good thing we left as early as we did, because a snow storm came in just a couple of hours after we left and they closed the freeway in Wyoming after we had already gone through! But we had perfect weather and were ahead of the storm. Good timing! We had a nice visit. I was a little worried, because sometimes my side of the family can have drama, but everyone got along and it was fun to be there for Thanksgiving. We played games, watched movies, Dad and Anna did a little bit of Black Friday shopping, and later on Friday we all went to the Denver Arts Museum because they were having a special exhibit of Star Wars costumes! It was super awesome! They had all the original costumes on display from all of the movies. It was super cool! We learned all about how they designed them and made them, and why. It really is an art form! I wish I could tell you more, but I don't think either of us have time for too many details. But I hope you liked the pictures! We left for our drive home right from the museum. We left at 5:30pm and got home at 2:00 in the morning.

I had to be in Salt Lake at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon for my choir rehearsal and performance. It was so amazing! I loved singing in the Tabernacle. We had a full audience and we got a standing ovation at the end. After the concert we walked around Temple Square to see the lights, and went to the Visitors Center and watched a movie (The Nativity) and talked to the missionaries that were all around. Kevin found one from Brazil! It was fun to hear him speak in Portuguese. It will be fun when you get home for you and Kevin to talk to each other.

Oh! I almost forgot! While we were eating dinner on Thanksgiving, I got a text on my phone from Hailey. She was telling us that she is thankful for our family and then she told us that she probably is getting baptized on December 31st!! Isn't that the coolest?? Maybe you already know because I'm sure she writes to you, but we were so happy that she wanted to tell us. We want to be there so we might have to leave a little bit early from our California trip we are taking after Christmas in order to get to her baptism. So you know, even if you don't get to baptize a lot of people in Portugal, you should be so happy to know that someone you helped teach the gospel before your mission is going to get baptized! You are a successful missionary!! :)

This morning I was listening to my scriptures and I am in Alma right now. I think the first part of Alma is so good, because I love the story of Ammon and the other sons of Mosiah and their missionary work. Here's the best missionary scriptures ever:

Alma 26:12 - "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

13- "Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?

15 - "Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation, and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

I love how happy and hopeful those scriptures are. You are working hard, and I know it's not always easy, but I hope you still feel the joy and excitement of being a missionary every day. It's such a happy time of your life! I love you for being a missionary. :)

Random Fact: We have already had two snow storms this season! Tomorrow is supposed to snow a lot too! Do they ever get snow in Portugal? More random fact: We have had two or three more houses in the neighborhood finish so we had two new families in church today. You cannot believe how our ward is growing! Even more random fact: Today we didn't have speakers for sacrament meeting because, oops!! The bishopric member who was supposed to ask a certain couple to speak forgot to ask them! So poor Brother and Sister Petersen showed up to see their names on the program and they didn't even know they were supposed to speak! haha! So Dad/Bishop had them just bare their testimonies, and then he called up four people to give testimonies, and then Dad spoke a bit, and then President Hart spoke. It turned out really good for an "on-the-fly" sacrament meeting!

Dad is super stressed and busy tonight - he has a big presentation at work and he is also having a health issue right now, so he's not feeling super well. So he might not get a chance to write to you this time. He told me to tell you hello for him in case he doesn't get a letter written to you in the morning. Say a little prayer for him. About the time you get this he will be at work starting his presentation, so he could use some prayer.

December will be here in a few days and it's going to be busy-busy-busy! All good, but busy! Our ward party is this Friday so we'll be able to send photos of that and tell you all about it next time. It's going to be neat!

Ok! Well, that's all for now I guess! Love you tons! I always look forward to Monday morning! :)

Love, Mom

November 28 Email - Spencer and Mom

Hi mom!

Well, one more p-day where I don't have a lot of time. I've got about 30 minutes. Next week will be transfers so I won't have p-day next week... whew! I'm going to grow gray hairs here!

I'll definitely pray for dad! His life is way more stressful than mine probably haha so I've got no room to complain.

But anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun! Haha Abbie wrote me a letter saying she went up with you guys and had to take a train by herself to Layton! How was that? Where was Zach?

It's been raining about every day super hard with lots of rain and it's been really cold! Can I buy a scarf next week?

Okay so I gotta run, but I love you lots! Send me a quick message if you're on! Love you! :)

Love, Elder Valentine!

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 7:00 AM, Linda Valentine <lindacmemail@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, Elder Valentine!

Ok! Well, that's all for now I guess! Love you tons! I always look forward to Monday morning! :)

Love, Mom