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!
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
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