So I haven't gone to my new area just yet - I stayed this first week of the transfer showing Elder Peterson how to do all of the executive stuff, and I'll be leaving today, at like 3 or 4 or something. It's about a 3 hour train ride down to Santarém. I heard it is SUPER hot there, so maybe I'll finally be able to lose some of this office-weight, haha! (I'm not really all that fat, but I definitely have some improvement to do.) I'll be back up in Porto this Thursday for a Mission Leadership Council (MLC). I've been going to them since I came in the office; they happen once a month, and include the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, APs, office, and President Amorim, obviously. So I'll still be around Porto. We had a pretty good week - it's been really fun with a 5 way companionship! Elder Peterson will do really well here in the office. He picked up everything really quick and knows a lot about computers, so he has basically already surpassed all of my knowledge! That being said, I'll probably get a lot of calls from him with questions on how or when to do things for the next couple weeks haha! I know a couple things about Elder Carrelo - he's Portuguese (from Lisbon) but speaks fluent English, and is a super hard working missionary! He's also the shortest Elder in the mission. I'm excited!
There are a couple equadorian missionaries here in Portugal! (I say that in response to you guys going to the Old Spaghetti Factory) I know most of the missionaries pretty well and basically 99% of the missionaries decently because of the office. I know everyone's first names which is funny since you normally just know their last names. Stuff like that. Hey, singing would be fun! Also, you're tough for being the only one to not get sick! Easter was good here; we contacted a bunch of people by reading the resurrection account in Matthew, which was fun! It's fun to switch things up when you work. Portugal loves to use any holiday to take off a bunch of days of work, so basically Thursday-today has just been a big holiday here and no one is around!
So with my card - I can't call to the united states for personal stuff. Is there any way for it to be activated not by me? Because there are only two options, either call the number in the United States or find a chase bank, which are both not options for me. I'm sorry!
Oh yeah, one of your questions was "Are there any items you brought with you from home that you never use? Have you bought any souvenirs? Have you given/thrown away anything that you brought with you?" So it's good that I can run some of this by you! I wrote down a list as IU was packing my bags today, and I totally left it at the house. Super lame. But I'll try and think of all the stuff that I have, because I want to know if what you think that I should leave behind at the end of my mission, because my bags are currently about 2 kilos (like 5 pounds) overweight. I have:
- 6 or 7 longsleeved and 4 shortsleeved white shirts, 4 pairs of slacks, I want to leave 3 of them that have gotten really old.
- a whole ton of ties (I hope to trade some of them in kind of a 2 or 3 for 1 deal to get better ties and have less ties haha!)
- 5 t-shirts from home, I only use 2 of them frequently, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of white shorts that I've never used because you can't wear shorts on the mission unless you're exercising (didn't know that before the mission!)
- 3 exercise shirts, 2 exercise shorts, and my exercise shoes. I kind of want to leave the shoes at the end.
- 2 waterproof jackets, one is the green one from grandpa and another is one I found. I'll for sure leave the other one.
- 19 pairs of black socks. Lots.
- 11 or 12 pairs of garments
- 2 pairs of church shoes - I'm planning to leave the black ones, since they are getting destroyed.
- the big overcoat that I have
- 2 suits
- 2 belts
I kind of feel like the other stuff is miscellaneous - letters from home, a couple souvenirs that I've already got (portugal is big into scarves but not in a fashion way - they are part of the soccer culture, so I have two, one that I bought for €5 and one was given to me, and a couple gifts that I will bring home for the fam) a bunch of very colorful socks acquired through various means, lots of church books (I'll have to decide what kind of stuff I'll leave, because somehow I really just have a ton of books and paper), the two family picture albums (should I bring those home? I want to but I don't know if it's something I should leave if I needed to free up some space), etc. I gave away a pair of tan slacks to Elder Wait that I told you about a couple months ago, the ones that are HUGE on me. Besides that, I don't think I've really given anything away except ties, and those I traded.
So yeah that's the gist. I will probably make another similar list later.
Love you mom!
Love, Elder Valentine!
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