Date
August 29, 2020
Area
Benefica, Portugal
Companion
Elder Covington
The Beginning of a New Era
HEY Y'ALL!!!
Wow, another week has come and gone, yet I feel like I just blinked it away! So, I know I haven't written you all the best emails these past couple of weeks, so I´ll try and make it up in this one.
So p-day today was SOOOOO LIT!!!!!! Elder Covington and I decided to take a sweet hike down to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! It´s called Praia da Ursa and it takes a little bit of a fun climb to get down there, but it is so worth the view! The beach is only accessible during the day because it only appears at low tide! I'll send y'all pics but it might not do it justice. Also, we went to the westernmost point in continental Europe and had a sweet pastry breakfast afterwards! The adventures of Covey and Morty are just getting started!!
This week has probably been one of the craziest weeks, but I feel like I continue to say that every week here in the office. So we had two big events that happened this week, and I'll start with the change. So I know you all who have seen the pics the last couple weeks, we have been in a trio, Elders Van Orman, Covington, and I. So Elder Van Orman got an interesting call on Tuesday, completely out of the blue, telling him that he would leave Thursday to serve in Coimbra. We were SOOO shocked!! Him leaving the office was always on the plans because he had 5 transfers here already, but it was SUPER early!! So now it's me and my mission bro Elder Covington just holding down the fort here in the mission office. We are definitely figuring out how it will all work out, but there is no one else here that I would rather run into battle with than him. It's going to be super cool!!
The second big thing was Zone Conference that we had yesterday...
I am always so amazed at how inspired President and Sister Fillmore are as they prepare and teach us at Zone Conference. Every transfer, I feel like I am truly uplifted again and I receive a greater testimony that they are called of God to lead our mission at this time. We had some amazing trainings given to us by the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, the Assistants, and the Sister Training Leader Training Leaders. They taught us how to be normal and natural in our interactions, how to work better with the members and technology, and how to plan and be more effective with our days! I loved every single thing that they taught us and I learned so much, but something that touched me the most came from President Fillmore. I LOVE the way that he teaches us because he teaches us how to be agents to act and is also very natural in his actions. But this conference, he started off by talking about something that helped me with one of my struggles. As an individual, I like to try my best at everything, to the point of wanting to be perfect (like a lot of us haha) but something that I struggle with is realizing that that is not possible. There was only one person that was perfect, and that is Jesus Christ. But so President got up there and something that truly moved my vision of what our focus should be in life. He said, "Perfection is not what the Lord requires of us, he requires EFFORT. Stop trying to be perfect, it's not possible (gives a chuckle and looks at us with a loving smile). Do your best and learn from your mistakes." I don't think I could say it any better than he did. I testify that our efforts will be used and blessed and that the Lord delights in them. He loves you, He doesn't expect you to be perfect, He just looking for you to get up again and again and keep trying. Jesus Christ lives, He is there for you and I promise that He is waiting there to take your broken and battered self into loving, caring arms. Just trust Him okay?
I hope you all feel my love and support and that you know that I'm thinking of you over here in Portugal! Hope you all have another amazing week and don't be afraid to go out there and enjoy nature!!
Your favorite Portuguese Elder,
Élder Mortensen