HOLA VOCES!!

"High on the Mountain Top, a Banner is Unfurled... the Nations Now Look Up, it Waves to ALL THE WORLD!!" -- the world is watching us... so make it good!!(:

These are Zach's word of Wisdom this week!!

So Proud of HIM!!

HOLA VOCÊS!!

(HOLA YOU)

we're at the crappy computers today, so i cant send pictures, but we just spent like three hours at the giant castle right in our city, and ive got some freakin sweet photos and videos!! i hope that you can get the videos to work! Duracel makes a little think that you put the SD card into, and it has a USB plug on the other end, and thats what i use every week to upload pics to the computer, so maybe if you bought one of those it would work, they're only like ten bucks! but next week ill try to send more pictures!

Our week has been awesome, but kinda slow. i got to go on a division with another elder named E. Beckstrand, and he's a stud. him and his companion also came with us today to the castle(: they serve in the city of Abrantes, and basically i served there for a day and stayed there that night, then came home the next morning, but it was awesome!(: all of portugal is so pretty! 

we only have two or three new investigators, but right now we're getting a lot of less actives back. yesterday a lady and her five year old son came, and they havent been in months. the kid was awesome, his name is Tiago (James) and he's freakin hilarious. i found a place that sells tennis balls for a buck, and so i always have one with me, its a good aportunity to make friends, but theres not many kids in Tomar, but Tiago and i played together for a while cuz him and his mom had to wait for a taxi to get home, and basically tiago and i are best friends now.... haha(:

theres a guy we see about every other night, hes probably 65 or 70, and he's always drunk and walking around. but hes dressed nice, its just fricken hilarious to talk to him for a little bit. last night we got into a big discussion about who had the most facebook friends and how the world was created by him and his hat, hahahaha(: the people here are awesome! 

the only package i got was from i dont know who, but theyre in our ward, and it had a bunch of paper hearts for valentines day and some candy haha(: i think i saw one of the Pile girl's names and a Holt girls name too, but whoever it was would you pretty please tell them thank you!!(:

transfers are every six weeks. this coming up monday is a transfer monday. most likely both my companion and i will stay here because he is training me, but usually a missionary is in one area for two to three transferes, and usually changes companions every transfer. but we get the call sunday night to know where we're going or staying, and then if we leave, we pack and head out monday morning haha(: most likely i will be in tomar for another six weeks, but i wont know for sure until sunday night(: 

i have no idea what album the song is on, sorry:( but i know its on youtube! and actually what we use for music are little thumb drives, cuz every missionary house has little players that play CDs and thumb drives, and theyre pretty sweet! and also its really easy to get music from the computer, but thanks!(: 

its crazy that im already almost done with my first transfer! time freakin flies here! if you get a chance read all about the adventure of Ammon in the BoM, he's one of my favorite guys every, to read about his faith is so awesome! and also from the joy that comes from his faith and his works! there are two or three times in the BoM where Ammon gets so overjoyed that he just passes out! hahaha how cool?! also, read the story of Alma and Amulek in the city of Ammonihah, but make sure you start with the part where Alma is about to leave Ammonihah for ever, but an engel appears to him and tells him to go back, its awesome!! and lastly (at least for this week) read the Book of Enos!! its only one chapter, and its all about faith.... SOOO COOL!!!(:

its starting to warm up and the sun is coming out here, and im freakin loving it!! 

i love you guys too and i love hearing from you guys!! 

stay strong in the faith! WE'RE ON THE WINNING SIDE!! 

always be good examples!! "High on the Mountain Top, a Banner is Unfurled... the Nations Now Look Up, it Waves to ALL THE WORLD!!" -- the world is watching us... so make it good!!(:

Deus ama-nos, e Ele vai dar-nos força quando nós perguntamos com fé!!

até mais!! tchau tchau!!(: amo vocês!!

(God loves us, and He will give us strength when we ask in faith!
even more! bye bye (:! love you!)

Élder Dayton

Zach is AMAZING! No pics this week :( But Great Words!!

Another Great Week!

                  Elder O'Malley and Elder Dayton

Zach's Testimony seems to grow every week!!

woo-hoo!! im glad i could finally send pictures!! but now i dont have much time left to email:/ haha, life sucks! haha jk, im actually loving life here!(: 

i have a couple things for you guys to check out! 

theres a really good talk that i think you would all like, its called "Be Honest, Be Pure, Be Humble" and i think its by a man named Jack H. Goaslind. its awesome!!

another thing, its D&C Section 2. its really short, but states the importance of Temple Work and family history and stuff like that, check out the footnotes! Family Geneology work is the reason that Elijah the prophet came to the earth and visited Joseph Smith in the temple (it might be Elias, i cant remember haha) but maybe do a little scripture study of the importance of family history work, i had no idea it was so important until now! but when it says "turn the hearts of the Father's to the Children, and the Children to the Fathers" it's refering to temple work!(:

The other two are music related. Alex Boye does a version of "Have I Done Any Good" and it flippin rocks! and then theres and album called "A Pauper's Hymnal" im not sure who it's by, i think its a guy named Kalai, and is a weird take on some hymns and a couple other songs, but they are all really good!(:

and now to answer your questions!(:

our branch is doing good! we had a lot of less active members at church on sunday which is awesome to see them coming again! but no investigators, which is a bummer:/ we've been having a tough time finding new investigators lately, its tough to get people to stop on the street when its raining out side! haha, but we're always working hard!(:

nah, we're on our own so far for dinner, it usually only happens once or twice a month, and dont worry, im getting veggies and fruit, but not as much as i would like haha, i have no idea how to cook anything. but carrots here are ridiculously cheap for some reason, so we eat a lot of carrots haha(: we eat a lot of sandwhiches, and we make them with lettuce and tomatoes and stuff, so im eating pretty healthy! i aint lookin to get fat haha!(; 

our newest converts are doing better than our older converts, but we're putting a lot of focus into keeping people active, and the others are starting to pick up again, its pretty awesome!

and no, there's really not much service to be done here:/ i wish there was more hard work to do like yardwork or helping people move or even just diggin ditches haha. i miss that kind of hard work, but we have helped on person move, and that was fun, i gave him a book of mormon and at first he didnt want it, but he was friendly and we joked with him a little bit and he agreed to take it and give it a chance!(: 

one of my favorite faith scriptures is Enos 1: 4-8, and also of course the 2,000 stripling warriors(: and actually I think Alma and Amulek might be my favorite... definitely find some time to read about their missions together!! they are both studs!!(:

i love you all so much, and i hope you guys are still reading scriptures together! i know sometimes its hard, but its so worth it! i can never seem to find as much time as i want to read the scriptures here haha(: i honestly look forward to it all day(:

I've started studying about God's love for us in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon (i love jumping back and forth using the references at the bottom, i usually end up in a completely different area on a completely different subject, but its all good and sometimes i think that God uses my curiosity and short attention span to randomly lead me to a scripture to teach me something that i need... its so cool). but i know that God wants us to be happy more than anything, and i also know that we are happiest when we are in the service of others! haha, it just clicked in my head that that is probably why missionaries are always so happy! see thats exactly what i mean! God works in mysterious ways!(:

i love you guys so much, and im gonna make you proud! and my Father in Heaven proud too!(:

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!!!!!!! "Have we not reason to go on in so great a cause?"

this is the greatest cause of all, and we're right in the middle of it!! HOO-RAH!!(: 

His HAPPINESS is CONTAGIOUS!! 

Zach sent a ton of pictures this week! Here are some of the highlights from his apartment!

It's nice to finally get a picture of Zach's daily life! Perhaps too clear of a picture!! :)

Baptizing in Portugal & Daily Life thru Zach's eyes!

Elder Dayton baptizing his first convert - Ivo

For all those waiting for an ADDRESS - here it is!

My house address is: Rua Gualdim Pais nº7 3ºESQ 2300-000 Tomar, Portugal

 

haha its kinda weird, the "nº7" just means #7 (as in the 7th building), and the "3ºESQ" means the 3rd floor on the left(: haha, there's some new português for ya! but if you send anything to the mission office or mission home, its really reliable and i will get mail from there usually about once a month, but the address above is actually where i live(:

 

My everyday life is actually pretty monotonous haha, but its really fun at the same time. we have different study times from 8:30 until 11:30, then we go out for a while and walk around usually and try to find people. then at 13:00 we have lunch for an hour, then at 14:00 we have language study for an hour. then we're out and about until we have to be home at 21:30, and then in bed by 23:00!! sorry about the military time, but they use it here and it's just so much easier haha(: and instead of writing it as 8:00, they write it as 8h00 haha(: i guess the h stands for hours! (or in this case "horas")!

 

my comp and i get along great, but hes from stinking England and thinks America is lame, which doesnt fly with me haha, so we argue alot about which one is better and why, but we never get mad at each other though, so thats good(: we really do get along super well.

 

most of our day is walking, in the town of Tomar where we are, not many people have houses, most everybody lives in prédios, or apartments pretty much, so knocking doors is a bit chaotic and weird, and there are a bunch of prédio rooms that are empty, so we never know if we're getting ignored or if no one is even there hahaha(: so most of our day is walking around and trying to talk to people on the street. but latetly its been really windy and raining a lot, whick makes it tricky. and usually people tell us no, but everyone is always nice, and its really fun talking to so many people. a lot of people listen to what we have to say for a little bit, they just dont want to have to do anything though. haha, its really funny to hear the excuses that some of them have. like all the time people tell us that they dont have phones, and thats why they cant give us their number, and when we point to it in their pockets, they say that that one is their work phone or their school phone, and is only for employees or professors or something haha. but its never discouraging to here people say no, its just kinda lame haha. and tell Gavin i love the gypsies here haha!! we've taught like two gypsy family's and they were both awesome and really funny. they all live in these  camps though that look like they're straight out of Africa or Haiti or something, but theyre always so happy, its awesome!

 

we dont usually have dinner cuz we're busy walking around, but you can buy a big thing of bread here for like 50 cents thats honestly the size of my head, and the bread is so yummy, and so we usually each buy one and eat is as we walk around. haha all the people think we're so weird(:

 

And please feed the missionaries in the ward all the time!! we've been fed three times now and it's so awesome!! plus i dont remember where, but somewhere in D&C it says something about how when people accept missionaries into their homes and feed them, they are laying up rewards in Heaven haha(: and give the missionaries referrals as often as you can!! one of our favorite things is when a member brings a friend to church with them, or gives us someone to go talk to! so please encourage a lot of people to help the missionaries in our ward, its so important for members to be active in the work too!!

 

I love you guys all so much, and i really can feel your prayers for me, its so cool to be a missionary! im praying for you guys too! dont be afraid in your prayers to ask for the little things, because God cares about everything that we care about!!

 

Love you all so much, and ill talk to yall next week!!

 

amo-vos!!

 

Élder Dayton

Zach's first week in Portugal and he got to participate in the Baptism of Ines.

Zach found a tank and did a very "Zach" pose. I MISS THIS KID!!

Week 2 in Portugal!!

Zachary AMAZES me with his Testimony!!

Hi Momma!!(:

my week has been flippin killer!(: yesterday i got to baptized a guy named Ivo! like im actually the one who dunked him!(; haha. i dont know what my address is right now, but in a little bit we're gonna run back up to the house to get it, and then ill send it to you! and freakin sweet!! go briggy!! pretty pretty please give him a high five and call him boogs for me!(; haha,  and let ammon know that i think he's a stud for going up! that takes freakin guts kid! And the night before we all left the MTC one of our really cool teachers instead of a normal lesson had us have a testimony meeting together as a district, and i bore my testimony about that exact same thing! how i know that God knows each one of us individually and perfectly, and that he cares about every single little thing we care about too because he loves us(:

The portuguese is coming incredibly fast, but thats all thanks to the Lord haha! As of right now i dont need contacts, but i'll let you know when im getting close! Yes im playing piano, and i wish i was as good as i used to be! please make sure that the boys stay in piano, but more importantly make sure they want to, and make sure it's their choice!(: and also, make sure that the boys know how to cook food! haha, and i mean cook from scratch! cuz im lacking in that category of skills right now haha!(:

and speaking of doing you in with homework... i have a little challenge for you all(:

-- i dont know who the talk is by, but one of the guest speakers at the MTC made reference to it. An apostle walked in to Pres. Hinckley's office when he was still the Prophet one day to find him kneeling down in prayer. when he looked closer he realized he was shaking. Thinking that he was crying, he went over to attempt to comfort the prophet. When he put his hand on his shoulder and turned him around, he realized he was laughing! Pres. Hinckley was literally having a conversation with God, and it must've been pretty funny, cuz he was shaking he was laughing so hard! 

Sometimes we think of God as this big, all-powerful yet un-emotional being millions of lightyears away... when in reality, he is just like all of us. He has a body, just like ours, and one of the most amazing things to me, is the realization that He has a personality. He is our literal FATHER, and he truly loves us. things like prayers are meant to be a two-way communication with Him, because He really wants to hear from us! When we think of God not as an immense, distant being, but as our father, as someone who, when we let Him, can be right next to us. there have been times where i swear, i could almost see through the veil. not because i could see anything, but because i could feel His presence so strong, i knew in my heart He was standing right there next to me. and so my challenge is to try to get to know our Heavenly Father... to really get to know him. its pretty amazing the things you'll find(: I know He loves me, and that He wants the best for me. When i mess up, He's not angry; He is tender and loving and puts His arm around me, and helps me to get back up. All He wants is for me to be happy, and thankfully He shows us the way(:

 

i love you guys so stinkin much! I miss you all, but i am happy(: hope you guys are happy too(:

 

Elder Dayton(:

No pictures this week :(

I'm going to ask him to take a picture with the two people he has helped baptized, I'm dying to see them and meet them!

I think he was super rushed at the Library and didn't have time to upload them.

But, BOY!! He is doing AWESOME!!