Zach is Working HARD in Tomar!!

He Loves the People!

This is Daniel and Fernanda! Fernanda was baptized like a year ago and we're freakin workin our butts off to get Daniel baptized. His wife has lost her memory some and she just rambles off about the most random stuff, which is kinda sad, but at the same time is so freakin funny. Daniel and her have an awesome sense of humor about the whole thing, hahahaha, i usually leave the place crying cuz im laughing so hard, and daniel is so funny too, and he loves giving Elder O'Malley crap cuz hes from England, which i love hahaha. but we're hoping that Daniel will be baptized not this coming sunday, but next sunday!

and this is Cristiano! hes the 2 year old son of another lady we pass all the time, and he's fricken adorable and hilarious, a few days ago him and i were kicking a soccer ball back and forth, then he told me he was tired and so he sat down and motioned me to sit next to him. then he laid down, so i took the opportunity to share the gospel, but he didnt take it so well.... hahaha. it sucks so badly not being able to pick up little kids and stuff:/

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!! hahaha one of the old ladies that we pass by alot recently got a baby goat hahaha. its name is João (John) its actually pretty playful, and she let me bottle feed it a couple days ago!

So Proud of This BOY!

 im good! but its been raining here this past week like fricken crazy! off and on multipl times a day, its really bizarre haha. so of course with the rain the work is slowing down a little which at times is a little frustrating just cuz there's not much to do, but it sure makes it nice when the sun comes out haha(; 

Yea we're still working with the Angolan family, and im gonna try to get a picture of them this week, i freakin forgot last week:( The Mom's name is Joanna, she's 43 years old, then Leo is 21, Mauro is 18, Andrea is 17, Vivalda is 14, and Bruno is 10, its so freakin fun to spend time with that family(: i dont remember if i talked about it last week, but there's not much spicy food here in Portugal, so Joanna taught me how to make this fricken wicked hot sauce, and just today while O'Malley and i were shopping, i bought stuff for it, and i also bought tobasco sauce, so this week is already looking up(; haha

The português is coming along increadibly, and every time we have a zone meeting with a lot of missionaries, some of the older ones tell me how lucky i am cuz they didnt know anything until like they're third transfer or whatever, and im just sitting there like...... you have no idea how many prayer's i say hahaha(; but it's true, im super grateful for how easy it's been coming(: and i have had a couple dreams where other people or my self are speaking português, but no dreams completely in português yet, so im still waiting for that! haha, i did have a dream a couple weeks ago that this coming up transfer im gonna get bumped up to a District Leader, but personally i dont think i will, plus i really hope i dont haha, i dont want that responsibility... at least not yet haha. but my dreams are always weird, so im still hoping that i wont be(:

And no, next week O'Malley and i will just watch conference with our ward here at our chapel, which means português for me.... yipee hahaha, im excited cuz i think it'll be so rad, but at the same time i'd love to hear the messages in english too just to get a little more out of it, but it all comes from the same place, so im stoked regardless(:

And i've been dying to know about what the McBride boys are doing?! are they planning on going on missions?! THEY BETTER BE!!!!! haha, i wanna know what they're calls will be so badly haha(:

haha yea, brandon sent me a picture hahahaha that was so funny!! haha, make sure he knows that he's always fricken welcome at the house, i dont want him to get to lonely! could you guys invite him over for dinner sometimes or something?? maybe when dad takes the boys dirtbiking he can go and use my bike if he wants!(:

and im glad you like the recommendations, cuz i've got a few this week, haha, hope you dont mind(; throughout the week i was just making a small list of the ones i wanted to share, and i few i dont remember what they were, i just have the references haha, so i hope they're good and you like them, but here's the list(:

1 John 3:13-14, 18, 22 (i dont remember what this is, sorry hahaha)

1 Peter 3:15 (its about how we must always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks, but to me it kinda showed how we also need to not be ashamed of who we are, but rather always be willing to share it. if someone asks about our religion, not only is it our duty to share the light we have, but it should be our privilege and we should find joy in the opportunity we have to try and give a little light to someone who may be searching for it)

2 Nephi 9 (this chapter is a little long, but is all about the Atonement. i love how Jacob keeps saying things like "Oh how great our God" and "Oh how wonderful is His love and mercy" and all that stuff, like just try to imagine a man with such a powerful testimony that he can barely hold in his joy, and keeps shouting out praises, its just freakin awesome!!)

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (its one of my favorite hymns, but was taken out of the hymn book because i guess it's almost sacred and people were singing it so much because its so amazing, which i think is a little contradictory, but i guess thats why im not the prophet haha. anyways this song is just freakin heart wrenching every time, my favorite verse says 

"Jesus saught me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God.

 He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

Prone to wander, Lord i feel it, prone to leave the God i love.

Here's my heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for Thy court's above."

if you can get MoTab's version of it, it'll make you cry, bet ya 10 bucks haha(;

and then two talks i really liked, "7 Pillars of Wisdom" by Gordon B. Hinckley, and "The American Challenge" by Ezra Taft Benson. the one by Hinckley gives such good advice and council for life, and also shows a little bit of his funny, loving side, and the one by Benson is all about how awesome America is, but that we need to make sure it stays awesome, and it's our responsibility to not let it slip up. if that talk doesnt fricken make you feel like a proud, patriotic American, i dont know what will haha(:

oh and one more, there's and awesome talk by John Bytheway, im pretty sure its called "Whats In Your Backpack" or something like that, i listened to it this morning and it's awesome(:

haha, sorry if thats alot, but its good for ya!!!!(; haha, i love you guys all so much, and ill write you all next week(: get some good videos of the boys playing lax and dirtbiking and other stuff for me to watch when i get home so i dont miss too much!!(; and let the ward know i love them all!!!(:

love love love the coolest elder ever, 

Elder Dayton(:

Zach is Definitely Still ZACH!!

Week of March 24

If I had to see all the carnage that Zach sent home so do you :)

It's nice to Zach's sense of humor is still in tact!! 

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! ELDER O'MALLEY BLEW CHUNKS!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha some elders near us gave us a ride in their car to a meeting we had last week, and O'Malley gets car sick real easy, and on the ride he fricken barfed all over himself and his seat, and he even got a pretty good blast to the elder who was driving!! hahahaha, it took us a while to clean it, but it was so freakin funny!!

                                                     

I did post the least grafic pic! Poor Elder O'Malley with a very unsympathetic comp!!

Love MY BOY!

Zach Crack us UP!!

you cant tell me that this isnt a good idea!!! haha, O'Malley and i were talking about how it's been a while since either of us have put our bare feet in grass, and while we were talking it hit me: if we cant go (barefoot) to the grass, we'll just have to bring the grass to us! haha, so a couple nights ago we found a big field and cut out some nice squares, and now when we plan or have free time or whatever, we sit out on the balcony with our feet in the grass hahahaha.

BOM DIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im not sure how much time i have today, but ill type fast!! haha(:

but first, holy crap the boys already look like theyre getting freakin big, what the heck, ive only been gone for 3 months! haha, but im pretty jelly of all you guys in cali, that looks awesome! like two days ago it started raining again, so we'll see where this darn português weather takes us! but i went running this morning, which was nice, but kind of embarrasing haha, i need to start running more! we went over to those huge stairs that i sent some pictures of a while ago. and while i was running up and down, freakin O'Malley sat at the bottom eating a tub of cookie dough hahahaha, he brought it in his bag so that he would have something to do! hahahahaha freakin wierdo(:

and yea, i remember hearing that about grammy, crud thats no good, ill for sure remember her in my prayers. 

and HEY!! these pants from Pomeroy's freakin suck!! hahaha, all four pairs have ripped a little bit in the same spot!! right above the pocket on either the right or left side, so dont by clothes from there anymore!! im just gonna sew them up so i can keep using them, but i thought that was so funny haha. the really nice lady in our ward who brings us food alot brought me a pair of pants from i dont know where, but they fit good and are comfy, but they're a little disco-y haha. and also earlier today i bought a pair of pants that i saw were on sale for £20! and thanks for sending money! haha, that made me laugh when i opened it, but theres no where here in Tomar to do money exchanges. i think really the only cities are Lisbon and Porto, because they're big tourist cities. the couple things ive bought with personally money i just take money out from my personal debit card.

but i dont really need anything right now, thanks!(: ive got about a box and a half left of contacts, which i think is like 3 or 4 months, isnt it? and im still good on socks and ties and all that jazz(: actually the father of Ivo (the guy i dunked) gave me a crapton of ties, most of them are either way to small or lame, but a couple were cool and i wear them, he wants nothing to do with the church, but he's always so super nice and respectful to us, which is nice(:

and i got the package with dried mangos and portugal socks!!! we see our Mission Pres and his wife every three months about, which is when we recieve any packages sent to the mission office. 

sorry, im about to get kicked off this computer i think, but i love you all so much!!! maybe after this transfer could you send some more contacts? just to make sure that i know where my location will be(: we have three more weeks in this transfer.

and also, im gonna try really hard this week to write some real letters, im sorry ive kinda sucked in that category lately haha, but ill try!!!

one more thing, theres a talk titled "His Grace Is Sufficient" by a man named Brad Wilcox, and its really REALLY good, if you get a chance to hear it!(: it'll make you cry!!(;

love you guys!!! ill talk to you next week!!!

crap, what day is mothers day, cuz i guess we can skype on that day!!~

tchau tchau!!!! love you all!!!!!!!!

Week of March 17!! I'm a Little Behind

Belina is Baptised!!

This is Belina, she was baptized on saturday!!!!!!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!! and i got to baptize her!!!!   when i went to dunk her she pretty much jumped backwards, and i sort of ended up catching her and then dunking her haha, she was just super excited about getting baptized!(; she's so funny, i told her my first name, which in português is Zacharias, and she says it all the time like how the mexicans i worked with over the summer said it, in a high voice really fast like 3 or 4 times haha, she's awesome.(: and then these are some ward members who were at the baptism(:

Elder Dayton and Elder O'malley are working hard in Tomar!!

aw im sorry momma:( ill be sure to include that in my prayers haha, which are getting longer every night! haha, sometimes i wonder if He ever gets annoyed of me yappin in His ears so much haha, but then i realize that if he did i probably would've already been hit by lightning or something haha(; (told him some of us had been sick the past week)

and yea i got the package!!! haha i love all the pictures, thank you so much!!!! haha(: and thank you for the letters too!! im hoping ill have more time this week to write back, this past weekend was crazy!! i already explained most of it, be we had a huge competition throughout then entire mission of Portugal to see which zone could get the most references, and we won baby!!!!!!!!! MARCH MADNESS CHAMPS RIGHT HERE!!!!! hahaha, O'Malley and i were freakin buzzing around like rabid bees, and also cuz we wanted to get on the Cartão do Presidente (the weekly standards of the Mission are 1 baptism, 6 investigators in church, 21 lessons, and 10 new investigators) and Tomar hasnt been on the Cartão in months (cartão means like card or letter) and since we had a baptism this past weekend, we figured this past week was our chance! haha, but by sunday night we had fallen behind schedule of all the crap we needed to do, so we were freakin busting our nuggets to get it done!! by sunday night (which is when the weekly numbers are due) we had 1 baptism, 5 in church, 21 lessons, and 13 news, and usually Presidente slacks a little on the standards if the companionship was really close, and we made it baby!!!!!!!!!! Tomar's name was on the Cartão do Presidente for this week!!! SWEEEEEEEEET, SWEEEEEEEEEET, SWEET VICTORY, YEA!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha, it was so awesome to finally see our area up there!

and of that 20kg (45lbs) bag of taters, we're almost halfway done with them!! haha, since we bought it at a farmers market it was about the same price as a weeks worth of taters from the store, but its lookin like it will last us almost a month haha! im excited to see pics of the boys!! haha, im hoping to see some more pics of mowhacks (or how ever you spell mow-hawk haha) like our last cali trip!(; haha

and saturday night O'malley and i found a freakin gnarly family! they're a black family from Angola, and its a mother, and three sons and two daughters! (the father is still working in angola) the oldest son is 21, then an 18 year old son, a 17 year old daughter, a 14 year old daughter, and a 10 year old son! they're all super cool, and we just knocked on their door, and they ended up letting us in to talk with them! three of the older kids came to the door, and there was music playing and at first i thought we had just knocked on the door of like a house party or something haha, but they let us in and we talked for a while. we got to know them and stuff, and we actually laughed quite a bit, which is nice cuz its been a while since ive laughed hard with other people (not including my comp and other missionaries, i freakin love every single one of them and its always a riot) but im starting to get to the point with the language where i can understand jokes and subtle senses of humor and stuff, and we actually just spent a while making fun of each other and our selves haha. anyways..... on sunday the mother and the three middle kids all came to church! and later tonight we're gonna go see them again! this family has huge potential and im freakin stoked try to get them to see the light of the gospel! so pray for them please!(:

crap, i guess the place we'er in right now is closing, so i gotta run haha!(: but i love you guys all so much, and ill talk to y'all again real soon!!(:

if you get a chance read D&C 109, its long, but its one of the best!! love you guys!!

Zach cleaning the font before Belina's baptism.










Belina and Zach- So proud of him!

Three Months Out!! Time Flys

Another Baptism Scheduled!!

PORTUGAL!!!!!

WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!! her name is Belina, and shes probably around 50ish years old. and shes a DWARF!!!! hahaha, shes like 4'10" and its probably like 3ft wide haha. there's actually a few dwarves here (like literal dwarves) and now we get to baptize one!! 

This week has been a lot better then all the rest in terms of missionary work. my comp and i got sick of not having many new investigators, so we really made an effort at it this week, and its been pretty sweet! i think it also helps that the sun has been out and its been much warmer lately(; we have 11 new investigators this week, which blows every other week out of the water! haha, and its super inspiring, and its just gonna get better, i can fricken feel it in my bones! 

we also had 19 people at church yesterday, which is a record since either my comp or i have been here! woo-hoo haha(: its funny that back home our Priest Quorum was almost this big haha(: but we've also been working hard at getting the less actives back, and its starting to pick up. 

my SD card in my camera is getting full, so what im gonna do from now on is buy a 16G thumb drive (thery're only like 8£ here) and put all the pics and videos on it, and then send that home. hopefully that will make it easier to see everything since a thumb drive should just work on any computer with a USB(: 

not too much happened this week out of the ordinary, just a lot of working hard and getting down to the nitty gritty!(: 

Oh yea!! i guess a couple people in the ward want to learn piano, so im gonna start teaching them!! hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!! please tell Sister Zimmerman that what she talk me stuck and that its going to a good cause!! hahahaha(: i have no idea how the teaching will go, but i just think thats the freakin funniest thing in the world!!

Yea that little kid is the one from a little bit ago, and he's the only kid(: but he hasnt been here for that past two weeks): i have a tennis ball to give him haha. the next youngest is a 14 year old named Francisco, and he's a fricken stud. he lives with his grandma, and when she was baptized a while ago he decided to also. We have 5 people (not including us) in our ward with the priesthood, and one of them is Francisco! haha, he's the teachers quorum president, but its kinda sad cuz he's the only one around his age. the next youngest is 19 year old Inês, who was baptized the week i got here(: 

slowy but surely the ward is starting to grow(: im just trying to gifure out where all my time is going! haha, i was sitting in church yesterday listening to our Pres. talk (its not big enough to be a ward with a bishop, so we have a branch with a president) and it hit me that ive already been out three months!! haha, i cant even remember what it was like to be in the MTC! but i think the Lord is helping me to slow it down a little in my head, cuz i keep having dreams that im already home from my mission and waking up in my bed, and honestly it sucks!! haha, in my dreams its like "no way.... i know they said it goes by fast, but there's no way this is right....." and then i wake up and im like phew!!!!!! hahaha, but its so funny how quickly time goes by when your working hard!(:

I love all you guys so much, and i hope you guys are still having as much fun at home as i am here!!(:

when i do my scripture studies, i like to have little sticky notes, and to write down references of scriptures that i really like, and this morning, i looked down at my little notes and realized a cool little thing that i know was put together by someone a lot smarter than me(; haha, if you know who i mean(: im gonna put numbers in it so that i can make refereneces if you want to read them on your own(i definitely recomend you do, cuz they all freakin rock) it goes like this:

"(1) Bretheren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward, and not backward. Courage bretheren; and on, on to the victory! (2) For if God is for us, who can be against us? (3) Gird up now thy loins like a man (3) and forget yourself and go to work, (4) for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

(1) - D&C 128:22 (and yes, i meant this one last week, haha sorry)

(2) - Romans 8:31

(3) - Job 38:3; 40:7

(4) - James 2:26

haha how freakin cool is that?! Also if you get a chance read the book of James in the Bible (its only like 4 pages), i freakin love the whole book!(: especially James 4:7 (:

i gotta run, but ill talk to you guys next week!!

the coolest and most handsome and charming missionary ever...

Élder Dayton(:

Zach Loves him some 'taters 

last monday while we we're walking to get me a haircut, we stopped by a farmers market, and i got myself a freakin 20kg sack'o'potatoes hahaha(: (thats almost 45lbs) its been a week and we've barely made a dent, and we freakin eat potatoes every day(:

I'm so thankful sweet members are looking out for my son and taking him out to get food!! Portugal looks beautiful! 

this is the resturant that our Maizinha took us too this last week, its called Boa Vista, which means good view haha. this is the patio we sat under, it was cool cuz it have tree roots and vines growing around us, and this is the view we had, of the river and the little water fall, the bridge and an older part of town(: it was super yummy(:

Zach Conquering Portugal!!

"im sorry momma, i dont have hardly any time today:/ a member from our ward invited us to go to the gym with him, so we're about to go do that, but i really wanted to send some pictures!! i love you all so much and im praying for you all every night!! oh and yea for this transfer both my comp and i are staying here in tomar!(: if you get a chance read 1 Peter 4: 12 - 13(its about trials) Romans 8:35 - 39(its about God's love for us) and D&C 122(the whole thing, its about the importance of temple work, and verse 22 is one of my favorite scriptures!!) (and its my lax number!! woo-hoo!!) i love you all so much!! gotta go!!(:"

Zach sends a ton of pics! This is his ward and a typical Zach pose. I think the little boy in the bottom pic is trying to copy Zach! So CUTE!!












"this was our ward on sunday! we had a pretty good turn out!"

Zach takes a tour…

"we got to tour this freakin rad castle last monday! its so unbelievably huge inside haha! maybe if you get a chance check it out on google, it was pretty gnarly!

this is elder beckstrand and i (i call him Becky) inside the castle, we went for a very mature missionary pose, as you can see(;"

Zach scares the snot out of me in typical Zach style…

"we walked along the outer wall of the castle for a while cuz you can see just about all of Tomar, and then the forest out behind the castle. the first pic is me standing on the edge of the wall, it was probably about a 100ft drop to the forest, and you could see fricken everything. and then the other one is one of the archer towers along the wall. one of the members in our ward came with us as a guide, and he's super cool, but gets a little butt-hurt at stuff, so us missionaries wanted to be climbing all over, but he kept getting mad. so i waited till he walked around a corner and then climbed up real quick to take a picture haha, the castle was so cool. we're gonna try to go back soon without him this time and do some more climbing!(:"

"you cant see it, but this well drops for like 75 feet, and then its just a huge stone pit for holding a crapton of water (dont worry, i got it in one of the videos) and so i thought it would be fun to hang over it haha

and then this is the same well.... im just putting it to better use(; i got in trouble for that one hahahaha("

Zach show us the delicious delicacies in Portugal… YUCK!!

"and this is some of the nice sight seeing you can do(: almost all the meat stores have windows outside so walking by you can see them, and late at night when youre hungry they look really good haha. and this is Kid meat (a fricken baby goat) haha, most grocery stores have fricken nasty meat and fish sections. so the whole store usually smells like fish and guts, and you can usually see skinned and gutted goats, chickens, rabbits, sometimes foxes, and last week we were pretty sure we saw a cat haha. "