The city of Santarém is situated on a plateau, located on the right bank of the Tagus River, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Lisbon. The economy of the city remains mainly dedicated to the production of agricultural goods.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Santarem 8/28/17

Elder Maloy and our lunch, PIZZA!!

Aloha Família!

Novamente (Again), sorry for not writing you guys last week but I’ll try make up for it this week. 

Week #1 in Santarém:

Talked to a super cool Brazilian lady on the train about the gospel and she was very interested, only she lives in Lisboa....pois...

Santarém is HOT!!! Fogo (Fire)! Bate 40 graos até (It’s about 40 degrees Celcius here, or 100 degrees farenheit)!

Found a cool Syrian family, another from Paraguay, and another from here but are Angolans! Very cool!

Pumpiro that I talked to you guys about (via picture last week), that’s only in Santarém, is good! Kinda heavy though so no can eat um all the time, haha.

Other info: Santarém is a branch in the Santarém district. The chapel is SUPER NICE but super far from our house (see picture from last week). Also interestingly enough they have priesthood and relief society first, then gospel doctrine and princípios do evangelho (gospel principles), and the sacrament meeting. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it like that. Was funny, we walked into church and the first thing we do is give a blessing to a member. Later I get pulled out of gospel principles by another member to go pick up this other family for church; but we end up getting back late so we missed the passing of the sacrament; but all good. We did our best. Just running all over the place, it’s the life pa.

Week #2 in Santarém:

This week was a gnarly one. Presidente Moreira (he’s the area 70 for Portugal and is filling in for Presidente Amorim as Presidente Amorim is in the USA renewing his green card) gave us some fire challenges that pushed us really hard. Definitely keeps us on our toes. Nothing better than a week of hard work. Sadly, we didn’t meet one of the four challenges this week which is super bummer, but we really did our best.

Hot but not as hot this week. Kinda chilly, actually, at night. Our water heater isn’t working though, so yeah, cold water showers, cheehee.

We had zone meeting this week and it went well! The presentations went smoothly, the zone enjoyed it and participated and I feel that everyone left uplifted and excited to do better than ever. Was one of the better zone meetings that I’ve helped put on. We talked a lot about faith and the power of helping our investigators recognize the Spirit, and preparing marks for baptism. I really enjoyed it! I re-realized while preparing for the meeting the enormous importance of making the Spirit the professor in the lesson, and also how according to our faith and God’s will, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! The only limits are the ones we put on ourselves! So take them off!

Elder Maloy had to go to Porto to do his residency stuff, so I stayed with Elder Teixeira guys in their area. He too funny, haha.

We were able to give an Arabic Book of Mormon to the Syrian family and the dad of the fam said he’d read it! I honestly don’t know how much of what we say gets across cuz the dad speaks like only Arabic, and we communicate thru his kids who know Portuguese mais ou menos (more or less), haha, so it’s always interesting, haha.

The Paraguayan family came to church! They had committed to come but didn’t show up initially, so we sent them a text just reminding them about church. Latter as sacrament was starting, they showed up! Was awesome! Super sweet!

I got sick for the first time this week. Friday, I wasn’t feeling good, and kept getting up to go lua during the night, never really sleep. Next day I had fever, chills and the runs. Was no fun!!! But we still had to meet the challenges! We worked in the morning, I rested in the afternoon and the night time we went out and worked again. Was slow, but we knew that God would provide a way for us to hang in there. Right at the end of the day we were able to teach this lady and her husband and complete the challenge! Tender mercy! God works according to our faith, and He ALWAYS does His part if we will do ours, which means doing our best and keep His commandments. No exceptions!

Jonah, stay strong over there ok? Make good friends, put God first, study hard my brotha! Kuʻilua, I love you bro! Fight the good fight, keep the faith! Email me if can. Mama, stay strong, I’ve been praying for you! Family, I love you guys! Tende uma boa semana! Ficai bem! (Have a good week! Stay Well!)

com amor,
Elder Kim


The sun always sets towards my home.......




Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Santarém 8/21/17

*Note from the parents: Elder Kim did not write an email this week. However, he did send multiple pictures and a video, and provided some info regarding them. We have added this info as he typed it, if any. Info added by parents will have a *. He apologizes for not being able to write. This past week was his first in his new area, Santarém! Video link at the very end.


*Last pic with Elder Karthigeyan, at the train station, in Gaia
Beautiful tile work!


lady named maria de jesus that i talked to on the train. shes brasilian and she lives in lisboa. i taught her the first lesson and she really liked it and is coming to santrém to meet with some family of hers after a trip shes taking so maybe well meet up with her in the future. 


what i saw when i got of the train in santarém....#weaintinkansasanymore it was HOT!!! plus didnt have a phone or anything, so i borrowed a phone was able to get the santarém elders number and call them and let them know i had got here....so much different from gaia thats for sure. #wildsouthbaby





elder teixeira is in my district! lol hes crazy. he was with me and elder maloy wen i got here, cuz he was waiting for his comp at the time
*(l to r) Teixeira, Kim, Maloy

*Fountain in front of where the Elders where waiting in the picture above this one


pumpiro- a super good pastry only made in Santarém! this one was chocolate filled so was ono. We had a competition on who could get the most refs using this one quetionary we had made. we ended up getting the same amount of refs, but seeing as elder maloy got one more adress than me, he won haha. Cant win um all i guess haha. pumpiro was what the loser had to buy for the dupla. Was ono

some pics of santarém. santarém is actually rather involved in agriculture. a lot of people work out in the fields, which is crazy, cuz the temp soars out there. props to those guys. I took the pic cuz i thought it was funny that where the plants was, was so green, while everything around it is dead haha #kona haha


*Elder Maloy, Elder Kimʻs new companion


we live on a big hill, but the chapel is at the bottom of the hill. so when we walk down to the chapel we get a good view of the chapel. It is hands down the nices chapel ive seen here in portugal, ever. It might be the nicest chapel ive ever seen. i really like it. just the location is....sigh...far. (*35-40 min walk) cant win um all





The link to the video of :
Elder Kim's apartment in Santarem