To start of, Feliz Natal and Boas Festas to everybody. In case you´re wondering what I´ll be doig for Christmas, it´ll probably be knocking on doors and trying to teach people from 7am to 9:30pm, with studies, walking, and a single skype call inbetween.
It was a decent week. We found a handful of new faces to start teaching and were able to meet up with a couple familiar faces from weeks in the past to continue teaching and such.
For example, we found a family, Rui, Keila, and their daughter Analaura who enjoyed our visit and lesson about the restoration. They are brazilians, Evangelicals, and firm believers. It was a good visit, We invited them to read pray, and be baptized after they receive their personal response about he BoM, and they all accepted. We only got the chance to meet with them once this last week, but our next visit is planned for tonight, so let´s see what happens.
We found another brazilian couple later, Renato and Leandra. They were awfully nice, let us in right away, and we taught the Restoration. They liked it, but as soon as we started talking about Joseph Smith being a prophet, Renato tensed up a bit. We got to the BoM, and he said "lets make a deal, you guys read a book from me, and we´ll read your book". Well, he gave us a book about his church, and well, I read a bit of it, and whelp I found no appeal. The book he presented to me has a lot of good principles, many of which compare quite well to the teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but it had no backbone, basically... I wont go into detail, but nothing mentioned in that book was anything new, just more rearranged words and interpretations from the bible. Its a bit interesting looking at it from the perspective of how concrete the Book of Mormon is. Yeah, nobody can factually and scientifically completely prove that the Book of Mormon is true or not, but to solve that problem we simply invite people to just ask God with faith if its true or not, and such problems will be resolved.
We havent gotten the chance to talk with them since our last visit... but we will have to follow up with how they liked the BoM, probably this week.
We´ve been teaching an investigator for a few weeks now, José. He too, is brazilian and really enjoys our visits. He loves discussing doctrine with us (He is an evangelical through and through) and thinks our message is quite something. However, he´s a bit prideful, or in other words, doesnt want to really read and pray about he BoM, he thinks it´s not necessary (dont worry, we´ve explained the necessity many times, he´s just a bit stubborn, that´s all haha).
His brother, Jeferson, showed up to visit a few months from brazil. He is just like his brother, but a bit more hardcore. He knows the bible very well, and he too really enjoys our visits.
Our lessons with them are pretty hard to control. Elder Jan can´t understand their brazilian portuguese very well still, so sometimes I have to solo it. I will say something like "so the priesthood was restored to Joseph" and they say "ok whats the priesthood" I reply "well its the power of god, etc," and then out of nowhere were talking about he historical lineage of Melchezidek. Its complicated, but always a good time with them. We´ve become good friends with them. We read the BoM with them personally one day and they asked a million questions and José even took notes. Theyre just stubborn brazilians though haha.
Really funny story, a pastor from their church actually showed up to their house, and shortly after, we knocked on the door. We all talked together, it was a critical, yet comedic atmosphere. The pastor had to leave for some reason, and afterwards Jeferson said "man that guy doesnt know anything, you guys respond a lot better to our questions."
In another visit, I shared Jeremiah 1:5 with them, which talks about the pre-mortal life basically, and I explained it to Jeferson, and he just went wide-eyed like he´d been slapped and basically, without actually saying it, expressed "dang yall know your stuff, that´s crazy, I didnt know that". I replied, "yeah man, this stuff is taught to 5 year olds in the church were inviting you to. Its the truth." (a summary, it didnt run just like that)
We taught a british guy named Kearan (there are actually quite a bit of british folk who pass the winter here in the southern tip of portugal). He´s black too, and really funny. Clearly, we talk in english with him (luckily Elder Jan knows english quite well, so things run smoothly). I really enjoy the visits we have with him (only 2 so far). I catch myself laughing a lot when we teach him, because first off hes british, i like the accent, and secondly there are just so many little idioms and sayings that I´ve forgot even existed in english, and hearing them again, and hearing british ones too, really "tickles my fancy" hahaha. However, although he will die with his belief in God, he doesnt like the idea of a church or religion. We´ve tried addressing his concerns, trust me, but he said he just isnt ready yet basically. But man he´s a cool "chap" haha.
We have an investigator, Maria, from Cape Verde who is basically already converted and everything, but is just waiting for her baptism. ( a couple very small complications, but she will be baptized in a few weeks for sure) She loves having us over, and she already loves doing missionary work. For example, she already gave us the contact of her son, nephew, sister, and cousin, address, number, and all to us for us to pass to other missionaries in those areas. She already brought her boss to church, Nina, and she already brought her cousin, Luísa to visit with us too. What a lady, really, points for her. It´s very likely that the people who she has brought to us will progress well too.
This week, Elder Jan and I had to drive to Lisbon to knock out my residency paperwork stuff thingy to continue my stay here without sirens. It all went well, it was nice to chill in the car, talk with Elder Jan, and watch the Portuguese countryside pass by for a couple hours there and a couple hours back.
Elder Jan and I had to go to the hospital too (dont freak out) he had an apointment to have a quick exam of his esofogus or whatever. It went well, he´s in the clear. He was knocked out for the exam, and he walked out a bit loopy, it was really funny.
We had a good church meeting this sunday. We had a primary program that ran pretty well. Our little branch only has 9 or 10 primary kids, but they still did a good job. Many of the primary children are what we call "os lamanitas" because there are 4 families in our branch from ecuador, and well, they fit the bill of "Lamanite" haha. Dark, southern americans, and the fathers and children all have long ponytails down their backs. Theyre great people, really. Each family did a little number together to participate in the program, it was nice.
We actually got to eat with one such family one night, they served some darn good food, and welp, being from ecuador, spoke spanish to us. But hey, portuguese comes with a free-spanish-understanding card, so it was a good time truly. Good food too. We shared a message with them. Elder Jan shared it, and talked about Amon going to teach the lamanites. In that very moment, they chuckled, and then the mother said, "hehe, thats us" — it was really funny, take my word for it.
Im enjoying the mission. Its a great time serving here with Elder Jan. It´s just a pleasure really. I´m doing well, and funny enough, it doesnt even feel like christmas to me, not bothering me a bit that it is either. All is well on my end.
The church is true!
Merry Christmas,
Elder Ward
I tried to include it bit more content this week, hope yall enjoy. Sorry, computers here dont allow photo uploads, and the chapel computer isnt working... so I cant send any...
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