So, there have been some changes.
Last monday we had a pretty chill pday. We did the normal chores and then we headed basically to pass the pday with members. We had a lunch and then went to another family's home to just play games and laugh. It was fun. We then headed home and Elder Kampff packed up his stuff for the journey on tuesday.
The next morning we met up with Elder Jan and Elder Fogg to get a ride to Lisbon in their car. We stuffed the little car full of luggage and we drove for 3 hours to a train station where all the transferred missionairies go. There I found Elder Welch and also got to see some familiar faces, such as Elder Francis (for the first time in 7-8 months). However, nobody had time to chat, Elder Welch and I got the keys and we hopped in the car and drove 3 more hours back down to Algarve with another missionary that we left in his area.
Elder Welch and I got home at about 8pm, but we still dropped everything and headed out to the street to contact people with the time remaining in the day. We found some interesting folks.
The next day we only had until 7pm to work because we had to go back to lisbon again for the Conselho da Missão. With the time we had, we called Igor, a friend for a long time now. Allow me to explain.
Igor, 25, and Bruno, 29, are brothers from Brasil. They moved here to Tiago's house (our Branch Pres.). There, they are renting out a room. They arranged all this over facebook, they didn't previously know each other. Bruno and Igor got here about 2 months ago, right when Elder Kampff and I got here. We noticed that they have a lot of potential, so we went over there several times to get to know them. They have since then come to church 4 times, and a few activities too. They are awfully cool guys, and I have had a good time getting to know them. However, due to "distractions" such as television and Elder Kampff's favorite videogame, we never got around to officially teaching them for weeks.
But now I´m here with Elder Welch. On Wednesday, we went strait there, sat everybody down, and we taught the Restoration and invited Igor and Bruno to investigate the church more and be baptized. They accepted. We still need to teach a lot more, but we have plans to baptize them both in about 2 weeks. Bruno afterwards got really sick, so since them we haven't had a good chance to follow up. We'll definitely keep on top of them.
Cool story, Bruno and Igor actually got to Portugal because of FamilySearch. They needed to prove they had Portuguese ancestry to get into the country. They have a portuguese grandfather, but they needed to prove it with documents. They searched and searched but found nothing. One day they found FamilySearch and it had everything, even a photo. They were super grateful, In fact, their family in brasil got together to see the info. Their mother hadn´t seen a photo of her father for more than 20 years. They were touched. Here, Igor and Bruno, as they chatted with Tiago discovered that FamilySearch is part of the church. They were very impressed. Elder Welch and I are planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation with a link into family history and its purposes.
Thursday we had Conselho da Missão, a big meeting with all the Zone Leaders, Sister Trainers, and the Assistents with President Tavares. It was a cool meeting. Elder Welch and I will be doing quite a bit of travelling here in the Algarve to pass on all the new training to all the missionaries. I had to leave the meeting a bet early, I went with a senior missionary couple to get my eyes checked to get my liscence here in Portugal. It was fast. We came back and ate lunch, but then I went with the couple again to another place to get a tax number or something, and we had to wait almost 4 hours in line. Bureaucracy.... We got all our marbles together, and Elder Welch and I notice that we were in lisbon, at 8pm, with nothing to do, and a car. So, with the little time we had, we took a drive to Póvoa, my first area, and said hey to the Elders there (Elder Jan) and a member. Time however vanished. We had plans to stay the night there, but it didn't work out. Elder Welch and I slept the night in the mission office. The next day we headed back to the Algarve and got back to work. So, much of our Friday was lost travelling. (While I was there in Lisbon, I actually couldn't complete the liscence process, so Im still not driving, but we will return to Lisbon probably next week or the week after to finish it up)
On Saturday we finally had a normal day of just us and Faro. So, we got right to it. Knocking, walking, talking, teaching. It started off pretty good, but we were lacking investigators. We headed to an area to look for somebody we had contacted a few days earlier, but we couldnt find the address. We decided to knock a building next to us. We just started walking up the stairs and before knocking any door, we talked to a guy who was going down. His name is Dinis (Dee-NEESH), he's about 30, a built guy, lives alone, computer technician, portuguese, catholic at birth. He did't have much time, but we taught him in 20 minutes the Restoration, we invited him to investigate more (read and pray, etc.) to come to church, and to be baptized in three weeks. He accepted all of it. If everything goes well, he should be baptized.
On sunday, Bruno was sick, so didn't make it to church, Igor as well didn't. They're close brothers, and don't go anywhere one without the other haha. However, Dinis came, and seemed to have enjoyed it. We're excited to work with him. He's a busy guy, but we've got another appt. with him this wednesday.
Sunday afternoon, we taught a daughter of a member. Her name is Carina, and she's a mother with a 2 year old and another on the way. She's pretty nice, we taught her a lesson about the Plan of Salvation very focused on the family. It went well. We invited her to be baptized as well, and she too accepted. There is still a lot more to be taught and explored, as is with all our other investigators in this moment, but they all have great potential. I'm pretty excited to work with all of them in the near future, and find more like them.
This week we also visited an inactive woman who hasn't been visited for years. When we showed up she was surprised and happy. She let us in, we shared a little message, and she came to church for the first time in years with her daughter who was visiting from lisbon. This woman, Cristina, has another daughter with 12 years who still hasnt been baptized. We will certainly be looking into strengthening and reactivating this family! Cristina had a great time at church, and said hello to all of her friends that she had that are still active. Many years ago, Cristina lost her parents, and went inactive, and eventually the branch just forgot about her... until we showed up at her door.
So yeah, that's the update. This week, due to travels, we only got about 2-3 days of good work in in our own area, but with such time we were able to do more than what was done in the last 6 weeks. Funny.
To finally say a bit about my new companion, in short, he's a phenomenal guy. Elder Welch is from Gilbert Arizona. He is a very experienced missionary, and he loves to work. He has a good sense of humor, and enjoys being a missionary a lot. We get along quite well, and we work a lot.
That's all folks,
Elder Ward
Our french friends took us yet again to a very expensive place to eat.
Elder Welch is a cookie
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