Dear
family and friends,
So I´ve been in Faro now for a bit less than 5 months. It´s great.
We always passed our pdays outside of the city, but for the first time this
last pday we did some normal sight-seeing in our own area. It was pretty cool,
we went to eat at a restaurant, saw a castle, etc.
Monday night we got working and went to a family home evening with
Mamá. I don´t think I´ve mentioned Mamá in the past, but she is an old Angolan
lady who is a member for a few decades. She loves the missionaries and loves
the gospel. When we eat at her house, she doesn´t let us speak. She says
"stop talking, your food is getting cold" or "you don´t like the
food? You´re talking more than you´re eating" stuff like that. We left a
message with her and her daughter, VIrginia (who is already a grandmother).
VIrginia is from an evangelical church, and is passing through some health
problems. She has already been pounced on by many missionaries in the past, and
she bluntly told us that she wont change. But in the end, she asked for a priesthood
blessing for her health...
We´re heading there again tonight, this time we have plans to
bring a potential investigator that we met in the street a little while back.
We have 3 districts in our zone. This transfer 2 of our 3 district
leaders are new, and are quite young in the mission. Elder Harker and I made
plans to travel a bit, attend their district meetings, and then do divisions
with them to train and to learn. It ran really well.
On tuesday we went to a district meeting in Olhão and then I
worked the rest of the day with one of our district leaders here in Faro. The
next day we took a train to Lagos, attended a meeting there, and then I went in
a trio with two Elders from Portimão, It was actually really cool. This
companionship is training at this time, so I got to work a day with a brand new
missionary, Elder Kirklow. Elder Kirklow has been in the country for basically
two weeks but it was really cool helping him out. We started doing lots of
street contacts, and he quickly caught on. Convert from 5 years back, 23 years
old, and a great guy. It´s really cool to see the quick learning and also the
changes that happen with missionaries.
On tuesday we were walking to Diego´s apt building and we were
about to go up to his floor when we realized that he was outside already
sitting on a bench. We sat down and started talking with him.
Turns out that there was a contention in the family of some sort,
and Diego decided to move out. He started renting out a room in the city center.
He was there waiting for others to get home so he could get his stuff.
We had a serious conversation with him. I wanted to really know
that he was willing to fight to progress so he could be baptized. He said yes.
Fortunately, at that point, this move-out was a good thing. The
rest of his family has lots of problems with the word of wisdom, so Diego
escaped from a lot of temptation fortunately. We met up with Diego at the
chapel the next night and had a great lesson with him. He has been doing much
better, basically is a week strong without smoking anything. We made plans for
his baptism, and taught the plan of salvation.
To our dismay, Diego couldn´t meet up with us on saturday. Turns
out that that first place he moved to didn´t work out, so now he´s living a few
minutes by car outside of Faro. He cancelled our appointment saturday night
because he wanted to rest so that way he could have time and energy to bike to
church the next morning. In spite of all of that good news, Diego didn´t make
it to church, which worries us. He had shown much more progress. We tried
calling him, but unfortunately it looks like his phone is having problems. We
will hunt him down this week. If he is stilll doing well, it is possible that
he´ll be baptized this saturday.
On friday we got a phone call. A brazilian woman on the phone said
that she was passing through some tought times and wanted to pray with us... we
marked an appointment the next day. (phone calls like this are super super
rare, I think the first in my mission).
Her name is Eliane, and she is an Adventist. She has around 40
years of age, and is very respectful and kind, smart too. She explained to us
that she has been basically passing in and out of depression the last few
years, and doesn´t know why. She got one of our cards a couple months back (In
fact it was when Elder Welch and I knocked on her door, but I hardly remembered
her). She called because she new we were pastors of some sort so wanted us to
pray for her. With a little butter, we chatted with her, offered a prayer, and
taught the restoration, We applied it to her, saying that the book of mormon,
containing the plentitude of the gospel, can help her learn to follow Christ
more fully in her life. In all, it ran well, she understood for the mostpart,
and will read and pray about the book of mormon.
Eliane works a ton. Wont be available until next saturday, but we
will see what happens.
Sunday went well. Unfortunately nobody made it to church, but the
afternoon of work was well used. We were walking between two appointments,
talking to everyone in our path. There was a fella on a bench smoking, and I
chatted with him. He finished his cigarette, and responded. I started the
contact with the Book of Mormon, he thought it was interesting, and told us
about his studies that he has done independently of the Bible. His name is
Ígor, brazilian, probably 40 years old. Smart guy.
We used about 20 minutes there on the bench to teach the
restoration. He found it very intriguing. He gladly accepted the Book of Mormon
and the invite to read and pray about it. We explained to him the restoration
of all things, including the priesthood for the completion of essential
ordinances, and like so we invited him to be baptized when he discovers that
the book of mormon is true. He said "certainly".
Ígor works a ton. We wont be able to meet up with him until next
Saturday, but it will be interesting.
Then we got a phonecall from an old friend, César. I´ve already
mentioned him once before, but recapping, a month or so ago, Elder Thompson and
I were walking in a rush when this guy suddenly stopped us and basically asked
for a copy of the Book of Mormon. He even opened up his wallet. We said that we
would gladly give it to him freely another day if he heard our message that
accompanies the book. He obliged and we kept his number.
César is a computer systems technician/engineer in Lisbon. He
travels every week up to Lisbon and comes home for the weekend. We tried
marking with him for that weekend but it didn´t work out. In the weeks that
passed later, he also had difficulty in arranging a time to chat with us. But
as I said, yesterday he called us and we met up in the
chapel at 9pm. He came in his car because he lives a bit outside of Faro.
We learned a lot about César. He´s portuguese, probably about 50
years old, and a very smart man. He lived and studied in South Africa, learned
English and everything. There he found the Church of Scientology, and became a
part of it. He quickly (for lack of a better term) "ranked up" in
that church. In a short time he became a private investigator, like a detective
for the church. He would basically secretly investigate groups that would
attack the church to get information about them. He also was some sort of
communications manager. He encrypted messages that passed from Denmark to the
USA for the church.
One day during some sort of conference meeting, there was an
organized attack from an armed man in an attempt to kill one of the church´s
leaders, It turns out that that man wasn´t killed, but in fact César took 4
bullets instead. (I find people with crazy backstories on my mission, jeez).
This incident brought about the separation of him from that church. He also
explained that he always felt empty there, there was a complete absence of the
concept of Christ. Since then he has investigated a number of other churches,
but said that still not one has satisfied him.
A few months before this incident, César´s mother had started to hear
the missionaries in her home. César, when there, ignored them, but told us that
there was a "warmth" that they always brought with them.
We were short on time, but with all this info we taught the
restoration to César. We told him to pay attention to that "warmth"
which we explained to be the Spirit. In only a few minutes, we taught and
testified about the restoration, the spirit was very strong. He gladly accepted
the BoM, will read, will come to church next sunday, and accepted the 5th of
August as a baptismal date.
I have high hopes for him.
In church on Sunday we had a visit from a seventy out of nowhere,
Elder José Teixeira. He gave a really good talk about he book of mormon, its a
shame we didn´t have investigators there...
Ivanilson is doing well. He didn´t make it to church this sunday,
he had to travel. Basílio is doing good, he´s a trooper!
But yeah, that was the week. Hope you guys enjoy. The mission is
great, lots of cool experiences and lots of opportunities to learn and grow.
Abraço,
Elder
Ward
I think we bent the F.
The sunrise this morning
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