So last monday we headed out to Fonte de Benémola out in the countryside. I tried going there once before with Elder Welch, but we didn´t find it... but this time we found it! It was kinda neat, a little creek place that runs through a little valley. We then headed to a nearby mountain and climbed it. Elder Thompson and I got to the top. We brought 2 brazilian Elders with us, they didn´t make it haha.
You may remember a couple months back a story I told about Cícira and Nuno, a couple with 4 young children. Elder Welch and I taught them only a few times, it was a bit difficult to plan lessons with them. We would call and plan a visit in the chapel, but when the hour came they wouldn´t show up. This happened a number of times, and they also hung up on us a few times... they were a bit strange. They showed a lot of potential when we were teaching them, but due to their "slipperiness" we never got around to teaching them a lot. We decided to give them a break.
About a week and a half ago Cícira called. She said "hey, you guys gave up on us! its been to long!" I quickly explained saying that we thought they were to busy, etc, and the truth is that we called them many times. I quickly planned an appointment in the chapel for us to meet up. Like always, she didn´t show up.
So on monday night we´re walking down the street and whadya know, Cícira, Nuno, and their four kids are walking down the street. We immediately talked to them, and we all walked to the church (which was closeby) and we taught a very good lesson. We spoke a bit more seriously too, saying that they need to fulfill their part. They accepted baptism.
The next day I called them to verify that we would be able to meet up again, and Nuno silmpy responded "we don´t want to continue. We believe a different philosophy" Funny, just the day before they wanted to be baptized haha. Fidgety.
But no worries, things like this happen a lot haha.
We also ran into a fella that I met a couple months ago, André. André is a portuguese student here, a little older than me, but grew up a part of his life in Switzerland. We asked if he had time to come and chat in the chapel with us — he did. We taught the first lesson, it ran really well. He found it very interesting and intriguing. He grew up catholic, but left it as he got older, and now is having lots of doubts about God. André posed an interesting question "So, you guys conclude that you are the only true church... what happens to all those people out there who never hear about this church?" From there, Elder Thompson actually had to get up and leave to help out a member. I then basically had to surgically explain the plan of salvation to him, focusing in the spirit world. He was surprised, and found that too very interesting. He then started making other questions, such as "why does God, the all-powerful, let children die?" and lots of questions like that. After a half hour q+a we called a time out, so to speak, and marked for another day because André had to get to class. Very smart guy.
We met up with him once more, and we had a lesson plan. He started to ask a lot about our beliefs on baptism. He asked "why do you guys baptize by immersion?" We replied with numerous examples from the bible. He then asked "ok, so someone should be immerged... but shouldn´t he also be baptized in a river? Give me a biblical account of someone being baptized in a pool."
It was there that we both realized that André was being a bit aggressive with his questions, he was asking questions more to confuse than to learn. We brought a pause to it by saying "look, these confusions about doctrine come from the bible. The bible stands alone, when we look at the bible in so many ways it is easy to draw different conclusions, thats why there are so many churches... André, you can only know if our 'interpretation' is the right one if you pray about the book of mormon, the proof of the prophet that corrected all of the modern day biblical speculations"
André left the lesson knowing that he had to read with honesty the book of mormon. Elder Thompson and I obviously hope that he gets a positive response, however, in our lesson, he showed a lack of real intent. It is very interesting how much I learn in the process of teaching people. I learned a lot with him.
We contacted a young brazilian lady in the street the other day. Her name is Hillary, and she´s pretty chill. She´s been here for 4 months and is from birth a catholic. She already met the Elders in brazil, but according to what we´ve noticed, it´s been a while since she was taught.
We taught her the restoration, and she understood it well. She just has a bit of fear in leaving the catholic church, in which all of her family stands. We had another lesson with her in the chapel, and we brought Milena, a recent convert of Hillary´s nationality and age. They just started chatting and made a friendship, and from there we taught a lesson about the Sabbath. Unfortunately Hillary didn´t make it to church, we still have to find out why, but we will be working with her.
Elder Thompson contacted a young lady from Cabo Verde the other day, Gilda. She lives in Estói, a little town just outside of Faro. We managed to schedule two appointments with her and we headed there to teach her. It´s running well. She smart and humble, and is understanding quite well our message. She works a lot of hours in a restaurant there, but she has plans to come to church not this next sunday, but he next. She will reserve leave with her boss. She showed a lot of potential. She grew up catholic and everything, but after hearing about he restoration, she now understands that there is more. She just has to come and see it!
A while back I contacted this guy who was walking his dog, named Ivo. He´s about 30 or so, has a young baby. One day, without an appointment, we knocked on his door just to see if we could find him at home. He let us in and said that we could share our message.
Turns out he´s a doctor. He´s a really smart guy, and he explained to us his beliefs before the lesson. He explained that he grew up catholic, but doesn´t follow any religion now because he´s a bit disgusted by the great apostasy.
So obviously we taught the restoration. He found it impressive. He´s a busy busy man, and we wont be able to meet up with him for probably a couple weeks, but he understood well and will begin reading the book of Mormon.
A while back we taught this young african fella named Déni. We passed by his house to try and talk to him, but only is cousin was home. We took advantage of the opportunity and tried to teach him, but he wasn´t interested. We asked him if he new anyone that we caoud visit. He said "my mom i guess". So, he gave his moms address and we went there the other day and taught Maria (his mom) and her husband Paulo. It was a really quick lesson, but Maria actually came to church, which is a really good sign! We´ll be meeting up with her again tonight.
We found a handful of other people this week that were pretty cool, but are already starting to fall through the cracks if that makes sense. I will talk more about them in the future if they progress more!
Way back when I was serving in Loulé, Elder Jan and I found this guy named Barbosa. Barbosa and his family started to be taught with us, but then I was transferred. A month or so later, Esmeralda (Barbosa´s wife) and Salva (esmeralda´s aunt) were baptized. This last saturday, Barbosa and his son Raul, were baptized, which was really cool. The baptism happened here in faro, so I got to stop by and say hey!
This week I contacted 2 italians! One was actually ukranian, but lived in Italy for a long time. The other was an older fella who is from Puglia, close to that little troll town that we visited! He was a bit interested in the book of mormon, so we´ll try to bring him a copy this week.
Anyways, I think that that´s the update for now.
Take care,
Elder Ward
Raul, Barbosa, and Esmeralda. Rafael is the little duffer below.
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