28 August 2017 Realizações

Dear family and friends,

Last week after writing to you guys we headed to Parque das Nações, basically a shopping center/port/touristy place. It was alright, we went in a little cable car and saw some stuff. It was alright. I guess I´m having a bit of a flat, the pdays in the Algarve were really cool... now it´s a bit tougher to do stuff. But I´ll keep an eye out haha.

This week was another bull-by-the-horns week. We worked really hard and I was probably thinking about some aspect of the work every conscious second. So many things buzzing in my head, who I would call, what we would say in the next lesson, what I would say to the next person walking towards us in the street, what I would say to Elder Gunnarsson to help him out, what I would do to plan divisions in the zone, how we would get to Sacavém to go to the district meeting there, when we would visit that one lady who was curious about the book of mormon, what path we´ll take to walk to Ramada that has lots of people to contact, just lots of stuff, endless.

Each night when I laid down I just sat staring at the ceiling sifting through mental tasks and decisions about the next day... it was a tiring week but I really felt the spirit. Hot day, walking up a steep hill, being rejected by everyone in the street, just looking towards the sky I just can´t help smiling.

On Tuesday we taught an Angolan woman of about 50 years, Josefa. We contacted her a while back and accepted our visit, in the start she was a bit reluctant. She is from the Igreja Maná (idk what it is in english, but its a christian church, if i understood right, they have apostles). She was baptized just last week in that church. We taught the restoration to her and two of her daughters on her doorstep. After the lesson, she accepted to read the BoM, and said "well, god will tell me if I need to be baptized by the right authority." She accepted to be baptized on the condition of a response. It´s not every day that someone considers to be baptized a third time to get it right.

Her two daughters were there to visit her from angola but will soon return there, so we´re more focused in Josefa.

I had a division with Elder Slater, a missionary who has been out for a bit longer than I have. It was a good time. I learned a lot from him about how I can do better in the training of Elder Gunnarsson.

We taught Daniel from last week again. It was an interesting experience. He was super nice and payed a lot of attention to us. We asked him how his reading went and he said that he read the chapter and the intro that we left with him. He said he tried to hide all bias and read openly, but he said that he felt nothing when he read it.

I wasn´t super worried. We quickly explained Moroni 10:4 and how he needs to show his real intent. He said that he was lacking there, he said he was still feeling a bit wishy washy about baptism. He was willing to investigate, but not to commit.

We ended up having a good lesson with him. We left 3 Nephi 11 with him and he accepted the challenge to read and ask God again. We came back on Saturday night and he was on his porch with the book and pamphlets in hand. We sat and chatted with him. He said he started to have some problems with his wife... she doesnt like us. He doesn´t want to cause problems in his family so he wanted to give us the book back.

We asked him how the reading went, and he said that it was much better. He said that he really started to feel something special. We said he could keep the BoM and the pamphlets. He was actually really pleased to hear that. We testified and told him that he will surely meet up with the missionaries in the future. He said that he would continue to read gladly, he really enjoyed the book. He said that he still feels strange about a commitment like baptism, but he said that he hopes that he can change. It was a good experience, that spirit was very strong there. We said farewell and he was a bit teary if you ask me.

Also in the division with Elder Slater we found this Angolan guy, 25ish named Joel. He´s been in the country for a few months now. He wasn´t up to anything at the time, so he let us go up to his apartment with him. He grew up catholic, and goes to a catholic church each sunday with his girlfriend. However, we explained the Restoration and in the end he gladly accepted the BoM, to come to church, and to be baptized when he knows its all true. He got sick and didnt make it to church unfortunately, but we will soon resume with him.

Elder Slater and I, after that lesson, realized that we didnt have another book of mormon with us, so we directed ourselves towards home to grab another. On the way, Elder Slater stopped a portuguese man, Pedro, 30ish, who had a shirt with what appeared to be a little aztec design or something like that. Elder Slater complimented his shirt and said "hey, we´ve got an ancient book about the ancient people of the americas, we´d like to share it with you. We´re in a rush right now, but can we jot down you info and we´ll pass by tomorrow". And so it was.

The next day, we showed up at Pedro´s apartment and he was waiting for us. We entered, and learned more about him. Turns out that Pedro is a lawyer and also studied anglican history and american history and culture. He already knew a bit about the pioneers. Pedro grew up catholic, but lately has been more or less protestant.

We taught the restoration and he enjoyed it a lot. I didn´t even finish my sentence when I invited him to be baptized and he had already said yes. We invited him to read, pray, visit church, and be baptized in two weeks, should he be prepared. He accepted everything smoothly, he was a bit anxious at the end of the lesson because I soon recognized that he just really wanted to read the BoM.

Unfortunately, we lost contact with Pedro a few days before church, and he didn´t make it. He sent a message sunday morning saying that he wasnt coming because he was still reading... but we´ll meet up with him more and work things out.

A funny experience. We were contacting when we stopped a brazilian lady. She wasn´t interested due to the fact of her already being comfortable in her own church, she was also getting home from work and really tired... common responses. We tried to leave a card with her, but she said "no no, give it to someone else, im good!"

I replied, "you sure? we have a ton!" She continued to say that she didn´t want one. I then continued, "aw that´s alright, you can give it to someone else!" She paused and thought for a moment. I then said "hey, here comes a lady from around the corner over there, you can give it to her!"

And whaddyaknow, this lady took the card, walked up to this lady, and with a smile said "hey I would like to give you this card about Christ, from a church." The woman accepted and continued.

The brazilian woman returned to us and said "there, are you happy?"

"oh look, here come two men from over there, wanna give them cards too?" I said as I handed her two more. She looked at me with the typical ´dang, you guys are annoying, clever, and funny at the same time´ face. She took the two cards, and gave them to the two guys.

You should have seen my face, I was just ear to ear grinning. We got a lady who rejected us to do street contacts for us. Elder Gunnarsson thought it was really funny too.

This was a serious achievement of my mission.

Anyways, I think that sums it up. Lots of other little thingies happened this week, but those were the highlights. Im having a great time here. Its a bit stressful and we have a ton of work to o but I feel the spirit every day and things will get even better real soon.

Take care,

Elder Ward