Dear
family and friends,
This week was a bit like the rest, but we had a few great
highlights.
We started off our week getting right to work. We went to a family
home evening with the Sisters and their investigators, it was a good time. They
invited us so that way we could give a blessing to the mother of the family
that wasn´t doing so good health-wise. They´re a family of three, a mother, and
a son and daughter (twins) 11yo. They progressed super fast and were baptized
this last saturday. Elder Hawkins was invited to do two of the baptisms, he
enjoyed it a lot.
On Thursday we had a family home evening with Fernando. It ran
really well. We showed up and Fábio, our host, let´s say, invited a bunch of
other people too! In all, we were 2 Elders, 6 returned missionaries, and
Fernando in a family home evening. We taught and watched the Restoration. We
gave a Book of Mormon, and we invited Fernando to be baptized. He accepted
everything, he made a lot of friends (turns out that he already knew a bunch of
the people there) and we just had a really good time. We didn´t have time to
stay afterwards for the food, we ended up running (literally) home to get there
on time. Fernando had to travel this weekend, so he didn´t make it to church.
However, we will be working with him closely. If all goes well he´ll be
baptized in the near future.
We stopped by Weltons house once again this week. When we got
there, to be brief, he was a wreck. He was crying and super stressed out. He
was having some trouble with his papers and because of his specific and
complicated situation, he was told that he might lose the custody of his two
sons. He told us that he doesn´t have much reason to do anything without his
sons, they´re everything to him. We only had a few minutes to meet with him.
Elder Hawkins turned to me and said "let´s sing a hymn to him" so we
did. I said to Welton "look, we don´t have all the answers, I don´t know
how to solve your problems with the custody stuff and you´re financial
situation, but we want to help. We know this will help." We sang
"Come Come Ye Saints" to him. He calmed down, and the Spirit was
super strong. He was so thankful, and said that we had helped him a lot. It was
a touching experience.
We ended up having other activities planned during the weekend, so
we didn´t have a chance to visit him. We called him Saturday night. We didn´t want
to be super pushy in a delicate and tough time, so we just let him know that we
were hoping to see him church the next day. He said he would give it a shot, so
we agreed to call Sunday morning to make sure. We did so, and whaddya know,
Welton showed up to church with his two kids (a 2yo and 8yo) right on time!
We also talked quite a bit with Darlan and his wife Alynne, a
brazilian couple that has been taught for a while now. They came to church too
(Darlan the 3rd time, Alynne the 1st, so a big progress) and they enjoyed it,
they brought their two young children too (like 4yo and 8yo).
It ran perfectly for two reasons. 1, saturday night here in
portugal we had that daylight savings thing, so here in portugal we gained an
hour during the night. Darlan and Alynne have smartphones, so they got an extra
hour of rest and didn´t even realize it, but it helped them get the kids ready.
But even better with Welton, he didn´t know there was a time change, so he
tried his best to get the kids ready, and he thought that he was an hour late,
but got there right on time!
These two families came on the perfect sunday... Primary program!
The primary put on a good performance, all "cute" and stuff, and it
hooked Alynne really well, but it was a home run with Welton. He came straight
to me after the sacrament meeting and said "oh man, it´s great that I came
on the day when the children had their show! That was so good!"
In all, Welton really liked church, he wants to come back and put
his kids right into primary. We´re working with Darlan and Alynne to be
baptized in two weeks. We hope all goes well.
Transfers next Sunday. I´ve given up on trying to predict
transfers, but it is most probable that I will stay here with Elder Hawkins to
finish his training. He´s doing well, has made a lot of progress since the
start.
So
that´s an update. Take care everyone!
Elder
Ward
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