Dear
family and friends,
To put things in simple terms, this week was a bit tough. We
worked pretty hard but we are still hoping to find more success. Some good
things still happened though.
A few weeks back we were trying to find a less-active member with
a list that we had and we knocked the doors in the same building. We found this
girl named Catarina, a brazilian. She said that she already was taught by
missionaries in the past, but she stopped because she´s still from her own
religion. We politley told her a bit about how were different and how we could
focus in a way that would help her grow her faith through the things that we
present, and she said that we could pass by later. We came back to find her
brother, João, who has 14 years. He answered the door, and generally we´re not
very insistent with youth, we try to focus on the head of the family, so we
asked to speak with Catarina or their mother. João to call for her, and he did.
We went around the corner and in a low voice said "mom...hey mom! Mom! The
missionaries! Mom, c´mon, just a bit! Can they? Mom!"
Elder Hawkins looked at me and gestured in a way that basically
said "hey, joão seems cool". Their mother eventually came to the
door, she wasn´t interested in what we had to say, but we simply asked
"well, since you guys aren´t super interested, could we just come in and
chat with João?" And it worked out. We taught the restoration to him, it
ran well. He actually was taught in the past as well (according to the area
book, by Elder Marques as well!) but he didn´t remember anything. We invited
him to church, asked his mother for permission, and she granted. However, João
got super busy with soccer games and practice so we lost contact with him and
he didn´t make it to church. We´ll hunt him down this week.
We taught Darlan and Alynne. We had a pretty good experience. I
put the photo of our family on my camera, the photo of you guys at Grandpa´s
funeral, and I brought it to the lesson. We were planning to teach the plan of
salvation.
As we taught, we put a big focus on eternal families which are
available because of the restoration of the priesthood. Showed them the photo
"here´s my family. They look happy, don´t they?" Of course they
agreed. I asked them to look for a secret in the photo. With a little help,
they noticed that the photo was taken at a funeral. I explained to them the joy
and comfort that a sealed family can have. We explained how the restored
priesthood can seal them and help them have an eternal bond, not just a
relationship on the earth. The spirit was strong, Alynne was surprised and
touched. We talked about a few other details here and there, and we explained
how baptism will be the first step to get there. They will pray.
In my mission, I´ve only done service a few times... I can count
on one hand, I think! There just aren´t a lot of opportunities that show up...
But this week, we did service two days in a row! One night we helped out with a
caravan of goods that was sent to the North of Portugal to help victims of the
fires up there. We loaded up a big truck with lots of... lots of stuff. Chairs,
beds, food, furniture, sacks of cement, 30kg sacks of animal feed, toys,
appliances, you name it, it was good work. At one point we made a little
assembly line for the sacks of animal feed and to joke around with our ward
mission leader, Franklin, a funny brazilian guy, I made sure to chuck the sacks
nice and hard to him haha.
Then someone from the ward called us to help out at their house.
They were selling it and had to clean it up quickly to show it to a buyer. And
it wasn´t a house... It was a freaking mansion! It was huge and super modern,
all boxy and stuff. Really nice, and honestly it was just overkill. We moved a
bunch of boxes and furniture to the garage, to be out of the main living areas
to make the house more presentable. It was good work, lots of heavy boxes.
After two back-to-back service projects with heavy lifting, I thought for sure that
I would be dead sore, but both Elder Hawkins and I turned out fine haha.
Welton was super busy this week, we didn´t manage to teach him, we
only got to stop by a few times to say hello. He just didn´t have the time to
sit down. He didn´t make it to church though, but as we talked with him this
week we found out just how much he liked going last week. He will put the
youngest in a pre-school thingy this week so Welton should have a lot more time
available, and a lot more time alone, without tornadoes around him. We
will take advantage of that to teach him a bunch. He seems to have a lot of
potential.
Fernando was a bit slippery this week. He didn´t say it directly,
but we think he´s not interested anymore, and who knows why. Our member friend,
Fábio, will keep in contact with Fernando on Facebook and try to help thing out
there.
We had transfers! Elder Hawkins and I will stay together here in
Setúbal 1C. It has been challenging, in a good way, serving in this area, and
I´m excited to better my skills as a missionary to find more success in the
transfer to come. There is obviously a lot I need to learn here. Setúbal hasn´t
knocked us down yet, we´re still on our feet, Elder Hawkins and I will do much
better this transfer.
It´s a short email, I haven´t got a lot of news, I know. I hope to
have more news next week.
Ciao,
Elder
Ward
Oh,
and winter finally showed up! It got cold enough to use a jacket, and reained a
few times! I´m liking it a lot!
I don´t even know if this is a cool picture, but
it´s all I´ve got for now.
And our service thingy! On my right is Franklin.
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