18 January 2018 Steady Climb

Dear family and friends,

     We had some ups and downs this week. I think I´m going to keep this email a bit shorter, I´m awfully tired today.

     We lost a few investigators this week... In attempts to call and mark appointments with them a few folks just said "yeah, I just dont have time for this church stuff, don´t get me wrong but we´ll be fine without more visits etc". Bummer, a few good people showed a lot of interest but it´s interesting how quick it can die off.

     We we´re in the cha+el one afternoon, having finished teaching someone. I looked at our phone to see that the fiancé of one of our investigators (who was likely to be baptized this month) sent a message saying that "they" had decided that they didn´t want us to visit anymore... worst part is is that that person is a member... gosh. Our investigator was super excited, he was saying things like "I´m going to be the new young men´s leader, it´s gonna be great!" and all that jazz... shot down.

     Logically, I was a bit annoyed... nothing annoys me much more that when people decide to reject us in someone else´s place. So, we left the chapel to continue with our plans, and as I was frustrated, I obviously didn´t feel like talking with anyone...

     But we saw this guy in our path walking towards us and I thought "well, I can let him pass and continue with no problems, but to stop the next person will be even harder"... So, reluctantly I stopped the man to talk with him. We introduced ourselves and after a short introduction he accepted to come with us to the chapel (which was only around the corner) to visit and see.

     His name was Manuel. He´s about 50, and he´s got some difficulties in life. A portuguese man, quite normal, grew up catholic, doesn´t practice. His kidneys don´t work, so he hooks himself up to a machine every other day to clean his blood. He´s got a lot of side problems because of this. We took him into the church, and we sat down and we had a great lesson.

     We talked to him about Christ. We explained our life on earth and the Atonement. We shared Alma 7:11-12 and we explained to him how Christ could help him overcome his challenges, enfermities, and pains, whichever type they may be, if he decided to actively follow him. I was able to bear testimony about how much that support from christ was able to help me in my own life and challenges, and especially with my family in the challenges we faced with Marie, even the help that Marie herself got. It was one of the most powerful lessons I´ve ever taught.

     We explained how Christ taught us to access such divine assistance. We talked about faith, repentance, and baptism. We invited him to come closer to Christ, preparing with us to be baptized and he accepted. He didn´t accept a day clearly, but he is certainly considering it. At the end of the lesson he asked if we could bless him with health. We obliged and explained a bit about he preisthood. He felt better right after the blessing.

     We tried to meet up with him other times this last week before church but it didn´t work out, he was stuck in bed with treatments and such, and I think that when he´s not feeling well he doesn´t like to do anything... But fortunately Sunday night (he hadn´t come to church that morning) he called us and we happily heard that he was on his way to the church to visit with us again.

     We gave a reveiw and we talked about some commandments that he can follow to begin the process of preparation with a good start. He fortunately is showing a lot more progress now, he thanked us numerous times for the blessing, he said that it was powerful to him. We have plans to meet up with him more this week. And, if all goes well, he can be baptized here in the near future.

     It´s a good thing I got over my frustration for that small moment to meet Manuel.

     Mayck is doing well. He´s as shy as ever, and he lost his phone recently. He´ll be moving soon too, lot´s of little changes. But he came to church punctually, came to our weekly activity, he´s doing good.

     We taught Paula, Paulo´s x-wife. It´s a long and complicated backstory, but she´s very open to us and our message because she´s seen the difference that it´s made in Paulo´s life. She had us over with tea, cake, and everything, she´s awfully nice. She had a lot of thoughts and questions that related to the restoration, and she was intrigued after we taught it. However, she´s a "slow thinker" in her own words, and will only "think" about baptism after receiving her own testimony. She´ll progress, I think, and will do so well, but it could take a little while.

     Paulo is doing good, he came to an activity this week and chatted very naturally with everyone. However he didn´t make it to church this sunday, we still don´t know why. I´m not too worried, he´s a good guy.

     Unfortunately we´ve lost contact with Ângela. She doesn´t know how to use her phone very well, and if my math is right, she lost her house recently... so we´re keeping an eye out for her.

     But that´s it I guess. I´m doing good, we´re working hard.

Ciao,

Elder Ward

 Beach

 Lookout

Is the church true? What, do you wanna sign?

15 January 2018 Mayck e hike

Dear family and friends,

      I´ll start off telling you guys about last pday. After writing emails we headed up to a little hill behind our area to explore. Basically a simple hike. We found some cool stuff. Nice views, abandoned houses, an abandoned 19th century mansion, an old spanish fortress, an abandoned (according to my understanding) WWII  bunker, and beaches. Pretty neat.

     Well this last week we focused a lot on Mayck. In fact, we taught him each night. I mentioned that Mayck had that hint of second intentions with going to the US but that seemed to have disappeared completely.

     However, Mayck still showed a bit of hesitation to his baptismal date. We talked openly with him. We discovered over the continuation of our lessons that he had already gained a testimony of the BoM and the Restoration. He had also plainly felt the spirit. We helped him recognize that such responses had already come, as small or as big as they may have been.

     As we went on, he began to understand for himself that God himself was responding to him, in a very calm and simple way... He felt peace and calmness when he was with us, when he read the BoM, when he prayed, when he visited church. 

     This continued as we taught the Plan of Salvation one day, commandments another day, etc. Finally, around Wednesday, he re-committed to be baptized. It was a great experience teaching him. He progressed very well and very quickly. The night before his baptism day, he asked us if he could still find the church if he returned to brazil. Well, we showed him how to locate a chapel on the computer. He then asked, "well, can you put the info of my family in there to find it too? Can missionaries go visit them?" Of course! We then sent the info of his mother and sister to the mission there in Brazil. After that, Mayck said "are you guys busy tonight?" "No, we have plans, but nothing firm"  Well, Mayck took the evening to take us around town to meet some of his friends. We ended up having a good conversation with two of them Diego and Ígor, we hope to go back this week to truly teach. He knew this lady who worked in a restaurant so we went there and chatted with her too. It was pretty cool, Mayck is a good help!

      Saturday night Mayck was baptized (see below!) by Elder Baird and Sunday morning he was confirmed by the bishop. Things ran pretty well. Mayck had a good experience. He´s already getting welcomed well by the ward, particularly the brazilians.

     Well, in the business of the week we actually didn´t see a lot of other results. Often times when we´re really close to a baptism other things slow down, which is a weakness that I ought to improve. We visited Welton this week, he´s doing ok... He´s still passing through a lot of problems and hasn´t progressed much. Sandra didn´t have time to have us over this week but said she´d come to church, but didn´t make it... and finally Kély and Rodrigo from a few weeks back said they´d come to church but came down with a sunday morning headache...hm. 

     Paulo, our friend from Moçambique who was baptized about a month ago came to church today and brought his X-wife Paula a third time! Paula is a tricky situation... she´s technically a single mom with a two year old. She supports Paulo a lot in his decision to come to church, etc. However, I think that we will have an opportunity to help Paula in the process! So far, 3 people, non-members, helped Paulo to be baptized, encouraging him, etc. Until now, 2 of the three have been baptized, we only lack Paula now! (The other two were Fernando, and a good fella from the neighboring area, Mateus.)

     Paulo hopes to show Paula a repented life so that way they can get together again, however, Paula, as kind as she is, is a bit thorough and cautious in her examination of Paulo´s repentance... if that makes sense, and I don´t blame her. Also, Paula´s family doesn´t want her to get back together with Paulo, if she does they threaten to abandon her, but Paula wants her son to have a father back at home... a tricky situation. Our plan is to come in slow with the Proclamation to the World to let her know that family is our priority. I think it´ll go well. We´re two for two so far haha.

I think that´s an update for now. Elder Baid and I are doing well. We have plans to finish these last two weeks of the transfer with a lot of good work.

Take care everybody,

Elder Ward

 Mayck!

 ​"Don´t count the days, make the days count"

 Make deuces, not war

Old gun, older fortress

8 January 2018 Encontrar, Ensinar, e Batizar

​Dear family and friends,

     Last pday we ate lunch with some members. Afterwards we took a stroll by the docks here in Setúbal, it was a relaxing time. We then got started with our week of work.

     On Tuesday we headed to Lisbon to have interviews with President Tavares. It was a good time, he gave me some advice to help out in the training of Elder Baird and complimented me for my hard work. We then started to head home. We caught a bus to the train station, but after already having bought a ticket one of the office Elders called me to ask if I had already gotten on the train back... Well, he told me that I had an appointment in Lisbon to work out my Portuguese residency (paperwork, basically). So I had to go to a foreign paperwork office place in a mall and work that stuff out. We ate sushi with the Senior Couple from the office, Elder and Sister Hoffman, a good time. Then we finally headed back to setúbal.

      Once we got back we headed straight to Jéssica´s house because we had marked an appointment with her. We talked with her cousin (I think) at the door, he said that she still hadn´t arrived from work, he told us that she´d get home in just a few minutes... So, left the building to wait outside for her.

     There in a little square there was this old potuguese man, Luciano, with a fat happy cat on a chair on his doorstep. I had to say hey (I wont reveal that my intentions may or may have not been just to greet the cat, but either way). We chatted with the man, about his cat, obviously. He said that the cat has been a good companion since he had lost his wife two months ago...

     Well we took advantage of the situation to talk about the plan of Salvation with him. We explained to him where his wife is, how he can see her again... Unfortunately he quickly understood that we were from a different church than his, so shut his ears after seeing our tags... But it was a good conversation while it lasted, no hard feelings at all.

     Then Jéssica rounded the corner. We sat and chatted with her. She had read a bit of the BoM, but hadn´t put an effort into finding a new job. We chatted with her about the Sabbath and in the end she accepted the challenge to start applying for a new job. Let´s hope that she finds one!

     We also met up with that lady, Sandra from the week before last. She was waiting for us, and we entered and taught both her and her husband, Francisco. We had planned to teach the plan of salvation with them, but as more questions were directed towards the restoration we basically gave a deepened lesson on it. This time, Sandra accepted the challenge to read, and we left the link to the film of the restoration with her. She and her husband understood well. They said that if they really found out that it is all true that they´d be baptized, but not super committed... They tried to come to church but they want to "take things slow"... lame haha, so they didn´t end up coming.

     We were crossing the street of our chapel, just doing the normal old thing. I saw this guy and we stopped him to chat. His name is Mayck (Mike), a brasilian, 21, looks older, a quiet guy. He came to portugal alone to start a new life, and with ease he agreed to come with us to see the chapel. There, he met two brazilian members, Franklin and Tamietto and hit off well with them. We then sat with Mayck and we taught him the restoration. He found it interesting and accepted the invite to read, pray, come to church, and to be baptized. He was already baptized in 2 other churches, but as we explained authority he seemed to understand why we invited anyways.

     He came to church, stayed for all the meetings, and enjoyed it. On sunday night we put together a little activity, like a big family home evening, and we had a pretty good turnout. Mayck gladly came and had a good time and chatted with a lot of members. We had plans to baptize Mayck this next saturday. He read 2 readings from the BoM that we gave  him, prayed about it, and felt good about the church.

     However, at the very end, Mayck asked to talk to me. He revealed a curiosity about the church´s link with the united states, and started to ask me about how he would like to go there someday. He said that he wanted to slow things down about the baptism, and wanted to know how the church (but really specifically my companion and I) could help him get to the US. Dang it.

     I had a serious chat with him, I explained that we misisonaries are only here to work out with his spiritual progress. I explained that we care deeply about him and his relationship with God, hence the frequent conversation about baptism. I explained that we don´t want any second intentions, for as simple or harmless as they may be, to interfere with his personal conversion and progress towards Christ.

     Fortunately, he understood and agreed. I explained that God cares about his righteous desires and that God will help him work out those dreams, but for now, we missionaries are only here to teach the gospel. We invited him to pray specifically about his baptism.

     We tried pretty hard to meet up with Darlan and Alynne, but theyve been flakey. However, Alynne, after cancelling our lesson for that night said "hey, just come to my birthday lunch tomorrow"... okay sure!

     We got there and there were actually quite a few folks there. We took advantage of the situation not only to eat, but to work with the people who were there. I was able to joke and participate in the conversations, meet the people there, learn about them. I narrowed things down, saw who was interested, who was at ease with us, etc. I ended up pulling one guy there named Benvindo, from Angola and managed to teach him a solid chunk of the Restoration. He was really curious and we have plans to meet up this tomorrow. Elder Baird was a bit dazed the whole time, it was a lot of portuguese at the same time!

     Speaking of Elder Baird, he´s going much better. He´s left a lot of his stress and is learning the language well. He takes a little while to grasp some concepts, but when he really understands something, he doesn´t forget it and uses it correctly from then on... few reminders are needed after he truly understands something. He´s been able to participate more in lessons, and he´s just doing all-around better now.

     And to sum up a lot of other things, the investigators that we´ve been working with lately haven´t shown a lot of progress, or got sick. (It´s ridiculous, like 5 times things didn´t work out because somebody got sick haha).

     And that´s that I guess. I´m going to call it here. More work to come this week!

Até já,

Elder Ward

Sorry, at this point I´ve only got photos of sunrises for you guys​

1 January 2018 Boas Entradas

Dear family and friends,

     Let´s start off with a happy new year! You´re probably wondering what I did... well, I slept. We didn´t have permission to stay up, but I hoped that the fireworks would wake me, but for some reason I slept like a rock, my companion too, and he´s a really light sleeper... so we missed the show, bummer.

     But it was annoying, weekdays I always wake up super tired, but for some reason on pdays I don´t wake up tired... What luck.

     Well, what did I do this week... I started to feel a bit better tuesday afternoon, We headed out to get working and we taught a few new people.

     One night Elder Hawkins and I were out of ideas, we looked around us and saw a building a little ways off that had a lot of lights lit inside... so we thought "hey, why not". We headed there and we started to ring the apartments from below. Lots of people hung up rather quickly, but one lady, with a brazilian accent, said that we could pass by another day. I jotted down her door and I said to Elder Hawkins "well, we found the person here, let´s move on". 

     We passed by a week or two later. Her name is Samira, about 30, a nice lady. She received the Elders once before, but was open enough to let us come over again. We had a small conversation with her about the BoM and she said that we could stop by just after Christmas. So, Elder Baird and I called her and we passed by Tuesday night with a member.

     She answered the door and said "oh, come in. I have a visitor" oh how good! We ended up teaching her and her friend Sandra, another brazilian woman. The lesson went... okay. Samira is actually really unflexible in what she believes, she wasn´t willing to read the BoM in the end, nor did she pay much attention. But Sandra payed a bit more attention. We have plans to visit Sandra this week and teach more. We hope to see some progress. It was pretty interesting how we were guided to Samira and through her to Sandra.

     But because of my sickness I ran out of gas really fast on Tuesday, I was super tired when we got home... it was rough haha. On wednesday we had a district meeting, we used a bunch of time to practice teaching.

     In this area, we have a guy named Lourenço, I think I´ve never talked about him... He´s a nice catholic man of about 50 years. He lives alone, and he loves the missionaries, but wants nothing to do with the church. So, he has us over about once every two weeks to eat with him. He´s a great guy, awfully funny too. He feeds us a lot and asks nothing our friendship in return. He had us over on wednesday. I was still recuperating a little from my weekend sickness, so it was the first time I truly ate in a few days and he didn´t cut me any slack, I left painfully full haha.

     A week or so ago we stopped this lady in the street to do a normal contact, Zoraida, from Angola. She said she was in a rush, so in about 90 seconds we simply conversed a bit and we ended up with her address and a return appointment. I was in a division with one of our zone leaders, Elder Heiner, when we came back to teach. We had a really good lesson, we taught the Restoration. She found it very intriguing, and she accepted to be baptized when she discovers the truth of the BoM. She said she´d come to church and and all that, it ran very well. However, the holiday season took over and we lost contact with her. However, we´ll hunt her down this week. She showed a lot of potential.

     We were trying to visit an old investigator, Carlos, on Thursday. I heard some noise above us and I saw a woman hanging her clothes two floors up. I called for her and we had a really simple conversation. "We´re missionaries, we have a message that will help you follow christ. Can we come up for a second?"

     Well, she didn´t have time then, but she said that we could come back the next day. So we did, and we taught her about the BoM. Her name is Jéssica, from São Tomé. She was really nice and as we got more into the conversation she got really interested in the BoM. She accepted to read saying "well, if it´s about Christ, I gotta read it". We talked about Christ´s gospel, it´s steps, and baptism. She was baptized as a small child, but we explained a bit more about christ´s example and she accepted to be baptized.

     Unfortunately we discovered shortly afterwards that she works every sunday... we analyzed the situation a bit, things like hour switches with coworkers, etc, but no loopholes... So, we talked about sacrifice for a bit, and we´ll be following up with her efforts for a new job tomorrow.

     We had a small visit with Darlan and Alynne, you probably dont remember them very well... basically a really good brazilian family that should have been baptized a long time ago but now hasn´t progressed much lately. We had a good chat with them, we learned that Darlan´s parents (who are visiting) arent supporting him whatsoever in his endeavors to investigate the church. Darlan and Alynne both expressed their desires to continue, just after the grandparents leave. It should be in about a month.

     Remember Rodrigo and Kely from last week? Well, we taught some more in the beginning of this week. They enjoyed their visit to church and even read a bit of the BoM. They agreed that they felt something special there.We had a good conversation about the Holy Ghost, and they understood well... they just are having trouble accepting that the true church is a bit different in practice and organization than their own... they´ll get used to it haha.

     Unfortunately, Kely´s mom, Raquele got sick and stayed in the hospital for a few days... such stress and complications made it hard for us to talk to them, and they didn´t make it to church on sunday... but we´ll get behind them again this week.

     Fernando... well, we´ve been working with Fernando for a little while, and he always came to church and talked about baptism and everything, he just would get flakey and such... So, in the district meeting on wednesday, we talked about him for a bit. The sisters from the other area said "just give him to us" in a joking manner, really. I thought about it, and after trying that day to call fernando once more, I decided to send his number to the sisters. After all, Fernando was from their area, but we were teaching because we found him in area, he went to church in our area, etc.

     Well, that night, Sister Foster (the sister from that area) sent me a message saying that Fernando would be baptized that weekend. I called to hear what happened. They had a good lesson with him, they discovered that Fernando wanted to be baptized but was hesitant because he didn´t understand really well what would happen after baptism, he was understanding that it was important, but took it as a finish line, not a starting line. The sisters did a really good job.

     You know how many times there´s a guy all strong and stuff who cant manage to open jar? He´s going at it in a corner, putting his back into it, turning red, grunting, but he can´t get it open. Finally, this guy complies, reluctantly, to give it to a woman. Clunk the woman opens it with ease in an instant. The classic situation.

     That was me. Elder Hawkins and I were working hard with Fernando. We put a lot of effort into the lessons that we did with him, it was an investment. I finally thought... ugh, I´ll give him to the Sisters... clunk! 

     I had mixed feelings afterwards haha. I was kinda ticked at myself for being so stubborn and also unproductive, for not having done it myself. I dont know how to describe it, but just imagine how that sweaty guy feels after working with that jar...

a bit frustrated.

     But I learned a lot! It was a good lesson, sometimes I think that I can and ought to do everything alone... but on the contrary. And don´t get me wrong, I was still super happy to hear the good news, just mad at myself haha. Fernando and I had grown a friendship in the process.

     So, in that lesson with the Sisters, he asked that I baptized him. With pleasure. 

I got there saturday night to hear bad news... Fernando hadn´t shown up! He didn+t answer the phone. So, everyone went out looking for him! Well, I found him just outside the chapel sat on a wall, thinking, obviously. He said "I´m not sure if I´m going to be baptized now". I knew that Fernando had already received his own testimony, he was just nervous. I chatted with him about courage and how God tests our faith. He went into the chapel but was still nervous. Finally, Fernando´s friend, Fábio (member) showed up. Fábio noticed the situation and took Fernando into a room to chat with him. 20 anxious minutes later they came out, a bit teary-eyed and Fábio said "where are the white clothes, Elder?"

     Fábio asked to baptize Fernando, and Fernando was baptized Saturday night, it was a great experience. He bore his testimony after, and asked Fábio and I to do the same. It was great.

     That´s the news. It was a month of hard work, and the Mission reached 76 baptisms in December, the toughest month of the year, passing our goal of 75. The mission has been fighting for this goal for more than 2 years. It was a great acheivement.

     so that´s a wrap. I gotta go! I´m doing well! It´s great serving here!

Feliz ano novo,

Elder Ward

 Baird, Ward, Fábio, Fernando, Moyes, Foster

 Fernando!

 "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint kneeling"

25 December 2017 Natal Diferente

Dear friends and family,

     Merry christmas!

     Let´s cut to the chase... this week ran well and he had some good experiences... I was sick with a cold all week but we still worked a ton... and now I´m down with a pretty brutal stomach flu but it´s christmas so I gotta talk to my family!

     Because I´ll be talking to my family I´m going to keep this one shorter...

     This week´s sunday was christmas eve, as you all know, so it messed up a lot of our plans to bring investigators to church. Not only this, but our bishop said that we wouldn´t even have sunday meeting in our own chapel in our area. The sacrament meeting for our ward was moved to the neighboring area... so we had to try to bring people to church in a chapel outside our area... but things still worked out.

     But we worked things out. Ângela was confirmed, someone gave her a ride. It was a good experience for her and a big relief too. An unconfirmed investigator is like a big looming debt.

     Paulo came to church once again, and one of his good friends was baptized in the other area this weekend and he got to see the confirmation, which was good. We´re talking with Paulo about the priesthood now. He´s going well.

     We got some referals from a good family in the neighboring ward and we went and taught them. Theyre a brazilian family and have already shown some good progress. Wilton, Raquel (grandparents), Kely, and Rodrigo (a young married couple). Only Rodrigo and Kely came to church with us, it was a good time, they made some friends. They raised their eyebrows quite a bit when we explained the restoration and eternal marraige. We talked about baptism and everything. Theyre reading and praying about the BoM. They enjoyed their visit to church.

     My new companion, Elder Baird (Bear-d) is a good guy. He´s from spanish fork utah, threw javelin in highschool, and got 4th place in the state of utah in a welding competition. He´s a good kid, he´s obedient to mission rules which is already a huge leap forward.

     Unfortunately Elder Baird is having a lot of trouble with the language. I´m not allowed to speak with him in English, nor do I want to. So, we don´t know each other very well because communication between us is awfully difficult. I help him out sometimes... I give him the word that he´s lacking or I translate a word or two, but unfortunately it´s not sticking in his mind. I give him the translation of a word "tão means so" but ten minutes later he forgets... I´m working with him, it´s certainly testing my patience! One day I said a sentence that took 30 minutes to explain... I said "If the mission wasn´t so close to it´s goal this month, I´d be in bed" (because the mission has a goal of 75 baptisms in a month and we´re super close this month so everyone´s working like crazy, and I was sick...)

     I dont blame him. Portuguese is tough and I´m also not taking it very easy on him... maybe I should haha. He doesn´t have experience with latin language.

     Im not trying to complain, it´s the situation. The first week is always like this. Don´t worry, I´m not going to kill him, I just like to push him. His first day he did a street contact and did well. Our goal now is to help him understand the doctrine of each lesson so that he can participate in the lessons that we teach.

Im pretty worn out now... Im going to wrap it up.

Feliz natal,

Elder Ward

 Said goodbye to Elder Hawkins... here he is with his new companion, Elder Gunnarsson! Two that I trained are serving together!

 We might have found this christmas tree in the street after a storm...

 Here we are with Welton and his 2 tornadoes!

Here´s a photo! Baird, Myself, Salas and her new companion​

18 December 2017 Dois

Dear family and friends,

     We had some good surprises this week. Let´s get started wit the main course.

     We worked with Paulo a bunch. We know him for a few months now, but in all this tame he didn´t come to church and we couldn´t keep in touch with him to plan lessons. Things changed lately. He got a phone and we were able to teach him nearly every day this week for a few minutes. He works in construction in a city a bus ride away and works a lot of hours. Fortunately, we were able to meet up with him at night in the chapel each week. The chapel is a bit out of his path, so he basically added a 2 mile walk home each time he came to meet up with us...

     We taught and payed a lot of attention. We started to feel more comfortable with his progress, and he began to show some true desire. We ended up marking his baptism for this last saturday. He had to work overtime a certain day so we had to cram 2 lessons and a baptismal interview into a single visit, but Paulo did really well. He was taught, interviewed, and baptized at 9pm on Saturday by Elder Hawkins!

     He´s trying to repair some broken family relations, as I said last week, and his ex-wife came to his baptism and confirmation the next day. Paulo told us that she has been enjoying it. We will try to find an opportunity to formally teach her one of these days, it´s been a bit complicated. But it was a great miracle! Paulo really changed. He used to be aggressive and had problems with alcohol, but he left it all behind and was baptized with a true desire to start over. Great guy. He´s excited to learn more and get integrated in the church, he´s already started to make some friends here.

     One morning, as Elder Hawkins and I were planning, we got a call from Elder Egbert, the assistant to the president. He informed us about the progress that the mission is making towards our monthly baptismal goal, and the mission is getting really hyped up with this and is baptizing a lot more than it did in the past. He said "we need to do things that we´re never done before, we need to work as if there wasn´t 2018"

     I sat and thought about that for a bit. That day we decided, instead of doing our normal routine, to hunt down Ângela. The last time we had talked with her, we had markerd her baptism for Saturday, 16 December, 11am, coincedentally her birthday as well. She had committed to come to our next lesson, but that was when she disappeared. 

     We only had been told her street, and she mentioned that sometimes she goes to a food center place to get lunch and dinner, and I had a faint memory of her telling me that she lived on the 3rd floor. So, during lunch ours we headed there to "camp" for a bit, keeping an eye out for her. No luck. We then ate and studied at home for a bit, and then we headed to her street and we started to knock doors and talk with everybody, asking for Ângela. We talked to Café owners, shop owners, and we didn´t have a ton of luck. But we kept searching and we eventually knocked on her door! Well, not her door... She just rents out a room inside another man´s apartment. Well, some guy (he didn´t even open the door, just talked through the door to us) told us that yes, an Ângela lived there, but wasn´t there at the time. Bingo.

     We went back there to visit a few times, but she wasn´t there each time. Finally, that planned Saturday morning, we decided to go and look for her once more. We thought that maybe by chance she´d remember her baptism.

     We found her on the street of the chapel. We came up behind her and we started to sing her happy birthday in portuguese. She turned around with a surprised face and a big toothless smile. She said "can I still be baptized today? I was walking here and I forgot were the church is... Did I already pass it?"

     I thought for a moment and said "well, if you come with us to the chapel now, we can chat and work it out. If all goes well, yes, you can still be baptized."

     We headed to the chapel and for the next 2 hours we taught her. She had only been taught one lesson and had gone to church two times at the time. We were a bit nervous about her preparedness, but we felt good about the situation and we also felt that the Lord had prepared everything else just right for this moment, so we continued.

     Funny, Elder Hawkins had to help another member prepare stuff for an activity, and there was another priesthood holder there at the chapel, so I stayed with Ângela and that member and taught basically everything as Elder Hawkins was helping that other member.

     Turns out that Ângela had a few problems with the Word of Wisdom, however, they were problems of the past. She explained that she still has desire to return to some of those things. I chatted with her for a while about the baptism and the commitment that it is, and after a bit she accepted to leave it all behind, she had been meaning to for a while.

     Finally, she went to eat lunch, and we planned to have her back at 7pm for her interview and baptism.

     We brought the Zone leaders to our area after attending a small ward activity after lunch and we split up for a bit. I stayed to set things up a bit as Elder Hawkins and one of the Zone leaders went out to look for Ângela because she hadn´t shown up at 7. They found her in the nick of time just outside of her apartment, and brought her over. (Turns out that she is a very forgetful woman). An Elder gave her an interview (a tough one because of her timing) and she passed.

     Paulo and Ângela were baptized together Saturday night. It was a really good experience. Elder Hawkins and I worked really hard these last two transfers and it seems like it payed off.

     As I mentioned a little while back, Ângela isn´t so well-off financially. She survives, but not very luxuriously. A member at the baptism sent her home with a few sweaters to help her out.

     On sunday, Paulo came to be confirmed. It ran well. However, we saw no sign of Ângela. She had found her number written on a peice of paper and gave it to us at her baptism, so we tried to call her, but no luck. Before church we knocked on her door, but the landlord there said that she had already left. So, we did a lap of the whole neighborhood but no result.

      She showed up at the chapel at about 5pm on sunday. A member called us to tell us she was there. We didn´t even ask what kept her from coming to her confirmation when she told us that the sweaters that she got the day before helped her sleep so well that she didn´t wake until noon. She has a little phone with an alarm, but doesn´t know how to use it that well. We discovered that when it makes noise when she doesn´t want it to, she just takes out the battery... So, she took it out that saturday night to sleep.. logic. Turns out that that landlord who answered the door lied to us... we had actually thought that he had lied that morning, he didn´t lie very well... but what more could we have done?

     We sat down with her and had a serious conversation about the commitment of baptism. She said she felt bad for missing the meeting, and that she´d come next week. She stuck around afterwards for an activity, she had a good time.

     So, she´s not confirmed yet, which is a bit complicated and stressful, but now we have her phone number as well as address, so we can stay on top of things much better now.

     So yeah, it was a crazy weekend, and that´s the main course of this last week. Now the sides.

     Welton has still been busy. He´s a former cook, so a friend of his recruited him for the weekend to do catering... darn, he didn´t make it to church. But we´re still working with him.

     A couple weeks back we stopped this guy in the street named Mário, a portuguese man about 27 years old. We explained a bit about our message about Christ. I showed him the book of mormon, and before I could introduce it he cut me off and said politely "no, no thank you". Normally I just let that slide and call it done, but I just smiled and said "I don´t mind which you choose, but before you make a complete decision, can I at least tell you what it is so you can make a more informed dicision?"

     Usually people say no, but he said "well, okay." I used the next few minutes to explain the Book of Mormon and the uniqueness of it and it´s significance. I explained that we just invite people to see for themselves. He then said "so you´ll give me the book?"

     Long story short, we ended up scheduling with him for this last friday. We showed up and we taught the restoration. It ran well, he was very intrigued by the message. He committed to read and pray, but he said he´d consider baptism prefereably without a date... We´ll be meeting up with him this week again.

     Turns out that Fernando got a job... on the weekends. So, he didn´t make it to church. But, he made it to Paulo´s baptism (which was really cool because in the first place Fernando introduced Paulo to us! Basically it was a baptism of Fernando´s referal!) Fernando was super happy to see his friend being baptized. Afterwards I just went up to him and simply said "you´re next, Fernando". We joke a bit, but he really needs it! He´s been a bit slippery... And now with this job it´ll be tough.

     But funny enough, Fernando showed up to church to support Paulo in his confirmation. Fernando had told me that he´d be at work, but I chatted with him after and he said "he got it worked out" to come to church. I think he ditched work to come personally...

And desert!

     We got transfer calls! Elder Hawkins will leave the area, I will stay. Elder Hawkins will go to Portimão, in the Algarve, an area that I´ve already visited a few times, and he´ll be serving with Elder Gunnarsson! In other words, two missionaries that I just finished training are going to serve together! Woo!

     I´m going to start my 3rd transfer here and I´m going to train a new missionary. I don´t even know his name, I´ll find out later... I´ll pick him up from Lisbon Wednesday morning and we´ll get to work here. It´ll be fun, I´m excited to train again!

That wraps it up. Hope you enjoyed.

Adeuzinho,

Elder Ward

 Our area´s missionaries with our ward mission leader, Frankilin.

 Ângela (not a very smiley person), Paulo, Paula (paulo´s xwife) with their son Henrique, with 2 elders​

 We had a big conference for christmas, and I got to see Elder Cottrell!

And why not send another sweet sunrise

11 December 2017 Missão é Guerra

Dear family and friends,

     Yet another week that ran surprisingly well! I think I´m just going to throw down a general update of what´s been going on.

     You´re probably wondering about that Ângela who was super interested in family histrory. Well, she showed up for the lesson we had planned on Tuesday, but that other member, Ana, couldn´t make it unfortunately. So, we picked up the situation with what we had. We sat down with Ângela and we taught the Plan of Salvation with temples, family history, and proxy work. After all that, she said (no, you´ve got to picture a small old woman with no teeth) "oh, that´s so nice". We invited her to be baptized by authority and so on, and she accepted to be baptized on December 16th. She quickly asked "what time will be the baptism?" We planned for 11am. It was a really good lesson. We planned to meet up again in the chapel thursday morning.

     To our dismay, Ângela didn´t show up. She had told us from memory when we were to meet up again, and she had already shown us that she wasn´t the forgetful type, even if whe was, we wrote it on a little paper for her to remember. As I mentioned in the last email, she doesn´t have a working phone nor a steady home address for now, so we had no option but to depend on simple appointments. So, long story short, we lost contact with her, which is a huge bummer. She didn´t come to our activity on saturday (i´ll explain below), nor to church on sunday... All we can do now is hope to run into her again. We know what street she lives on, so if we get desperate we can knock all the apartment buildings there looking for her haha, but there are quite a few.

     We had a district meeting on Tuesday, and I planned to do it in the neighboring area´s chapel. We walked a good distance there, and had a great meeting. We had previously planned to meet up with Fernando on that side of town anyways, so right as the meeting ended, Fernando walked in and got to meet some more missionaries! He liked it, and even took our photo (see below). After that, we sat down with him to have another lesson. Unfortunately Fernando still hasn´t read the Book of Mormon on his own. We decided to read with him, so we read 3 Nefi 27. He is hesitant because he wants to straighten out his life (work-wise) before being baptized, and for such reasons is hesitant to do even the basic things. We talked about he Gift of the Holy Ghost and how it can help him to get things like that worked out with God´s help and guidance. Fernando understood, but we´ll just have to keep hoping he does his part. He seems to like us missionaries more than our message, so we´re keeping an eye on his real progress.

     Unfortunately our appointments with Fernando during the rest of the week fell through. He didn´t make it to our activity nor to church... bummer. He´s getting slippery again.

     However, Paulo, our friend from Moçambique and Fernando´s buddy came to church, and brought his ex-wife (Paula, funny enough) and son too! Huh? Finally, after knowing Paulo for about 2 months he made it to church. It was a fast and testimony meeting, and for some reason Paulo had the guts to go up and bear his "testimony". I think he didn´t really know what to say nor how to say it, but he shared a few words about his faith in God, gratitude, repentance and such, so in the end it wasn´t a huge nail-biter. At least all of our members know him now!

     We talked with Paulo after church and invited him to be baptized next Sunday after church. He accepted and really wants to, but we´ll be keeping a close eye on him.

     A sidenote, Paula actually showed up at the church a couple weeks back on a weekday and asked to talk to us. We showed up and had a chat with her. She kinda needed to just talk to someone, I think, and she told us a lot about her and Paulo, motives for divorce, etc, I won´t go into details. However, she asked "Paulo was baptized, right?"

     A small, but long pause "Umm, no..."

     Paula was surprised and a bit frustrated too. We talked it out, and we came to the conclusion that Paulo is trying to fix his life a bit, and in short terms his mouth is running a bit faster than his legs. Aka he´s trying to change, he says that he´s changed, but hasn´t changed yet. So, we´re going to try to help Paulo, but we hope to discover his true motives. We have a lesson planned with him tonight.

    We´re still working with Welton bit by bit. We actually managed to sit down and teach a lesson this week, so that was good, it´s just that he was so tired that he nearly started to nod off during the lesson. We really want to get him to church and especially activities now so that way he can meet the members more but something goes wrong each time... We´ll still try.

     Remember Zé? Well, he gave us a call about a half-hour before a marked appointment with him and in a sad tone explained that he had had a fight with his wife the night before. His wife had talked with her religious leader, and such religious leader talked a ton of trash about us, and Zé´s wife took it all in. She got home and basically threatened divorce if Zé continued, so Zé called to let us know that he couldn´t meet with us anymore. I talked it over a bit more with him on the phone, but I accepted the fact that the situation just isn´t going to be good if we continued with him, even if it was sneakily. I told Zé to never forget what he had felt and learned with us, and he promised not to. He said he´ll keep the Book of Mormon and the memories well.

     We were knocking doors and we found this guy named Marco, 17, a really cool kid. We gave a brief explanation of the BoM and the Restoration to him and he was genuinely interested to hear more. He said that he couldn´t let us in in that moment because of his grandma, but we marked to meet up with him another day. On such day, we called, no answer. We sent a message, and he replied a while later saying that his parents wouldn´t allow him to learn about another religion... gosh.

     And those are just 2 examples, oh, I could write a long list of people who cut us off like that... I don´t mind when someone rejects us, but I do mind when someone rejects us in place of someone else...

     Sorry for the rant! I´m not super annoyed nor put down, it´s just how it is. We´ll find people to fill their places.

     So, the activity. A couple weeks back we decided to try putting together an activity for our ward. Our ward basically never has activities. It´s a bit silly.

     With our ward misson leader, Franklin (a brazilian) we planned it out, bit by bit. But our ward mission leader is a really busy guy so in the end it was basically just us 4 missionaries putting everything together. We wanted to try and designate some members to certain tasks, but due to past experiences here in the ward we decided that we would try it out solo to see how many people we can get there. In all, this activity was a test run to see how many members would show up, but most importantly, how many non-members would show up.

     After a lot of work, we had our Christmas-themed open house activity night on Saturday, and surprisingly we had a decent turnout of about 25 members. Two weeks before the activity we announced the activity and gave each member a few pass-along cards made specifically for our open house and we invited everyone to bring someone. In the end, not a single non-member came... dang it. Ok, to be fair, our investigators that we invited had complications, but we at least hoped that the entire ward that was invited could bring a few people, but nope haha.

     The only extra turnout we had was 15min after the activity had ended. One of our investigators, Artur came, and an ex-communicated member that we´ve been working with invited a good friend of his who also showed up just afterwards.

     As negatively as I may portray it, it wasn´t a complete loss! Those two non-members that came integrated a bit. It was really fun and it got the members (who went) really excited. They are certainly more open to the idea of activities now. We´ll start planning and designating work for the next one soon.

I guess that´s it. We´re doing good. We´ve found quite a bit of new people with some potential. I´m out of time for now. Until next week!

Paz,

Elder Ward

 Our activity

 Our district

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