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
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