August 6, 2012

Hey mom! super sorry that i'm late. It's been an interesting day! So we left Funchal at 7:30 this morning to go to Lisbon for a meeting with Elder Texeira (Area President). It was super super cool! I learned a ton! I've been thinking a lot about my prayers and what I can do to improve them. That's something that has really been lacking in my life. I really felt like the Lord was trying to tell me something :) Kinda like how my little sisters get mad when I don't write them back, Heavenly Father wants me to talk to Him a little more sincerely, especially after all of the blessings we have seen this week. Yesterday we talked to Claudia. She and her children came to church yesterday and LOVED it! She is incredibly prepared by the Lord. She didn't baptize her children in the Catholic church until the age of 8, because she said babies can't sin. Yep, Claudia, you are 100% right! haha :) But yeah she and her 12 year old son are super prepared for the gospel and Claudia accepted the invitation to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized on the 18th! She already has a testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon through prayer. It's amazing how Heavenly Father answers our humble and sincere prayers, because Armando, her son, also received and very strong witness about the Book of Mormon. He said he felt peace and comfort and he knows that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. It was SO cool! We have plans to mark him for baptism this week actually! We want to do it tomorrow.

So yeah....all of these plans for tomorrow are super sweet! but here's the bummer, I came to Lisbon for this training with Elder Texeira and it turns out that I've got to stay here in Lisbon until Wednesday to renew my visa or something like that. It's not a big deal, it's a normal routine thing actually, so it was a blessing really that I was already here so the mission didn't need to buy another ticket this week, but it’s just kinda weird sitting here with the office elders. We did some work in the areas of the office elders tonight and it was super fun! We found some really cool people and one family felt the spirit super strong about the plan of salvation. It was so fun to hear them say that they wanted to prepare to meet Heavenly Father again, and to see the spirit change their hearts. This lady was having a hard time wanting to come to church, but as we talked about how through the church of Jesus Christ, we can be prepared spiritually for that moment, she completely changed. It was amazing! And with one family tonight we talked about how this earth life is a time for us to prepare for the Heavens, and how all of the treasures here on earth stay, but our spiritual preparations are the things that stay with us. And then we talked about how our families are our main treasure, and it made me think about you, and dad, and the girls, and how this is so true. There's nothing in the world that will go with us, except for our families. And I'm so grateful for you.~

~Love you!!!

~Love,

Elder Jordan Brady