July 17, 2012

So this 24th of July activity has turned into a little on down the road activity! haha it's been rough to plan a time to get with the other Elders to plan this out because there are 3 duplas....um....companionships. yeah....forgot that word...sorry about that. but yeah there are three of us and 3 schedules and it's been rough, so we're thinking we're still gonna do a pioneer day activity...just not on the 24th cuz we don't have time enough to make it super well done. We don't want to do an activity half way, so we're working on planning within the elders and then asking the wards to get on board. We’ve talked to a few of the members about the idea of an activity, and for the most part, they're super excited, então ainda bem! so we'll get this whole thing planned out. Pioneer stuff is a little hard to come by here in Portugal, but Elder Bond and I are brainstorming up some pretty cool stuff! We want to have a campfire and pioneer stories and stuff like that, and then maybe watch legacy or something. And then we want to see if it's at all possible to build a handcart...we'll see how that goes, but i wanted to make some of the kids haul a handcart around the church 3 times to see how the pioneers felt and the sacrifice that they made...we'll see how that works out. Some of the members used to be carpenters...so I want to see if they can build on. A lot of work, but I'm super pumped!

Elder Bond is awesome! I love this kid! We have a few run ins sometimes, but that's normal....he's a greeny and he gets SUPER frustrated with the language....which I understand. So I'm learning love, patience, and trying to remember my Portuguese! (Sometimes I find myself saying the little things wrong that he says! NOOOOOO!!! hahaha :) ) He struggles a little with the conjugations, but he's working super hard, and he's getting over the fear of making a mistake and talking more in the lessons, so that's super good! I hope I haven't promised anymore visions!! I'm not gonna lie though; I still don't understand everything, so some of these lessons I could be agreeing to something that could be wrong...but yeah. No one's been mad because they didn't get a vision, so that's good! :)

2 weeks ago we had a REALLY hard time finding new investigators. We do a LOT of tracting here, until now. We're trying to use the members more and get references from them, but i never knew how and the only thing I’ve learned is tracting, but we've learned a lot from our new president. Even our ZL's did a lot of tracting, so we're working on changing that. But yeah Elder Bond got really down, because a lot of the Catholics have been saying, "I know Catholism isn't true, but I’ve been catholic my whole life, so I won't change." It's been hard because Elder Bond has been getting down because they won't change. We just talk about how it takes time to move traditions. And how we're planting the seeds. A little later on down the road, the Lord will put something in their path, and they'll remember when the 2 Americans who couldn't speak Portuguese said something about prophets and gold plates and they'll let the next Elders in. We've also talked a lot about the importance of smiling! When’s he's getting down, I'll push him in to the wall or something so he will punch me, and then we laugh and joke and it's all good! It’s so fun! I love this kid! The other day he pushed me into the middle of the street. I wasn't paying attention so I FREAKED! cuz I was in the middle of the street! I about died cuz I was so scared! Then I realized that there wasn't a car for like 17 miles. I seriously about killed him! He laughed really hard. Don't worry Elder, I don't get mad, I just get even. (evil-yet-righteous-desired-chuckle) :)

And we’ve honestly seen the hand of the Lord SOO much this week. I talked to you about Orlanda a little last week, so I’ll tell you about her real quick. Orlanda is about 35 years old. She lives alone but she works a lot and her mom is with her a lot. She loves Jesus Christ so much and wants to follow Him and learn all she can about Him. Lately she's been studying a lot to know how to follow him and to learn more about His life. Then one day she saw the Elders of Funchal 2, the other area next to ours. And she thought, ya know I'd like to talk to them one day. Maybe they can help me. And then that night....we knocked on her door, and asked her if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. She was so excited and she let us talk to her. She says she never answers the door for anybody that she doesn't know, but she wanted to know about Jesus Christ. (we told her through the door that we were disciples of Christ and wanted to share the message. So then she opened the door!!) So then we talked about the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ and left her with 3 Nephi 11 to read, and then said a prayer with her. We came back the next appointment, and she had read the chapter, had questions, read the testimony of Joseph Smith and wanted more! so we responded to her questions, talked about Joseph Smith just a little bit before we had to leave. Then we were leaving and we said, "we're going to teach you tonight how to pray." When we said that her face was interesting.....and then afterwards we found out that after the first visit, when we invited her to pray, she wasn't sure how. She know that the Catholic way of praying wasn't really how to pray, and she wanted to know how to do it. And then she said the way that we worded it was exactly the way she wanted to hear it. And the cool thing is, neither of remember why we said "We're going to teach you how to pray" because we NEVER word it like that. The Spirit gave us in the exact moment what Orlanda needed to hear. And then we had a meeting with Pres. Fluckiger at the same time as our last appointment, so we just stopped by super quick to apologize and mark another time to come by and she told us that she had a dream that somebody with an "American name that started with a J" and the Lord appeared to her and told her to believe in Jesus Christ. She said some other things about the American name, It sounded like Jared to me. So a Jared appeared to her and told her to believe in Christ.....we decided we should leave Ether 3 with her. Where the brother of Jared sees the Lord. It was so cool! we have another appointment with her this week. We're SOOO excited! It's gonna be great! we still haven't been able to teach the whole restoration or anyting because we're answering her questions and stuff and it's GREAT! we're so so so excited to be teaching her! and the Lord has prepared her, and has guided us to her, and He's doing everything! It's SO incredible! I'm so grateful for the hand of the Lord in our lives. I know He prepares things from the beginning, and He's guiding us through them. I know it! I love being a missionary!!