October 22, 2012

Life goes by oober fast!! another transfer come and gone. We got the call this morning from the AP's. That's one of the perks of being ZL, is that we get to know where everybody is going, and then we get to call them! It's always a blast! but anyways, it turns out for the first time on my mission, I''m staying with my companion. Elder Bergeron and I are staying together for at least one more and I'm SUPER excited! I really love Elder Bergeron a lot. I'm learning a lot from him. And we've got a baptism marked for this weekend and it's so amazing!!! But random fact, besides Elder Bergeron, I've had 4 other comps right? 2 of them are already at home, they ended their missions. So there are just Elder Bond, and Elder Faias left in the mission. Well I found out this morning that both of them are coming into my Zone here in Porto!!! I was SO  pumped I did a little dance for joy in the house :) hahaha really made my day :) I miss those guys! It's gonna be so fun to get to see them!

But yeah, so we're working with a guy named Isaías, or Isaiah in english. He's this AMAZING guy from Cape Verde. He's so incredible! He loves learning about the Savior and about God. He said he would always go with anybody who invited him to go to church, but he never really stayed with any church. Then was we started talking to him, he just soaked everything up! He's been to church twice and LOVES it! And this last week in church was basically an answer to prayers. We had a special sacrament meeting about the Priesthood and was super super cool. And in Gospel Principles Class, we talked about obedience and why we are obedient and its hard to explain exactly what else, but the teacher is AMAZING and Isaías asked for a Gospel Principles book! And we taught the plan of Salvation, and he just soaked everything up. The only struggle that we're really having right now, is that he's not married to his girlfriend and he didn't really have plans to get married (They live together and have a 3 year old son, Leonardo). But we invited him to pray about it and see if that was what he needed to do, and then we called him, and his girlfriend was also thinking about getting married!! MIRACLE!!! the Lord has really just prepared everything and answered all of our prayers, and his. It's been so incredible! and tonight we're gonna be having an FHE with our Stake President and his family! And Isaías is bringing his girlfriend too! This will be the first time we've taught Raquel (His girlfriend) Please  pray that everything goes well! We're super super excited!

And as far as Clara, the amazing sister in the apartment building. Unfortunately, we still haven't been able to help her get to church. She was all planned to come this week, but then she called us a little nervous. She had to go to the hospital but we couldn't understand why but she said she wasn't coming this week. we were confused but then called her Saturday afternoon, and her daughter who was having a rough and dangerous pregnancy (which was causing a lot of stress for Clara) had her baby and everyone is safe and healthy!! the Lord has just been taking such good care of Clara! I'm SO grateful! The Lord has just been working miracles all over our area. I'm so grateful! And I'm so grateful for one more transfer here to keep improving and serving the Lord more sincerely. And the people here are incredible! I love them SO much! I can't even tell you all the miracles that have been happening here, I don't have enough time to tell you them all!! I LOVE GAIA!! :)

And the ward is improving SO much!! We were finally able to have an activity once, just with a couple members and investigators, and the loved it so much, they asked us to do it again, and then there were more, and then even more!!! Now it's a weekly activity and the relief society is starting to get involved in helping with food! It's super fun!!! but I need some help mom, and dad, and ash and everyone who is reading this email. I just need Ideas for fun activities! we usually try to have a spiritual part for 10 or so minutes and then like a related game or activity that helps apply what we learned. We've done and Iron Rod activity, we've done a restoration/apostasy activity (which was fun) and we've done a culture night with American little games like stomp the balloon, flour game and don't eat Pete. All ideas are welcome! we're trying to think about mutual activities we've done in the past, but man, its harder than i thought!! haha :) But it's been really cool! our ward is just working really hard right now. the Lord has blessed the reactivation work here so much! we're working on getting 5 more people reactivated! and we've been receiving references that are progressing very well! If you could all pray and thank Heavenly Father for the miracles that have been happening here, and pray that our ward may continue to improve that would we marvelous :) thanks!!

OK so the miracle with João! the Dad. He's been pretty closed as far as the gospel is concerned, but the Lord has been doing so much work with him! It turns out he's read the book of Mormon 2 times and is almost done with it for the 3rd!!! WHAT?!?! He loves the book of Mormon! and he loves the bishop! He's invited us and the bishop and his wife to come to dinner this weekend! Man it's so cool!! He's opening up little by little. 

Maria Albertina, the lady whose daughters were taken away. She has been having a really hard time, and we haven't been able to get in touch with her very much, because she went to her older daughters house, who lives a ways away. We want to call her this week. It's been kinda hard that way, but the ward has been SO good to help with her. If you could pray and thank Heavenly Father for our stake president, that would be amazing! He and his wife, are LIFE SAVERS!! :) They've helped with Isaías, and Maria Albertina and are just fabulous!