So in short, my meeting today was cancelled, and I am being transfered to Vasco de Gama with the assignment to break some missionaries of their lazy habits. I don't have a lot of time.
This last monday we had a fun family home evening with our Recent Convert Brasillians. They cheated really bad, it was really funny. The game was seeing a word and describing that word without saying other words. Elder harvey looked at me and and said "Tu . . . " and I said "Burro!!!", I was wrong, the correct word was Santo, but it was funny. (Burro means donkey, Santo means Saint)
On tuesday we spent the day contacting with a member from Braga that took us around to meet her friends.
Wednesday all of my recent converts got together and we had a big going away party for me. I knew I would be going to lisbon and we had a great time and have some great. We marked a really cool couple for baptism as well.
On Thursday we had a scare. Right after we got home, a recent convert family called us and told us they were attacked. It is the lima family that was baptized right before we got there. They said that they had been beaten up and her boss let her sleep at her house.
On Friday we went to go and try and get some stuff out of the house with the 18 yr old kid and she told us that it was dangerous and she called some of her friends to protect us. After 30 minutes of waiting a taxi pulled up with 4 huge black guys got out to walk down with us. We got to their house to take the stuff out, and their neighbors started calling us all sorts of names and started coming out to fight us. We told them we are here in peace and don't want any confusion, we are just going to take the stuff out of their house. Then their son came out with a crowbar in his and and said that he was ready to hit anyone that came against him. One of the black guys rushed in the house grabbed a knife and said, look, we are here for peace but we will mess you guys up if you are here for a fight. needless to say there were 3 of them , we had 4 huge gangster guys with us, 2 missionaries, the 18 year old son, and god on our side, they gave up and let us get the stuff from their house.
On saturday satan worked overtime. we found a guy that said he wants to convert, and our couple that was marked fell through. Their son has banned us from talking to them.
Sunday we had the worse sunday in a long time. There were only 28 people in church. There were 13 people there that we had been working with. Everyone was traveling.
Elder Hope
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Monday February 11, 2013
Dear family and friends
It is interesting to have time to actually sit down and relax. I actually have 1 hour to relax today!!!
On Monday and Tuesday we went to a big 2 day conference in Lisbon. They invited all of the Zone leaders and District leaders in the country to go and be trained by president. President told us that here in the next transfer or two we are going to be getting a lot of new missionaries and are going to be losing some of the great experienced missionaries. He focused on inviting people to baptism and setting and working towards our goals. He showed graphs of our area compared to the average of the zone and mission, and it was interesting to see that when the zone leaders work well, than the rest of the zone follows suit. He told us the same thing is true in wards, that when the bishop works good and when the Elders quorumn president works well, than the rest of the ward and quorums follow suit. Monday night he threw us out in the middle of lisbon and told us that we were going to contact everyone and there dog. Imagine nearly 60 to 70 missionaries blitzing lisbon. It was great. there were over 200 references received in only 1.5 hours.
Wednesday we had to train our zone on invites to baptism. Since then they are working better. IT is interesting to see the principles of savior helping us all in our life. We marked a guy named manuel, but he didn't go to church, so he can't get baptized.
Thursday we took our recent convert Carlos around with us to teach him how to be a missionary and a home teacher. Carlos is the most elect man I know. One of the biggest problems with the work here in Portugal is that people are afraid to ofend each other by being bold. Carlos is very bold, but not overbearring. It is cool, because he has had a testemony for a while now and has been reading the book of mormon, Preisthood in Action, our Legacy, and the teachings of the Prophet Joseph smith.
Friday, we spent a lot of time with the other Carlos recent convert and Israele. Isreale was having a lot of problems with her family and baptism. She decided that she was going to be baptized and felt so strong. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to separate her from her fiancé in Brasil, because I know that the church doesn't want to separate families, but I also know that god very clearly responded to her prayers about baptism. Our recent convert carlos opened up and told us that his family opposed him the whole time that he was being taught. He said god told him to do it, and he had to trust in god. His family threatened many things, but they are still a strong family.
Saturday Isreale was baptized. She asked me to get in a monkey suit to baptize her. Luckily I found a really awesome monkey suit with pockets, a collar, and a front pocket. I think it was for women, but I didn't care. Isreale was baptised. Afterwards, she told me that her finacé asked her to pick between facebook and baptism, she chose the baptism.
Sunday we reached our goal of having 40 people in church. We came into Foz with a frequency on a good sunday at 22 people, and yesterday we had 41 people. We went to another recent converts home (from before us) and she and her neighbor got in a fight. We convinced her to ask for forgiveness, and she came back and said that it was the best thing that ever happened to her. They live in such a humble circumstance. They have a leaky roof and our room is bigger than their house . . . which says something.
have a great day
Elder Hope
It is interesting to have time to actually sit down and relax. I actually have 1 hour to relax today!!!
On Monday and Tuesday we went to a big 2 day conference in Lisbon. They invited all of the Zone leaders and District leaders in the country to go and be trained by president. President told us that here in the next transfer or two we are going to be getting a lot of new missionaries and are going to be losing some of the great experienced missionaries. He focused on inviting people to baptism and setting and working towards our goals. He showed graphs of our area compared to the average of the zone and mission, and it was interesting to see that when the zone leaders work well, than the rest of the zone follows suit. He told us the same thing is true in wards, that when the bishop works good and when the Elders quorumn president works well, than the rest of the ward and quorums follow suit. Monday night he threw us out in the middle of lisbon and told us that we were going to contact everyone and there dog. Imagine nearly 60 to 70 missionaries blitzing lisbon. It was great. there were over 200 references received in only 1.5 hours.
Wednesday we had to train our zone on invites to baptism. Since then they are working better. IT is interesting to see the principles of savior helping us all in our life. We marked a guy named manuel, but he didn't go to church, so he can't get baptized.
Thursday we took our recent convert Carlos around with us to teach him how to be a missionary and a home teacher. Carlos is the most elect man I know. One of the biggest problems with the work here in Portugal is that people are afraid to ofend each other by being bold. Carlos is very bold, but not overbearring. It is cool, because he has had a testemony for a while now and has been reading the book of mormon, Preisthood in Action, our Legacy, and the teachings of the Prophet Joseph smith.
Friday, we spent a lot of time with the other Carlos recent convert and Israele. Isreale was having a lot of problems with her family and baptism. She decided that she was going to be baptized and felt so strong. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to separate her from her fiancé in Brasil, because I know that the church doesn't want to separate families, but I also know that god very clearly responded to her prayers about baptism. Our recent convert carlos opened up and told us that his family opposed him the whole time that he was being taught. He said god told him to do it, and he had to trust in god. His family threatened many things, but they are still a strong family.
Saturday Isreale was baptized. She asked me to get in a monkey suit to baptize her. Luckily I found a really awesome monkey suit with pockets, a collar, and a front pocket. I think it was for women, but I didn't care. Isreale was baptised. Afterwards, she told me that her finacé asked her to pick between facebook and baptism, she chose the baptism.
Sunday we reached our goal of having 40 people in church. We came into Foz with a frequency on a good sunday at 22 people, and yesterday we had 41 people. We went to another recent converts home (from before us) and she and her neighbor got in a fight. We convinced her to ask for forgiveness, and she came back and said that it was the best thing that ever happened to her. They live in such a humble circumstance. They have a leaky roof and our room is bigger than their house . . . which says something.
have a great day
Elder Hope
Wednesday February 6, 2013
really quick, we had a 2 day conference in lisbon, so that is why I am writing today,
monday the 28th, we had a really good time bowling again with our brasillians. We taught Israele about trusting the lord, and she was stoked for her baptism.
tuesday we had a district meeting and taught a cool lady named Maria de Rosalia. she isn't married, but she is cool. She is really progressing.
wednesday we went to braga and I got to see all of my recent converts and investigators. They are all strong in the church and have plans on going to the temple here soon.
thursday we got a call from a guy named josé coelho that wanted us to visit him. Well, we wet to visit him, and it turned out that he is one of our drunk members.
Friday we went to a less active family to get them back. it is sad because the dad doesn't go to church with the kids, but his wife goes. The brasilians were cool, and Israele changed her baptismal date to the 9th of february becasue of her fiancé.
Satuday Isreale was interviewed and Natalia in Braga came down to shows us a friend of hers.
Sunday Carlos got the preisthood and we traveled.
I will tell you about the conference next email.
love
Elder Hope
Monday January 28, 2013
Dear family and friends,
It is good to note that this week has been very eventful. I have noticed that the 2nd half of my mission has been much more fruitful than the first half in terms of baptisms.
On monday we went bowling with our brasilians and we are going to go again today. I somehow won with a score of 128, and I got a turkey!!!, I was shocked, but it was cool. That night we marked a lady named emilia for baptism for the following sunday. She is the mom of Carlos Ribeiro that was baptized 8 days ago. We talked to bishop and he said he would interview him for the priesthood so that he could baptize his mom.
On tuesday we had zone conference with President Fluckiger. I had the task of going and ordering from Subway for 42 missionaries. I bought 42 footlongs, and as luck would have it, Irmã Fluckiger told me I ordered too much food. So to announce that the food had arrived, I told everyone that Irmã Fluckiger had little faith in us to eat all the food. We ate it all. That night I got to go to some meetings with the stake presidency and the mission president. We learned that there was investigator marked for baptism in our zone that lived in our area, but was going to church in Maia (another area). WE were told to take care of the situation, and help her go to church in Foz de Douro.
Wednesday Carlos had his interview for the priesthood and passed with flying colors. He is the most elect man that I know. The bishop gave him the priesthood in action book, and he has almost finished it. We were on a division with Póvoa de Varzim and I stayed in Foz. My goal was to help the greenie. We found a lot of cool people and I don't think I have contacted so many people before. I told him we would not knock doors, and we didn't. We had a nice argument with the elders in maia about their investagator. I donºt care about the number, but I was worried that she couldn't get a temple recommend or a calling in the other ward. We promised them the number, but they wouldn't budge.
Thursday Presidente got involved and resolved most of the problem. we found a lot of cool people that don't live in our area, but we stayed optomistic. A member named Julia just had her daughter move into her house, so we are really excited to teach her.
Friday I went to ermesinde on a division. Right before going into the interview, the lady said that she was going to leave the church and never come back because of family pressure. we didn't get the interview done but she finally agreed to come back to chruch. I went to jaime's office and we got a lot of things figured out with our problem from maia and for a car when you come to portugal. Emilia got super excited to pass her interview.
Saturday we did the interview for Katia, the lady that lives in Foz, she lives literally 5 minutes from us walking and reallçy close to the foz chapel. WE had correlation and had 2 baptisms marked for sunday, from Emilia and Katia. We called bishop, and he was cool with all of that.
Sunday we had a confusion at church. We had half a hurricane outside, and there were a lot of people that showed up late to church, including Carlos and Emilia. Luckily Sacrament is last. We introduced Katia to the bishop and the bishop and he started ripping our heads off for 2 baptimal services and that it doesn't work for him and such. Emilia is old and can't come back at night, so had to go right after church, and Katia has friends in Maia that wanted to come, so we sort of had to do it that way. So bishop ripped us apart and elder Harvey took Katia away. Bishop then called the two of us in and told us we can't cook in the chapel with the members. We said ok, but he kept trying to rip us apart. We said OK, we understand, we wont do it again, He continued. Finally we picked him apart by asking why he cooked with all the members 5 weeks ago to try and show him we understand. He said "Não vamos buscar aquilio" or in other words, I don't want to talk about that. So we sit down in priesthood and a lot of people are still late, so he called us in and bishop called us to go and talk to him. He told us carlos couldn't get the Preisthood because he was late to priesthood and that we can't have 2 baptismal services and ripped us apart. He told us we have no love for the people, because we are just throwing people in the water and then forgetting about them (all of our recent converts were at church) and Just ripped us a new one again. I don't know what was going on. We called the stake presidency and after 10 minutes of speaking to the stake he allowed carlos to get the preisthood. Needless to say Bishop won't even talk to us now, because we called him out with the stake since he wouldn't listen to us. We spoke to president fluckiger and he told us to be patient but that with everything he was saying and doing we did the right thing. In the end of our confusion, Carlos baptized his mom!!!!!
have a great day
Elder Hope
Monday January 21, 2013
On monday we had a great time teaching the brasilians. They insist on feeding us, and we accept. we have a carlos we call Carlos Grande that we had marked that we taught as well, he is super pumped for his baptism. during p day we played baskeball with 4 other elders. There was a really annoying guy that didn't play very well that we humbled, it was fun. I played one on one and beat him, and I don't even play basketball all that well.
Tuesday was transfer day and it was really annoying walking around with a third elder.We went down to the train station to get his comp and Elder Harvey and I continued finding really cool people. We found a cabo verdian family that is in really humble circumstances. The Brasilians made us Lasagna and Carlos, the one we baptized was really excited for the holy ghost.
Wednesday we basically had a huricane come through and nothing worked out for us. In the end we managed to find a couple people and teach our caboveridan family. They are elect, but they don't exactly like the idea of waking up at 8 am for church.
Thursday it rained all day agian, but we took our brasilians to the chapel for an interview with the bishop. One of the brasilians is a less active that was interviewed for 1.5 hours by bishop, but it was all good. We taught another one of the brasilians the basics of piano. We then took the bishop over to Miguel, our recent convert's house and Carlos Grande. They loved bishop. The bishops wife got mad at us because bishop didn't get home until 10 pm and he hadn't eaten anything and he is diabetic. Turns out there weren't any problems with his health.
Friday I went on a division with Maia and I was with Elder Fry. We had another terrible storm pass through and on our way to the stake center we saw a car stopped in the rain with it's emergancy flashers on. In portugal this doesn't mean anything, but there were 3 or 4 people with umbrellas right infront of the car and there was a little red sack on the ground. As we crossed the street we saw the head of a joven sticking out of the bag with obvious head wounds and a covered in blood. I was about to help, but then we saw the ambulance pull up, and I didn't want to get involved in the portuguese legal system. I am pretty sure that he was dead. I helped elder fry get organized and we ate at subways. There are not very many subways in portugal, but we found one.
Saturday we went around looking for ingrediantes to make a dish that a member was going to make us on sunday. She is super poor, and we had the idea to buy stuff so she could make us a meal and give her the leftovers seeing as it would only be 10 or 15 euros and we had money left over. Needless to say we didn't find it. We had correlation meeting and got really exctied because we had 7 super ready investigators coming to church. We gave a lady a blessing and in a really humble way she was imediately healed. It was a blessing to see that Christ loves her that much to show her His power like that.
Sunday we woke up to a couple of text messages saying that investigators werent coming. We had 3 in church and then we called another, and he had decided to visit another chapel because his friend was getting the aaronic preisthood, so we actually had 4 in church!!! Our members made us a great meal with our money and we baptized Carlos Grand緌. I have seen the many miracles of baptism in portugal.
Elder Hope
Tuesday was transfer day and it was really annoying walking around with a third elder.We went down to the train station to get his comp and Elder Harvey and I continued finding really cool people. We found a cabo verdian family that is in really humble circumstances. The Brasilians made us Lasagna and Carlos, the one we baptized was really excited for the holy ghost.
Wednesday we basically had a huricane come through and nothing worked out for us. In the end we managed to find a couple people and teach our caboveridan family. They are elect, but they don't exactly like the idea of waking up at 8 am for church.
Thursday it rained all day agian, but we took our brasilians to the chapel for an interview with the bishop. One of the brasilians is a less active that was interviewed for 1.5 hours by bishop, but it was all good. We taught another one of the brasilians the basics of piano. We then took the bishop over to Miguel, our recent convert's house and Carlos Grande. They loved bishop. The bishops wife got mad at us because bishop didn't get home until 10 pm and he hadn't eaten anything and he is diabetic. Turns out there weren't any problems with his health.
Friday I went on a division with Maia and I was with Elder Fry. We had another terrible storm pass through and on our way to the stake center we saw a car stopped in the rain with it's emergancy flashers on. In portugal this doesn't mean anything, but there were 3 or 4 people with umbrellas right infront of the car and there was a little red sack on the ground. As we crossed the street we saw the head of a joven sticking out of the bag with obvious head wounds and a covered in blood. I was about to help, but then we saw the ambulance pull up, and I didn't want to get involved in the portuguese legal system. I am pretty sure that he was dead. I helped elder fry get organized and we ate at subways. There are not very many subways in portugal, but we found one.
Saturday we went around looking for ingrediantes to make a dish that a member was going to make us on sunday. She is super poor, and we had the idea to buy stuff so she could make us a meal and give her the leftovers seeing as it would only be 10 or 15 euros and we had money left over. Needless to say we didn't find it. We had correlation meeting and got really exctied because we had 7 super ready investigators coming to church. We gave a lady a blessing and in a really humble way she was imediately healed. It was a blessing to see that Christ loves her that much to show her His power like that.
Sunday we woke up to a couple of text messages saying that investigators werent coming. We had 3 in church and then we called another, and he had decided to visit another chapel because his friend was getting the aaronic preisthood, so we actually had 4 in church!!! Our members made us a great meal with our money and we baptized Carlos Grand緌. I have seen the many miracles of baptism in portugal.
Elder Hope
Monday January 14, 2013
It is transfers again and I am staying in Foz de Douro. it is interesting to stay that I am going into my last transfer.
In spite of MANY questions that have been asked by other returned missionaries, friends, and family members, I have decided to elaborate on the food system here in Portugal and the digestinal results. It has been asked if every missionary in Portugal poops his pants, and the answer is NO, I have not yet been blessed with that privilege. Elder Harvey was hit by a bull in a bull fight breaking the rules in lisbon, so he litterally got ripped a new one. The food is generally salad, french fries, rice and some sort of meat.
Last monday we went to the mall and had a good time looking around. We ended the day by teaching a guy named carlos that is marked for the 20th and prepared him to stop smoking. We are so excited.
Tuesday we went to our first district meeting on the last week of the transfer. I got to see Elder Fry give it. Elder Fry is my District Leader, it is super cool to see his progress. We went and taught our Brasillian kids, that are super awesome too. We told Carlos ( a different one ) that he was ready to be baptized that weekend, he didn't know what he thought about that, but said he would pray about it.
wednesday we were sort of dumb and decided to knock doors for a little while. It is the first time in probably 9 or 10 months that I have knocked doors, I hate knocking doors. So, there was no result. I always go and make friends with the members and then contact people on the street and meet the less aactive families that not everyone is a member, it is way more efficient that way. Here in Foz we have been working a lot with families less actives.
Thursday we went to braga all day for a division. I got to go around a teach and see all of my recent converts and investigators. There is one investigator that is just working on marriage and then she will be baptized.
Friday we did a mini division with the assistantes. We marked Carlos for baptism this sunday and it was a party. We have 2 people named carlos marked and ready to go for baptism, one on the 13th of january and the other on the 20th.
Saturday we went and did baptismal interviews for elder Fry and he did my baptismal interview. We also got a ton of investagators together and we played basketball.
Sunday was the best sunday in my mission. We found 7 new investagators and baptized the Brazillian Carlos. He is from Forteleza.
Elder Hope
In spite of MANY questions that have been asked by other returned missionaries, friends, and family members, I have decided to elaborate on the food system here in Portugal and the digestinal results. It has been asked if every missionary in Portugal poops his pants, and the answer is NO, I have not yet been blessed with that privilege. Elder Harvey was hit by a bull in a bull fight breaking the rules in lisbon, so he litterally got ripped a new one. The food is generally salad, french fries, rice and some sort of meat.
Last monday we went to the mall and had a good time looking around. We ended the day by teaching a guy named carlos that is marked for the 20th and prepared him to stop smoking. We are so excited.
Tuesday we went to our first district meeting on the last week of the transfer. I got to see Elder Fry give it. Elder Fry is my District Leader, it is super cool to see his progress. We went and taught our Brasillian kids, that are super awesome too. We told Carlos ( a different one ) that he was ready to be baptized that weekend, he didn't know what he thought about that, but said he would pray about it.
wednesday we were sort of dumb and decided to knock doors for a little while. It is the first time in probably 9 or 10 months that I have knocked doors, I hate knocking doors. So, there was no result. I always go and make friends with the members and then contact people on the street and meet the less aactive families that not everyone is a member, it is way more efficient that way. Here in Foz we have been working a lot with families less actives.
Thursday we went to braga all day for a division. I got to go around a teach and see all of my recent converts and investigators. There is one investigator that is just working on marriage and then she will be baptized.
Friday we did a mini division with the assistantes. We marked Carlos for baptism this sunday and it was a party. We have 2 people named carlos marked and ready to go for baptism, one on the 13th of january and the other on the 20th.
Saturday we went and did baptismal interviews for elder Fry and he did my baptismal interview. We also got a ton of investagators together and we played basketball.
Sunday was the best sunday in my mission. We found 7 new investagators and baptized the Brazillian Carlos. He is from Forteleza.
Elder Hope
Monday January 7, 2013
This has been the strangest week on my mission where there has been the most heartache, most joy, and the most disapointment feeling as if we let someone else down.
On new year's eve we met the mom of a member we wanted to start teaching. She is older, but really cool. She really warmed up to us and the members said that is good since she was against the church a little while ago. We didn't talk a lot about the gospel, but it was nice. We ate the traditional portuguese bachalhau.
On Tuesday we went to go and teach our family. They are part of my family, the little girl drew pictures for us and Filipa showed us proofs that she was praying and reading the scriptures. They are the most elect family that I know. They took us into Porto so we could catch a bus to lisbon. That night we stayed in the mission home and it was the first night in a long time that I haven't woken up feeling like an old man. In Foz our mattresses are terrible. Mine is hard as a rock and elder Harvey's is like a hammock when you sit on it. I have been annyoying the mission office to get us new ones. Irmã Fluckiger is the nicest lady you can imagine she went out and made sure that all of us were nice and warm and had enough blankets and made sure we ate a good breakfast the next morning It is one of those times you miss having a mom.
On wednesday we were in Lisbon in a conference. President Fluckiger is getting us ready for the new year. in 2012 there were roughly 1300 baptisms in Portugal. That night we went back to Foz de Douro. We were able to report that we are having record high frequencies in our sacrament meeting. sunday the 30th we had 31 people, the first time in a year that we had over 30 without a ton of stake leaders present. We have also reactivated a family of four where the dad is a mel. preisthood holder.
On thursday I went to Póvoa on a division whrere we got to teach some of the references anita gave Póvoa. Anita is the lady I baptized in Braga and I knew them. All in all, they are progressing. Some of my investigators in Braga that are going to be baptized soon knew I was going to be there and came down to Póvoa to see me. Meanwhile in Foz, Filipa accepted all of the commandments.
Friday morning, Filipa called and said she was done with us, and said that she didn't want us back in her house. Aparently the pressure got to her and her mom refuses to speak with her. I literally cried at the loss of this family that was progressing so well. Later that day a member from another ward called us and told us to be at our chapel at 4 o'clock, so we went and he brought a family for us to teach. He taught them about the beattitudes, and didn't let us say a thing. We then had dinner with carlos Santos later that night. That night we both cried and did what was even harder to do, thank god for our trials and the blessing we had to teach them.
Saturday we went over and finally found Filipa. She mixed all of our words around to the point where her kids realized she wasn't making any sense. I am sad that they wouldn't accept it because of her mom, but I am happy to say that I can say I fought a good fight and did everything we could to help her realize the problem. In the end I know it isn't the end of the story that everyone wants, but we did our best. Right after that we marked a guy named carlos for baptism that Elder Harvey found on thursday.
sunday we were blessed to have 5 investagators at church and most of them are progressing. We have a brasillian girl that we haven't been able to teach yet that has been to church 2 times and is super elect!!! we found her 9 days ago and she just went to church on the first invite without a lesson. Yesterday she brought all of her roomates except one, including the less active roomate that hasn't been to church in months. A guy named João come to church. He is the craziest guy I have ever met, but he is smart, and wants to be baptized.
Elder Hope
On new year's eve we met the mom of a member we wanted to start teaching. She is older, but really cool. She really warmed up to us and the members said that is good since she was against the church a little while ago. We didn't talk a lot about the gospel, but it was nice. We ate the traditional portuguese bachalhau.
On Tuesday we went to go and teach our family. They are part of my family, the little girl drew pictures for us and Filipa showed us proofs that she was praying and reading the scriptures. They are the most elect family that I know. They took us into Porto so we could catch a bus to lisbon. That night we stayed in the mission home and it was the first night in a long time that I haven't woken up feeling like an old man. In Foz our mattresses are terrible. Mine is hard as a rock and elder Harvey's is like a hammock when you sit on it. I have been annyoying the mission office to get us new ones. Irmã Fluckiger is the nicest lady you can imagine she went out and made sure that all of us were nice and warm and had enough blankets and made sure we ate a good breakfast the next morning It is one of those times you miss having a mom.
On wednesday we were in Lisbon in a conference. President Fluckiger is getting us ready for the new year. in 2012 there were roughly 1300 baptisms in Portugal. That night we went back to Foz de Douro. We were able to report that we are having record high frequencies in our sacrament meeting. sunday the 30th we had 31 people, the first time in a year that we had over 30 without a ton of stake leaders present. We have also reactivated a family of four where the dad is a mel. preisthood holder.
On thursday I went to Póvoa on a division whrere we got to teach some of the references anita gave Póvoa. Anita is the lady I baptized in Braga and I knew them. All in all, they are progressing. Some of my investigators in Braga that are going to be baptized soon knew I was going to be there and came down to Póvoa to see me. Meanwhile in Foz, Filipa accepted all of the commandments.
Friday morning, Filipa called and said she was done with us, and said that she didn't want us back in her house. Aparently the pressure got to her and her mom refuses to speak with her. I literally cried at the loss of this family that was progressing so well. Later that day a member from another ward called us and told us to be at our chapel at 4 o'clock, so we went and he brought a family for us to teach. He taught them about the beattitudes, and didn't let us say a thing. We then had dinner with carlos Santos later that night. That night we both cried and did what was even harder to do, thank god for our trials and the blessing we had to teach them.
Saturday we went over and finally found Filipa. She mixed all of our words around to the point where her kids realized she wasn't making any sense. I am sad that they wouldn't accept it because of her mom, but I am happy to say that I can say I fought a good fight and did everything we could to help her realize the problem. In the end I know it isn't the end of the story that everyone wants, but we did our best. Right after that we marked a guy named carlos for baptism that Elder Harvey found on thursday.
sunday we were blessed to have 5 investagators at church and most of them are progressing. We have a brasillian girl that we haven't been able to teach yet that has been to church 2 times and is super elect!!! we found her 9 days ago and she just went to church on the first invite without a lesson. Yesterday she brought all of her roomates except one, including the less active roomate that hasn't been to church in months. A guy named João come to church. He is the craziest guy I have ever met, but he is smart, and wants to be baptized.
Elder Hope
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