Family and Friends,
So we found a way awesome guy that agreed to pray, and study the first lesson pamphlet (I thought that was interesting, but he did), and then his friend came into his house and kicked us out because we were TJ's. I still don't understand how a friend can kick us out of a house that isn't his. His name is Julio, we will see, he left us with "Até Próximo"
So here in Ermezinde is another story and a half. Everyone got really pumped up because we whitewashed the area and we have received more references than i have ever recieved because of it. By the way, members like it when you follow up and tell them how it worked out when you passed their friends.
So my biggest problem is getting people to come to chruch. We call everyone on Saturday night to invite them, and they all seem to have excuses, so we started passing by every single one on saturday to deliver an invitation for church, and we had a lady say she wanted to come but her husband is in the hospital. (which doesn't mean much in Portugal, people go to the hospital for a bruise because we don't have doctors offices like we do in the States, just Hospital. And by the way, socialized health care . . . not a good idea, it doesn't work and people take advantage of it and miss missionary appointments because of the Hospital.)
So we took the train to go to an apointment, and we took the wrong train, so we missed our appointment. We learned it is better to ask where the train is stopping rather than just looking at the direction . . . but in our defense, we didn't know the track splits before the stop at Travagem. We have passes, so I am glad we didn't lose money from it, just a lot of really precious time.
So we are starting to teach a lady named Roberta. She is from Forteleza, Brasil . . . If i haven't mentioned, I love the brazillians because they already know that the church is true, or they want to know more about the church. We have to see if she can get baptized, we are having promblems with her desire to search, but she is way cool. She speaks in a really high pitched voice, and it is always a fun time trying to understand her, but she loves the missionaries and our lessons. It will be hard if we drop her this week because she doesn't want to get baptized. we will give her until sunday, and see if she comes to church or not.
Being district leader brings many blessings and many tears at the same time. As you know you grow to love the people you serve. This last week we had a missionary burn their arm on the oven, and the companion called a few days later saying that the missionary that got burned had fainted and was in the hospital and needed surgery. Long story short, it was all a joke and the missionary really did burn their arm, but never went to the hospital. The missionary was chastized by the mission President, and then i was called as the District leader and given "Orders" to follow the instruction in Doctrine and Coventents 121 that says at times "reprove with sharpness, then show an increase in love" more or less. To tell you the truth I didn't want to, and so I ended up having a long chat with the zone leaders on what I should say, do, and such. To tell you the truth that was the hardest phone call to make ever. To tell the missionary that we are here for them and we need to follow Christ, and endure to the end, that is not in the character of the missionary to do these things. Luckily they called me, because they have to every night to report on their day, and then I began talking about the day. It is hard to do those things, but during the next day when we talked, the missionary was still sort of depressed, but at the same time I knew that they had taken it to heart. The day after, they were happy again, and were working harder than ever to correct their wrongs. since that instance, this dupla of missionaries has marked 2 people for baptism, and I will go and interview them this week!! All in all, I have to say that as a leader we are sometimes asked to be a leader, not just an administrator, but we can also be best friends. I love my district. I love the missionaries I get to serve, My companion is my right hand man and a friend. I love this work, I love the lord, and I know we are blessed for the work we do.
Story for the week: We were exausted. We were ready for sucess, and we were ready to talk with people that wanted to listen. We found a lady named Marta with 3 young kids that wants to know which church is true. Her mom is a TJ, her Husband used to be a part of the Reino de Deus, and so they are a little family that we are excited to teach. We talked with her about god, the need for a church and baptism. I don't know how to explain love, but i could just picture her in white as we were talking, preparing to be baptized and recieve all the blessings god has prepared for her. I know my savior lives.
I have to go (I lost time, because some guy had to tell me that I am not authorized to use the computer because I am an American, and am not employed here in Portugal, I hope church counts as employment because I gave him the church as the company I work for, and the name of our Branch President as our employer . . . I should have given him Thomas S. Monson . . . .that would have been interesting,. . . oh well next Monday!),
Love y'all
Elder Hope
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