Dear family and friends,
It is nice how much we have needed a P Day. Last P Day we went to Braga and went to a chapel called Bom Jesus, and it would have been fun and relaxing if the Zone Leaders wouldn't have called and said that we have a meeting that we need to go to, So we got to sacrifice most of our P day for a zone meeting, today, it should be better. Also this last week elder Searle and I have been streched out. We have taught 21 lessons last week which is a new companionship record, but none of our investigators are progressing. It is interesting how many people are sick, only on sunday, and no other day during the week.
So as we were running around to appointments, Elder Searle saw a building and he felt like he needed to go and knock it, so we went (we only had 10 minutes), but we went in and the only door that he knocked, a lady answered the door we had a lesson and a prayer, and came out with a new investigator, it was really a blessing to see how much we can be running around and seeing the little things.
I have actually prepared for district meeting this week. I do every week, but generally it is the night before and on the train (I have an hour on the train). So I have really been trying to figure out what we need. I found the scripture the small and simple things, and then started reading some from Preach My Gospel. I was amazed by the little things we are asked to do, that we just simply aren't doing. So I wrote down a ton of them, and will talk to the district about this, all 3 of us are having the same problem, we are finding people to teach, they just won't progress and then they will drop us.
Elder Searle and I really Chastized Marta and Arlindo this week for refusing to quit smoking. We went in and basically told them that they need to quit smoking and they know it too. I am pretty sure Marta was wanting to try our program, but she wouldn't do it without Arlindo, and Arlindo wouldn't do it. So (damos facas) it means we gave knives, or chastised them, and then the next day they called us and unmarked themselves from baptism. We were really concerned that we had been too harsh with them, so we asked our Branch President what to do, and he said that we just need to show an increase of love, that as representatives of christ, if we felt that is what we needed to do, then do it, but always afterwards, show an increase of love afterwards (the same way the lord chastens his people). . . So we will see.
We have another investigator named Pedro that was dragged to church by his overly enthusiastic member aunt that lives in France. She took him to Porto, and he didn't like his time. Apparently, she took him to relief society and took him to sunday school where he didn't understand what was going on, this sunday we told them to come with us to our church, and we were ready for them. I called our branch president and he told us to assign a member to him, so we prayed and thought of a member, but this member is disfellowshipped, so we called our branch president back, and hesitantly, he said, go for it.so we got ahold of this member and sunday this member was amazing, he took him to gospel principles where our branch president did a wonderful job with the life after death and then this member tore his aunt away and brought this guy to priesthood, and Pedro loved church. it was funny to see how the lord works. At the end our Branch President was almost in tears of joy, saying that he wants to shorten this members "sentence" of time he is disfellowshipped, because he has been proving to everyone what a member should do.
I don't know what else is exciting to tell you about.
As of right now, we are still working on our small pool of investigators.
Stay Well,
Elder Hope
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