So the week started out really good. On Tuesday we had an oportunity to speak with Natercia, and a friend of hers that has the exact same poblem as her, she is a drunk, and wants to find god. So Naterci, but she is also a Postitute and a homeless woman, so it is a little more extreme. We talked with her and I decided to mark her for baptism. Elder Alsoton is a good elder, he just never will bring up baptism. He is really good at getting people to pray and read though, so we work well together. So we marked her for the 3rd of September, and since that time she has never gotten drunk, she has drunken, but hasn't gotten drunk. So we prayed with her for a date, and she stood up, and siad, I feel so alived. I feel like god loves me and wants me to come to him. To be honest, I don't know whay she wouldn't pray after that, but he accepted the date, and she prayed in the next lesson. Natercia has lived the word of wisdom for the last month now and is one of becoing a very strong member.
Tuesday we had interveiews with President. I told him my biggest pet peeve was that the assistants would call us and talk to us for about 30 minutes during perssonal studay. He said, well Elder hope, you need to learn Patience, but they haven't called us during personal study anymore. We then went on a division with the AP's and Elder Carvalho was able to get permission from parents for us. We could never talk to the mom or dad. A little girl would always answer the door, but she would never lest us past her, saying her perents weren't home. Elder Carvalho said that there was a very important matter to speak with them about their son in a loud voice. The Parents weren't fooling us, we could see them. So they came to the door and the dad asked us to leave. Elder Carvalho said th Ramiro wanted to be baptized and we needed the daads signature for that to happen. The dad tood the letter and signed it and then told us to stop annoying him. Ramiro called us the next day and asked if he could be baptized the next sunday (yesterday), and then we lost contact with him for the rest of the week. He showed up to church on time (shocker) and said he was ready to go. We were nervous because we know that he smoked, but we also knew that he hasn't been to church for the last 5 or 6 years, so he knew the commandments. We decided to interview him anyways, and he stopped smoking the minute he found out that he could get baptized. He also has been working on his vocabulary and isn't cussing at all. He changed!!!
Friday and Satruday I was in Viseu. I did 2 baptismal interviews for them and had fun seeing all of the members I grew to love. Not all of them remember me, but there are the ones that I really liked, that still remember me. I taked to my buddy David Di Pillo. He had avoided the missionaries for about 6 months, and since we got new phones and a new number, I called him, and he set up a time to meet with me. We met with him, and it was just like old times, but this time, I knew what he was saying in Portuguesse and he didn't have to translate for me. He came to church last sunday!!!
In these 2 and a half transfers I have been here we have baptized 10 people. Our bishop is loving it, but he is having problems giving them callings. He understands that is a very important part of the church. He did the following, and I really liked the idea. He prayed and prayed about it, and felt the lord wants to reactivate the less actives (we have 600+ people on the records, and a frequency of 90 or so, since we are in the summer, it has been about 65 or so just because of vacations and stuff), so in Ward councel meeting he asked us what we did in the states to reactivate. . . to be honest I didn't know, I just knew that most of it was with home teachers. Together he decided that he would form reactivation committee. The took the 2nd councelor of the elders quorumn presidency and called him to be an assistant ward mission leader under the ward mission leader reponsible for this reactivation, and a guy that just got the melquesideck priesthood was put into be the 2nd counceslor. So he called a few recent convers, and some old members (filling their spots with recent converts) and every week they send an email out to the whole ward (including less actives) and then they invite everyone out the activities, and give a recap of sacrament meeting, and then some of the "seasoned members" go with the recent converts to go and visit the ones without the capability of receiving emails or anything. In just 1 week, a lady came back to church and brought her non member husband with her. She traveled 1.5 hours to get to church leaving her house at 6 am to catch a bus at 6:30 so that she could get into coimbra and then walk 45 minutes to the chapel, getting there way early. Next week, she will take the later bus and a member will go and pick her up at the bus station.
Elder hope
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