So we came into Foz de Douro with the prospects of fixing the ward. We had a high of 30 members in church yesterday!!! That was the first time in almost a year that we got 30 people, it had been around 27 or 28 generally.
So monday was a normal work day and we went and taught a couple of families. We have figured that the best way to help this ward is to bring families into the church. After a super spiritual lesson on church we finally got a couple to agree to come to church.
Tuesday we went to Lisbon for a christmas conference. We had a good time seeing everyone there. The seventy of the area was there and spoke to us on obedience. Aparently we have a big obedience problem on the mission. I understand, I have changed some things I have done some presidente fluckiger came in because presidente Torgan let us do other things. For example, we were allowed to come home late if we told the zone leaders, I don't do that anymore. The stake presidente of Oieras showed us how the good samaritan was like christ.
on Wednesday we found a really cool family of 5 people. a mom, a grandma and 3 kids. It is sad that there isn't a dad there, but they are really a cool family that i think will progress soon. We also went by a couple of the active families to see what was going on. We also taught Miguel, our guy that we had marked and reviewed his baptismal program.
on thursday all of our lessons fell through because of a storm we had. My umbrella litterally snapped in half and the storm was worse than some texas thunderstoms we had. We still got to teach some apostate less actives and some eternal investigators.
On Friday we had the interveiw for Miguel. . . .get this, Elder Fry got to come and do the interveiw!!! It was so cool to see him get to interview Miguel. We spent a lot of time looking for a house, but we were led directly to a couple that is really needing our help.
On saturday we decided to take advantage of a ward activity to get to know the members really well, so We baptized Miguel and had the plan to be at the ward party. The ward didn't want to baptize miguel because of the party, but in the end he got baptized. We had a small scuffle with our 1st counselor in the bishopric because he refused to open up the baptistry and the room for the clothes. Later that night we had a meeting with the stake presidency and Presidente Fluckiger and they told us that we will have a key here soon so that we don't have to worry about it. I am glad that the stake is 100% behind us. It is interesting because there are 8 units in our zone and I have already served in Ermesinde, Braga, and Viana do Castelo and elder harvey has already served in Guimeraes so between the 2 of us we have, or are serving in 6 of the 8 units in this stake. Presidente Neiva was called to be the new stake presidente, the ex branch president of Viana do Castelo and Jaime was called in the presidency.
On sunday we had a super elect couple finally come to church and after 20 minutes they left. They hated church. The men in Priesthood got into a deep doctrine debate and in relief society didn't even recognize her presence. They also didn't want to be separated. Later that day they were upest about 2 things, they were separated, and that every door was locked (we have been trying to get them to open the sacrament room). We took the bishop there and he told us to have patience and told the family, well, if you didn't like it, you didn't like it, it's ok, the door is always open. We were shocked that he didn't even try to resolve any problem, he just shrugged it off. they tried to give Miguel the Aaronic Priesthood in Sacrament meeting before he was confirmed a member too, that was fun to explain, and then the bishop forgot how to confirm people. It was funny that all the men got up to confirm him so there were 8 people in the circle. We then visited a really cool less active family that wants to come back, but hasn't been visited for 2 years by their home teachers. We called our ward mission leader and he told us, I wonder why they didn't ask to have home teachers. I am dumbfounded by the lack of caring in this branch that is functioning as a branch. we were told we have to take care of Miguel, our recent convert because he won't be taken care of by the members yet.
Come what may and love it, but it should be fun. I am excited that the only sane members are the members we are going to spend christmas with.
Elder Hope
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