No one get mad at my mom. I just didn’t write an email last week. Sorry! Things be crazy in Portugal. Actually, that’s not at all why I didn’t write one. Last p-day we went up to this area called Sintra where there are really cool castles like the one I see from my area every day. So we went up with the other Irma’s from the ward and a couple elders. We saw this really cool manor house thing called Quinta Ee Regeleira. It was Bem Fish, which means very cool. I’m not joking, that’s how you say it. We went up there and we were back with enough time to email but the only place we know in our area said their internet wasn’t working! Yay! that was super depressing because we had a crazy week that I wanted to actually write about! So now, you get to hear about two weeks. Read the whole thing, it’s good. Spoiler alert... there’s a baptism in here.
Not This Past Week but the One Before:
During this week, my companiera was soooo sick. Like nasty sick. So we had to go over to the other Irma’s house since she couldn’t leave the house but we had appointments to be at. So we spent all of p-day hanging out with them and then I we went to our appointments later. President and Irma Torgan told us to stay at their house until she was feeling better so we spent the night. Side note- I’m fairly certain I’ve already had more contact with President and Irma Torgan than a lot of missionaries do in their entire mission. This transfer has been a crazy train.
Tuesday we had district meeting and we were supposed to be praying about our revelados and how we were going to help them that day. The only answers we got to that prayer were that my Irma needed to go to the hospital. That’s not like as serious here or something, she wasn’t like needing an ambulance, but she needed a doctor. So we spent Tuesday in Lisbon, and I got to talk to Elder Platamone while we waited at the hospital and another Elder helped Irma Quebbeman understand what was going on.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and half of Saturday were spent being very ill by my companion and all kinds of strangeness was happening while we hung out with the other Irma’s. I feel like this is not a normal first transfer experience. Ha, but! Super cool thing! Thursday night Irma Brown and I went to meet with our revelado who we knew the Lord wanted to be baptized that Sunday and we were praying hard for a miracle because he was going to have to accept everything immediately. We get into the lesson and it was amazing! He ate it up and he had such a strong desire to follow Christ and know which church was true so we taught him all about Joseph Smith and asked him to pray. He said he felt that it was true so we invite him to pray about being baptized that Sunday and he does. We asked how he was feeling after the prayer and he said, I’ve been stressed all day and now I just feel tudo calma. He said he could feel peace and calm so we said "that’s the spirit". He said, "I know"
We asked, "So, will you follow Christ and be baptized?"
He said, "yes!"
He like genuinely said yes. No hesitation! It was one of the most incredible things ever! So we go to leave after teaching a super condensed lesson of the word of wisdom and mark a time to come back the next day and teach him the law of chastity to make sure everything will work for him to be baptized so quickly. When we went to leave we see a woman in the kitchen and ask who she is.
"That’s my wife."
"You guys are married?"
"Yeah... "
"No, like, really married?"
"No."
For those who don’t know, that’s breaking the law of chastity so they would have to get married by Sunday. They have three kids so I don’t think he’s going to move out. He didn’t get baptized but we didn’t even get the chance to teach him again after that so were at peace with it. We tried everything we could .
This Past Week That Just Happened.
We had that loco p-day. Then Tuesday was zone meeting so we were gone almost all day. I’ll tell you about Wednesday in a second. Thursday we had an Irma conference. Friday was normal. Saturday, one of the other Irma’s was sick, so we had to go back over there for an exchange.Monday night, we felt really strongly that we needed to visit a recent convert family in the ward. The whole family was baptized except one girl because she’s like a niece or something who is only 10 and her mom is in France working and didn’t give her permission to be baptized. But, the girl had been taught everything and interviewed back in April so all she lacked was parental permission. So we go over and teach a lesson and ask about the mom and if there’s been any progress and they go, "oh yeah, she said she can be baptized." I guess what happened is the elders had kept asking every week and the mom still hadn’t given permission. And three days after the elders left, the mom said she could be baptized. We didn’t even see the teaching record until the previous Thursday or something. They just hadn’t said anything because no one had been asking anymore! So we were like, "Well, shoot. Do you want to get baptized this Sunday?"
She said yes obviously. However, her aunt had to work on Sunday. There was also a big stake activity Saturday so the only night that would work was Wednesday.
We left their house at 9:30 pm Monday and worked our butts off to have everything be perfect by Wednesday and get everything approved. It was not easy but thank goodness Dania had already been taught and was such an incredible little girl. Because the only thing we had to do was have her interviewed again. That only took ten minutes. She’s so sweet.
Being a part of that baptism was incredible because it really showed me that I have nothing to do with this. People are already waiting for this and it's Heavenly Father that prepares them and lets them understand and desire it. The Holy Ghost is just working away with these people and I’m just here to make sure we get the technicalities taken care of. I make sure they’ve been taught what they need to know. Even that doesn’t come from me. I don’t know what I’m saying or doing as a missionary but the spirit just gives us instructions on what they need to hear. The only thing I contribute to baptisms is obedience to the spirit and putting in effort. I hope that makes sense.
This week was really incredible. Not just because of the baptism. We also had the Irma conference with all the Irma’s in the mission which was amazing. We took MTC district pictures and stuff. it was so great to see how everyone from the MTC was doing and reminisce a little. Once I figure out how to use technology, I'll send pictures.
I’m sorry this was so insanely long, but I love all of you guys and wanted to share the craziness and good news. I know that what I’m doing is right and that Heavenly Father wants me to be here. It’s still insanely hard but I’m just used to it now. This Gospel is really the only thing that matters. It’s the only thing that can bring so much joy to people’s lives. I know that it really is Christ's only true church. I know that reading the Book of Mormon will help anyone see that and help every single person gain a testimony. I cannot think of a single thing I could be doing right now that would be more important, or more meaningful, or more substantial, or more desirable. It’s been so hard but literally nothing else sounds like a better alternative than being here and being able to witness the gospel change people's lives.
I love you all, go read the Book of Mormon.
I LOVE YOU GUYS.
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