We Bought a Zoo

Well, we didn’t buy one, but I just got back from one! Ha-ha it was really strange and really fun. The office elders, (our district) took a stand and declared that they would finally spend a p-day out of the office! So they invited us, more like convinced us for almost an hour and even offered to pay us, to come with them. It was worth it because really the day was awesome. The only bad thing was that I didn’t feel like a missionary all that much. We were definitely outside of any kind of missionary bubble for a while.

Other than the zoo, we definitely had some adventures this past week. You want to know something sad? I am so far in the mission that I have to look at my planner to remember what happened every day because every day just blends into the next and every week passes so quickly that I’m still processing things from two weeks ago.

First, I got to do another division this week! I went to an area called Odivelas with Irma Parker. She is in her second transfer and a rock star. She’s the only member in her family, she’s from Utah and is super fun. She’s half black and half Portuguese! We had a complete blast getting to know each other and being able to teach together. She has so much greenie fire its ridiculous and I barely remember what it felt like to be that new in the mission. I still feel like I barely know what I’m doing so I don’t think I really want to remember how nervous I was feeling at the beginning!

I also wanted to update you all on our Chinese investigator, Dean Lee. He is amazing. Seriously so incredible. He has been to church three weeks in a row and he has already finished reading the first book of Nephi (in English because he thinks that translations have bias and wants to read the original). He has been online researching where the closest church group to his house is in China and asks so many questions. He has already researched tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and tons of other doctrine from the church. He is making such a huge effort to really comprehend all of the beliefs that are so foreign to him. We will be inviting him to be baptized in an appointment on Wednesday, so pray that the spirit will touch his heart to accept! He is so curious but is still struggling with making the gospel personal. He like wants to keep himself at a distance still.

We also got to meet this woman named Margarida. She is a reference from a member and has been super depressed and having some health problems. When we went to visit her we talked about hope and comfort that come through Christ and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we came back three days later, she was so much happier and had been reading and taking notes every day! She then came to church on Sunday and was absolutely beaming. She was so happy and so excited to learn at church. It helped strengthen my testimony of the book of Mormon so much.

We have put a huge emphasis on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching lately and we have seen a huge difference. We also made a goal to hand out at least two books during street contacts every day. There was one night this week that we were on our way to an appointment; and I felt like we should talk to a young man in the street. We talked to him and had a little mini lesson right there about Ether 12:4. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and said a prayer with him. He said in the beginning of the contact that he was struggling with his faith and he wasn’t really sure where he stood with God. So at the end, when we asked if he would say the prayer, he declined and said he didn’t feel very comfortable doing it. About an hour later, we got a text message from him with a four page long prayer where he poured out his heart about the struggle he’d been having with feeling like he could turn to God, asked for blessing for himself, his family, and asked that God bless Sisters Walton and Dean for bringing him the message of comfort and peace to his heart. We have a return appointment with him on Thursday and we are really excited!

Goodness this week was full of miracles!

And also hilarity.

Like when a gypsy man tried to convince us that we couldn’t have our appointment with his family because no one was home except him. So when we pointed to the two women in the back of the room (whom we were supposed to be visiting) and asked "what about them" he just replied, "No, there’s no one here. I'm by myself. They all went to the hospital to visit family"

Or when we went to visit a less-active woman and asked her how she was introduced to the church. She said she was getting really old and forgetful and at the moment couldn’t recall. Later on in the visit she asked how we had her contact in our records because she had no idea what we were talking about. She said she’s catholic and has always been and has zero recollection of being baptized. We even showed her a picture and asked if she remembered a day when she was baptized that way and she just stared at us and said "nao faco minimo idea" which means, I haven’t the slightest idea. Really sad because she probably has Alzheimer’s, but it also made for a very interesting lesson...

Well, time is up but I love you all a ton! Only 20 more emails from me! Ugh sad. Keep praying for me and especially our investigators! Love you all and thank you for the prayers and support! Irma Dean