So first off, We Had A Baptism!!!! It was so exciting! His name is Armando, and is the one who we´ve been helping to stop smoke. I have been amazed at how well he´s done-- after our lesson on the Word of Wisdom a couple weeks ago, he went home and got rid of all his cigarettes, and hasn´t looked back since. I forgot to say last week, we made him this awesome thing, I wish I had taken a picture, a little box the same size of a cigarette box, but we glued pictures of Christ and things we cut out of one of our pamphlets onto the box, and then we wrote out scriptures on index cards and rolled them up and put them in the box, and told him everytime he wanted to smoke, to read one of the scriptures instead. He´s been doing so great, and was so, so, so excited to get baptized. And it was such a powerful, sweet meeting. There were a few snags but nothing terrible: apparently we did the water wrong and it was freezing, icy cold (sorry, Armando...), and then someone had the bright idea that I should conduct the music... well it was interesting. My lack of conducting abilities combined with my lack of Portuguese abilities made this a little less than smooth, especially during the intermission bit after the baptism when the pianist just called out numbers (56 and 106 sound pretty similar, when they just say it fast). But it was okay, no one ever pays attention to the chorister anyway. We had some issues making the program too, but who needs programs, anyway? Ha. But it was really nice, it was a neat experience. And his parents came, too, which was great. They are really nice.
So one of the cool things we get to do as missionaries is work with the recent converts, to strengthen them and make sure they are doing well, after baptism. In some wards this job is turned over to the ward missionaries or ward mission leader or someone else, but in Braga, we get to do it. And it´s always neat to talk to these new members, because they have such a fiery testimony, they are just so excited about everything and so anxious to learn more and of course sometimes a little doubtful or unsure but still, just so eager. So we were talking to a woman named Maricela on Thursday, she is awesome. And the ward was going on a temple trip to the Madrid temple Friday/Saturday, and she was going to do baptisms for the first time, so we were talking a little bit about the temple. And I was just thinking, how grateful I am that I´ve always had a temple nearby. These people are so grateful that it´s only an 8 hour drive. I am just so unbelievably excited for the Portugal Lisbon temple, I have no idea when it will be finished (hopefully the ground breaking will be while I´m here) and of course I was excited ever since I got my call but now that I actually know these people and love them I am so excited for them to have that blessing and opportunity. I heard rumors that when the ground breaking happens, the missionaries will be invited to attend so I hope I will be able to go.
So another one of my favorite things is when we have district meetings, not because I just absolutely love district meetings (not that I dislike them either) but we get to go to the beatiful beautiful city of Guimirães, I think that´s how it´s spelled. I don´t have any pictures of it but maybe you could google it, but really, a picture couldn´t capture it very well anyway. It´s the ´birthplace´of Portugal, and so amazingly amazing. Everything is very old, and not just very old but also very well preserved. Walking down those narrow cobblestone roads with the old town houses and everything, I feel like I´m in a different time and place (well it is a different place of course, but it feels even more different. And Braga has cobble stone and old buildings too, and is very beautiful too, but it´s not the same) Maybe someday I will have a chance to take a picture. As of now, sisters don´t get sent to that area, but maybe things will change- we are getting a new mission president in June. But I get to go there once a week, and that´s plenty =)
I love you all! Have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment