Desculpa, apparently none of you received my email from last week :( :(, but I resent it, and I hope it went through for you all. If not, I don´t know haha.
I think the highlight of this week was when we went to visit a less active member of the ward-- Irmão José Rolinho. He´s an older man from Africa who has been a member of the church for 30 years. He has been in the Leiria Ward for most of that time as well, so he knows almost all of the members, including a lot of the ones that aren´t active as well. When we visited with him, he showed us a lot of pictures that he had, and it was fun to recognize a few members of the ward ( when they were a lot younger though haha). He is such a funny old man, and so nice too! It´s kind of a sad situation, because I can really tell that he has a testimony of the gospel, and he know´s that coming to church is important, but the only thing that caused him to stop coming was a mean comment from a little kid. A year ago a seven-year-old said something rude about his appearance, and he hasn´t been back since. The Sisters have been visiting with him a lot, and asked us to come with them this past week, and we really tried to talk about how we need to come to church in order to partake of the sacrament. But he kept saying that he´s still waiting. But we did get him to come to the chapel the next day to rewatch a few talks from General Conference, which was a big step! While we were there, Elder Cardenuto had to use the restroom, so I was alone with Irmão Rolinho for a few minutes. I panicked, because I thought " I don´t know how to have a conversation by myself!" But it went well and I was able to understand most of what he said, and reply a little bit haha. I look forward to the day when Irmão Rolinho will come back to church, because he used to be such a strong member of the ward.
We began teaching a new person this week! His name is Wyllam, and he´s from Brasil. He was a reference that the sisters gave us, so we called and set up an appointment. When we got to his house, he wasn´t there. But we called and he said he was on his way. So we waited for like 15 minutes, and he finaly showed up! He´s very nice and friendly. He lives pretty close to the chapel, so we decided to teach him there the first lesson about the Restoration of Christ´s church on the earth. The lesson took a long time, because he would always stop us and start to talk forever haha. (I say we teach lessons, but as I am still learning portuguese, I basically just have parts that are more or less memorized, but I hope that as I get better, I will be able to teach in a better way). He goes to his own church, but he said that he respects us and said he will come to our church with us next week! We werent planning on teaching him the next day, but he called us and said he was available, so we took advantage of this opportunity of course! Again, we taught him in the chapel, this time about the Book of Mormon. This time, he interrupted more, and listened more attentively. When we gave him the Book of Mormon, he seemed really interested. I can really see him being a strong member of the church, and maybe even an awesome missionary ( he´s only 20). Elder Cardenuto had the idea to see some hymns with him, and it really brought the spirit into the room!
As for the language, this week I have noticed that I can understand people a lot more! It´s still hard for me to respond, but at least I can understand them a little bit easier. At church, I decided that I was going to talk to some more members, even if I had to struggle with the language barrier, because i want them to trust me and to get to know me. I started talking to a lady, and I was able to have a real conversation with her ( a simple one)! It was a cool experience.
This past week I have tried to be more dilligent with studying the language, and I´ve written down a real, solid plan for my language study time. Part of this is memorizing a scripture both in English and Portuguese. So far, I´ve memorized 1 Nephi 18:3 " E eu, Néfi, ia frequentemente á montanha, e orava frequentemente ao Senhor; por isso O Senhor me mostrou muitos grandes coisas." This is basically a scripture about prayer, and how if we pray often and with real purpose, the Lord will show us great things. The "mountain" could be a sacred, or quiet place without distractions. I know that if we pray to the Lord often, he will help us with anything we need!
I know that you all like to read about funny things that have happened to me, but I can´t think of anything this week haha. I´ll make sure to write some things down as they happen though, I promise haha.
Also! I realized that the place where we live has a mailbox (kind of), so you can send me mail, and I can get it before three months!( but packages stilll have to be sent to the other address)
Estrada Casal dos Matos
Lote 4 R/C C
Leira 2410-396
Portugal
I hope that this email sends this week, thanks to those who still responded even though they didn´t get the group email haha.
I love and miss you all!
Com Amor,
Elder Barker
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