Even though I missed being with you guys on Thanksgiving, I still got to celebrate it here in Portugal! The Sisters planned a small ward activity on thursday with the theme of "Dia de Acção das Graças." They don´t celebrate Thanksgiving in Portugal, but the few members that came seemed to really enjoy it. It was pretty simple, just a short video, food, and an activity where we went around and said what we were thankful for. We had four investigators show up! They came even though it was raining super hard (and none of them had cars). I think they had a good time, and the members were all very nice, as usual! I mean, only about 6 or 7 members showed up, but oh well haha!
One of the investigators who came was Marcelo! When it was his turn to say what he was thankful for, he said : "Por meus dois irmãos, Cardenuto e Barker, por o confiança que eles me dão, " which means " for my two brothers, Cardenuto and Barker, for the confidence they give me" ( among other things). It was very touching and I was reminded again why I am serving as a missionary. It´s for moments like this where I see that I am helping bring a difference into someone´s life. It´s to help others find happiness through the restored gospel of Christ.
What I said I was thankful for was my family! Everyday I am reminded at how blessed I am to have you guys and how much I love you! I am forever grateful for the family that I have.
Two of the other investigators that came to the ward activity were Rui and Gilberto. They are always together. I think it´s because it appears that Rui has some side affects from some drugs he used to do, so Gilberto kind of watches over him. We had another lesson with them a few days ago, and they decided to be BAPTIZED! We asked them how they had been feeling throughout our lessons, and Gilberto said "melhor (better)" and Rui said "calma (calm)". The Spirit truly testifies to people in different ways! They´ve been to church before, and enjoyed it. We still have to teach them a lot ( especially about smoking and drinking), but I´m excited for them!
Something funny/not so fun that happened this week (more than once actually) was that we had to run to a few appointments. In our church clothes. The first time was because we were waiting for a member at the church to come with us to teach Marcelo, but he then called and said he could meet us at a place a little bit closer. We were already running late by this point because of the member, so we ran to meet him there, lol. The second time was when we were in an unexpected lesson and by the time it ended, we were almost late for a lesson with Rui and Gilberto, so we had to run to get there in time (but they showed up late, so...). The third time happened because we had to run to our apartment to get inside by 9:30 ( we got there exactly on time!).
And today! It was P-day de Distrito, so we went to the city of Alcobaça with the Sisters. It was about 50 minutes by bus, and I wouldn´t say it was worth the distance. But it was still cool! The main "attraction" was an ancient monastary (?) and had some interesting things inside. A lot of statues Catholic objects. I´ll either send pictures today or next week! Afterwards we ate at a hamburger place (lol). The food took longer than we thought to be prepared, so by the time we got our hamburgers, we had 10 minutes to eat AND get back to the bus station. So we ate super quick, and RAN. It must have been a sight to see two sets of missionaries running up a hill, haha. We made it just in time too.
Every day I see the Lord´s hands in my life, whether in small ways or big ways. I´m very happy that I can serve a mission here and that I can help bring joy and more happiness into the lives of others. I love and miss you all!
Love,
Elder Barker
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