Another Zone Meeting, Noite Familares, and Ancient Castle Streets

Olá!

We started off this last week by going to another Zone Meeting in the city of Viseu! To get to Viseu, we have to take a three hour bus ride that has stops in five other cities. I´m getting pretty good at falling asleep on buses, since we use them to get to all of our mission meetings, haha. Our zone is one of the smaller ones, with just 16 missionaries. I always enjoy zone meetings and conferences, because it gives us the opportunity to get to know the other missionaries in our mission and we always walk away feeling more inspired to do better in our areas. My companion from the MTC is still in this zone, so it´s also been fun to see how he´s doing!

Even though the meeting was in the morning, we didn´t get back to our area until about 9:30pm because we had to wait for the bus which would take another three hours back to Castelo Branco, haha.

The next day we held another "Family Home Evening" for the branch. We almost decided to cancel it this week, because the last week only three members showed up, and we didn´t think it would be a very good use of our time.

 But as we were walking down the street, we saw two of the members that went last week, and they asked if we were going to have the FHE again. When we told them that we weren´t going to, they got a little dissapointed.  Afterwards we started to feel that maybe we should give it one more chance this week, so we called those two members and told them that we were actually going to have the activity. We then started calling all of the members and investigators to let them know. 

When the time for the activity came, only the same three members were there. 

But after about another 15 minutes more and more people started showing up! We ended the night with about 12 people at the Family Home Evening!

 We had planned a short game that involves: a chocolate bar, a fork and a knife, dice, and a pair of socks, haha.  Afterwards we shared a spiritual thought and had some food. Everyone really enjoyed the night!

 What made it worth it for me were two things: one of our less-active members and her two sons came (she and her sons have never once been to church or an activity since I arrived in April) and all the members were laughing and having a good time. For the next family home evenings, we are really going to insisit that the members bring their friends, because this is a good opportunity for them to be introduced to the Church in a non-threatening way!

On Saturday we were in the ancient part of the city knocking on doors in the alleys by the castle, haha. It seems that about half the homes near the castle are either completely deserted or just have old people staring out their windows at us ;). 

But it was in one of these roads by the castle that we found a few new really cool investigators. We knocked on a door, and a young man a few years older than me opened the door. We introduced ourselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints, and he said "oh, I love to hear anything about Jesus Christ, come on in!" 

As we began to share our message, he interrupted us and said " wait, would you guys like to share this message with my twin sister too? She lives just down the street. Come on, let´s go!" So we ended up teaching both him (Daniel) and his sister (Sandra) the first lesson! Even though the lesson wasn´t very organized, and I ended up spilling my water all over Sandra´s floor (that´s another story, haha), I feel like it was a success and I´m excited to keep teaching them!

About Djara, we called to set up a time to meet with her, but she said that her mom had just made a surprise visit from Cape Verde, and she didn´t know when she would have time to meet us. But a little bit later she said, "actually, would you guys like to eat lunch with us tomorrow, it´ll be cachupa."  So we ended up eating a traditional cape verde lunch with them and about 12 other cape verdians, all speaking Creole (a dialect from Cape Verde, so I didn´t understand anything that was going on). 

This saturday we also helped a member move a bunch of furniture up four flights of stairs. Needless to say, both me and my companion are still super sore, haha.

This week went better, and I know that this next week will be even better! It´s starting to cool down a little bit in the evening which is really making it nicer around here, haha.

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker

Service, New Investigators, and Matthew 26:39

Olá, Bom Dia!

We had several opportunities to do service this week! 

One of our members (Irmã Lurdes) ordered a bunch of new cabinents for her new kitchen, and she asked us if we could help unload them from the delivery truck. When we got there, we found out that they are the type of cabinet that you have to completely put together, instead of the ones that come in one piece, haha. 

We carried the boxes that they came in into the kitchen, and Irmã Lurdes asked if we could come on by the next day to help her son-in-law put them together, and then afterwards she would give us lunch! We came the next morning around 10am, and we didn´t end up leaving until 6pm, haha! It took awhile to put them together, and then to hang them on the wall correctly. 

We actually finished around 4pm, but then her son-in-law needed help with putting his heavy cabinets up in his kitchen,haha. But it all was worth it in the end because they were all appreciative, and we were able to get to know Irmã Lurdes daughter (less active) and son-in-law (non-member). 

The other piece of service that we did this week was when we were able to help the friend of one of our members (Irmão Reinaldo)  move into a new apartment. She was also really appreciative! It was fun to be able to talk to Irmão Reinaldo, because he is usually in Spain on the weekends so he doesn´t get to go to church all that often. I was able to learn that he served in Portugal as a missionary four years after the Church was introduced in the country. 

But even cooler is that I learned that he "opened" Leiria (my first area)! As in, he and his companion were the first two missionaries to ever set foot in Leiria, and he baptized the first three members there!

We brought one of our members (Zacharias) to a lesson with Djara this week, and it went really well! Zacharias is an older man that has been feeling kind of down lately, and he said that after the lesson that we taught with him, he felt so much more peace and less negativity in his mind! I was glad that we could bring him to a place where he could feel the spirit strongly. After our lesson Djara said that she would come to church on Sunday, but ended up not being able to go. Next week she will!

Yesterday we were able to teach two new investigators! Pedro and Susana. They are a young couple and are so great! As we were teaching them, we found out that they had gotten married a year ago (something uncommon among young portuguese couples--marriage)! They really enjoyed the message of the Restoration and have great potential to help out the branch here in Castelo Branco. During the lesson I felt strongly to bear my testimony about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the spirit was very strong in their home afterwards. I felt my testimony grow a bit as well.

These past few weeks have been a little difficult for me, and so this week as I was studying the scriptures, I was really looking for something to give me comfort. And I found it in a verse that I have read hundreds of times already: 

Matthew 26:39. "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." 

This is when Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, paying the price of our pains, sadnesses, and sins. But as I read it this time, I realized that we all will have to pass through our own Gardens of Gethsemane in life. They´ll  be difficult, and we will want to have them "pass from us." But what will make all the difference is if we will accept the Father´s will for our lives. There have been a few things that have made me want to ask the Father to "pass from me," but this week I think I finally have learned what it means to accept the Father´s will. It´s so wonderful to know that God has a perfect, individual plan for each one of us, and that we are exactly where we need to be! We can gain so much peace from this knowledge! 

I´m grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission for my Savior! I know that I am where he needs and wants me to be. I love being able to testify to the people that I teach about the love that Christ has for us! 

I love you all, and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Barker

Olá!

Olá!

I´m so sorry that I wasn´t able to send a very good letter last week! I had checked my email, and found out that there would be a big meeting in Porto on Tuesday, but because I live so far away, I had to cut my P-day in half and take a bus on Monday. So, sorry about that, haha!

But I´m glad that I went to the meeting! On the way there (like, on the bus), I found out that it was going to be two full days, instead of one day! So I was grateful that I packed a little bit extra, haha. It was fun to be able to see so many missionaries that I haven´t seen for a while. All of my past companions were there, so it was nice to be able to catch up with them a little bit. Especially with my trainer, Elder Cardenuto, who I haven´t seen since December! 

We learned a lot at this meeting, and most of it was pretty interesting (despite being two full days ;) ). The zone leaders and sister training leaders each did a presentation about some aspect of missionary work or leadership. I walked away realizing that I needed to be a better leader for my district, and excited to put into practice some of the things they talked about! 

Something that we have started doing to help out our branch here in Castelo Branco is to make a list of those members that missed church on sunday ( those who usually come, or who have come within the last several months), and then contact them during the week to see how they are. I read about this idea somewhere, and I decided to put it into practice  in our branch (because our branch really needs help with church attendance). And it seems to be working. Last transfer the highest number we saw at church was about 25; but the last three weeks we have had over 30 members!

A Ukrainian family just moved into the branch, and they don´t speak portuguese! The daughter knows english, but the brother and parents only know Russian. But that didn´t stop the dad from bearing his testimony two sundays ago. He went up and spoke in Russian, his daughter translated into English, and the branch president translated into Portuguese. And the spirit was super strong! I´ve been able to translate for them in Sunday School, and it´s forcing me to pay more attention,haha.

As for our investigators, we have been teaching a 72-year-old Catholic woman in her purse shop,haha. One day we were walking down the street when she yelled for us, and asked us to teach her in her store. So we went in and taught her the first lesson. She has just gone through a hard divorce after 42 years of marriage, and feels without direction. But she has lots of faith in God, and reads the Bible every day. We have been teaching her the lessons, and she really enjoys them, and almost went to church this Sunday!

Djara has been progressing pretty well, and is really enjoying the lessons. We were able to teach her boyfriend, Zé, this last week as well, and it went super well. Afterwards, they gave us some homemade desserts from Cape Verde. I forgot the name (something in Creole), but they can be described pretty much as "banana bread puffs" haha. 

We have several other people that we will start teaching this week, including a rich shoe shop owner, a geneologist, and a family of four!

I hope you all know that I love you so much! I miss you guys! I know this Church is true!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Barker

Ola

Olá! 

Today will be a short email because I just found out that I have to travel to Porto for a meeting for the leaders of the mission, which means my P-day will be cut in half :/. Oh well! So sorry if I won´t be able to answer your emails! But I will read them all, so just know that I at least thought of you all today, haha. I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker