Elder Barker, you have been transferred and will go to...

Olá!

Last night we received a little phonecall about the transfer plans, and:

I have been transferred areas and will now be serving in Machico!

Where is Machico? Madeira!

Where is Madeira? In the middle of the ocean!

So this means that I´ll be living and serving on an island for the next few months!

My new companion will be Elder Burt, which means this will be the first time I serve with an American companion. I will also continue to be the district leader in my new district (just four of us again).

Today I will have to say goodbye to several members of the branch here in Castelo Branco, which will be hard. Even though this area was a difficult area, I still grew to love the members. I have been serving in Castelo Branco since Easter, so I have had plenty of time to get to know them.  

I have seen members come back into activity; new members move into the branch; investigators progress in their knowledge of the gospel. I have experienced the heat of the summer in Castelo Branco, but also witnessed the  cold that has started to come in.

I have learned and heard the stories of so many people, both members of the church and nonmembers. I have grown to love the people in Castelo Branco!

Yesterday we got to teach someone sitting down crosslegged on the side of an ancient portuguese road, which was cool. We started talking to these two people sitting on their doorstep, and after a bit, the man said that he had already been baptized into the Church, like 20 years ago! 

He even remembered the names of the missionaries who taught him.  We had already knocked on the door of this man´s house, but he had yelled at us and told us he was eating dinner, haha (I think he might have been drunk).

 But yesterday we got to know him and his neighboor, and read from the Book of Mormon with them (while sitting on the road). The neighboor (Eliza) had actually already read one of the pamphlets of the Church, and said that when she read it, she felt so much light and faith. We told her that we could bring a Book of Mormon for her this week. The man then told us to say a prayer with them because it has been a while since he heard someone say a prayer!

Something about a mission is that we get to help and teach people in unexpected situations!

Wish me luck in Madeira! (Also, pray that I will be able to get there without difficulties, because I´ll be using all sorts of transport that I´m not quite used to!)

I will probably email a few pictures of me and some members a little bit later today, so this isn´t goodbye for the week, yet!

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker

Stake Conference, One year in Portugal!

Olá!

This week a year ago I arrived in Portugal! I remember very clearly my very first week, and it hardly seems like I arrived in Leiria a whole year ago! It was very fitting that I was able to see so many members from Leiria at the stake conference (which I will talk more about below)! 

This week we had Stake Conference! It was the first time that I have attended a stake conference in Portugal, because everytime I was transfered to a new area this past year, it was to a different stake, so I always ended up just barely missing it, haha. 

The stake that Castelo Branco is a part of is the Coimbra Portugal Stake. But the chapel in Coimbra isn´t big enough for large conferences, so the meeting was held in Viseu. About 22 people from Castelo Branco were able to make it, which was very good, haha! Because we live so far away from Viseu, the Church payed for a bus to take us there. It left at 7 in the morning, so everyone was super tired and felll asleep on the ride over, haha. 

When we got there, the members from my first area (Leiria) were just arriving as well! It was fun to be able to see a lot of them, and see that some of them still remembered me, lol. As we were walking in to the church, a man ran up to me and gave me a big hello. His name was José (from Leiria) and was super excited to see me. (He had joined the Church right before I arrived in Portugal, and he was always willing to help out with lessons.) It made me feel good to see that he had not only remembered me, but went out of his way to greet me! 

The actual conference was good, the theme of all of the talks was faith, but for some reason I couldn´t understand too well, haha. 

Remember that Brazilian lady (Keila) that we helped move apartments? This week week we visited her and talked a little bit about the church (she didn´t have too much time). It turns out that her mom had met with the missionaries a lot when she was in Brazil, but Keila had always been working, so she never had time to listen to them. But she remembered that the missionaries had given her mom a "little, blue book." We asked her if we could come back the next morning to give her this "little, blue book," and she said "of course!" When she arrived the next morning, we gave her the Book of Mormon, and she said it was exactly what her mom had been given. As she opened it, there was a very tangible, sweet spirit in the room. She´ll be out of town this week, but promised to read the book as she is traveling on the bus. The Book of Mormon is so special!

We had our last district meeting of the transfer this week (because next week we will have a Zone Conference instead), so we took a picture, haha! 

The Roques were there this time, so they were included in the picture, and then gave us a ride back to Castelo Branco and did a house inspection (we passed with flying colors!) 

As always, it was good to hear about how Abrantes is doing ( Manuel and Susana are as strong as ever; more of Rosa and Claudia´s cousins arrived with their aunt; two inactive members have returned to coming back to church every sunday, etc). Also, Sister Roque gave me a letter that Manuel had written me, which was super nice to read!

We received a phone call from someone this week who we had been trying to get a hold of all summer, Clenilson. He had given us his number on the street in June, but had never answered our phone calls. Well ,this week he called us and apologized, because something had happened and he hadn´t had his phone all summer. But he said he wants to hear our message, so we will be teaching him this weekend!

I miss you all! I love you all! Have a great week!

Ola!

Olá Bom Dia!

So this week was a bit of a slower week with teaching people; it seemed that all of our investigators were busy and wouldn´t have time to talk to us until this week. But even though our "numbers" were low this week, we were able to help a few of our members with service, and meet a few new people!

There is a lady in our branch here who has been receiving lots of furniture from her mom´s home, and each time she gets something new, she calls us to help move it into her apartment... on the fourth floor, haha. 

This week she called and said that she had "just a small sofa" for us to help her with. When we arrived we found out that it was a bit bigger than we thought, lol. And there was also a large entertainment center that she "forgot" to tell us about, haha. With the help of her son, we were able to get everything up to her apartment without breaking our backs. 

But it´s always nice to help Irmã Rosa, because she is so funny and upbeat while we are helping. It was also fun to be able to meet her son, who is a member but hasn´t been coming to church for a few years now. It seems like one of the things we do most in Castelo Branco is help the members with their furniture, haha.

This week we met with one of my favorite members, Irmão Walter. When I first came to Castelo Branco in April, he had been inactive for several months. But now he comes to church almost every Sunday, and always seems so happy to be there. It has been so nice to see him come back into activity in the Church, little by little! We visited him this week, and he said that he would set up an appointment with his  bestfriend to meet with us!

We walked a lot this week, but one day I think we visited almost each part of the city, without finding any new investigator. But at the end of the day, we were in an apartment building knocking on doors, and this really nice lady opened the door. After talking with her,  we found out that she is from Lisbon, but works here as a P.E teacher. 

She didn´t have too much time to talk to us, so we offered to leave something with her. As I was reaching down into my backpack to take out one of the pamflets we give to people, I heard her say " Oh, I love to read! I promise that I´ll read whatever you give me!",

So I thought, "why not? Instead of a pamflet, let´s give her the Book of Mormon!". So we did. And she seemed really interested and open and promised to read it. She also told us that we can come back this week and talk to her, so I´m hoping that we will have that opportunity!

I love and miss you all! Knowing that I have such a great support system at home means so much to me!

Love,

Elder Barker

13 Months!

Olá!

This week we did divisions with the Elders in Covilhã. Covilhã is a city about an hour north of Castelo Branco, and is right up next to the mountains (which means they have a lot of steep roads!). I forgot to bring my camera, so you won´t be seeing any pictures of our division, haha. 

Their area is the largest in the mission, and covers various cities, towns, and villages. But during in August, it is super hot and everyone goes on vacation, so Covilhã turns into a giant ghost town.I´m serious, we were walking down one of the main streets once, and I didn´t see a single living soul for 30 minutes! But despite this, we had a good division. 

I stayed with Elder Adams (who is also from Colorado!). He took me to a small town about an hour´s walk from their home. On the way there we had to walk down a dirt road (in this part of Portugal, the farther out you get from the city, the more and more farms and dirt roads you see). As we were about half way down the road, we saw about four big barking dogs at the end. They seemed to be guarding their owner´s farm, because each time a car came close they started chasing it and nipping at the tires. Unfortunately, walking by these dogs was the only way we would get to that town we were going to. 

So me and Elder Adams thought "why not? let´s say a prayer!" so we did! As we got close to where the dogs were, they seemed to disapear, until one came running behind us. But then it stopped, and we were able to pass by without getting attacked. Heavenly Father hears all of our prayers, even to help us pass by four giant barking dogs!

The rest of the division was pretty uneventful, except that I met several people with just one tooth. It was like an epedimic, haha!

When we got back to Castelo Branco, we were able to teach Isabel again (remember, that 72-year-old Catholic lady?). As we walked into her store, she showed us proudly that she had been reading the Book of Mormon, and that she had been really enjoying it! The pages were all ruffled, so I could tell that she was telling the truth. 

She also told us that she wants to visit our church one day, but she also said that she´s too old to change, haha. We read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with her, and she again expressed how much she appreciates us. It was kind of funny because when we arrived, she was outside talking to a friend, and when she saw us, she started waving crazily and introduced her friend to us (turns out he´s the father of one of our members, but didn´t want anything to do with the church, haha).

 On Saturday we called Isabel to remind her about church on Sunday, and she said "oh, I´m so sorry my little angels (that´s what she calls us,lol) but I´m in Fatima this weekend!" The city of Fatima is like the Catholic center of Portugal, haha. We´re hoping that one day she will make it to church!

We also taught Djara and her boyfriend, ´Zé, this week. They both really enjoy the lessons and are always so appreciative of us when we go to teach them. It´s just been so hard to get them to come to church though, because they always plan something else to do on Sunday mornings (like yesterday when they went to the pool,lol). But we´ll invite them to the FHE this tuesday, and I´m pretty sure that they will come! 

It is still super hot here during the day, but at night it has started to cool down a bit, which has been good. 

I miss you all and love you lots!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Barker

P.S For those of you who want to send letters or packages, it would probably be best to hold off on that for a few more weeks, because I´m pretty sure I will only be in Castelo Branco for another three weeks :)