The Atonement Changes Lives

Olá!

I hope that you are all doing well, and that you are all getting excited for Halloween! Even though Halloween isn´t that big over here, there are a lot of Halloween decorations selling at the stores, probably because of all of the tourists, haha. I feel like I say this every week, but it is so hot here, it doesn´t even feel like fall, haha. 

We were able to teach Rui once this week, and we decided to teach about the Word of Wisdom. He seemed excited to try to stop smoking, and we made a goal with him that he would just smoke 10 cigarettes a day, so we will see how that goes. We decided not to invite him to church this week, because we have done that at all of our other lessons with him and he always says no. Well, as we were leaving, he brought it up and said that this next sunday he will try to come with us to Church!  I know that if he goes, he will feel so welcome and loved there.

How do I know this? Because Pedro went to church this week! And all the members were so kind to him! I´m actually very excited about Pedro, because he is right on track for his baptism on November 18th!

 We have met with him everyday this past week, and each time we see him, he appears to be so much happier. 

We had a bit of a scare at the beginning of last week when he said he didn´t want anything to do with us and that we were all liars (long story). But the next day we spoke with him again and he truly seemed sorry and asked us and his aunt for forgiveness. 

Ever since then, he has been completely changing into a new person. He is staying below his goals for how many cigarettes each day; he is reading and really understanding the Book of Mormon; he even told us that he has been talking about the things he´s learned with us, with his friends. He told us that he wants to be a happy person like us, and to be able to feel more joy in his life. He even told us that someday he might want to serve a mission too! 

The best thing about being a missionary is truly being able to see people change their lives around because of the gospel. I am gaining such a strong testimony of the Atonement of Christ, for I am seeing it take effect in Pedro´s life. 

Each day I am just so grateful that I get to serve a mission. Despite the many slammed doors or mocking people that I encounter (which are many), I get to serve my Savior, Jesus Christ. I get to see other people´s lives be blessed. I get to feel God´s love for me and all of His children, everyday!

I love and miss you all! happy Halloween!

Love,

Elder Barker

Surprises!

Olá!

I started off this last week by hurting myself accidentally (I know, that seems to happen a lot to me, haha)! We were knocking doors around 8:30pm, so it was kind of dark. We had just finished talking to a man on the street (he didn´t want anything) when I very unwisely stepped backwards and tripped into a street gutter.

 I didn´t catch myself in time, so I just fell completely down on my face, haha! The old man that we had finished talking to saw, and he ran back down the hill towards us looking so concerned, it was kind of nice of him! 

I ended up twisting my ankle so badly that I couldn´t even leave the house the next day! But now its feeling better and I´m so grateful that we can continue to work! I need to learn how to be less clumsy!

Besides that, this week brought a lot of surprises! The biggest of which is that a member from another city in Portugal called us and told us that she was visiting her mom in Machico. She asked us if we could come over and give her, her mom, and her nephew Priesthood blessings. 

Of course we said yes, and set up a time to meet them. We got to their house and got to know this member and her mom and nephew. Her nephew, Pedro, has a had a tough life full of drugs and losing confidence in people. It seems like everyone in his family has given up on him, except his sweet grandma and this aunt. We gave him a blessing of strength. 

Then his aunt (Elizabete) (who has been a member for only 2 years) requested that we come back the next day to teach him about the restored gospel! 

So we did, the next day. And then we came back the day after that, and the day after that. 

Long story short, Pedro has a desire to change his life around and wants to be baptized! We are going to work for a goal of November 18th for his baptism day, and I know that with God´s help, anything is possible!  When Pedro was out of the room one of the times we were there, his aunt and grandma(his grandma isn´t a member, but is so sweet) were thanking us so much for working with Pedro and helping him find the path.

This week we had a Zone conference in Funchal, with a grand total of 12 missionaries! This is by far my smallest zone that I´ve been in, but I enjoy it. We talked a lot about the book of mormon, and I realized how much I love that book! I love learning more about the gospel, and I love feeling the sweet spirit that I get from studying the scriptures!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all and I love this gospel! I am happiest when I am teaching people, which is why I´m so grateful that my foot is healing so quickly!

Love, Elder Barker

Bedbugs, Rui, and another mountain

Olá!

     It´s hard to believe that it is already halfway through October! It doesn´t even feel like fall here, it is so hot. It is a rare day when we come home and we aren´t covered in sweat (TMI, I know, haha). It should start to become a little bit cooler here in the next few months, I hope! 

Also, you know the phrase "don´t let the bedbugs bite"? Apparently that is an actual problem here, haha. We have to wash our bed sheets at least once a week, or else we wake up to lots of little bites all over our bodies. I learned that the hard way...

But other than that, things have been going pretty well over here in Machico! This week we did a division with the zone leader (Elder Cardenuto!) in Funchal! He´s actually the only zone leader on Madeira, and is training again this trasfer, which is a lot of responsibility all packed into one. But I enjoyed our division and it was fun to work with my old trainer for one day. Something that I enjoyed was that he decided that we were going to randomly sing hymns to people during the day. We had reactions that varied from a lady almost crying, to two old men at a bus stop choosing to walk home rather than listen to us while waiting for the bus, lol. We also got to teach someone in English from Budapest!

In our area this week, it was a little difficult to find anyone to teach, until Saturday when we taught Rui again. I feel like we are starting to make a difference in Rui´s life already, because he seemed a lot happier as he answered the door. We taught him the Plan of Salvation using the word, LOVE, and he understood everything and really enjoyed it. We invited him to church this week, but he basically said that it is too early in the morning,haha. I know that once he starts to gain a greater desire to learn and feel more, there will be nothing holding him back from coming to church (I mean, the bus stop is literally in front of his house, so it´s perfect!)

We climbed another mountain this week (maybe not a mountain, but it might as well have been! Two hours walking straight up!) to find a less active member, and she wasn´t even at home, haha. Oh madeira!

I have been trying to be better with my study of the scriptures lately, and I am really starting to gain  a love of them! There are so many doctrines that we can apply to our lives, especially from the Book of Mormon. I love it so much!

I´m so grateful that I can serve a mission! I am so grateful that I can represent Christ and sereve my brothers and sisters in Portugal!

In the words of Elder Cardenuto from the division this week "I just love to feel the spirit!"

Com Amor,

Elder Barker

Olá (a day late)!

Olá!

Yesterday was a random holiday unique to just Machico, so our sketchy little internet café was closed (as well as the library), which explains why I wasn´t able to send any emails yesterday! Sorry!

We have permission from the mission presidente to use email for 30 minutes today, so it´ll have to be short and I won´t be able to respond to any of you personally. 

This week was another great week on the island! We had to travel to Funchal again for a meeting with the other missionary leaders there, so that was fun, haha. Our zone is the smallest in the mission, with just 12 missionaries, so the "leader meeting" was even smaller. 

Some things that happened this week:

We went to visit a potential investigator a few days ago, and when we got to their apartment building, we found our way blocked by hundreds of cockroaches! The doorway to the apartment building was covered by so many creepy crawly, 1-inch-long cockroaches. It was like the scene out of a horror movie, haha. Right next door to the apartments was a small restaurante, and the owner was trying to sweep them away off of the sidewalk so that they wouldn´t sneak into the restaurante. We offered to help, and she got an extra broom to give to me. So there I was with a broom sweeping away hundreds of cockroaches, in my church clothes, haha. I wish I had brought my camera, but unfortunately it was at home :(. But it was definetly something that I won´t forget!

Antother day we got to witness two drunk men playing cards in their attic!

Saturday we sent a text to Rui to set up a time to meet with him, and a few hours later he replied and basically said that this wasn´t a good time in his life to talk to us. When I read that message, I immedietly felt prompted to ignore the text and to make him a visit anyways.  I somehow knew that he really did need us. So later that day Elder Burt and I made our way to his house (we have to literally hike a mountain to get to his neighboorhood), and knocked on his door. He ended up letting us in and the lesson that we had was such a powerful one. There was a point when we all had tears in our eys. We felt prompted to read in Alma chapter 36 about when Alma was describing to his son about the sweet feelings of repentance. I am so grateful that we ignored his text and listened to the spirit instead, and I sincerely look forward to helping Rui gain more happiness in his life.

Sunday was my first day in the branch here, and I loved it! I have been told that hte members don´t really like the missionaries too much (because of some missionaries in the past), but I decided to just smile and really try to talk to as many as I could. I think our mission presidente said that we only have one chance to make a first impression, so i had that at the back of my mind the whole time. During church, I just felt so much love for the members of our branch,and I´m super excited to serve here! (even though our chapel is a 45 minute bus ride and the majority of our members live in the other elderes´ area)

I´m running out of time, so I´ll just leave you all with  my address in Machico ;) :

Michael Barker

Impasse Quinta, EDF Aquamaria II

Bloco Norte, Apartamento AB

9200-122 Machico, Madeira

Portugal

I love and miss you all! THank you for your letters, even if I couldn´t respond!

Love,

Elder Barker

Olá from the island!

Olá!

So this week has brought a lot of changes! 

I left Castelo Branco at 10am on Tuesday morning, and didn´t get to Machico until about 1am, haha. I had to take a train to Porto to get my passport, and then take the metro to the airport. I was a little bit worried about carrying all of my bags with me through the metro,so I said a prayer that I would be able to have help along the way. And it was answered! It seemed like at everystop, another companionship of Elderes would show up out of nowhere and offer to help me with my suitcases, and then disapear just as quickly . It was also nice to have another missionary going to madeira as well, so we didn´t have to be alone. The planeride was about an hour and a half long.

As for my new area: I love it! The city of Machico is pretty spread out, but I think the population is less than in Castelo Branco. Their is no branch in Machico, so the chapel that we go to on Sundays is in Caniço, about a 45 minute bus ride (or a 15 minute car ride). So because of that, my area is known to be a "difficult area." 

But I won´t believe that, because so far, we have been having a lot of success!

The other day, we had stopped in the road to pray for guidance in where we should go. We started walking, and a man was walking with his two dogs down the road. I decided to stop him and ask if I could pet his dog, haha. 

We ended up talking with him and he said that we could come with him to his house to share our message. As we entered his home, we both realized that this was a very poor and humble man. He said that he was sorry that there wasn´t any furniture for us to sit on or any food to offer us. The lesson that followed was one of the most spiritual that I have had on my mission so far.

 Elder Burt and I talked afterwards, and we both agreed that we were relying completely on the Spirit to guide us. We taught several things to this man, and everything seemed to flow. There was a point where all three of us were in tears. This man truly wants to be forgiven of his mistakes from his past, and he is willing to meet with us to learn more. He is even willing to take the bus ride all the way over to Caniço for church!

There was another time this week where we also prayed for guidance, and then we found a man and his wife who had talked to the missionaries in the past, but then the missionaries stopped passing by. The man literally pulled us into his home (I think he might have been a little bit drunk, haha).

Then we taught a lady who feels so desperate for peace, and it was another lesson that we both feel like it was guided completely by the spirit.

I´m really enjoying my new companion, Elder Burt (from Draper, Utah). He´s my first American companion, and has been out about 9 months. We work pretty well together, and every day is lots of fun with him. We have decided that at the end of each day, we are going to write down the tender mercies that we have seen in that day. Because of this, we have really been able to see the hand of the Lord in the work here! 

Madeira is beautiful! As we are walking around during the day, I am constantly amazed at the beauty that is all around me. We have such a cool view of the ocean from our window! There are tiny lizards everywhere! Banana trees just growing randomly; goats in fields in the middle of a modern neighboorhood; etc. 

We went to General Conference in Funchal (the capital of the island) and were able to watch all of the sessions (in Portuguese). The last one ended at 11pm, so we just stayed with the Elders in Funchal, and we had our P-day here today! I will send some pictures a little bit later. (It appears that I will probably not have as much time to write emails here as in Castelo Branco, because we have to use a library instead of the chapel...)

I´m so grateful that I can serve a mission! I am grateful that I can serve the people here in Machico,and I know that if I continue to rely on the Lord, we will continue to see His blessings and miracles in our area!

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker