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
No comments:
Post a Comment