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