Birthday Week

Olá!

This week I turned 21!

 I wasn´t really expecting my birthday to be too much different than any other day, but there ended up being a few little suprises during the day! The day before my birthday, a member invited us and the other elders to eat lunch with her and her family on the 6th. We accepted, but the walk ended up being almost an hour long, haha. 

The whole way there I was feeling very excited to eat something delicious, because one of the other elders told me that this member always made really good food. So imagine my surprise when we walked in and the smell of fish hit me in the face. Not just any fish, but fried sardines, head and everything. 

This was definetly my first (and probably last) time eating fish on my birthday, haha! It actually wasn´t that bad, but I think I would prefer chick-fil-a ;). I also ate a raw avocado!

The member that made us the lunch is very nice, and has an interesting story. She has been a member of the Church for 23 years, but nine of those years she was super inactive. She even refered to herself as an apostate at one point. The last two years she has come back into full activity and told us that she never wants to go back to inactivity, because the Church fills a hole in her heart and she knows that it is true!

As we were walking back after lunch, we noticed a nursing home nearby. We decided to enter with our santa hats (that the mission gave us) on, and asked if we would be able to schedule a time to come back and sing some christmas hymns for the elderly people. 

The receptionist  told us that we could go right upstairs and sing to them right then! Good thing we had our hymnbooks with us! 

This experience was definetly the highlight of my birthday! 

The workers gathered together all of the patients into one room and we sang two or three songs for them. Several of the patients were unable to show emotion or move too easily, but I could still tell that they appreciated it. THere were some patients that started singing with us and the workers even filmed us and took pictures. At the end, we shook the hands of all of the patients and wished them a Merry Christmas.  I am so grateful for this opportunity I had to bring some light into this nursing home, especially on my birthday! I am also grateful for the #lLightTheWorld campaign, because if it wasn´t for that, we might not have been so atent to look for opportunities to serve!

The members of the branch also made me a birthday cake and sang me happy birthday at the christmas activity the day after my birthday! 

This week we got to teach Paulo twice, and both times they went super well! Paulo just absorbs everything we teach him, and really understands. He also gets super excited when he learns a new thing. Seriously, I have never seen anyone get so excited to learn about the Pre-existence! He also was so happy to learn that our life doesn´t end after we die! Paulo is literally a miracle, and I am so grateful that I get to be a part of his story. He told us that he will go to the District Christmas Party this saturday, and I just know that our members will be so welcoming to him!

We had our Zone Christmas Conference this week, and it was a lot different than last year, for a few reasons. This year, it was just the Madeira zone, so there were just 12 missionaries instead of almost 50. It was also super hot outside, so it didn´t even feel like Christmas time, haha. But it was still fun to see the other missionaries on the island, and to hear from our Mission Presidente. Afterwards our zone got together and we went to downtown Funchal and started singing Christmas hymns and talking to everyone we met about #LighttheWorld. It was very succesfull!

I love this time of year, and the sweet spirit that we can feel no matter where we are in the world. That sweet spirit comes from our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I love Him and I´m grateful that I can represent him for these two years!

Have a very merry second week of December! I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker