"See you later, Wood!"

Olá!

Yesterday was the last day of the transfer, and as you can see from the title ( "Até Mais, Madeira!"), I will be leaving the island! I was really expecting to stay at least six more weeks in this area, because missionaries generally stay on Madeira for longer periods of time, but it seems that the Lord has other plans. We got the phone call last night, and I found out that I will be transferred to...

Viseu! 

Viseu is about in the center of our mission, about 2 hours away from Porto. From what I´ve heard, the ward Viseu has the highest church attendance in our mission, with about 150 active members each week. This will definetly be different from any of my recent areas! I have gotten used to smaller branches, and I actually feel kind of dissapointed that I won´t get to serve in another small branch. 

But I´ve only heard good things about Viseu and the members of the church there, so I´m excited for this next chapter of my mission. My new companion will be Elder Alves, from Brazil. With only four transfers left on my mission, Viseu will most likely be my last area that I serve in!

This week we continued to teach Rui, and we even brought the branch presidente with us for the lesson about the Word of Wisdom. He was a great help and really gave Rui some good advice. Rui went to church again this Sunday, and he enjoyed it for the second time! I´m dissapointed that I won´t get to stay here in Machico and see his baptism. Rui was my first investigator in Machico, and I have enjoyed being able to see his progress. But I know that Elder Franco will take good care of him and keep him firm on his new path. 

Sorry that this email is such a short one, I just don´t have too much time today! But I hope I can make up for it with the pictures that I will send in a few minutes!

I love and miss you all! Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Barker

A good week

Olá!

This week our mission presidente wanted us to have our district meetings during the afternoon instead of in the morning like usual. He chose to do this so that we could all watch the Worldwide Broadcast from Presidente Nelson all at the same time (4pm in Portugal). I´m happy that we were able to watch our new First Presidency be announced to the world. Even though I already knew that President Russell M. Nelson would be the next Prophet, I still felt goosebumps all over my body when it was officially announced. Right then I knew that the Lord had called him to lead this Church. As I was watching him speak, I could tell that he had a new mantle upon him--the mantle of the Prophet. As he was addressing us, I actually felt like I was listening to Presidente Monson. 

I know that Presidente Russell M. Nelson is a prophet called of God and I fully sustain him to lead this church! 

As I was doing some of my personal study this week, I realized that it is so simple--we just need to follow the Prophet, and we will be following the will of God.

Some more exciting news for this week: Rui finally accepted to be baptized! Remember Rui? He was one of the first people I taught when I arrived in Machico in September. Over these past four months, we have taught him on and off. I actually almost gave up on him. But this week we had some really good lessons, and we marked him for February 24th!  During one of our lessons this week, he told us that he was afraid to fail. 

I had the feeling that I should have him close his eyes and have him imagine his baptism day. I had him imagine himself dressed all in white, standing in the baptismal font. I described the feelings that he would have that day, the happiness that he would feel, etc. In the end, we asked him if he wants that day to arrive. He replied "muito, muito, muito." Which basically means " so very much!" With that desire that he showed, we promised him that that day would certainly come! 

After four months of inviting him, he finally came with us to church yesterday! We helped him set an alarm for Sunday morning on his cellphone, and we told him we would be at his house at 8am to catch the bus with him. When we got there a few minutes early, he was already waiting outside for us! It was a little miracle! He really enjoyed church, and said that when he was there, he had a nice feeling in his chest that wouldn´t leave. The Church is true!

We also taught a nice man on the street about the Restoration. He was basically one of the elect people here in Machico! He wants to hear more, and he wants to have a better relationship with God. The only "problem" is that he was leaving for Porto the very next day to have surgery, and he won´t return to Madeira until August... So we´ll leave his contact information for the next missionaries, and hopefully when I´m back in Colorado he´ll return to Machico and join the church!

I had some really good personal study sessions this week, one of which I regained a strong testimony that we are children of God. The scriptures that I found (in the Bible and the Book of Mormon) stuck with me throughout the day, and I felt so grateful to have this knowledge of our divine origens and futures. 

Elder Franco and I were doing a "practica" of the  first lesson, and when I was testifying of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith, the Spirit just hit me like a brick and I got really choked up. I even started crying. I am so grateful for this Gospel. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and my loving Saviour, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that I have been privileged to grow up with the eternal truths of the Restored Church. I know that I have taken for granted the knowledge and testimony that I have, so I am grateful that I can serve this mission and realize how important it truly is.

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker

The Final Six Months

Olá!

In exactly six months I will be in Porto on one of my last days on the mission! Not to make any of you "trunky" or anything ;) It´s really hard to believe that I´m starting the last quarter of my mission. Each month is passing by so much more quickly than the last. This past week I decided to make some goals and plans for what I want from the rest of my mission. I won´t tell you all of my goals, but one of the most important for me is: when I reach my last day in the mission field, I want to feel God´s approval for the work that I did here. I want to feel that He is satisfied with how I spent my 24 months here in Portugal. I have other goals that I want to accomplish, but this is the one that I want the most!

This week we stopped a girl on the street to talk to her about the gospel. We quickly found out that she was very athiest. But Elder Franco is very gifted when it comes to talking to athiests about God, and we ended up having a nice conversation with her. I was able to bare my testimony to her and I think that I said hit her heart :" Just like you are completely, 100% sure that God doesn´t exist (because that is what she said), I am completley, 100% sure that He does exist." We ended up leaving her with the Book of Mormon, and she agreed to pray to ask God if He lives. The spirit was very strong during our conversation, and I know that we planted a strong seed in her heart. I am greatful for the knowledge that I have that our Heavenly Father lives and loves us!

We were also able to teach a new investigator this week: Gil! He´s about 50 years old, and lives alone. He told us that he was Catholic, but hasn´t been to Mass for most of his life. But he believes in God and wants to learn more about Him. We taught him the first lesson, and I could tell that he was feeling the spirit several times during our lesson. I´m pretty sure that I also saw a few tears in his eyes a few times. He has a car, and said that he´s willing to drive to church (in Caniço) one of these weeks! He has a lot of potential!

Good and bad news about Pedro. The good news is that he will be able to go to church every Sunday now without worrying about the bus. The "bad" news is that it is because he moved this week to Matosinhos (close to Porto) to live with his aunt! It´s not really bad news, because his aunt is the one that introduced him to the church and she really wants him to be active. I was just sad because I probably won´t get to see him ever again, and I didn´t even get to say goodbye! But I am grateful for the changes that I have seen in Pedro since I started teaching him in October. He really has changed for the better, and he has so many opportunities waiting for him in the future!

I love and miss you all! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Barker

Olá!

Olá!

This week started off with a plane ride to Porto, all by myself! My SEF (Temparary residency card) was about to expire, so I had to go to Porto to renew it so I wouldn´t be illegal, haha. Usually several missionaries do it together (the ones that arrived with you from the MTC), but this time only me and Elder Ozuna were there, because Elder Pratt already did his for some reason, and Sister Shepard is finishing her mission this month. It was kind of weird to travel all alone in the airport and then the metros of Porto, but fun at the same time, haha. I slept with the other elders there, and then the next afternoon I headed back to Madeira. Porto was rainy, cloudy, and cold, so Machico seems like a paradise with it´s hot, sunny days, haha!

While I was in Porto waiting for the lightrail, a nice, smiley family came up to me and introduced themselves...in spanish! They were members of the Church in Spain and were asking me if I knew where the chapel in Porto was. I didn´t, but I gave them the cellphone number of the elders serving there. I was pretty proud of myself for understanding (more or less) what they were saying, and even more that I could put together a few spanish phrases to talk to them. Portuguese really helps you struggle your way through spanish, haha!

Serving a mission brings moments of great joy when you can really feel the love of God for yourself and for others. I have had times on my mission where I have seen His hand in the lives of others, and when I have been able to feel Godly joy. But serving a mission can also bring moments when you feel true, Godly sorrow because of the choices of other people. For example, this week we haven´t been able to get a hold of Paulo. It seems like he has either dissapeared off the face of the earth or is running away from us. Several times we knocked on his door, and we saw the light in the house turn off. I´m not sad because he is ignoring us, but because I know how much joy and hope he is going to miss out on if he decides to give up. All this joy and hope that comes from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and it seems that he is choosing to throw it away. 

But I know that everyone has their free agency to choose between right and wrong. We will continue to pass by Paulo´s house everyonce in awhile to see if he´ll answer the door, but if not, I know that there are more people here in Machico searching for the truth! Elder Franco and I will continue to work to find these people! 

We taught a family this week, and they gave us cake and sandwhiches! (but they are hardcore catholic and told us that they are never going to change, but at least they were nice about it, haha!)

I´m grateful that I can serve a mission and experience even on the smallest degree the joy and the sorrow that our Saviour felt while he was on the earth.

I love and miss all of you!

Love,
Elder Barker

P.S sorry for no pictures this week! I´ll be sure to send a few next week!

P.P.S I´m not sure if I have too much more time on the computer today, because the really strict librarian is working today, and might kick us off if we are here for more than an hour, :) but know that I always read and appreciate everyones emails to me!

Happy 2018!

Michael Frank Barker <michael.barker@myldsmail.net>	Mon, Jan 1, 6:35 AM
to Babzanne, Bruce, Charbel, Cheryl, Chris, Daniel, DeWayne, Eric, Kent, Michael, Paul, Reed, Tammy, Kirk, Elder, Alexis, Brandon, Diana, callleeann, Jessica, Forrest, me, Brittany, John, Anna, Jake, Patrice, Barb, Erik, Kristalyn, Linda, Mason, Matt, hanceyfamily, Rick, David, Abigail, Haley, Gillian, Mark.Stutz, matt, AJ, Cindy, Linda, Meagan, Mickal, Vince, Michelle, Kurt, Bailey, Frank, Marci, Karen, Karen, Danielle, Lisa, rwdubois55, Janine, Lew, Mark, DeAnne, Carol, Paul, Winston, Joseph

Olá!

I hope you all had a Happy New Year! In Portugal, New Years is a holiday that they love to celebrate and shoot off fireworks for! Apparently the fireworks show in Funchal is the biggest in the world, so we asked for permission to go and see it if we had a member of the church with us to give us a ride, and our Mission Presidente denied it,  haha. 

Even though we weren´t able to go to funchal, we were still woken up at midnight by the fireworks show going on in Machico, so we watched them from our window! It was pretty impressive! 
​This week was also a very good week, because our investigator, Paulo, decided to be baptized! 

He was the one that when we first met him, he was calling us of the devil and that we needed to be careful with the Book of Mormon. After we started teaching him, we invited him to be baptized several times, but each time he told us that it was too soon or that it was too big of a commitment. 

Well last week we passed him on the street and he told us that he had something important to tell us about baptism, so we marked a day to pass by his house. When we got there, we asked him what he meant, and he said that he had been thinking, and decided that he wanted this "contract" with God. That he wanted to be baptized and be forgiven. So we set a date for January 27th!  

Our lessons have been even more effective this week, because his two sons have been staying with him over Christmas break. They are 11 and 9 years old, but have been understanding everything, and even said the opening and closing prayers in our lessons! They also want to help their dad, which became clear when they took his glass of wine while he wasn´t looking and threw it down the sink, haha. Paulo still has awhile to go before he is ready for baptism, but I know that with the help of God, everything is possible!

We were also able to get back in contact with Rui Duarte (an investigator from a few months ago), and he wants to keep receiving the lessons!

I hope you all have a great first week of 2018, and that your new year´s resolutions can last for a few more days ;) !  

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker