Olá Bom Dia!

This week the activity that we planned for the ward went very well! It was actually kind of stressful trying to get everything ready, but in the end everything worked out. This activity was a sort of birthday party for all of the members who were born in the months of January, February, and March. It was also a special "party" for the members who had been baptized in those same months! The week before, we took pictures with the members who had been born, and took videos of the members who had been baptized, and then made two videos to show at the activity. 

Before the activity however, there was a baptism! Tomás, whose mom is less-active and who the sisters had been teaching, was baptized about an hour before the activity! It also went very well, and I was happy to see Tomás be baptized. 

Because I am the District Leader, one of my responsibilities is to interview the investigators being taught by the other missionaries before they can be baptized. Tomás was the first person on my mission that I got to interview for baptism, and I was a little nervous. But in the end it went well and I could see what a great kid he was!

Yesterday we decided to try to visit a man that said we could come back another day. When we rang his doorbell, about 10 little kids opened up the door, haha. One of them proudly told us that it was his 6th birthday, and that he was a having a birthday party (that would explain the mob of kids that were there, haha). Then his dad, Harcardio, came out and we were able to talk to him a little bit and mark a time this next Saturday when we can come back. They are from Cape Verde, and seem very friendly. I hope that we are able to teach them this week!

Also, as we were walking, a young man came up to us and asked us which church we were from. We answered him, and then he told us that one day he will go there because he needs to find Christ again. We tried to figure out where he lived so that we could visit him, but he said that he would just go to church. I hope he shows up this Sunday!

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

Love,

Elder Barker

Olá!

This week nothing too exciting happened, haha. 

We were able to teach Emídio almost everyday this week, and it has been fun to see his progress! Like I´ve said before, he is one of the most humble people that I´ve met, always worried about others instead of himself. Earlier this week he walked with us in the park and introduced us to at least five of his friends, telling them that he was going to be a member of this Church! 

Also, we found him walking with one of his friends the other day, and we invited her to church. Her only excuse was that she didn´t know where it was, so Emídio quickly told her that he would meet her Sunday morning to walk with her to the chapel! She ended up not being able to come, but it was neat to see Emídio so willing to share the gospel with everyone!

Other than this, I don´t have too much more to right about, so I´ll attach my pictures to this email and write a little about each one :)

I don´t know if they will be in order, so I hope you guys will figure it out, haha:

1) Our zone conference last week. Missionaries from the whole stake of Coimbra. I realized that I am the american that has been on the mission the longest, in my zone, haha!

2) Us and two of the sister missionaries in our district. They were searching for a reference we had given them, but had gotten a little lost. Luckily we were nearby and helped them find where it was (it was like three minutes away, haha). On our way back, it started to rain super hard, and one by one we each gave up on our umbrella because it had either broken or kept turning inside out, haha! We ended up walking about 30 minutes in the middle of a huge rainstorm, and of course asked someone to take our picture, lol.

3) Some random pictures of us with some members, because we are planning a ward activity (here in portugal the missionaries plan the activities instead of the members...) and needed to take pictures with the members that had birthdays in the last three months.

4)Me with Irmão Ramires. He is one of my favorite members here in Viseu, and reminds me of my grandpa!

5)Me and Tomás. His mom is less active, and the sisters are teaching him and trying to help his mom to come back to church. He loves the church and everyone loves him! He´s getting baptized this saturday!

6) Our district! We are making little pass along cards for the activity, and decided to put a picture of our district on them, haha. It took about 10 minutes to finally be able to get a picture that everyone liked, lol

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

Hopefully next week I´ll have some more exciting things to share :)

Love,

Elder Barker

We asked for 1, and received 6!

Olá!

This week we had a lot more success! 

First off, Emídio is progressing very well!! He told me on sunday that he really liked the talk that somebody gave, especially when they said that they loved the gospel. He told me that he also loves the gospel :). He went to a family home evening in the chapel this week, and told us that this was the most fun and the most he has laughed in such a long time. He said that he felt like he was surrounded by family. 

Also, he is super excited about his baptism! He has been telling lots of people that he is looking forward to April 7th, because that is the day that he will be baptized. His only problem is that he is finding it difficult to stop smoking and drinking coffee, so pray that he will be able to find the strength to stop!

I am so grateful that we were able to find Emídio  a few weeks ago. He keeps telling us that he knows that God put us in his path, and that we are truly helping him. 

He is one of the most humble people that I have met. He literally has nothing, but in his prayers that he says with us, he asks that those less fortunate than him will be blessed. He prays for those that are blind or deaf or are missing limbs, and says that he is so grateful for all that he has (which in material possessions is almost nothing)! 

He also asked us how long we would be in Portugal, and when we told him that we would be leaving in June and July, he started to cry. 

Being able to meet and teach people like Emídio makes all the difficult times worth it!

Even though we had had so much success with Emídio this week, by the time it hit Saturday night, we still hadn´t been able to find or teach anyone new. This was a little discouraging because I am happiest when we are finding and teaching new people. At 7:15 pm, I suggested that before we started knocking on doors in a neighborhood, that we say a prayer. In this prayer, I asked Heavenly Father that we be led to at least one person that we could teach. That we could find just one person this week.  

About 15 minutes later our prayer was answered. We prayed for one person, and the Lord gave us 6!

We rang the doorbell of one apartment building, and introduced ourselves as missionaries (over the intercom). We asked if they would be interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ. She went and asked the others in the house, and then invited us to come on up! It turns out that in this apartment lived six people from Angola, who just love God and Jesus Christ! They were all family and are studying here in Portugal. We shared our message of the Restoration, and then gave them the two Books of Mormon that we had. The next day we promised to bring 4 more Books of Mormon, and they were excited about that. They are all really open, and are excited to keep talking to us.

Because of this experience, my testimony of asking God in prayer has really strengthened. I know that Heavenly Father will lead us to where we need to go, and sometimes we just need to humbly ask him for his help!

One more thing that I almost forgot about was that as we were crossing the crosswalk, we were almost hit by a car. It had been raining nonstop all day (actually all week), and it was nightime. The roads were really slippery. As we were halfway across the crosswalk, a car turned the corner really fast, and then stopped on a dime about six inches from us. It wasn´t until later that I realized how blessed and watched over we were. Because the road was so slippery, it seems kind of strange that the car was able to stop so quickly. I know that God watches over his missionaries!

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

Love,

Elder Barker