Bom Dia!

This week we met some interesting people!

The first is a Brazilian named Pedro. He isn´t living here in Portugal, but he has been traveling the country for the past month. He´s 19 and decided to come to Portugal and explore this country by just getting lost, haha. As we were walking down the street, we saw him smiling at us, so we decided to talk to him. Apparently he had met the other missionaries while he was staying in Braga a few weeks ago. They had taught him a few times, and he even went to church with them. He also has a friend in Brazil who is a member of the Church. When we found him, he was looking for  a place to charge his cellphone, so we brought him to the chapel, haha. There we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He was only in Viseu for one day, and left for Porto the next day, but we invited him to search out the missionaries and talk with his friend who´s a member, when he gets back to Brazil. We also told him that it probably wasn´t just a coincidence that he met the missionaries two times in two different cities while he was here. He said that he would definitely search out the church when he gets back home! It´s one of those stories that I will probably never know the end of, but I´m grateful that we could share the gospel with him and plant a seed in his heart that will hopefully go with him as he returns to São Paulo!

Another person that we met this week was an old man on the street, haha. But he wasn´t just any old man. It turns out that he is the great-uncle of the wife of our mission presidente! We knew that Sister Amorim had family here in Viseu, but this was the first time that we had found one of them! He was so nice and told us where he lived, and said we could pass by this week. Right after we finished talking to him, Sister Amorim called us to let us know that the Presidente was sad I hadn´t written him a weekly letter (this was the first time I forgot!). But I buttered her up by letting her know that we had just finished talking with her Tio José, and she got so happy! She told us that she would write about this in her journal, and then gave us more references of her other family members that lived in Viseu! 

Last night we taught another old man named José (there are a lot of them in Portugal, haha). He was also so nice, and told us to come back this thursday! Something that I love about Portuguese older people is that they love to give us "tours" of their homes and show us all of their pictures of when they were younger. It was neat to hear the stories of José, and also hear him play harmonica (he about passed out after playing a song for us, haha). He told us that he will come with us to church one of these days, and we hope that it´ll be this week!

We also had a Family Home Evening in the chapel this week, and I will send pictures in a little bit!

I love and miss you all!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Barker

Transfers

Olá!

This week we traveled to Coimbra to do divisions with the Zone Leaders there. It was a good division and I had a good time! However, getting there was a bit of an adventure, haha. For some reason we didn´t use the bus company that we usually use to get there. Instead we used another one that seemed just as good and didn´t seem like there would be any differences. 

Well when we arrived in Coimbra, the bus that we were on didn´t enter the bus station like we were used to, instead it drove right past it! I thought that maybe it had forgotten to turn into the station, and that the bus driver was going to make a U-Turn or something, haha. It ended up making a quick stop at a random little bus stop, but we didn´t get off because my companion felt confident that it was going to return to the bus station. 

It didn´t. It got right back onto the freeway and started heading towards Lisbon! I thought to myself "well, looks like we´ll be visiting Lisbon today." haha. 

But after a few minutes the bus driver noticed that we were still on the bus, stopped on the side of the road, and ordered us off the bus! So there we were on the side of the freeway with our small little suitcases, haha. We were still pretty close to Coimbra, and it was only a 20 minute walk back to where we wanted to go, but it was still a little annoying, haha. But we made it safely!

The actual division was good. My companion for the day was Elder Bates from Idaho. He goes home a few months after me, and he was a fun missionary to work with! As we were knocking doors,  a man let us into the building. When we went up to his door, we introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a message with him. He said yes, but when we asked if we could enter his house to share it, he made a very firm shake of his head. So after a few minutes of conversing with him, we found out that he was athiest. I never really know how to talk to athiests, but I remembered a few things that my old companion, Elder Franco, would say, so I tried a few of those out. We ended up not being able to teach this man, but we did offer to say a prayer with him in his doorway. He said that he had never said a prayer in his life. After I said the prayer, we could really feel the spirit, and I know that this man could too, even if he didn´t want to admit it. I love being able to bear my testimony, and help plant seeds in the hearts of people! You never know, maybe one day this man will remember the feelings that he had while he was talking with us, and choose to change his life.

When we got back to Viseu, we started knocking on doors (like usual ;) ). We decided to go to this random little side street next to the cemetary. The first door that we knocked on, a man answered the door, and he didn´t seem very friendly. And he wasn´t. 

He was probably one of the rudest people that I have talked to on my mission so far, and that´s saying something. No matter how kind and nice we tried to be towards him, he got even meaner. He said repeatedly "Rua! Rua!", which means "road!", which is what people say to their dogs that are misbehaving. Of course we left after that, and even though I left trying to be in a good mood, I was feeling pretty down.

 Half heartedly we knocked on the door of his neighbor, and a very nice lady answered the door. Her and her boyfriend let us in, but we weren´t able to share a message with them. However, they were so nice to us and made us feel so good. At the end, I just wanted to give the man a hug for the kindness that they showed towards us.  I felt that these people were a tender mercy for us, because instead of leaving that neighboorhood feeling sad and discouraged, we left feeling happy and appreciated!

He (Antonio) doesn´t live with this lady (Maria), so she lives alone. We passed her address for the sisteres to visit, and they did the very next day. It turns out that Maria was almost baptized 20 years ago, and the only reason she wasn´t was because her family opposed it and wanted her to baptize her children into the catholic church. Well when the sisters visited her, they invited her to be baptized, and she accepted!

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

Divisions in Coimbra

Olá!

This week we traveled to Coimbra to do divisions with the Zone Leaders there. It was a good division and I had a good time! However, getting there was a bit of an adventure, haha. For some reason we didn´t use the bus company that we usually use to get there. Instead we used another one that seemed just as good and didn´t seem like there would be any differences. 

Well when we arrived in Coimbra, the bus that we were on didn´t enter the bus station like we were used to, instead it drove right past it! I thought that maybe it had forgotten to turn into the station, and that the bus driver was going to make a U-Turn or something, haha. It ended up making a quick stop at a random little bus stop, but we didn´t get off because my companion felt confident that it was going to return to the bus station. 

It didn´t. It got right back onto the freeway and started heading towards Lisbon! I thought to myself "well, looks like we´ll be visiting Lisbon today." haha. 

But after a few minutes the bus driver noticed that we were still on the bus, stopped on the side of the road, and ordered us off the bus! So there we were on the side of the freeway with our small little suitcases, haha. We were still pretty close to Coimbra, and it was only a 20 minute walk back to where we wanted to go, but it was still a little annoying, haha. But we made it safely!

The actual division was good. My companion for the day was Elder Bates from Idaho. He goes home a few months after me, and he was a fun missionary to work with! As we were knocking doors,  a man let us into the building. When we went up to his door, we introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a message with him. He said yes, but when we asked if we could enter his house to share it, he made a very firm shake of his head. So after a few minutes of conversing with him, we found out that he was athiest. I never really know how to talk to athiests, but I remembered a few things that my old companion, Elder Franco, would say, so I tried a few of those out. We ended up not being able to teach this man, but we did offer to say a prayer with him in his doorway. He said that he had never said a prayer in his life. After I said the prayer, we could really feel the spirit, and I know that this man could too, even if he didn´t want to admit it. I love being able to bear my testimony, and help plant seeds in the hearts of people! You never know, maybe one day this man will remember the feelings that he had while he was talking with us, and choose to change his life.

When we got back to Viseu, we started knocking on doors (like usual ;) ). We decided to go to this random little side street next to the cemetary. The first door that we knocked on, a man answered the door, and he didn´t seem very friendly. And he wasn´t. 

He was probably one of the rudest people that I have talked to on my mission so far, and that´s saying something. No matter how kind and nice we tried to be towards him, he got even meaner. He said repeatedly "Rua! Rua!", which means "road!", which is what people say to their dogs that are misbehaving. Of course we left after that, and even though I left trying to be in a good mood, I was feeling pretty down.

 Half heartedly we knocked on the door of his neighbor, and a very nice lady answered the door. Her and her boyfriend let us in, but we weren´t able to share a message with them. However, they were so nice to us and made us feel so good. At the end, I just wanted to give the man a hug for the kindness that they showed towards us.  I felt that these people were a tender mercy for us, because instead of leaving that neighboorhood feeling sad and discouraged, we left feeling happy and appreciated!

He (Antonio) doesn´t live with this lady (Maria), so she lives alone. We passed her address for the sisteres to visit, and they did the very next day. It turns out that Maria was almost baptized 20 years ago, and the only reason she wasn´t was because her family opposed it and wanted her to baptize her children into the catholic church. Well when the sisters visited her, they invited her to be baptized, and she accepted!

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

Happy (late) Easter

Michael Frank Barker <michael.barker@myldsmail.net>	Mon, Apr 2, 5:59 AM
to Charbel, Cheryl, Chris, Daniel, DeWayne, Eric, Kent, Michael, Paul, Reed, Tammy, Kirk, Elder, Alexis, Brandon, Diana, callleeann, Jessica, Forrest, me, Brittany, John, Dad, Anna, Jake, Patrice, Barb, Erik, Kristalyn, Linda, Mason, Matt, hanceyfamily, Rick, David, Abigail, Haley, Gillian, Mark.Stutz, matt, AJ, Cindy, Linda, Meagan, Mickal, Vince, Mom, Michelle, Kurt, Bailey, Frank, Marci, Karen, Karen, Danielle, Lisa, rwdubois55, Janine, Lew, Mark, DeAnne, Carol, Paul, Winston, Joseph

Olá!

I just remembered that it has been two whole years since I received and opened my mission call! I can still clearly remember the day that I received that big white envelope. I was still at BYU at the time, so whenever we received a package or a mission call, we would receive an email to go pick it up. I remember when I got that email at the beginning of my Psychology class, I tried to stay put and stay until the end, but I ended up getting up right in the middle of the lecture and leaving to go pick up my mission call, haha (sorry!). For some reason, I wanted to wait a few days to open up my call, but with my family so "patiently" urging me on ;), I ended up opening it up that very same night. It definitely doesn´t feel like it has been two years since I read the words "You are hereby called to serve . . . in the Portugal Porto Mission" in my sister and brother-in-law´s kitchen (connected with skype with the rest of my family!) 

I am so grateful for all of the experiences that I´ve had in my mission up until now, and I´m looking forward to serving for four more months! 

This week one of the members here in Viseu requested that we give her a Priesthood Blessing. This is the same member that had to have a surgery in her intestines a few months ago. She has still been in a lot of pain, and she really wanted that blessing. It was nice to exercise this priesthood that we hold, and I have faith that she will start to feel better. This member (irmã nela) actually came to church for the first time in several months yesterday! It was so good to see her, and all of the other members were so happy as well. (She hasn´t been able to make it to church lately because of her surgery and the pain she has been in). 

While we were there at their house, they also gave us some special homemade easter bread. Apparently here in portugal they have specific special homemade easter bread for every region. The one they made us was a recipe specificly from a small village a few miles away, and it used sweet potato, and it was so good! 

I love portuguese people!

I really enjoyed General Conference yesterday, and I will end with a phrase that I felt strongly to write in my journal yesterday at the end of Conference:

"I´m so grateful to be a member of this Church!"

This truly is the Lord´s Church on the earth, and I know that by seeking to be His disciples in our everyday lives, we will truly be blessed and be able to find everlasting joy! I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that he gave His life for each and every one of us!

I and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Barker

Ps, I usually send  my personal emails during the afternoon, but I don´t know if the place that we use will be open,so if I don´t send a personal email today, it´s because of that :)

Tchau!