Olá!

I hope all of the Moms were able to have a great Mother´s Day yesterday! Mother´s Day in Portugal was actually last week, but yesterday I was able to still celebrate because I got to Skype with my family! It was so nice to be able to see my parents and my siblings, and it feels like it wasn´t too long ago that I was skyping with them at Christmas time. The next time I see them, it´ll be in person!

At church there is an older member named Manuel who is a man full of faith. He has to walk with a cane now, his wife passed away a few years ago, and he lives about 20 minutes by car from the chapel, but he is always diligent in being at church every week, even arriving early. Unfortunately, he often sits alone during sacrament meeting. A few weeks ago I decided that I would start sitting with him every week (In Viseu we don´t sit together as missionary companions so that we can split up and sit with the investigators, less-actives, or just any member that seems alone.) 

I didn´t realize that this was making a a difference for Irmão Manuel until yesterday when he suddenly handed me a book. This book was a book full of poems that he has written for 20 years, and that he published. Almost all of these poems are written with gospel themes. He told me he wanted to give me this in order to thank me for the nice company I have given him these past several weeks. When I started sitting with him, I didn´t do it in order to receive any recognition or presents, I simply did it because I didn´t want this kind man to sit alone. 

A lot of times our seemingly small acts of kindness make a big difference in the lives of others. We need to always be on the look out for those people that seem to be forgotten, and act as the Savior would and help them to feel loved and remembered. I will forever treasure this little book of poems, because it will help me to always remember Irmão Manuel!

Also during church yesterday, we were able to hear from two members who went through the temple for the first time this last week. The first of them was Irmão Carlos, who was baptized a little over a year ago. This week he was sealed to his wife for time and all eternity! When he got up to speak, I looked around, and there were several people smiling real big. We all love this man and his wife, and I was so happy for him. The second was another member named Luís. He has been a member for several years now, but went to the temple for the first time this last week. He was just bubbling over, haha. Both of these men had a new light to their countenance, and I could tell that they both strengthened their testimonies this last week, and gained a new spiritual strength. The goal of every member of this church should be to prepare to go to the temple! There is so much power from this!

A few days ago we were looking for Emídio, but found out that after returning from Guarda, he left for Coimbra. So we don´t know when we will see him again! But as we were looking for him, another man came up to us and started talking. His name is Vítor, and he went to church a time or two in the past. He said he wanted to talk to us again, so we marked a time yesterday (but he unexpectedly had to work, so it fell through...). Before he left, we decided to give him a Book of Mormon, because he said he never received one. He got really happy and told us that this could be his birthday present because his birthday was going to be on Saturday! He asked us to sign it before we gave it to him, so we both wrote our testimonies! Even though our appointment fell through, we have his phone number and we will mark another day this week to teach him! 

I love and miss you all!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Barker