Okay... I formally apologize for not writing long emails.
After hearing a few complaints I decided to write about every possible little
thing that happened this week. Prepare yourself for an email of rambling.
First off, we starting this last week with a transfer!
Surprise surprise Sister Baker left for Setubal after just 2 weeks in
Póvoa.. I miss her but she's doing an awesome job there! Now I have my
fantastic new companion Sister Selman! This week has been a blast! We nerd out
about the same things and she is a fantastic missionary. The Elder's area
closed so instead of 4 missionaries in Póvoa, now it's just us! It has been
CRAZY! We have 11 recent converts plus our investigators and the investigators
of the Elders. AND our bishop told ALL of the members to invite the missionaries
over in the next two weeks. It's like there's been an awakening in the members
and I think its gonna be good!
We found this girl named Helena this week. She's our age and
she's pretty religious. We found her down by the train station when we were on a
division with some members and Carla, who is awesome as well, stopped her in the
road and asked her if she knew any Mormons. Helena replied and said that she had
talked to the Sisters in the past but they got transferred and she never heard
from them again. Carla grabbed my arm and was like "HERE ARE THE NEW
SISTERS!!" So we taught the first lesson to her and answered her questions
about prophets and such.
We also found this super cool family! Ricardo and Jací let
us in their humble house and we taught them sitting on their son's bed because
they didn't have chairs to sit on. We taught them about God and how believing
in God and going to church can help their family be more unified in hard times.
One of their daughters said her first prayer. I absolutely LOVE first prayers!
It's the best thing in the whole wide world.
We also took over teaching Joel, the friend of the Elder's
recent convert. He was confirmed on Sunday. Their family has been passing
through some hard times as well but while we were there teaching about how God
fulfills his promises to bless his obedient children, Joel got a phone call
offering him work. Everyone was nearly in tears and Joel got his answer that
God is aware of him and that God approves of his decision to follow the example
of Christ.
We also started teaching this guy named Pedro (this week we
found a lot of new investigators). Pedro is a guy who believes in God but
doesn't believe that God is good. Pedro had an accident a few years ago and now
he's in a wheelchair. Despite his wife being a doctor, he chooses to live in a
trailer home because he doesn't think he deserves anything better. We taught
him that God does in fact love Pedro very much and that's why he was here on
the earth. Pedro thought a lot about what we said and gruffy said:
"Okay... you guys can come back next week..." We laughed and promised
him that it would be worth his while.
In a lesson with one of our investigators named Bruno, he
also said his first prayer. When we found him he didn't know who God or Jesus
were. We taught him that he can come to know who God is through prayer and he
asked if he could try to pray. We were like.... YES!!!! We gave him a Book of
Mormon. Unfortunately later that day his mom called and said that we couldn't
teach her son more.... But hopefully Bruno will remember us and accept the
missionaries in the future.
4th of July. We did nothing. Sorry America... I'm Portuguese
now :D
On Friday we can an AWESOME missionary activity! We hauled
all of the youth down to the train station, set up a stand about family history
work, and set those kids to work. They stopped everyone and we got lots of
contacts!! We found that it was mostly jovens who stopped to listen to us with
curiosity about who they were, why they were here, and where they came
from.
We also taught a very successful English class! Normally we
had 1 or 2 people show up but this week we had a whole lot more! We played
games in English and taught people the difference between "tree" and
"three".
The other day I was reading my journal about everything that
has happened since I came on my mission. I feel like time has flown by so fast!
My trainer went home this week.... She sent me an email about taking her
name tag off and I realized that the last year has not lasted long enough. I
think I'll stay here forever. Sorry family and friends... I'm staying here
FOREVER!!! Muhaha! Just send me money and peanut butter please.
I hope this was long enough for those who were not satisfied
in the past.... I can't think of anything else XD Being a missionary is
awesome! I would highly recommend it ^_^
Love you!
Sister Ellsworth
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