WOWZA!!!

4/23/12

WOWZA!!!!!  Holy canoli!!!  Mother of pearl!!!  I LOVE THE MISSION!!!!  This week was sooooo HARD but so good. :)  I thought of the song from Man of La Mancha "Impossible Dream"; the part that says "To be willing to march into hell for a Heavenly cause" haha okay maybe a bit over dramatic, but we did in a sense willingly walk into hell this week to help save some souls.  And we/they were blessed!!!  My first BAPTISM was yesterday!!!  Okay, before I go into this story, I need to explain some things about my mission.  It was revealed to President Torgan that in every area of our mission at least one person can/should be baptized every week.  So we have what we call Revelados.  Can´t really directly translate that to English.  What we do is during our weekly planning we pray about who is/ can be prepared to be baptized that following Sunday.  We don´t know, but the Lord does.  So we find out who the Revelados are and we do something every day for them to come unto Christ and prepare for baptism- such as call, visit, etc.  I had been having some trouble understanding that lately but from Zone conference with President Torgan and the assistants this week; I am understanding it a lot better.  It is incredible and intense.  Barri was one of our Revelados.  I learned that if they are a true Revelado, you can´t just give up on them, even if it looks like they won´t make it.  We found Barri on the street.  I am pretty sure he was under the influence of some kind of illegal drug during the first lesson.  But we felt so strongly that he was going to be baptized.  We called and called and went to his house, but we didn´t get to talk to him until Friday.  It was on the phone and he said he didn´t want our help anymore, he doesn´t need help from Christ, etc, I was about ready to hang up but my companion made him promise to talk to us the next day.  The next day we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with one of the Bishop´s counselors.  The spirit was incredible.  Barri truly does want to change, and he has.  He accepted everything.  The spirit re-affirmed very strongly to me that he needed to baptized the next day, Sunday.  So we invited him and he accepted.  He came to church and passed the baptism interview and was baptized in freezing cold water and it was INCREDIBLE!!!!  He is a strong person.  Jesus Christ has touched his life.  I am so happy to have been a tool in the Lord´s hand to bring this gospel to Barri.

Remember that girl I told you about that we ran after to ask again for her phone number?!  That said she didn’t believe God exists, and she only gave us her e-mail?!  SHE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!  My mouth dropped to the floor when I saw her.  I was on top of the world!  Ah!!!  Incredible!!!!  i just feel so close to her, like we are best friends already.  After Relief Society she (Sonia) talked to me about the Catholic church and how other churches are different and why ours is special?  In my mind I was wanting to say we can explain later this week to you, my Portuguese is not good, i don´t have my companion by my side (she was helping other investigators- oh did I mention SEVEN people came to church yesterday?!?!?!?!  woohoo!!!!  Opposition in all things.  Hardest week, biggest miracles!) yadda yadda yadda, but the spirit told me very firmly to delve deep and explain.  So i started in Portuguese and then she said she understood English (haha) and so I was able to tell her about the church in English and what we have and how she can find out for herself.  Turns out she read all of the chapter we gave her- Alma 32, and she told me all about what she remembered from it!  Anyways, she asked about temples- very interested in temples, and the spirit was there so strongly and it was simply amazing.  Turns out she doesn´t have any available time to talk to  us because of her job, she only has one Sunday free a month, so that opportunity to talk to her about the gospel was crucial!  She still didn´t want to give us her phone or address, she said she only uses it and gives it to her family, but we will e-mail her.  I have such a good feeling about her.  She wants to know.  She said she would continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray.  AH!!!!! I LOVE THE MISSION!!!!

Every day is an adventure.  Last week we went to go see someone we contacted on the street.  It was night time (Oh!  I haven´t told you, but our schedule is a bit diff. here.  We wake up at 7 and go to bed at 11 because everyone stays up really late and sleeps in.  We see families walking around at 9:30!)  it was night time and we went to his address and guess what?!  He gave us the address to a Jehovah´s Witness building where a meeting was in progress!  He led us right into the Lions den!!!  I laughed my head off.  

Last week I told you about Henrique, well we are not really sure what happened to him.  We called him this week and he was a totally different person.  It was the same phone number, I checked a 100 times, but he just totally changed.  really really sad.  And Georgina- we haven´t been able to really talk to her again.  She is NEVER home.  But we have been talking with the daughters and we are still trying.  the language is coming slowly but surely.  I can understand a lot, but speaking is still blech.  Keep praying for me :)

Fun things about Portugal:  Everyone talks over each other and is extremely bold and up front.  -Sorry if I offend you when I get back.  There are lemon and orange fruit trees EVERYWHERE.  you can park wherever you want, even if it is in the middle of the road- just put your blinkers on and your set.  Everyone hangs their clothes out the window to dry.  The milk comes in cartons and you don´t refrigerate it until before you use it.  don´t know how that works.  I love Portugal so much.

Love you love you love you!!!!

Pray for Georgina, aliu Casaman, Sonia, Titi, Angela, Aissa, and everyone to come to church!!!  (sorry, don´t have time for specifics!)

Tell me about what you are reading in the Book of Mormon! 

Love, Irmã Tingey