A Week of Firsts...

This week was a week of firsts. Let me tell you about a few of them...

1. First time talking to an old friend while still on my mission...

I received a phone call this week from my old companion Irmã De Almeida. She is serving in the next area over (different zone). She was calling to inform me that Gustavo was leaving Portugal to go to Brazil the following day. Can I please have a Waynes World style flashback moment....... A little less than one year ago Irmã De Almeida and I found Gustavo while knocking doors. It was the last door of a very loooooooooooooong day. Within a week he was fully integrated into the ward and was baptized. He was prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel. He was the most prepared person I have met on my mission to this day, he still goes down in my history book as the most elect investigator (refer to blog from July of last year)....flash forward to this week. So She gives me his number and I give the big lug a call. After many attempts, he finally answered. I Got to talk to my good friend Gustavo! It was such a blast. He said he couldn´t even recognize my voice because my Portuguese was perfect! What a treat to hear that maybe my Portuguese is getting better not worse. We talked for a few minutes and I expressed my love for him and my testimony of Heavenly Father´s plan for Gustavo. It was incredible to hear from him and hear about his plans to go to the Temple in Brazil. Pure Joy.

2.First time going to the Court house in Portugal...

We have a family that is preparing for baptism. Teresa and Rui and their son Ruben. Teresa and Rui are not married, but have been together for over 10 years and have their 6 year old son Ruben. They are humble people who have recently had a lot of financial hardships that rocked their previously comfortable world. They are hurting, both spiritually and materially. But as they have come to accept the Gospel they have found renewed hope and have found the infinite blessings that come through obedience to God´s commandments. We have taught and invited them to live all of God´s commandments, including the law of chastity. They are not married....yet. But they have a house that has a completely separate annex, so they have started sleeping under different roofs as they prepare for marriage...They have not been able to afford the the cost of getting married (even just at the local courthouse). We knew that something could be done, money wasn´t gonna stop them from keeping God´s commandments. So we made a plan with the cost.. we´ll figure it out. But we didn´t know how long it would take for them to be married and we felt strongly that it needed to be sooner rather than later. So we hopped on a train and then a bus to get the nearest courthouse, about an hour away from our area using public transport. And there we were. Three sister missionaries, waiting in line at the courthouse in the line relating to marriage. We just had to laugh. Never thought I would be sitting at the courthouse in Portugal waiting to find out how to get married. In the end, if all works out, they will be getting married on the 26th of this month and they have asked us to be the witnesses. What an honor.

3. An investigator informs us that they will be baptized...without us even asking....

We walk into Maria Rosária´s store. She is one of our investigators (friends with the above mentioned Teresa). Normally we teach her inside of her store that she and her husband own. She has gone to church a few times and she loves it. Her husband appears to be severely oppressive, and she has never told us where she lives and has explained that her husband does not approve of these kind of things (church). But this day we only stopped into the store because we needed water because it was like 6 billion degrees outside and we needed to hurry and catch our bus. So we walk in and say hello, dripping with sweat and grab a big bottle of water to share. We ask her how she is doing as we set the bottle on the counter and she rings it up, she says she is doing great. We asked her if she would be going to Church this week. She said she might have to do something else, but that she wanted to go...Then as if it were nothing she said, ´´But next week I will go because I want to be baptized....not this weekend, but next weekend....´´ I can just imagine what our three little faces looked like when she said that....eyes big and surprised. All of a sudden it seemed so insignificant to be buying water and rushing to the bus. But we said...great! Ok well.....we´ll call tonight and pray that you can come to church tomorrow! She happily agreed, and we took our water and rushed off to the bus stop. We were so shocked we couldn´t help but giggle the whole time. ´´What just happened?´´ I asked..... ´´I think she just marked herself for baptism´´ Irmã Perkins responded.

4. We became regulars.....

When we go to the other side of our area we have to use the bus and train. Sometimes we have to wait a bit for our bus to come after our train arrives in the station. Its hot outside, did I mention that? Ok so in the station there is an ice cream stand that has ice cream bars. So a few times this past week we have stopped to grab a quick ice cream to cool down. Well it´s always the same guy, and on Saturday when we stopped at the station, he just looked at us and told us what we would be ordering. He knew.... Just then we became regulars.

5.I rode the train alone....

Irmã Reis called on Saturday and asked if we could split up our tripla and do a division with their dupla. Her companion Irmã Egbert was sick and they had been in the house for days, and she wanted to do a division. So we planned it out just right, got permission from Presidente and did the division. I told me comps that they were 100% capable of doing everything by themselves and that I would leave and go on the division and they would hold down the fort. It was great! With permission, I was allowed to ride the train alone to get to the area of the other Irmãs. So my comps sent me off on the train, a 5 minute ride to the other area... It was the strangest 5 solitary minutes of my mission. There I was, alone. Completely alone. On a train. Without companions. Then I tried to help a lady off the train with her stroller and kid and one of her bags ended up falling in between the platform and the train...whoops! I let other people help and got the heck out of there... I WAS ALONE! Someone could have thought i was trying to throw helpless women´s bags under trains, and I didn´t have my comp to back me up! But seriously it was an adventure.

Ok I´m out of time love you!!!!!!

Lizzie