First off, ERIC AND NOELLE....HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!! PORTER.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!! I’m glad that all of you could spend time with each other this past week! What fun! I hope that next time I will be there! We have transfers on Wednesday. We find out tomorrow. I really don’t think that I’ll leave Matosinhos but who knows what will happen.
So this past week we had lunch with our recent convert Carla who basically told us she was leaving the church for a little while because of a boy...ya...drama. But it was really good that we talked to her and showed her that we loved her even if the boy at church was a jerk. But then yesterday she came to church!! Such a miracle!!!! We talked to her and she was completely different!!! She talked about going on a mission here in a year and that she wanted to talk to bishop about preparing to go!!! SUCH A 180-DEGREE TURN!!!! She is incredible!!! I couldn’t stop smiling for hours after that!
An older couple celebrated 42 years together and they are my parents here in Matosinhos so to celebrate, we heart attacked their door and ran! They loved it so much!!!! No one has ever done something so nice before. They were so cute about it. We eat at their house probably twice a week because they love the sisters so much! But she was almost in tears because her husband has a weird disease where his brain and his body are breaking down at the same time. I don’t know what it is but she’s also taking care of her mother who has Alzheimer’s. We’re the only company that they ever receive so she loved seeing the hearts on here door. Such a memorable moment for me!
We had interviews with president this week and OH MY GOODNESS. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!! He said exactly what I needed to hear. He asked me how the area was and how many lessons we teach a week and how many contacts we do, how many progressing investigators we have and so on. The past transfer we have done nothing but work so hard. What he said meant the world to me.
We have a baptism marked for this next weekend! Her name is Elisabete and she’s still smoking. She’s been investigating the church for 2 years now and she wants to be baptized on her 2 year mark which is Saturday! We’ve been doing everything we possible can to help her. She has such a great desire but we’ve tried and thought of everything to help her! That’s why I chose the quote on top because that’s the theme of our week. We did our part and we literally couldn’t do anymore. That’s what I learned this week is that we can only do so much without taking away their agency. It would make our work so much better. One of our baptisms fell through because he ended up being in Lisbon and obviously couldn’t make it, but for sure we will remark him for the end of this month so no worries! But we tried everything to meet with our people marked for baptism but the stars were just not aligned... We tried everything. But president challenged us to contact at least 40 people a day and that made the days pass by WAY TOO FAST!!! We were talking to everyone!! We met with lots of less-active members, and ran into people that were investigators and those that had already talked to the missionaries. Although the week was hard we also had so much fun meeting new people!!
Okay also this week we were suppose to meet with a lady and she ended up inviting us to an evangelical FHE! So funny!! haha TONS of shouting Hallelujah and amen’s and Jesus. You can imagine how awkward we felt. They had these songs that they were playing that were saying that we sing and dance for Jesus and they would start dancing. Then they would be praying and everyone would be saying amen and pray for himself or herself. I felt like they were all drugged and kind of Zombies...and they call us a cult...not even close. After wards we just busted up laughing! Also this week I had Arroz de marisco (seafood rice) and it was stellar!!!! I love this food so much!!!
Family, I love the mission!! It seems like yesterday that I was in my 1st transfer but at the same time, it seems like forever ago. It’s really hard to remember before the mission because I just don’t have time to think about it. Life before the mission all seems like a dream that I had last night. I can’t wait for this next week to see what all the changes are going to be. The work is going forth and I’m going with it! What a great thought!!
Love you all!
Sister Hillam
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