September 9, 2009

Hey fam. Thanks for the emails! They were awesome. Sounds like everyone's doing awesome! Tell mom to not worry about the writing. Its not a huge deal. We had to leave a little early last week anyway. We went to a place called Sintra which is supposedly the most visited place in Portugal. We went to a toy museum they had there. They had like 50,000 toys. All antiques! It was way cool. Today, we are going to Belém to go to some kind of Interactive Electricity Museum. I dunno much about it. Sounds cool though. It has been raining a lot today. I woke up to the sound of thunder. There was some pretty crazy lightning. But I think its starting to clear up. It feels really nice outside. It has been really hot the last few days. We are still doing well. The language is still coming. We are still teaching quite a bit. But a little less, because all of our investigators have been baptized. We still teach them, but now that they are baptized, we are going to probably have to spend a lot of time looking for people. It has been a lot easier for me to talk to people on the streets. I can definitely see that the language has improved. But contacting people that way isnt very effective here. Nobody really wants to listen. They all say "Não, não quero nada. Estou com pressa. Eu sou catolico." Or "no, I dont want anything. Im in a hurry. Im catholic." Its true, everyone here is catholic. None are practicing. Its frustrating. The African people are much more open to us. That explains why all of our investigators that we have, and we have baptized have been African. But the most effective way of finding people is through our members. The two investigators that we have invited to be baptized are both member referrals. We have Moisés and Gil. Moisés is actually Brazilian. They are both really cool. We invited Moisés to be baptized, but he says he needs an answer first before he gets baptized into our church, because he was already baptized in the Baptist Church. But he is really cool. He drinks, but is trying to stop. The only way he can recieve an answer is if he keeps the commandments. So we really have to get him to stop drinking. Gil already knows the church is true. He just has a few doubts about marrying non members. He has seen some bad examples from some of our members. So we just gotta get that worked out. We havent invited him yet. But he already told us if he is going to be baptized in any church, it will be ours. He is an awesome guy. Our investigator Maria is finally getting baptized this Saturday. She is way excited! She is golden. She already has a way strong testimony. She is even saving her money for tithing already! She told us that before the Elders who found her (Elder Markarian and the comp he had before me, Elder Mateer) she used to be scared where she lives. It is sort of a scary area called Quinta do Mocho. A bunch of government apartments where the only people that live there are African. It gets pretty crazy there supposedly. We arent supposed to be there after dark. But she said she used to be scared going to work and stuff. But now she knows that God is with her, and she even walks to work now. She is so awesome. We are really excited for the baptism. Its going to be awesome. Yeah, I didnt think I would have this many baptisms here either. This is a really blessed area. I think the biggest reason is that a lot of the people that live here are African. ThePortuguese people are the ones who dont ever want to talk to us. All the African people actually stop and listen. Sounds like the wedding went awesome! I really wish I could have been there. Oh, by the way, my companion Elder Dean knows Gretchen! I got the wedding invite in the mail, opened it up and showed Elder Dean the pictures and he said "I know her!" He went to her same school. They were in the same grade. I think he said they were in a class together. His name is Jordan Dean. You will have to talk to Gretchen, and see if she knows him. Yeah, those pictures I sent were of our branch. That wasnt everyone. There are a few more in our branch. There are actually a lot more members, but a lot of inactives. But yeah, pretty small branch. I think its going to grow a lot though. This is the most baptisms they have seen here in a long time. I didnt baptize anyone. Ourbranch president baptized Albertina, and Colombo's friend Artur baptized him. Our branch president also baptized Oscar. We let them choose who they want to baptize them. Maria chose Elder Dean to baptize her. Sounds like everything is awesome there. I havent got the package yet mom. I got a letter in our mailbox yesterday that says that the package is waiting at the post office. I just have to go pick it up but probably wont have time today. Next time send it to the mission office. They wont throw it away. The post office gets rid of it after a few days. Thanks though. My birthday was cool. It was on fast sunday, so I was pretty hungry. But church was cool. In Priesthood Meeting, our priesthood leader got up and announced that it was our Branch President's birthday. It was way funny. Then Elder Dean got up and said that it was my birthday too. So me and President Barros got up in front of the room and they all sang the birthday song to us in Portuguese. Its the same tune as in America, but different words, and 2 verses long. It was a good day. Thanks for everything. I love you all! I will send pictures from the baptism next week. Amo vocês!
Elder Walker