November 30, 2009

You ARE a crazy mother, mother. Ha ha. Sounds like the usual going on there around Christmas time. I definitely missed out on the Thanksgiving. Me and Elder Thomas put our lunch and dinner breaks together and made a Thanksgiving feast with rice and beans, salad, and Jordan sent me a box of stuffing, so it was sort of Thanksgiving. We also made a cake, but it wasn't very good. I am really craving some turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. This week was pretty slow and didn't go very well. We lost some good investigators and some pretty crazy stuff happened. Alberto, the guy we have been teaching, whose wife is really Catholic, has been banned by his wife from us meeting in their house. We invited him to think about living in seperate rooms from his wife until they could get married, and we aren't sure, but we think that is when she lost it, is when he talked to her. He is way awesome and would have been completely willing. But she won't let us teach them in their house anymore, so to teach him, we will have to teach him somewhere else, probably at some member's houses. But he is still progressing, even though he wasn't at church yesterday, and we still don't know why. Also, Paulino and Tánia have already gone inactive. I don't know how it happened. But we are pretty sure it is the dad, Silvino. He is a crook. Supposedly, our Branch President had told them that the church could pay for things. We think that is why he started letting us come over. He talked to our branch president later, and wanted money, and of course our branch president couldn't give it to him, so we think he got way mad. I believe that Paulino and Tánia were baptized for the right reasons, but Silvino won't take them to church. He will only take them to the Catholic church. We talked to Tánia, and she said that they will be going Catholic every other week, and to our church every other week. They haven't come the past 2 weeks. Anyway, so we talked to Silvino, and he doesn't want anything more to do with us. It is way stressful, and we are going to try to get the members over there talking to them. This week a lot of lessons fell through, but we also found some really good people. We are still teaching Mauro, and we feel he can probably be baptized this weekend, but we will see. We have been teaching this guy from Brazil named Adenilson, who me and Elder Dean found about 1 month and a half ago. We thought he had moved to Spain, but we decided to call his wife's phone and turned out he already returned. So we went to teach him and his wife Maria, and found out that they already knew they Elders in Brazil before they moved here, and used to have them over all the time. So we reviewed the restoration with them, and asked Adenilson if he had read anything from the Book of Mormon. He said he had read a little part in 3 Nephi 11, when Jesus Christ appeared to the Nephites and established his church. He read the part about being baptized in the name of Christ, and then Maria asked if they could be baptized! It was crazy! We told them that we were here to baptize people in the same way that Jesus Christ was baptized. We will be teaching them tonight and setting a date. Way cool. A miracle! We also found another family, Verônica, her brother Kelton, and her sister Patrícia. Verônica is 21, Kelton is 18, and Patrícia is 23. They are all from Cape Verde and way cool. We have only taught them once, but we have a way good feeling about them. Also, this week, I applied something we learned in Zone Conference with Elder Kapishky from the Seventy. He told us to set the alarm 5 minutes early, and dream for 5 minutes about finding people we could baptize. So I tried it one morning this week. I dreamed of a woman about in her early 20s, probably african, walking up a hill in a place called Catujal carrying groceries. That day, we were in Catujal, and I saw the exact person I dreamed about. She was about that age, african, carrying groceries, and walking on the exact street I imagined. It was amazing! So we hurried and walked up to her and asked her if she needed help with the groceries. She said no, so we told her who we were and asked her for her phone number. She was hesitant to give it to us, so I told her that we felt that we had to talk to her, and so she gave it to us. We still haven't called her, but are sure something good will come from it. Another miracle. The mission is full of miracles like that. So, anyway, it was a really good week, but really bad week at the same time. I am trying really hard to have more faith, and work a lot harder at trying new things and improving. Its going really awesome though. Transfers are next week, and we are pretty sure that I am leaving, as much as I would like to stay. I would like to, but I think it will be good to leave as well. I will miss the area, but it will be good to be somewhere new as well. The weather here really changed this week. It is really cold. Way colder than I expected for Portugal. Its cold, and rainy. I am really glad I have a rain jacket. Well, it sounds like everything is awesome at home. I am way glad to here that Uncle Richard is doing better. And Grandma Walker. Thanks for the package. I should be able to get it before Christmas. Supposedly the Elders in the office are going to dress up like Santa Claus (Pai Natal) and hand out packages to everyone. I am sending y'all a package today as well. I don't really know how much shipping costs out here, or how it really works, but we'll see. I am excited to talk to you all on Christmas! Is everyone going to be home? That will be awesome. I don't know the details for calling yet, but I will let you know when I find out. Well, I love you all and am thankful for your support and prayers. You are all in mine. I love you. Boas Férias! Tchau!
Elder Walker

P.S. David Baker got his mission papers in. If you here anything, let me know!