August 15, 2013

So much has happened, I honestly do not know where to begin! I arrived in Lisbon on Wednesday afternoon, spent the night at the mission home and was sent off to my assignment. I am currently in a port town in between Lisbon and Porto called Aveiro. It is a very beautiful city with fun tile murals all over the place and several rivers and canals. So far Portugal is absolutely beautiful and I love everything about it. In many, many ways it is very similar to southern Spain.

My new companion is Sister Miley from Arizona. She has only been in Portugal for one transfer and yet has been designated as my trainer! Needless to say, we both aren´t exactly sure what is supposed to be happening or going on and I am for the most part training myself. However we know that God has been in Aveiro much, much, much longer than either of us have and we are honestly depending on Him more than ever.

The members here are phenomenal and have a great desire to share the Restored Gospel with everyone around them. In particular the Young Women´s President of the ward has been going at great lengths to strengthen and enlarge the amount of youth membership. Sister Miley and her former companion were teaching a 14 year old girl named Maria for most of last transfer and we are currently preparing her for baptism! She comes from an inactive, but very supportive, Mormon family, and we hope to be able to allow the Spirit to teach and strengthen her family through her example and our help.

I have been incredibly blessed with the gift of tongues, and for that I am in huge debt to Heavenly Father. It honestly is such a huge help that I can speak well even though I may not be able to understand everything. A prophet of God truly called me for this work because without my calling and authority I don´t think I would ever learn so quickly in my entire life. I mean seven weeks ago the only thing I could say was "thank you" and now, only seven weeks later, I have people asking me if I am from Southern Portugal! I am convinced that there is NO WAY that is humanly possible without the power of God calling me to preach the Gospel to the people of Portugal in Portuguese. I have truly witnessed a miracle.

July 17 2013

I am half way through my MTC experience! I can't believe how much I have learned in only three weeks about Portuguese, good teaching skills, the Gospel, and the blessings of obedience and having faith in the Lord. I truly know that being set apart truly makes a difference in my efforts. I think I've learned about as much here on my mission in three weeks than I did for a whole three months at home. It is amazing how much the Lord has been helping me as I put my best foot forward. Some funny instances have come up with our steadily improving Portuguese, though, which always makes life a little more humorous! In one of our lessons with Bruno we wanted to ask if he would commit to baptism and asked "Queres ser batismo?" Turns out that actually means, "Do you want to be baptism?" Sister Call and I got a kick out of that! But I must say that we are light years ahead of where we were the day we arrived into the MTC, which is always a fulfilling thought.

In particular Sister Call and I have been striving to learn how to follow the Spirit in our lessons to be able to effectively teach what the receiver really needs. We've been scratching our heads for good questions to ask our investigators to facilitate great conversation and the ability for our investigators to open up their thoughts and feelings. On Saturday we had a substitute teacher that happened to be an acquaintance of mine who recently returned from Portugal-- Kyle Lemperle. Our lesson was exactly on what I mentioned above: finding out what the investigator needs and using the Spirit to meet those needs. It was a lesson I don't think I'll ever forget! We took ten or so minutes to get to know Kyle and what was going on in his life, and then as a class we had to teach him. As we planned for a few minutes as a class I proudly thought that we should talk about relying and trusting on the Lord to guide us in making life long decisions. I mean after all Kyle is in a time to figure out what career path he wants to choose, right? Well as we discussed, one Elder (who I am sorry to say that I didn't take him seriously at all) suggested that we talk about service. Just then Kyle walked in and we started our lesson off with a prayer and me sharing Proverbs 3:5-6 about trusting in the Lord, but as time went on the topic slowly shifted to service. After the lesson Kyle admitted that service after his mission was a difficulty in his life and that the message we shared was exactly what he need to hear! Wow I was on fire after that because that class was the first time I've seen that successfully happen in Portuguese! I can't wait till I'm in Portugal for several months and I can be on fire with the guidance of the Spirit! Sister Call and I applied what we learned when we taught a new investigator named Geo for the first time. Sister Call kept asking simple, yet thought provoking questions that really helped us mine out what Geo feels and thinks and wants and needs. I am excited to teach him more!

July 9, 2013

I can't believe that I've been out here for two weeks. Remember how I mentioned that time was going by at the pace of a turtle? Well now it's going the pace of a jack rabbit! Last week was wonderful because we all celebrated Independence day together by watching fireworks from The Stadium of Fire and eating icecream cones. Sister Call loved it so much that she started to cry for joy! It was indeed like Christmas morning for us. Even the fourth, though, seems like an eternity ago; I can't fathom that I've learned so much in so little time and that I only have a month left until I'm off to Lisbon!

Interesting fact for the day: Technology is now going to be used in EVERY way, not just for study materials on a tablet or phones for setting appointments. In the devotional on Sunday, there was an Elder that was asked to speak for a few minutes about technology and the mission field. He was assigned as a contact under the "chat with a mormon" bar on mormon.org, and has not only gotten people to meet with local missionaries, but also taught lessons through skype, over the phone, and facebook messaging. And you know what? He's had baptisms! Isn't that crazy? Truly the Lord will allow his servants to crawl into every crevice through the technological revolution.

Okay, so remember my investigator Lucas? Turns out he's a fake! We walked into class on Saturday and there was Lucas with a teacher's name badge, waiting to begin teaching us. I suspected that he was a plant, but I NEVER thought he'd be my teacher! That was surprise. Now I am teaching Bruno, who is an inactive member of the Evangelical faith. We've only taught him one lesson, which was on the Restoration, but I'm not sure that is what he needed to hear. Sister Call and I have been working hard on improving our teaching by asking for help and paying close attention in class/ my studies in order to meet the needs of those we teach. We don't really know what we are doing, but we have improved a ton in every way. Each lesson we teach, it gets a little easier. Hopefully I can figure this out! I love the people I've been coming in contact with and teaching, so I want them to know that I'm sharing the Gospel because I care. There's just one problem... Portuguese is not English or Spanish. I've been improving immensly in my Portuguese, but I definitely have a long way to go before I'll be even functional in society. But, hey, it's always a good laugh and brings some light-heartedness to the day when I realize that I've said something silly!

I've been feeling the Spirit almost constantly since I've been set apart, which really amazes me. I was researching for Bruno today and ready Moroni 9, which encourages you to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true and receiving answers from the Holy Ghost, but I thought it was very interesting in verse 5: "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." Of ALL things, not just if the Book of Mormon is true. I am searching to know the truth of how to help Bruno, adapt, learn Portuguese and teach better.