Corina's baptism

FELIZ NATAL!

 

This week was a roller coaster! We had a ton of ups and downs. Worst things first: Sandra and Cristina were marked for baptism yesterday, but they called us on Saturday saying that they were going to spend three weeks in Lisbon helping a sick family member. Turns out they lied and are still in Setúbal... Since we had that Mission Tour with Elder Dyches, all of the mission leaders have been following up like hawks on our progressing investigators which makes things all the more overwhelming. Adriano didn´t pass the interview for the Aaronic Priesthood because he wasn´t living the law of chastity. Last of  all the ward has very little confidence in María Augusta being baptized and remaining strong in the Restored Gospel.

 

But other than that, our week was awesome. María Augusta has been SO STRONG in resisting drugs and cigarettes. She came to church yesterday excited and filled with the Spirit that she testified like crazy in Gospel Principles and Relief Society. I freakin´ love her! We had a lesson with Stella yesterday and she was all serious at the beginning and said, `Look, I don´t want to be baptized this up coming weekend.´ I honestly had a little curdle in my stomach, but she later explained, `I want to be baptized on the same day as my family!´ What now!!! We are so excited to teach the rest of her family. Sílvia and Júlio are getting married today and we moved their baptismal date to the 4th because Júlio isn´t quite prepared yet for baptism. 

 

Yesterday we visited Adriano with a member, Rute. We read the Christmas story in Luke 2, sang `Joy to the World´ and gave him chocolates... Then we talked about chastity... It was hilarious because as we were teaching he said, ´You guys are too young for this,´ so Rute took the reigns and everything worked out. He´s back on track, thank goodness!

 

This week I´ve been playing tons of piano, which is awesome! The ward had a Christmas party, so I played for everyone. We had a Christmas Zone Conference and I sight read the accompaniment for a musical number. I love you guys so much and I am so excited to talk to you through skype!

 

Love,

 Sister Derrick

Invite Month

December 16, 2013   Week #25

Dear Everyone,

The month of December is the `Invite Month´ for all of the members of the Church in Portugal. All of the leaders have been urging everyone to extend a hand out to those who have fallen away or who aren´t of our faith to come to Church as a gift to our Savior. Well, all I have to say is that this month really is the invite month, because we had 12 people that we invited show up to church yesterday. I never thought I would say this but we almost have too many people wanting to be baptized in December! Right now we´ve marked 7 people for baptism within the next two weeks. AH! This is such a wonderful blessing! Here´s all of them:

Maria Augusta: She´s the drug addict that we´ve been working with lately. Yesterday she came to Church sober and happy! She is continuing to really improve because she wants to change, and not because someone has been nagging her about it. The ward is doubtful, but supportive. We´re all ready to prove to them that this time she´ll make it! Thank you for all your prayers.

Stella: She is a cancer survivor that has a few Mormon friends and acquaintances that got her interested in the Church. We taught her for the first time last week, called her up to set up a next appointment and she said that she prayed about the Book of Mormon after reading and received an answer that this is `the right way.´ After our second lesson with her she said that she wanted us to teach her whole family!

Silvia: We contacted her in the street a month or so ago, and honestly forgot all about her because she didn´t leave her number or address with us. A week and a half ago she called us up because she said that she wanted ‘more orientation’ in her life. She spent 17 years with the Jehovah´s witnesses, but never felt for sure what was really the truth. She also has received the answer that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only true church!

Júlio: Silvia’s boyfriend. He felt awesome at church, but when we taught them the law of chastity he had second thoughts. We´ll be teaching him tonight...

Sandra and Cristina: A mother and 19 year old daughter. They are so talkative it´s almost hard to keep the lesson an actual lesson, but they loved what the Book of Mormon had to say about the Plan of Happiness and what happens after this life here on Earth. They want to be baptized, and are marked for this weekend, but we´ll see if they understand everything they need to. (Seriously, we are at a loss of how to get them to stay on topic!) But the Lord has been preparing them well to hear the gospel.

Jacinto: The gypsies´ 14-year-old son. Lately he´s been avoiding us, but we´ll get to the bottom of whatever is going on with his situation.

Whew! All I have to say is that I´m beat! I really hope things work out with all of them. Tomorrow the Sister Training Leaders are coming for a split to help us out in preparing so many precious souls enter the waters of baptism.

 

Can you believe that 2013 is coming to an end? I can´t believe how fast time has flown! I love you all!

 

Love,

Sister Derrick

Good News!

Dear Everyone,

 

Good news! Both Sister Giberson and I get to stay in Setúbal together for another transfer! It has been a HUGE tender mercy because we have a lot of people marked for baptism this month that we need to take care of. First off, we have María Augusta the drug addict. We are so proud of her this week. We visited or called almost everyday and she almost had a relapse on Wednesday because of her withdrawals, but luckily she has neighbors, friends and family that helped her as well. This week she was completely cockaine and alcohol free! She still has a long way to go, but she has also come a really long way since last weekend thanks to heaven.

 

On the flip side of things Jacinto (the 14 year old son of our gypsy family) through a teenager fit on Friday and refused to be baptized on Sunday. He said that he doesn´t feel ready, but he didn´t say why. We´ll have to bring lots of members with us or go to seminary with him to help him feel the Spirit again. 

 

This week I really learned the importance of obedience. I don´t know the rules in other missions, but here in Portugal we always ask our new investigators to be baptized when they know that the Restoration is true and real in the first lesson. In our second lesson we present a baptismal date for them to work towards and show the importance of gaining a testimony of the message. Lately our investigators weren´t accepting dates for various reasons (family strife, hard hearts, etc) that I was honestly lacking trust in this rule of ours. If you look at it, it really isn´t completely logical to mark a date when the person still hasn´t learned very much, but we kept doing it anyway. On Saturday we were working with a teen recent convert, Tiago, in a second lesson with Leopoldina. We presented the 22nd as a date she could be prepared for baptism, and she accepted without a blink. What was even more... She understood the question! I was honestly shocked to see that she had that much humility and trust in the Lord to accept a baptismal date during our second lesson with her. Wow, the Lord is trying to teach me a lot.

 

Adriano is really turning into a jewel! He walks to Church alone, he talked to the Bishop about preparing for the Priesthood, he signed up for Institute even though he´s 20 years older than everyone in the class, and he´s been working with the Elders! It is amazing to see how much progress he´s made since he received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Seriously, before baptism he was moving about 5 miles an hour spiritually speaking. Now he´s moving at 65 miles per hour, I swear!

 

I just want to say thank you so much, everyone who sent me a package or letter or email or prayer or even a tiny thought. I love you all and I wish that there is more that I could give you all for Christmas!

 

Love,

Sister Derrick

December 2, 2013 - So Many Things Have Happened!

Dear Everyone,

 

So many things happened this week that I am not sure where to start! This week we worked quite a bit with the members in our lessons, which was so much fun. When a lesson fell through we went tracting together, and it has been very beneficial for all of us-- investigators, the members and the missionaries. I´m pretty sure people are a lot nicer to us when they see a Portuguese woman with us! In particular we worked with Jessica, a girl my age that was baptized about a year and half ago. She has many friends in the Church, but she hadn´t gone to Church since the beginning of 2013 because of family complications. The Relief Society President actually asked us to have a lesson together with Jessica a week and a half ago to talk about what we can do to help her. We came to the conclusion that she could go to Institute on Thursday nights and work with us for one afternoon each week. Wow, I tell you what, we must´ve been a really inspired group! We worked with her on Wednesday and Jessica LOVED IT!!! She came to Sacrament Meeting two Sundays ago and she stayed for the full block yesterday. I am so happy that she is starting to feel the Spirit and is remembering her covenant.

 

We saw a great miracle on Thursday. María Augosta is a drug addict that came in contact with some Sisters a year and a half ago and have been investigating the Church ever since. In mission lingo she´s an `eternigator´ or an `eternal investigator´. The Elders before us worked really hard with her, but when we showed up she refused to talk with us. We knocked her door over a dozen times, I swear, but she never was willing to talk with us. Thanksgiving came around (Sister Giberson and I made a little Thanksgiving feast for lunch!) we were walking home and ran into María Augosta! She ran up to us and gave us a HUGE hug (no, she wasn´t hi at the time) and said that this morning she prayed for guidance to finally find the right path that could lead her away from all of her vices and give her a new life. She went for a walk and ran into us!!! She said that after ALL this time she finally believes that the Church is true and she wants to be baptized at the end of the month. Starting Thursday she´s been off cockaine and is going through withdrawals, but she is extremely determined and has a lot of support from the ward. We´ve marked her for the 28th of December to be baptized and it will be an even greater miracle when she succeeds. We are going to visit every single day to make sure she doesn´t have a relapse.

 

Corina (the 10-year-old gypsy) was confirmed yesterday! Every time she prays with us she prays that her brother Jacinto (who´s marked for baptism this Sunday) and her parents to be prepared for baptism as well. She is so young, but so bright with the light of Christ; It is simply amazing. We had a surprise this week from Carmen. The Bishop was out of town for a week and a half, but the Tuesday after he arrived in Setúbal Carmen called him up for an interview in the chapel about marriage arrangements for Manuel and her-- and we didn´t even ask!

 

This week Elder Dyches of the Seventy came to tour the Portugal Lisbon Mission and make sure everything is in order. On Saturday we had a Zone Conference with him and 6 other zones in Lisbon. It was amazing! He gave fabulous advice in how we can help make our investigators more solid for a baptismal date and how we can work with the members by doing tours of the chapel as well as other things to help us work proactively. But I have to say that what gave me the most strength was his wife´s talk. To be honest, right now I don´t remember the topic because I wrote it somewhere in my notebook, but I remember feeling the Spirit extremely strongly as I thought about Grandma Kirton. For the first time in Portugal I cried tears of joy as I knew she was in the room with us. I honestly don´t know how to explain it, but she´s always got her hand on my shoulder assuring me that everything will work out. I don´t even know her well enough to point her out in some of our old photos, but I know that she´s protecting and supporting me in every step I take her in Portugal.

 

I love you guys so much. Thanks for all of you loving letters, packages, thoughts and prayers.

 

Sister Derrick