Dear Everyone,

 

Yesterday we had a baptism! I am not sure I talked much about him in my last few letters, but we have been working with a man named Edgar recently. We talked to him in the street a few months ago and gave him our card with the Church address on it, and didn´t even think about him much after that. Then a couple of weeks ago after our English class we saw him wandering around in the hall way! He gave us his number and left in a hurry afterward. To be completely honest we didn´t remember who he was until we looked through our past agendas´ records. So we decided to teach Edgar. He has had a really bad past full of immorality and addiction. Luckily by the time we met him he had already given up illegal drugs and was working on giving up cigarrettes. Unfortunately that means he has some serious brain damage, so he has some difficulties socially speaking, but he still comprehends everything! When it came to the day of his baptism, both Sister Gidney and I were really nervous about the whole situation. `Is he ready? will he be able to keep his promise with the Lord?´ Right before the baptismal service we went into a private place in the church to say a prayer asking the Lord for his advice. Emotionally and mentally we felt like we should delay the baptism, but right after our prayer the Spirit fell upon us, almost like a blanket. Then, the words that came into my mind were: Everyone deserves the chance to be cleansed through baptism... EVEN Edgar Monteiro. So we pushed forward and he was baptized... Seven times! The poor guy wouldn´t go all the way down for some reason, making a new record for the Odivelas baptismal font! Oh, well! Perhaps he needed to be extra clean!

 

We went to Póvoa de Santa ìria this week. It kind of reminded me of a hybrid between Setúbal and Odivelas. Anyway, I went with Sister da Sivla, a trainee. It was really fun! She is a convert of about 3 years. She was Baptist and basically believed everything Mormons do except about the Priesthood. Her parents found the missionaries and were baptized first, and one month afterwards she was too. She is really cute! She grew up here in the Lisbon area, but her family is from São Tomé, an island off the coast of Africa. She is actually on her way to the MTC in Madrid right now, where she´ll stay for the rest of the transfer. How cool is that!? I am a little jealous.

 

This week has been fun having two more Sisters in our house. It makes things a little more exciting! They are sweet and are really doing a great job, so we are all excited :)

 

I love you all! Thank you so much for your concern, friendship, love, emails, thoughts and prayers.

 

Sister Derrick