Dear Everyone,
Transfers ended yesterday and Both Sister Gidney and I get
to stay! We are really happy and excited about it because this week was a
pretty great week and a great end of our transfer. Unfortunately a lot of
missionaries are going home this week, so quite a few areas closed down, one of
which is the area of the other Sisters in the ward. Now we´ll just be a
district of two Elders and two Sisters.
This week we did our last division. It was in Benfica, the
area where the Mission Office is, with two of the office sisters there. They
both have foot injuries and are unable to work a normal mission schedule
so they spent half of the day in physical therapy and work mostly in the office
with a few lessons here or there in the chapel next door. It was kind of hard
to see such wonderful missionaries like that ! I did the division with Sister
Nigri, a Brazilian on crutches. She was a HUGE example of optimism for me. A
month ago she was in Coimbra running to an appointment and had a spiritual
prompting to hop off the curb of the side walk. She thought that was really
weird, but did it anyway and ended up tearing a tendon in her foot (her shoes
didn´t have the best support). At first she was really frustrated and confused
about it, because she had to be emergency transfered to Lisbon for treatments.
But in the end she said, `Oh, Sister, that must´ve happened for a reason. I
just don´t know what it is yet!´ That little trooper!
Deep went to church this week too! Taught him about the
Restoration-- he actually understood!-- and about the Plan of Salvation, which
he really liked. We tried to mark him for baptism for the 13th, but he didn´t
accept the date because he wants to have an answer to his prayers about the
Book of Mormon beforehand. He´ll get there! We are really excited for him. We
are also working with María do Céu (translated that´s Mary from Heaven) who has
been trying to quit smoking. She´s down to 6 cigarettes! The Elders gave her a
Priesthood blessing on Saturday to help her be stronger than tobacco. Unfortunately
she was sick yesterday, so she didn´t come to church, but she´ll get there too!
A miracle happened this week! On Monday night we were doing
contacts in the street and we ran into Nuno, a man that was baptized a year or
so ago by the Assistents (aka we have no records of the baptism), and was
wanting to come back to Church! After talking a little and saying a prayer, I
was about to invite him to church when he said, `I´m going to start coming back
again!´ So we marked a time to come visit him and his wife. While in his
neighborhood (man, we had to walk 8 miles to get there!) he introduced as to
lots of great people that we are going to start teaching! It was an answer to
both our prayers and Nuno´s prayers to meet one another! From what we understand
Nuno´s wife had some issues with the Bishop, but things will work out. It has
been a long time since they talked to one another.
Here is what I learned this week: the power of the Atonement
while taking the Sacrament. I´ve always known that when we take the Sacrament
we recommit to our baptismal and temple covenants, and that we are cleansed.
But to be honest I spent my whole life trying to REALLY understand the
Sacrament, but not making enough effort to figure it out. This last transfer
was my most frustrating yet, and last week I definitely fell short in a lot of
ways. During the Sacrament I just a little prayer asking our Heavenly Father to
help me clean my slate and make me feel better. As I took of the bread and
water I felt so relieved. I felt like someone weeded my spirit from all of the
`bad water´ as the Portuguese say. I am so grateful for the Atonement and that
every week we can be cleaned and fortified as we worthily and thoughtfully take
the Sacrament!
I love you so much!
Sister Derrick
