Dear Everyone,

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! This week was surprisingly great! I was expecting a refiner´s fire, but we´ve been working through things really well. At the beginning of the week we were told we would open a new area, so we had all brand new resources and everything, but on Tuesday we received a phone call from President Fluckiger saying that two of the Sisters would be leaving on an emergency transfer and that Sister Thornley and I would take over their area. So we have an area book and people preparing for baptism! We are working mainly in the burough Odivelas and Ramada, but we also have other buroughs assigned to our area that we have yet to explore.

 

Wanderley spoke to the Sisters two weeks ago, and we had a lesson with him about the Restoration. He´s got some crazy ideas about the nature of God. For instance, he thinks that since man was made in God´s image there must be a God for every continent because there are so many races. Anyway, we told him how to get answers from his prayers and to know what is true and false from God, Himself, instead of relying on our own ideas or the ideas of others. After discussing a little he said, `I want to be a member! What do I need to join to church?´ So... We marked him for baptism and he came to Church yesterday! We´ll see how things turn out.

 

Being in a white wash has been tricky because every area is different and it is hard to know what to do when all of the appointments fall through and we´ve done all of our back up plans. So on Fridaywewere walking by the Metro station, where we thought lots of people would be in the evening.(Sorry for the type-o but something is wrong with my computer!) Turns out that idea was a dead end. So we decided to pray about where to go and what to do. After the prayer I had a thought to walk up the hill that we just came from and see if anyone was there to talk to. Honestly I doubted that there would be anyone because we just walked over there a minute prior, but we didn´t have anything better to do, so we went! We ended up talking to Jorge, whose car battery had died and was waiting for a friend to come help him jump start the car. We talked for a few minutes, left a Restoration Pamphlet and asked him if he was interested in another appointment with us. he not only said, `yes´ but he pulled out his own planner and we had a little planning session together of when and where we could meet again! I really, really hope that things work out with Jorge! But most of all I hope that we can follow the Spirit like we did that night to find the people that are prepared to change for the better.

 

We are serving in the Lisboa 5 ward, which is nicknamed the `temple ward´ due to the fact that the land the Church bought for the new Portuguese Temple is within the ward boundaries. The Church leadership is also very strong here and as we were looking through the teaching records of the ward´s recent converts, almost all of the men have the Melquezidek Priesthood (sorry I can´t remember how to spell that in English anymore!) and many of the youth are preparing themselves for missions! I can see why they chose this ward to be the direct support for the temple.

 

Sister Thornley is such a cutie! It is her third transfer, so both of us have a lot to learn. Literally our companionship was sooooooo inspired from the Lord because she is the queen of stress management and I am the queen of hard work and organization. We balance each other out very nicely. I am so excited about this transfer. I am so grateful for your prayers--I have felt their influence a lot lately. I love you all and i pray for you as well.

 

Sister Derrick

 

 

Dear Everyone,

 

This week was wonderful. Ana Maria was baptized yesterday, and her daughter came to see the baptism! I think it was the best baptismal service we´ve have so far in our area. Things are going to be great for Ana Maria and our recent converts. It was a HUGE priviledge to see the Lord, Jesus Christ, change the lives of so many people. All of our recent converts have difficulties and weaknesses, but they all have added strength and hope in their lives:

 

Adriano: 3 years ago he was infamous for getting mad at his girlfriend and throwing a washing machine out his window... which is on the 6th floor! Ever since he received the answer that the Book of Mormon is true, he completely changed and has direction in his life. Since he was baptized he´s only missed one Sunday!

 

Ana: She´s realized that even though things don´t work out the way we want, you can still have God supporting you.

 

Corina: She has found a new love of the scriptures and sharing what she knows with other people. She has also shown ME that age and background has nothing to do with eternal life and the gospel of Christ.

 

Maria Augusta: She prove to everyone that through true repentance and the Atonement of Christ, anything is possible. She overcame illegal drugs and every single vice mentioned in the Word of Wisdom.

 

Silvia: The devil worked so stinking hard on her, but she came through with the determination of her testimony. She is one of the most knowledgable recent converts I know and the Bishop already want to give her a leadership calling.

 

Stella, Leandro and Cristiana: They are so sensitive to the Spirit. Literally it was so easy for the Lord to touch their hearts. I think they are more suceptible to the Holy Ghost than I am!

 

Ana Maria: She is a huge example of optimism and she shows her desire to get involved in the ward by making friends and involving herself even before we try to help out!

 

Some good things have to come to an end. I was honestly hoping that Sister Giberson and I would be like Alma and Amulek and stay together baptizing a whole nation for the rest of our missions! But sometimes we need a good change. I was transfered to Lisbon in the burough Oldivelas. So far I have only heard good things about the ward, so I am excited! Within the ward boundaries is the temple lot, and evidently the Sacrament frequency is so high that they have 2 sacrament meetings for one ward.

 

My new collegue is Sister Thornley from Syracuse, Utah. She just finished her training last transfer, so this will be a whole new adventure for the two of us! We are opening a new area, which means we are starting everything from scratch. We are going to need a lot of prayers and faith in order to do this! Seriously we have a spanky brand new cell phone and opened the Area Book and there were 5 papers inside it... FIVE! We are going to do a lot of finding and working in this area to leave it prepared for the next companionship to reap the fruits of the labor.

 

I love you all,

 

Sister Derrick