Aveiro - Post3

Olá minha família e meu amígos!!!

Life here in Aveiro has been getting better. It’s been about 3 weeks now here in Aveiro, and me and my companion are starting to get the hang of things. 

This week we’ve been working on making contact with a lot of the referrals we’ve been receiving with limited success, but it’s been good. With all these referrals, and more investigators, we’ve been knocking doors a lot less haha. Nothing wrong with knocking doors, but member referrals are always a more effective way of working, I’ve found. 

We continue to work with Rulanda. She is still on for her baptism this Saturday! We taught her the word of wisdom and some other commandments. She took it well. We’ve been working with her so she can quit smoking and be ready to be baptized. She also attended church, so that is good, and also necessary haha. We’ll be meeting with her every day this week, just to make sure she’s all good and stuff. Valdimar, her brother, has come to all the lessons with her, and has been helping out a lot. He’s awesome!

We also found another investigator, again thru Valdimar. (He’s really helping us out.) He took us to her one day after a lesson with Rulanda to give her a blessing, and we’ve since gone back to teach her the 1st lesson. I actually taught a lot of that lesson, and invited her to be baptized at the end!!! She agreed to be baptized, but says she won’t decide on a date yet cuz she doesn’t feel ready. She came to church with us yesterday as well!

We’ve been working with Javier and Anna as well. They’re both Venezuelan, Javier is a menos ativo (less active) and Anna is a non-member. We’ve met with them a couple times this past week and it has been cool, but kinda crazy. Crazy cuz they speak mostly Spanish!!!! Mostly everything they say just flies over my head!!! haha I pick out words here and there, but for the most part I’m completely in the dark. Thank goodness for Elder Meza, who is fluent in Spanish, and mostly fluent in Portuguese. We taught them the first lesson, (thankfully they understand Portuguese when I speak it) and invited Anna to be baptized. She said no at first, but after me and Elder Meza bearing our testimonies about the blessing of baptism and how both God and us love them, she said she would, but needed to think about it more. Exciting.

A funny, but sad, experience with them from last night was when we first got in and sat down, Javier was talking about how he lost his job (I learned this later). When he was done telling his story, I just started laughing cuz I thought it was funny that he was speaking so fast, and I couldn’t understand, not one word. I felt so shame after and apologized. Thankfully, he understood that I wasn’t laughing at him and it worked out. But still, I’m so lame sometimes. See when you don’t speak Spanish?! They ended up feeding us, so right on. haha.

We also taught a family from Nigeria. We randomly contacted this guy on the street my first week here. His name is Alimi, and he said we could meet with him sometime. Apparently, he’s a student here at the University of Aveiro, getting his PHD or a post doctorate thing, in electrical engineering and fiber optics, or something. Super smart, obviously. We were supposed to meet with him last week, but it fell through. We were able to meet with him this week though, and the awesome thing is, HE BROUGHT HIS FAMILY!!! We were totally surprised when his wife and his little girl came with him, but we were soo stoked. We taught them the first lesson, and soft invited them to be baptized. Alimi said yes, and his wife was like ok, haha. But it was good! Oh by the way, they don’t speak Portuguese, so we taught them in English, which is really weird. I don’t know if I like it or not, but it’s almost harder to do it in English, even though I can explain some things better in English haha. I pray that me and my companion can be instruments in bringing these people unto Him.

I was in charge of lunch the other day and I made taco salad!!! I was so proud because I made it from scratch, by myself. It looked as well as it tasted, good, so that’s awesome!! I mean, I know it’s only simple, but hey, no can complain haha. Gonna try make loco mocos this week. Auright! With gravy no can go wrong, Bulle!

Some interesting things I noticed in Portugal, I’ve mentioned this before, all the sidewalks are cobbled. Almost no concrete, anywhere, as far as sidewalks are concerned. They really like to use tile here. All the walls and floors and stuff are covered in tile. They make really good bread, which I’ve been eating a lot of haha. The kids here look a lot older than they are. Before they cut your hair, they wash it, which is a little weird, but it’s cool. There’s other stuff, but I can’t really remember right now. I’ll write um down for next week.

I think my companion is really cool. We’ve been having a good laugh as we go about our work. Elder Gabbitas and Elder Cox, the other two in the house, are also cool. I really like them, and have a good time laughing with them. Sadly, Elder Cox’s foot has been injured the last few days, so they’ve kinda been out of commission the last week or so. They’re going to Porto to check it out, so hopefully all goes well. The rest of our district is also pretty cool. I really like them. We have a sister who was going to BYUH before she got here, so that’s cool. Her name is Sis. Waddel.

The language has been coming along. This week I feel like I’ve been understanding a lot more. Not everything, but a lot more. Also, my ability to read has been picking up as well. I just need to be more confident in my contacting and just talk. I’ve been doing a lot better in talking to members, and also to people in our lessons. I’m sooo grateful to my Father in Heaven who has been helping me to become the missionary He needs me to be here in Portugal.

Family, I love you soo much. Thank you for all your emails. I know that trials are necessary, but that our shoulders are broad enough, and strong enough, to support the load, even if we don’t know it yet. When we feel weakest, is exactly when we need to tough it out. I know that when we have an eternal perspective, and think about the blessings we gain from good choices, we can see that these things are for our good. I know that He is always there for us, and it’s up to us, whether we accept the help. I love you guys sooo much! Take it easy! Thanks for the emails!

Fica fixe (stay cool) haha,

Elder Kim