Aveiro 6/13/16

Aloha hou mai kakou!

And here we are in the last week of my 3rd transfer.... CRAZY!!! Only got one week left, and then this one is over, and then we'll see if I stay or go. And of course us being us, we wanna end it with a bang...meaning baptismos!!!

Fátima and Madelena are both still on track to be baptized this Saturday!!! I'm sooo grateful for the Lord's help with getting them this far, and I continue to pray for His help so they can both make it to baptism and confirmation this weekend. Me and Elder Tollefsen are working hard to stay constantly vigilant, so that we can fight off the efforts of the dark side in stopping these baptisms, teach them what they need to know, and plan out the baptism.... which, sadly hasn't been planned out completely yet.... working on it haha.

We've travelled a lot this week. On Wednesday, we went to Porto and I got to see all the people who came in with me!!! It was soo cool to be able to see them, and talk story about all the crazy things we've seen and done here in Portugal. (Oh yeah, the reason why we were all there was so that we could do residency and basically be here legally haha. It will have to be done every 90 days for the entire mission.)

On Thursday, we did divisions with the other Elders of Aveiro. Elder Tollefsen and Elder Teixeira went together in my area, and I went with Elder Gee in their area. It was a nice change of pace to the norm of my area. Something I noticed about Elder Gee that I feel like I need to work on is really loving the people when we teach. As we'd be teaching, he'd always ask for their input or their opinion, and always be patient even when the people go off topic or are just being rude. I tend to not ask as many questions as I should and sometimes get super irritated with people during lessons when we go off topic. I learned I need to love people more, ask more questions, really look to serve the people, and try to respect people's agency more, not just try to force feed the Gospel to people hahaha.

On Friday, we did divisions with the Zone Leaders in Coimbra. I went with Elder Garcia. It was cool. I got some really nice shots of Coimbra. As me and Elder Garcia were working, I was just struck by how much God has blessed me. I noticed that I am now becoming more of a "real" missionary who can actively participate, be a benefit to the dupla, and adapt when needed. I'm so grateful for all the Lord's help in my progression as a missionary.

As far as investigators go, we've been meeting with this Brazilian lady named Barbara. She came to church this past Sunday for the first time. She's super awesome! She doesn't believe in God, but she seems really interested. She's reading everything we leave with her, and has researched everything about the church from the church websites. She's asking questions and participating. It's awesome!!! Sadly, though, she and her boyfriend are trying to move to Lisboa by the end of the month or so. It'll be sad to see them leave but at the same time, they need to do what is best for them, and they can still be baptized in Lisboa.

We also have Gonçalo and Zaira. We hadn't talked to them in a while but yesterday, I felt like we should pass them. So we passed them and we were able to have a lesson with them. We hadn't planned anything, so I was just gonna give a short spiritual thought, but I was praying that the Spirit could guide us to do that which was best. Turns out they had some questions, so it kinda turned into a q&a. I really liked it because I felt like we were able to respond to a lot of their doubts, strengthen our relationship, help them understand the purpose of our visits, and help them to see that baptism could only improve their lives. The whole time, I felt like the Spirit was there confirming what we were saying to them. I'm so grateful for the Spirit's help and the opportunity to be able to show how awesome the Gospel and the Church are.

All in all, it's been a great week. God is definitely on our side. I know that He is supporting us, supporting me in this great work. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to help other people become better, become happy! I can honestly say that I am happy doing this work, and I always go to sleep exhausted. Lol.

Anyway I love you, Family! Iona, Sam, Seta and Haili, stay safe on your guys' adventures this summer!!! Mom, Dad, love you guys sooo much!!! Keep up the good work!!!

com amor,

Élder Kim do cabelo de fogo (Elder Kim of the fire hair kkkkkk)

P.S - Iʻm sorry, cuz it looks like I won't be able to send pics this week, even though I took plenty. I must say I got some nice shots. Next week, maybe. Tell everyone I said hi. 

We're gonna try and play soccer again this afternoon. We'll see how it goes. It's been super hot and sunny the last few days, but last night and this morning has been foggy, and kinda rainy. Kinda sad, but what can you do?