Coimbra 11/21/16

Elder Kim and Elder Bortolo.
Just a little chilly in Coimbra.

 Aloha Family!!!

So this week has been really good if not a little busy.

Elders Teixeira, Gee, and Kim
All served together in Aveiro.
Elder Gee goes home in a few weeks.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference with Presidente. It was super great!!! It was our zone, Coimbra, and also the Santarém zone, so there was a lot of us there. I sat next to Elder Meza at the conference so it was great! Some of the things I really liked was that I need to focus more on the Spirit in our lessons, and focus more on helping our investigators recognize the Spirit. This was something I had been thinking about the other day but really touched me during the Conference. I really liked the conference. It was a lot of work to make sure everything was put and taken down right, but in the end it all worked out. Presidente liked what he saw; didn’t give us faca ("grief" figuratively); so it’s all good, haha.

Sign says "District of Liberty"
Elder Kim poses....

This week we were able to teach Tiago again. I think I mentioned him last week but I’ll do it again. He’s a college student in his 5th yeah, studying psychology. He’s a guy I contacted on the street a few weeks ago, and he doesn’t believe in God, BUT HE'S TOTALLY SUPER COOL!!! When we met up with him, he had read Alma 32 that we left with him, and we had a great discussion about how he’d recognize the Spirit answering his questions. At the end of the lesson he said a super sincere prayer and he was like: “God, thank you for these two guys showing me the way. I don’t really believe, but it looks like it could be possible, amen.” It was awesome! He also had some questions about the word of wisdom, and so we taught him the word of wisdom too, haha. He even went to church with us to church despite only sleeping 2 hours! We invited him to baptism, and he said he’d continue to pray about it.

Elder Bortolo's turn to pose....

Ana is another lady we helped go to church. She really liked church and in Gospel Principles, Elder Teixeira asked what she felt during the lesson, and she said she felt good, she felt peace and a burning feeling. We were like GREAT, ITS THE SPIRIT!!! It was sooo cool because the last few lessons we had with her we had talked a lot about how she could recognize the Spirit, and we hope that this is one of many evidences for her that this great work is true. Sadly, since she lives alone, we’ll have to pass her to the sister missionaries, but we’re excited to see where she goes from there.

L to R: Sis Nance, Sis Braz, Elder Teixeira,
Elder Bortolo, Elder Maloy, Elder Kim
District P-Day Lunch at
"Francesinha & Cia"

The other Elders also had a baptism this past week. A guy named Mario. What’s cool is that he was a contact that me and Elder Bortolo did like my second day here. We passed him on to the other Elders, and he got baptized like 2ish weeks later!!! It was super cool to go to his baptism. We found out the day before that he actually lives in our area, which was kind of hard to swallow, but we’re super happy for them. We were also able to take Ema, one of our investigators to the baptism, and it was super great! The Spirit was super strong!

The "Super Moon" over Coimbra. Nice to think that no matter where
in the world you are, we all look up and see the same moon.

Up until yesterday we hadn’t found too many people, but yesterday after church, and the ward lunch (YUM!) we went out and worked. We found 4 people!!! We found a boxer, this super cool rapaz from Brazil, and a super cool couple!!! I know that God recognizes our efforts and as we do our best up until the end, He will bless us!

Family, I love you guys!!! Mom, HAPPY BDAY!!! Jonah, Sam, GOOD GAME!!! You guys looking sharp!!! Thank you Jonah for being a good older brother! Keep up the great work family!!!! Fiquem fixe! Tchau!!!

com amor,

Part of a series of pictures taken
so that Elder Kim and his companion
can visit with an investigator who is
currently incarcerated. The picture is
for the Prison Authorities in Coimbra.

Elder Kim

Elder Kim made some rice for a ward family home evening
activity at the church. Good thing his mom taught him how
to cook rice on the stove, huh?!

Apparently, the rice was a big hit. Elder Bortolo stated that
it is his "new" favorite food and wants it for every meal.
He would fit in here in Hawaii, eh?