WEEK 50 - I Met The King of Portugal

December 03, 2018

WEEK 50 - I Met The King of Portugal

December 3, 2018

Hey everyone! Well as of now, I'm booked to return home next December on the 3rd... so that's in exactly one year. I can't express my feelings on that but I'll try a bit later in this message. Anyways, another one in the books as we head into the month of December! We actually had a really sweet week! Well I think at least it was good. This transfer's gonna go by so fast with all of the stuff that's happening! Here's the rundown of my week though!

27 de Nov, We had district counsel in the morning. It went well, kinda hard because basically nobody wanted to talk hahah. Elder Jardine stepped up and helped me out by responding to my questions, so that was great! After that, a man stopped us on the street and said that he was a member and wanted our help to return... he seemed a little crazy and drunk though. We gave him our contact and told him to call us later, never happened though. Durring our conversation with him a woman yelled at us from her window to come and talk to her. It turned out that she was a less active member as well who was about 90! She told us how she'd been a member for thrirty years and would never leave the church. So we invited her to church to see and she had an excuse, too bad. It was really strange having 2 people seek out and talk to us within a span of 5 minutes! Probably a first for me hahah! Other than that we tried to pass by people on a list but nada deu certo.

28 de Nov, Nothing super eventful until the end of the day! We had an appointment with Bernardinho but he didn't show up. But one of our investigators, Sofia, was there talking with our Bishop which is great. There was a situation last week and the church and our Bishop helped her out a lot! But it was nice to talk to her, she's been super busy lately! Then we had English class which was great! We have a couple of investigators who came so that's awesome!

29 de November, whatta day hahah. So we had a division with our Zone Leaders and I went with Elder Plummer, I'll tell you a little about him. He's 23 and from Honduras, and he played in the Honduras professional league since he was 15. He won the championship a bunch of times, and he's just overall a sick dude and a great missionary. I'll tell you a cool story that he told me when I asked him why he decided to serve a mission a bit later. Anyways, we met up in Dons (McDonalds) and the division started. As we started to leave a man stopped us. He was wearing all black and a black Indiana Jones hat. He looked a little rough and he was (as we could tell) a man who lived on the streets. He wanted hugs from us and told us he loved our work. I gave him a Jesus card and Plummer offered to buy us three icecream! The man asked him for a caramel sundae ahah. As Plummer was getting the ice cream this dude pulled out the Jesus card and started preaching to the people of Dons ahhah! We eventually got out of there. He then asked us to take him to the church... there's two of our churchs in Porto, so we went to the closer one (which I didn't have keys for). We just wanted to show him where it was. We started walking. This is when he stated that he was Tom Sawyer, and starring straight into our eyes. We asked him the story of Tom Sawyer and he said he didn't even know it but their lives were "igualzinho" or in otherwords similar I guess ahah. Then he told us we were very goodlooking men... On our way to the metro station he kept pointing and talking to random people saying they were part of "his" movie and that we were all being filmed ahah. We got on the metro and we found out his family had left him because of drugs and he had a young son he loved that he hadn't seen in years. It was honestly sad and just rememinded me how good our standards and guidlines are in the church. Lord knows. He then went on to tell us he IS the King of Portugal. He made that very clear and stated it several times. It was freakin hilarious but we did our best not to laugh. We kept walking and tried asking a guy for a smoke but Plummer said "no, we're going to the church" so he stopped asking for a smoke. We then got to the church and explained how he could turn his life around he just needed to act. He told us he could feel a warm sensation inside of him. But following that comment, he told Elder Plummer that they had the same eyes and that I had the eyes of his future princess... so that kinda just ended it. He was probably a little faded but we think he felt something. Crazy experience with the King of Portugal, Tom Sawyer. The day end there. We were looking for an address, so I stopped this young girl and asked her if she could look up the address, she helped us out! She then proceeded to take some selfies with us cause "Her mom loves God". We gave her our numbers so we could meet up again, and she said she'd send the selfies to our emails... so we'll see hahah! She was cool, she wanted to be a Ballerina. After that we contacted a dude from France which went great and we'll meet up with him this next week! We then went knocking doors, the first door we knocked a Chinese woman opened the door... she said she couldn't understand us and then yelled "Profesor!" and old crazy grey haired man came around and said he already had a church. As they shut the door, a man with a super long beard and hair came out of the elevator and went straight to the same house... who knows what professor is doing there. Some time passed by and we actually got in knocking doors and taught a man named Helder! He seemed pretty interested and said he would 100 Percent read the Book of Mormon but he needs to take some time to do it! Hopefully he can go through with it! It was cool teaching with Plummer, and someone older than me on the mission again!! Following that, we stopped by some members in our ward from Venezuala. The Spanish speaking family that I talked about last week. Plummer is from Honduras so Spanish is his go to language! He also speaks English super well! But we got there and left a "LightTheWorld" message. It was cool, they all talked in Spanish, and me... Portuguese ahah! That ended our division which was super lit and hopefully we'll get another one eventually! Freakin crazy day!

30 de Nov, In the morning Eu e Elder Jardine had to go to this appartment that was closing. There used to be missionaries who lived there but the church is selling it right now. We just had to be present so the men could turn off the electricity and gas. Then nothing much in the middle of the day, but in the night we visted with some recent converts. Irma Helga, Luna, and Pablo! They're an awesome family, and we went over the Gospel of Christ with them. We'll be getting together with them every friday from now on! That'll be awesome!

1 de Dez, International service day for the church! So we started it by going to a clothing donation thing being done at the church! People brought winter clothes and it was just a free take what you need event! It was cool and awesome to walk around talking to people! We eventually left with our zone leaders and some other missionaries to sing for a woman.. this is cool tho. Because this woman was Elder Terra's grandma! So my Zone Leader (And ex Comp)'s grandma lives in my area! SO we all got together and sang for her! Then we all went and met up with a whole bunch of other Elders and Sisters in downtown Porto. There was a huge firework show so we watched that! Literally half of the population had to have been there it was PACKED. Then we had a bunch of banners set up and we all had Santa hats passing out cards and Book of Mormons wrapped as gifts. We would explain about the LightTheWorld or about whatever the conversations lead to. Then we all got together and sang Christmas hymns! Super cool carolling in Portuguese! So many people stopped and watched, stopped and videoed and even joined us some times! It was awesome. Super cool activity. It was a great way to start December!

2 de Dez, Church always a classic time in this ward. We had Ward Conference (where we're usually supposed to have time to talk, but never do) and usually we just sit there listening. Happened this time again but it was lit because there was some mad beef between Bispo and some other members... sheesh. It was honestly super entertaining to watch but sad at the same time because we all are working for the same goal and the situation could've been dealt with way better! Then in the night, we ate dinner with Karina Evora! Always a classic!

Great week!

Cool story, So I basically have a year left. The time has gone by slow but also just lightning fast holy. It feels like yesterday I was starting but so long ago since I've seen my fam. But this experience has been incredible and priceless. It's a huge blessing that I have a year left because I still have lots of growing to do and lots more people to help. The mission really is a blessing and I gotta keep giving my best to finish it off strong this next year!

Plummer's story, so he was playing pro soccer since he was a 15 year old. Every young sporty kid's dream. Playing pro. He told me, "It's weird doing exactly what you want to do in life and everything you want you can have but you still feel there is something missing." And understand he is a super humble guy as well! But anyways, he said he prayed and fasted about it and he felt he needed to serve a mission. I bet he'll get to play again once he's home though, he's apparently crazy good!

This is the extended part of my weekly email, just to tell you all a cool story. So the guy in this picture below is Savio. Super cool dude. When we were all singing Christmas songs last Saturday, he was watching for a long time, then he came right in and joined us. He stayed for about 30 minutes. While some people were singing there were other contacting. So some other Elder went and got his contact info and he said he would love to have the missionary lessons. Before he left, I got a picture with him and it turns out that he's from Rio de Janeiro. That's where my last comp, Elder Moreira, is from so I spoke to him about a couple things from Rio. Then he went on to tell me how happy he felt watching and singing with us! So it turns out last night the Elders from the area where he lives went and taught him... They didn't even finish the first lesson and they felt they should invite him to be baptized. They didn't even finish their invitation and Savio accepted happily! Honestly a miricale and a huge testimony booster that God puts people in our paths when we do his work faithfully. I feel blessed I was able to be there and meet Savio!

Scripture of the week: Alma 8:15 , When you're doing the right things but the results aren't showin up, read this. Especially as a missionary.
Alma 8:15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

Challenge of the week is... do something for my Brother Blaze next Monday (DEC 10th) because that's his 18th Bday! Freak man can't belive he'll be 18!

Love you all, it's always a killer time here in Porto!

parks.layton@myldsmail.net

Parks Stewart Layton

Rua Jorge Barradas Nº 14-C

1500-370 Lisboa

Portugal

Just Light it