WEEK 70 "Happy Easter"

WEEK 70 "Happy Easter"

 April 22, 2019

 Hey everyone!! First of all Happy Easter! It really is the time of the year to remember Christ was resurrected and that we can be forgiven though the sacrifices he has already made it our place. Another week down in the books and it was a pretty good one!! There was even a National Gasoline Strike so that made things interesting! 

Dia 16, in the morning we went hard trying to find some more people but it didn't really result in too much!! At least we made a couple good contacts and found one really good potential investigator named Gui!! We also met up with Helena, Davino, Gessika, e Tiago! Helena e Davino will be baptized this next Sunday (dia 28), if Tiago doesn't have work, he will as well. Gessika said she wants a little more time so that she has a firm response, we know that will all work out here super soon! After that we went to eat at Irma Valquiria and Irmao Jorge's house!! That was awesome because 5 missionaries from the Algarve (a part of Portugal) came up on their way to Setúbal (for our zone conference) and they ate with us. It was Elder Harper (who served here for about 8 months) Elder Weber, Sister Hoffman, Sister Wilson and Sister Bradley. It was great and the first time Irma Valquiria or Irmao Jorge saw Sisters!! It was overall just a super fun time and kinda makes me miss serving around other missionaries! But I sure am blessed to be in the Area of Santo André.  At the end of the dinner, we got a Facebook message saying our Zone Conference was cancelled because of the national gas strike hahah. So the Algarve missionaries had to drive all the way back down late at night. Man it was crazy because the whole day the gas stations had these HUGE 30-40 car lines just waiting for gas!!! Man whatta day!

Dia 17, so because the Zone Conf was cancelled I called a district meeting in its place! It was super good and Elder Burmudez gave a really great training with some good personal stories from his mission. Personal stories that are actually interesting are and will always be a key to grabbing people's attention and helping them relate (especially the gospel) to their own lives. That was great though and we found a new way to get home even faster from Setúbal!! It involves taking a boat ride with our car! There's a ferry that goes from Setúbal to a place called Troia. Man it was super cool because the boat fits like 30 cars on it! It was super windy but apparently when its sunny you can see dolphins on the side of the boat! So we're super excited to see them one of these days! Oh yeah, before that we also went out for a Kebob lunch with the Zone Leaders, so that was pretty sweet. Upon returning, we visited Davino and Helena again!! That was great, it was a pretty rainy day which I like when I need to drive a car a lot!

Dia 18, we woke up, did some studies then headed off to Santo André to do our Golden hour of contacts. Because of that we packed a lunch to later eat at the church. We had some appointments that didn't work out later that day, so we headed off to a city called Grândola to find some less active members that we have on a list. The one appointment that did work out great was with Nicole and Duarte! They're awesome, we found them looking for less actives a couple weeks ago to find out she's a less active (not the one that we were looking for) and wants her son to learn about the Book of Mormon! So we went there and read 5 chapters in the book "Stories of the Book of Mormon" it's a great book to explain the stories easily and Duarte was able to recount what we read super easily! Such a great family and they desire to come back to the church. Little by little, they'll return and Duarte will one day be baptized! 

Dia 19, we had our weekly planning in the morning but right after, that we left and did our Golden Hour of contacts. Later in the day we went to a city called Santiago do Cacém and didn't find the less actives that we were looking for. We called one of our investigators, Rogerio, and we went and talked to him for a bit. He told us what his doubts on the church are. Which was perfect because he always goes to the church with his family and everyone was wondering why he hasn't been baptized yet. So we're gonna study up and see if we can bring the Spirit to convince and show him the truths in which he has doubts. 

Dia 20, We got all our studies done, did our golden hour, visited some members and then we went to Miguel and Marcia's house for dinner and as usual it was great! Love those people. Honestly, I don't have much to write for this day. 

Dia 21, We had church and it was great! We had a solid number of people there for Easter Sunday! We had to teach the young women because the normal teacher wasn't there, so we just went in there and Elder Cloes decided to take the lead! That was great because I had no idea what to start teaching, but obviously we talked about Easter. It was funny because halfway through the lesson, Elder Cloes told me in English "tag-team" and sat down in a chair, so I basically just got up and ended the lesson off with my testimony and a video that I found. It was good! We then had a Branch Conference and got some good ideas on how we can help out our investigators! And then we ate some food with the Picanço's in the church. They're so great. In the night we kinda just got some stuff prepared for the baptism we're having next week as well as visiting Rafa and Catarina's family. Good day!

Cool Story: Our friend Davino had a crazy experience that strengthened his desire to be baptized. He had a "vision" while he was working at his job that his wife would be hit by a car where he usually picked her up... so he called her and told her to wait inside that day when he went to pick her up. When Davino pulled up to her work, he saw a man aggressively drive where she would've been standing if she was outside. He went inside and got her, then he proceeded to tell her the experience! He said he felt so prompted that he could feel it all throughout himself! That was cool!

Scripture: Moroni Ch8 V25

"25 E o primeiro fruto do arrependimento é o batismo; e o batismo vem pela fé, para cumprirem-se os mandamentos; e o cumprimento dos mandamentos traz remissão de pecados."

25 And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins.

If you want to be forgiven, you need to be baptized! Baptism is essential in the eyes of God because it shows that you are willing to start living a life in Christ. As well as, it is ordained that we need to be born of the Spirit and not just of the flesh. Seja batizado. 

Challenge: send me reminders throughout the week to update my journal hahah. I need that. 

Great times. Next week I'll make an email and send it to everyone through email. 

Elder out. 

Mamba out. 

parks.layton@missionary.org





Ferry from Setúbal to Troia

Elder Cloes



Easter


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