A Few More Pictures from March 28, 2016

Mar. 28, 2016 - Best Easter Ever! :D

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all felt the spirit and the hand of the Lord in you life this weekend.

My Easter was great! Our incredible Irmã Lurdes started her new life clean and pure! She was baptized this Sunday and it was a rally cool way to celebrate the Resurrection and Atonement of Christ! 

We had a mission goal of 35 baptisms for the month of march and we got it!! With exactly 35! It was so awesome to be apart of that and the mission is really getting fired up! 

My comp's 2 years ended today. So I'm here in a tripla just waiting for transfers that will come tomorrow. But it was a cool way for him to go out with a baptism on his last day!

I just wanted to bear my testimony that I know Christ lives! He rose on the 3rd day. He suffered for me and for you. Only through his atoning sacrifice can we become clean again. This church is true and we need to share this message with the world!

This is Lurdes with Vítor who is getting baptized on the 9th! :D 

And us on a rock... 

Mar. 21, 2016 - I cant describe this week in words....

So this week was quite strange. So we started planning that wedding and Mission Pres said he was going to help pay for it and everything. So we go to City Hall to get an estimate so we can tell Prez and get the ward council moving. We then go to Lurdes and Vitor's house and she tells us he left her.... he went to his parents house and they arent getting married. Really sad and confusing. But she still had a really big desire to get baptized. 

Sunday night we go visit her and Vitor is back and everything is back to normal! So we thought. Turns out they're still good friends but not living together but he hangs out at her house a lot now and they both want to get baptized separately. So we taught the law of chastity and they both agreed to it because they arent living together. So yeah. They're still getting baptized but not married. Hahah really weird.

Also our other marked was supposed to get baptized yesterday but fell into temptation with her boyfriend on Friday! The day before her baptismal interview Satan got a hold of her! So we're doubling our efforts to keep her head up and ready for Sunday!

So I guess I learned to never let your guard down! I admit we kinda thought everything was all god and got a little lazy with our planning and acompanhamento. So NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! Satan is waiting for that moment when you think you're all good. You have to fight everyday! And with The Lord on your side you'll win every time, but you have to let Him help you.

Have a great week. Next week you should see lots of white:D

Mar. 14, 2016 - Miracles Really Do Happen!

Yes. I saw probably the biggest miracle of my mission this week.

We found Lurdes last week just by stopping her in the road. She said she already knows about our church and has been before but it was never the right time. But now she feels likes we came into her life on the perfect day! So we leave a BOM with her and the next day we go to ther house and she's already read like all of 1 Nephi! WHOA! Then we goes on to tell us that her BF picked it up and is reading it too! And they both keep saying how true it is and how this time in their lives is exactly what they need. So we mark them both for baptism for the 27th of March. They come to chuch and loved it! Then we tell them that they need to get married before baptism. They totally agree and say that they have been thinking about it for a long time but never felt like they had a right place in which they should be married. But now they feel like this is the perfect place in this Church! DOUBLE WHOA!! 

So yeah we are going to be wedding planners these next 2 weeks. :D

But seriously this couple is ELECT! We started our 40 day fast of disobedience and the next 2 days we find this couple! Obedience brings blessings. Exact Obedience brings Miracles!! 

I think I have reached the point where I can say Ping Pong is an addiction. We took off our door to our closet and made a ping pong table! #Pdayeve

Love ya'll!

Mar. 7, 2016 - A Vida é Como um Jogo de Xadrez

Hey everybody! This week was a blast!

We had our mission counsel and we got super prepared for this month and our goal as a mission to baptize 35!! It was awesome! Presidente was strangely all lovey dovey with us and didn't even yell once! That was my miracle for the day! :D

Then we had to run home and prepare for our zone meeting the next day. It was awesome to get to know all my zone members and welcome all the greenies and try to pump everyone to help for the mission goal! 

Miracle of the week! We contacted this lady who was definitely put there by the hand of God. She explained how she has 2 cousins who are RMs and one who is serving in Spain right now. She already read most of the Book of Mormon and my mind was blown! Super cool! We're preparing her for baptism for the end of this month!:D

So my subject line is translated as Life is like a game of chess! We have been playing chess a ton this week and we have been applying the concepts of chess into basically everything in life! And one of the biggest one is you have to think at least 1 step ahead and most of the time 2 steps ahead. And that's basically how we have to go though life. We have to have that eternal perspective with everything we do. We have to realize that our decisions now effect, sometimes, the rest of our lives. We have to think about what we want to happen in the future, then act now according to that goal. So make sure your decisions are putting you on a path you want to be in 2 steps. And that path is the path that leads to our Heavenly Home with our Heavenly parents. 

Love you all and have a great week!

Feb. 29, 2016 - Work Hard Play Hard

Well I just entered my 10th transfer here in the beautiful city of Porto! I got moved to an area called Amial. Its the HQ for the Porto stake. I'm Zone leader now over the largest Zone of the mission which is a little intimidating but I have a really awesome Cabo Verdiano comp, (who is in in his last transfer so he's a little trunky haha) so I'm excited for this new adventure! We have 13 duplas in total in the zone and I'm mostly excited just to get to know more missionários! The biggest perk is getting to live in a 4 elder house which is always a party! But don't worry we're getting work done!

The area is huge and this ward is definitely the biggest ward I've served in so far. We use buses everywhere we go and I'm am going to have to learn a lot of paciência waiting at bus stops haha.

I'm actually still in the same zone as my last area so I get to check up on them still and make sure the girl we were teaching gets baptized! 

I don't really have too much more to say and I forgot my camera so I guess I'll leave my 5 cents for the day. So I'm reading in 2nd Nephi and in chapter 19 Jacob is citing some old school Isaiah and he is talking about the birth of Christ and he says how he will be called "...Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God,The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

And I know its not Christmas but I always loved that title, The Prince Of Peace. And I have come to know exactly how true that title is! He truly can bring so much Peace into our lives, even in the hardest of times IF we turn to him with our whole souls. 

Love  you all! Keep the commandments and read your scriptures!

Feb. 22, 2016 - Opposite George

This week was too cool! We had our mission conference with Elder Kearon! The whole mission got together for this conference. So it was quite the party! He is the 70 President of the Area of Europe. Some background about him and his wife. He was born and raised in England so the whole day I was pleasured with the strongest British accent ever haha it was so cool! His wife was born and raised in San Francisco and had the most marvelous American accent which was quite strange to hear actually... She went on a study abroad to London and saw him giving a talk in church and the rest is history! Haha they got married in Oakland! Shout out to the bay area! 3 things that I would like to share from this conference. 

1. He said that the millennial generation is dubbed as the worrisome generation. And he said well I dont believe that! And he basically told everyone to calm down. Just relax and do what you do and the Lord will help you. I really needed hat because right then I realized that I'm basically like always stressed about something. So I decided I will be more relaxed.

2. He said EUROPE CAN BAPTIZE!! (he got really emotional and heated at the part haha) he said there are stupid people out there who say to preparing elders going to Europe oh you wont baptize in Europe, its too hard. He said what little faith!! Then he asked everyone who had European roots in the church to raise their hand. 95% of the missionaries raised their hand. EXACTLY! Basically the early days of the church was rooted in Europe. So we can dispel this myth that Europe doesn't baptize! He was pretty patriotic being a European.

3.He said That we should change our way of thinking. Get out of the routine. Do things differently. Always try to be getting better or different or something! Right then I thought about George Costanza and who his whole life changed for the better when he decided to do the opposite of what he would normally do. So I thought well lets try it! I'm going to be Opposite Elder Powell haha shout out to Seinfeld!

Inês is still progressing really well and we are excited for her baptism this week! Oh and we saw the miracle of the most catholic lady I have ever met came to church yesterday!!! She loved it and felt the spirit so much and yeah miracles happen every day!

This is a picture of the whole mission!! I am on the top row 5 in from the right. :D

Love,

Feb. 15, 2016 - Rain Rain Go Away

So right not there are 7 counties in Portugal on Red Alert because of the crazy storm thats passing through portugal. And my county is one of them! I have never seen such high winds before! The rain has been causing flooding all over the place. Its been pretty dang cold so hail has been mixed in there too. BUT we keep working!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned Inês but we've been working a lot with her! She's 13 and is the cousin of a really cool member! We found her on the street, found out who she was and invited her to church! And she came! This was 2 weeks ago and now we're preparing for her baptism for the 27th! Shes super humble, super prepared and we're pretty excited! At first we were just teaching her but then Saturday we decided to invite the whole family to hear the lesson too. And they all accepted! Her older brother, mom and cousin! It was super cool! 

2 things that have really helped me this week. First I was listening to a conference talk from Oct 2015 (sorry I dont remember who. I know it was a 70.) anyway he said a quote that was awesome! He said "We don't have to be perfect, but we have to be good and getting better!" It struck my heart. Sometimes we, especially me as a missionary, think we have to be perfect in everything. The language. Teaching. Etc. But that's not what God planned. He knew we would be imperfect. But he expects us to always be getting better. Life isnt a race to the finish line BUT we Always have to be moving in the right direction. Even if it is a slow walk.

Then I found D&C 1:23  That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers What a promise! God has always used the weak and simple to bring to pass this great work! Really comforting.

Anyway have a great week! And this is a picture of My comp, me, Inês, and our Brazilian YW Prez Claudia! I know its kind of an awkward photo but oh well haha love ya'll!