Natural man is an enemy to God

This week was good. We have been working. We don't work differently even if it's Christmas. We have been working really hard and have been getting a lot of rewards. I have been working on being a better person. Trying to develop patience. I am seeing more the natural man in me. He acts really fast, it's my job to see how he is acting and to stop and think, "Will this help or destroy the situation?" I am really stupid because even when I know that it will destroy the situation, I do it. I would say that I am getting better but that would be marginal at best. I hope that you guys are doing well. Until Christmas. 

 

Pics - Baptism

Not all investigators are the same

This week was a rush I will tell an experience that happened. Not all investigators are the same, they are very different in needs and in responses to invites that we leave with them. This week we had two different responses between the two women we baptized recently.

1. Filismina: The elect. She was found by Elders that arrived before me in the street. She is from Angola. She has two kids and they are the greatest. She was taught the restoration and accepted baptism right away. She already lived all the commandments. She arrives at church 30 minutes before any of the actual members and she arrived at her own baptism an hour before anyone else. That is what we call an elect.

2. Epifania: Another type of elect. She was found a couple of weeks ago. She has gone through a couple of difficulties in her life. She was not living all the commandments when we found her. She had headaches and other illnesses the day she was supposed to be confirmed. We had to call a taxi so that she could arrive in the church. 

Both were baptized but they show that people are different. Everyone needs what we have, not depending on what ever circumstances that they have or commandments they are or aren't living now. Everyone is a child of god and needs to grow closer to him through baptism.

Elder Fogg

It all came together at the last minute

BOM DIA ALEGRIA!

Milagre da semana: Epifania, o batismo. So we got a call this last week from this number that we didn't have in our phone. When I answered the person on the other end couldn't understand me and hung up. I gave the phone to Elder Antelmi. He called her and it turned out to be an old investigator that wanted to talk to us again. Talked to her on that day last week and she told us that she wanted to be baptized in our church because she felt something different that she never felt in any other church. We lost contact with her for one week. On Friday, we were in the area and decided to pass by her. She opened the door but didn't have time for us at that moment. We set up a time to pass by the next day. She was ready the next morning. We were feeling good about it so we took a baptism register with us on the visit just in case so if she was ready we could do the interview there. (I still hadn't taught her.) When we got there she wasn't completely ready so we explained and clarified some of the restoration and tithing. The mom was a real trouble.  She didn't want her to be baptized that week end but wait for the next week end because the mom's back was hurting. Elder Antelmi thought really fast and arranged a ride for her during church so that she could still come and see here daughter get baptized afterward. We did her interview during the church meetings, she passed! But that meant that we needed to plan the baptism completely from scratch with only one hour of church. It all came together at the last minute but It all worked out and she was baptized! 

 

Engraçada: Mulher que nós parou na rua. This women stopped us in the road on Sunday night. She yelled out ''Hey Elders come here''. Turns out that she has already been taught by the Elders for a long time and that she has already gone to church 2 times. She was actually prepared to be baptized but the Elders went to other areas before it could happen. 

Elder Foggão

I love eating and the Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have made a goal to read the Book of Mormon daily for the rest of my mission. I have seen the difference this has made. I found time to read during breakfast. I sit down with my bowl of corn flakes mixed with chocolocos and I read. (It's a combination of the 2 greatest things that I love, eating and the Book of Mormon). I have been reading recently in 3 Nephi when Christ visits the Americas. It is interesting to see the doctrines that Christ thought was most important to teach. He teaches about the priesthood, about baptism, about godlike attributes that are need to receive god's forgiveness.  When I read the Book of Mormon I am filled with the holy ghost. I feel that it is true. It is a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

Elder Fogg

Opposite of pride is humility

Amadora: Não Ama, adora. This area where I am serving now is literally right next to Lisbon. Instead of taking 3 hours by train to get to the mission office from the Algarve, it takes 15 minutes. IT's really nice. Our area has three stops on the train that goes through it.  It's pretty big. There are a lot of people from Cape Verde that live here or basically there are a lot of people who are from Africa. Also I moved from below the River Tejo to above the river to the North Western part of Lisbon so the weather changed a little bit too. It's freezing cold here. There's literally a part of the city that is called «Venteira» basically windy city. The ward has about 120 people. It's really big. There are a lot of returned missionaries that live here. It's really good. Não Amo, Adoro.

Iago: Eleitissimo.   We found one of the elect. This guy named Iago. He is really cool and pretty ready for baptism. He came to church this week. When we talk to him on Saturday, he said that he had problems with work and he is changing or looking for new work or something. Something is getting messed up with the papers or people are being racist. Something is happening but his mom told him as he was leaving to buy juice for dinner to not get discourage something better will come. Then he talked to us. It was really cool. He is really receptive. I hope he progresses. He is really cool. He is 19 years old. that means that he could still serve a mission. 

Caridade v. Orgulho. The opposite of pride is humility but one thing that really helps to kill pride is Charity. When we love our neighbors we see over their weaknesses and their faults and we help them grow. When we love we forgive the wrongs that people do to us. As missionaries this will be critical. In the D+C and in the New Testament. The Lord teaches that as missionaries, we will be at the judgement of the people that we helped or tried to help. We will be there and give an account of what we did. Sometimes people reject us hard core and it's not easy to be humble. But as a messenger of the atonement of Jesus Christ we need to believe that not only we are worthy of forgiveness and not only our converts are worthy too but those that reject are also worthy of it. If as missionaries we can't forgive those that reject in the hardest of ways we are not worthy of entering the kingdom of god. Some of them will have a change of heart and if we hold it prideful then we won't be worthy of the gift of forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The power that keeps us from being prideful is the Charity. It never fails.

Elder Fogg

Missão Portugal Lisboa

2016-2018

Pics of dog bite