This week was pretty great!! I love Viseu!!! its absolutely gorgeous here and with the fall leaves coming in and then Christmas on its way, I'm just so grateful to be serving here. Its such a privilege.
Another reason serving in Viseu is so wonderful, the ward
here is absolutely incredible!!!! Last week the second counselor in the bishopric called all the missionaries (there are 4 of us assigned to
this ward) into a room to chat for a second, and he said there is
something very disturbing happening in the Viseu 2 ward... the
missionaries are sitting with their investigators. I was thinking, this is
a problem why? but he went on to say that missionary work is the
members work when we are in the chapel. I was absolutely amazed. This
week we had 5 investigators in church and the members sat with all of
them. It was awesome. We got a member reference this week and they are
going to get baptized, com certeza, they just don't know it yet, and then
today a couple members took all the missionaries on a drive to this
tiny village about 45 minutes outside of viseu and then took us on a
hike nearby. It was absolutely beautiful and so fun. The members here
are so awesome!! I hope everyone at home reading this takes a hint from
this letter from a missionary and ups their effort with the missionaries
:) And not just with dinners and such, but with real missionary work.
We need the members! we cant do this alone.
So, the member reference we received this past week.
Truly a blessing from heaven. Ive been working for awhile with out
really seeing success and its been a little rough. But then this member
reference came through, Tina from Brasil and her son Dudo (yes that's
really what people call him). We didn't even find her, she found us! We
had just a family night slash dinner at her house one night and it was
wonderful just to make that foundation of friendship, etc. Then this
past week we taught the first lesson and she accepted it completely and
then we asked her to be baptized once she received an answer about the
Book of Mormon, and she answered with a "claro que sim" or of course. I
walked out of that lesson about to cry. The Spirit was there and God has
really prepared her well. Her whole family is catholic but she has been
thinking about changing religions and just has a lot of faith and is
incredible, to sum it all up. I know that she is a blessing for me,
after weeks and weeks of work to finally have someone to teach and
someone who is progressing. He hears and answers prayers!! And I'm sure
our encounter is a blessing for both us as missionaries and Tina and
Dudo as individuals. Working with them has been such a testimony builder
for me. Its moments like that where I'm like, I love being a
missionary!!!
This week we also did splits! we call them divisions
here, or divisões. My sister training leader this transfer is Sister
Seidmann, that little brasileira that was with us for a few days in
Benfica. She is so great and it was so fun to do a division with her.
Not to mention shes brasilian so she speaks perfectly and did all the
work for me. I love doing splits, its just a nice change and somehow my
Sister training leaders always know what I need to hear.
Ive actually been doing splits a lot this week
because of Sister Duran´s foot. She hurt it at the very beginning of her
mission and its been bothering her ever since but shes kept going, and
now shes really paying for it. These past few days entirely shes been at
home. One day sister Fuller and I went out and worked in the other
sister´s area, one day sister Warburton and I went and taught a lesson
and did some contacts in our area, and then I stayed at home with sister
Duran one night. While I've felt kind of like a slacker because of it,
its also been cool to work with the other sisters. The first time we
taught Tina I was actually with sister Warburton, and it was so
awesome.
This Pday we went to the aldeia, or village, of
Pena, this tiny basically abandoned village that's about 300 some years
old. It was so cool. One thing I love about Portugal is that this place
just oozes history. Its built on its own History, its history is so deep
and rich. The people of Portugal are a people so connected to their
past and so attached to their traditions. I love seeing how their culture works. The members we were with
drove us to the top of this mountain where we could see all the other
tiny aldeias or villages that spot the country side. There were people
that lived and died in those villages, with out knowing anything else.
And there are still people that live there. Blows my mind. Oh, also, at
the top of this hill that I was on, There was a 200 year old catholic
church made of stone. Seriously, the top of this mountain in the middle
of no where. Of course. Welcome to Portugal.
Family, I love you all so much. This church is true.
Heavenly Father loves us and truly sent His son to die for us, and now
He leads this church today.
Paz, amor, casamento do templo,
Sister Kelly Briggs
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