Porto Pancake Party!

 

Color Coordinated Porto District before Pancake Party

 

Well, this week absolutely flew!

Tuesday we had a double zone conference with porto and porto north, and president came and we had lunch and such, and it was a really really good conference. These past months have been so hard, between having a sick comp and the work going really slow, i was just down. But this zone conference was really spiritual, and just really reinspired me. and i got to hear the last testimony of one of my friends who goes home at the end of the transfer, and i think something inside me just changed. i think i was finally humbled sufficiently, and just decided to believe. i had a different spirit around me.

And we only had a few days to work this week, the zone conference went almost all day, friday between weekly planning and getting ready for the ward activity on saturday, and saturday being there at the activity all day, we didnt have a whole lot of time to work, but the days we did work, we had pretty high numbers and found some cool people. the activity we planned, a pancake party with a spiritual missionary part at the end, was a hit with our members, and we all had investigators come and our members were being so helpful with them. and then on sunday we had four investigators in church! two of them came out of the blue, one was a friend of a recent convert, and the other a lady that we had since dropped, but called us that week because she felt she needed more spiritual force. it was so cool. and we had done a fast the week before to have people in church, and we literally doubled the number we had. it was cool, and it was a miracle. little by little, the work is picking up and its cool to see. and we just gotta keep working our little hearts out. 

This week we got yelled at by some evangelical guy who used to be a member of our church. we bore very very sincere testimony, but he didnt want to listen. as he was yelling, i was just thinking how confused he was, how he was so lost and didnt even know it. it was rough, but I just thought about how Christ must have felt His entire life, and i knew He was standing with us at that moment. And there have been people like that since the beginning of the restoration, trying to tear the church down, and it hasnt fallen yet, nor will it ever. we walked away fromt the conversation with testimonies stronger than ever, even after all that. 

when the activity came around this week, we sent text messages out to literally everyone, every number we had in our phone, everything. and to our suprise, one ex investigator showed up a couple hours late to the activity. unfortunately, she was completely drunk. she kept on asking where the pancakes were, and then as part of the spiritual thought, i had everyone stand up and say there name and where they were from, and when her turn came, she stood up and said, im Helena... i love you all. and blew the whole room kisses. yep.

Me and my comp laugh so much together. everytime we hear a song that we shouldnt be singing as missionaries, we start changing the lyrics to stuff about missionary work. she does some pretty funny impressions of people. its just one of the million things we do to keep ourselves entertained as we walk around all day and talk to people on the street. Shes fantastic. oh and mom i heard you guys are friends on facebook. that also is fantastic.

hey can someone tell me when amanda monn is getting married and if we can get cardboard kelly out there to the wedding?

Thanks for all the mail, love, prayers and support. i just wanna end with a little testimony.

I know that this church is true. And i know that because this chruch, this gospel, has brought me closer to my savior jesus christ than any thing else could have. This truly is His church because its in His name that we preach. Its Him that we follow, and everyday, i strive more and more to be like Him. yes, we have efy and activites and ward parties and girls camp and what not, but I will never leave this church not just because of the people, the social aspect, but because this church teaches truth, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. And thats pretty cool stuff.

Paz, amor, casamento do templo,

sister Briggs