 |
Hello everyone! Nice to see you all today!
That BYU game sounded incredible! I'm was pretty stoked reading about that!
Alright. Well, lets get this letter going. Fasting brings the powers of heaven. We had a fast with our investigator this last week to help her with quitting alcohol. We have been taking a ward member Sofia with us to lessons with the couple and many times Sofia and Namí talk with one another. Marriage is still a big issue. Do or don’t get married that is still the question. Things just got really complicated. Plus, the man didn't come to church because he decided to visit another church for fun. We'll figure it out! It comes with the mission I guess! I pray and hope everything works out well with them!
We have started doing more contacts and talking with more people. YES!!
We were having fun contacting some people and we decided to contact a man who (so we thought) was looking grumpy in his semi truck. So we went up to the truck, knocked on the window, and he rolled it down and we came to find out that he was a man named Paulo from Brazil who has lived here in Portugal for the past 24 years or so! He is Evangelical and was extremely happy to talk to us!
He wants our help talking to his wife about God and religion without her knowing and she goes to a Pastelaria every day in the morning. So now it is our little mission. We are starting to go to this little cafe Novo Horizonte more frequently to scout out the area and figure out which is the Brazilian and get to know her! We think we know who it is now but we just need to figure out how to be friends with her. She wasn't giving us the time of day in our small attempts at contacts. This extraction will be more difficult. I feel like a ninja of eternal salvation. We hope we can make some things happen with this family!
Oh ya, that Bruno guy who was super excited to talk to us on the phone? Ya we talked to him! He is quite interesting. Apparently has a chip in his mind of some sort. We had a sort of half lesson with him because he had to go to do something so we are working on getting a follow up lesson to help him out.
We met with a man named Ruí who is a big painter. Very into painting. He studied at Picasso's School in France for some five years. We talked with him about his painting for a while and shared a gospel message. He has had some experience with the church long ago. He didn't come to church, but we are hoping we can meet more with him to help him out! He seems really cool and ready!
We talked to a man yesterday who had tons of deep questions that were really good! He wanted to know where we could find truth and why there are so many religions and such and where are the miracles on Earth. People speak of miracles but they aren't there. We shared with him the Book of Mormon and explained the miracle that it contains. Through prayer and reading we can gain the truth of all things and that the gospel can answer his questions. He wanted a miracle and we told him he would need to put effort in to receive one. Then he wasn't interested! He just wanted his health to magically be fixed and his suffering to be suddenly taken away from him. Anything short of that was no miracle. We shared that these things come after the trial of our faith and we were there to help him gain a knowledge or response to his doubts but at this point he was tired with us and excused us from his bench. He seemed like a great man and it was hard to leave him but he was tired with us. Some seem to be kept from the truth because they know not where to find it whereas others choose to keep themselves from the truth because the refuse to believe it once they find it. We all have our agency though and so we went on our way.
The mission is fun. Its still hard though and it requires your everything. The Lord will test you every which way to see if we will give of our everything and will try us in every aspect. The days and weeks are simultaneously exauhstingly long and freakishly short. Time is a very strange thing on the mission. We talk to crazy people all the time! They are awesome! We meet all sorts! One step at a time! I like the words of the hymn that say, "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!"
Follow the prophet! Jesus Christ is our Savior! Heavenly Father loves you and wants to hear from you! Pray to him!
Love you all, keep up the everything that you may be doing and stop doing the things you shouldn't be!
Elder Cordon
P.S. Today for P Day we rode bumper cars and I picked up the wax seal I ordered. Its pretty neat.
 |
| Elder Jones |
