It's a beautifully rainy dayhere in cacém, but i have plenty of time to write internet finally, so that's a plus. Today we had zone leader councel, which aas pretty great, even if it takes a bit away from p-day. Elder Nixon still is not big on walking, so we would have probably just stayed inside and played settlers of catan.
In general, the week was pretty rough, although some very cool things happened. We'll start with the rough parts:
The rough part is just that we're a little bit stuck, because Elder Nixon can't really walk too well, and so we can't work the way we used to. He can go where we need to, but it takes a while and is pretty painful. The crutches you see in the states that go in your armpit with padding and everything don't exist in portugal, here the crutches are more like canes, and have hard plastic handles. They're better for assisted walking but a lot worse for getting around on one foot. This whole thing is obviously frustrating for him, but also frustrating for me, because i can only walk as fast as he can. It means a few things that are often very important in missionary work (passing people in the morning to make sure they make it to church on time, running to catch transportation, going up and down stairs) aren't possible. It does, however, serve to make us more creative. This week our plan was to go to the church and call old investigators and pray that people showed up on their own. The tricky thing is that only one person can call at once, and it's easy to just end up dinking around on the piano, however, we did have a bit of success with that. We've been calling people and having them come to the church, which is nice. While we were waiting for one lesson with a guy named Graciano a lady we had never met walked into the church and wanted to talk to us. As it turns out she has a friend in oeiras who is a member of the Igreja Universal (i don't know if this church exists in the united states, it would be called something like the universal church of the kingdom of God, they offer miraculous cures for people, although you have to pay money. Mariazinha was a member of that church, as was Manuel (who got baptized after i left). Members of that church are generally some of my favorite people, they're very humble and very sincere and are looking for something in their life.)
Anywho, this woman, Rosalina (which is with a rolled R, not a gutteral R. She corrects me every time i say her name) walks in and we teach her about faith and miracles and the fact that sometimes God has a purpose in our little aflictions (she has a problem in her foot that makes it hard for her to work). Anyway, it was a really nice lesson, and in the we talked about a bunch of stuff. She was all set to come to church, we set up a ride for her and everything, but then her ride slepped in and didn't end up picking her up. That was sort of frustrating, but whatever.
btw, my mouse just went balistic, it was crazy, i honestly think somebody hacked into my mouse or something. But then i typed 'step off' and that took care of it. Anyway, Rosalina. We taught her on sunday the first lesson, and she is awesome and is coming to chuch next week, when hopefully her ride won't sleep in.
Marcos, who was supposed to be baptized on saturday, did not get baptized, and we're not really sure why. When we talk to him he says everythings great and he's excited, but then he's never around when we try to teach him and he missed church yesterday. It's pretty confusing actually. There might be some sort of iceburg principle at work here.
Our other people are doing good. João is great, he came to church on sunday and is making friends and everything. We invited him to get baptized (not with a date, but more as a general invite, and he said he'd like to. Ruben, who's 17, also wants to get baptized, both of them have a few challenges to overcome, but we're excited, and they're both really awesome and we'll be able to get over them.
We were sitting outside the church in the sun (there have been a few beautiful days this week, it switches hourly between beautiful sunny and warm and cold and rainy) and some kids showed up and asked us if they could play soccer (the church has a soccer court) and we said yes. Then the next day they showed up again with 8 people, and by saturday there were about 15 people outside playing soccer. So we decided to make it official, with the stipulation that everyone has to hear a 5-10 minute message by the missionaries. I'm sort of frustrated that i'm going to go to portugal and back without ever playing futebol, but i am atleast going to find a bunch of people to teach, and i guess that's the real reason i came here anyway. We also been teaching English classes on wednesday night, and working more with the members. On thursday we want to comandeer seminary and have a missionary work day and get the jovens excited. Happily we've been getting a lot of help from the members of the church, especially those with cars, which has been critical.
Oh, Graçiano, that guy i mentioned, turns out to be the friend of a member of the church, and as it turns out, he has a oil container on his keychain. That was sort of crazy, since you generally only see missionaries and such with oil, but he said he found it on the ground in cape verde and has been carrying it around ever since, at some point someone told him what it was for. It's rusted shut, so he can't open it. I think it would be cool if he gets baptized and when he's able to use oil for blessing and stuff, the oil container suddenly becomes openable. Probably won't happen, since it's not excalabar, but it would be a cool story.
well...other news. elder Nixon's foot is getting better, in theory a week or so from now he'll be walking without crutches, which will be a good day for everybody. In the meantime, it's an interesting challenge, and it could end up with us working more effectively than ever, because i've wasted a lot of time in my mission walking, now that i can't walk, i have to think of someting else to do, which ends up being more effective sometimes. Well, that's about the news, I hope you guys have an excellent week, and we're excited. This week is going to be a lot better than last week, Elder Nixon just has to figure out how to fly, and we'll be set.
Abraços para todos, amo-vos
Elder Perkes
