Hey Family, Merry Taxmas!
This weekend was sort of crazy. To start with, we got transfer calls today and i'm leaving caçém, i'm sort of bummed out about leaving here, this is definitely one of my favorite areas (technically all of my areas are among my favorite areas, but this is one of my favorite favorites.) I'm going to Alverca, to serve with Elder Mateer, who has been in the office for the past 6 months, we were in the same ward in benfica, i'm pretty excited to serve with him out there. Alverca is also the area that Elder Oram finished up his mission in, it's possible i'll be there for the rest of my mission, or i could leave, it's a while to stay, but not too long to be unreasonable.
Eugerindo and Flávia did get baptized, although it went sort of poorly, it was, admittedly, not the best planned baptism i've ever had, but it also wasn't the worst, it's just that things ran poorly, and it started way late, but Flávia and Eugerindo didn't mind, and happily very few members showed up, usually i'm not happy when no one shows up for our baptisms, especially when they were notified weeks in advance, but in this case it turned out to be a great blessing, because it would have frustrated a lot of people if they'd been there. In the end though, a couple of our members are sort of mad at us, which is a sad way to leave, but it happens sometimes. Be patient with your missionaries, unless they're just lazy, but when they're trying to do the right thing and things don't work out, it's not necessery to make them feel worse about how things didn't work out, they already feel really. So yeah, the weekend was sort of frustrating, but i'm glad Eugerindo and Flávia got baptized, they have a ton of potential. Eugerindo is going to be a great missionary, as long as he gets well integrated in the ward, flavia is already super well integrated.
In other news, not too much is going on, hopefully in my next area i'll be able to send pictures, i don't really want to send my chip or my pendrive in the mail, it's not too reliable, and several missionaries have lost stuff before.
So, some stories from the week, because aside from the members being upset with us it was a really good week.
On sunday, we had a lesson with Nelson, who is one of my favorite investigators here. His girlfriend, Rosália, is a member and got back this week from Holland. This sunday, he invited his whole family and a few friends to join in on the lesson, so for about and hour we answered questions and taught. It was one of my favorite lessons ever, because even though we were just answering their questions, and a lot of times we just asked them what they thought and felt, we taught basically the entire first lessonand at least two of them, Nelson (who is loving the church right now, and not just because his girlfriend is a member) and Beatrize (who actually lives up north) really liked it and want to learn more. And the rest were interested and said we could come back and teach them next week.
Also on sunday, sunday morning, we weren't sure where Eugerindo would be, because they cut the power to his house, so he's been staying at his tia´s house from time to time, we called and his cell phone was dead, so we were just a little worried. I've found getting to people would be really easy, except for the fact that they have to wake up at 8:30ish on sunday morning to get there, and without parents, this is extremely different for teenage boys. So anyway, we were praying a lot that he would somehow wake up, and we could find him. So on the way up we ran into his tia on her way to work (she was at the baptism on saturday, and liked it a lot and said she's going to start coming to church and bringing her daughter) and said that eugerind should be in his house, so we continued up to his house and when we got there his door was open and he was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He said that he didn't have his alarm set or anything, and he had gotten to bed sort of late, but he had worken up suddunly that morning and remembered the Elderes would be picking him up. One of those small and simple things that was a huge miracle. It really showed to me the power of prayer and the Lord's hand in this work.
Eugerindo is definitely one of my favorite people i've baptized so far, he's both my best and my worst investigator ever. He's incredibly irresponsible, but he has such a strong desire to do the right thing, and he wants to turn his life around. While we've been teaching him he's recognized what he's been doing in life is wrong and has been changing it. He has such a pure and simple testimony of the gospel, and he gets it. He'll need a lot of help over the next few months, because he's basically going to have to completely change his friends and his life, but Elder Nixon is on the case, so it'll work out.
So, don't send anything to my address in massamá, i'll try to get you my address in Alverca. Oh, This also means i get to do splits in Pontinha, which is sweet, i'm super excited. Anyway, that's about the gist here, até próxima
~Elder Ammon
