So, the transfer news is in, and in the end i'm staying in Alverca for my last transfer. I'm going to be serving with Elder Riveira, who's coming up from Campo Pequeno. He's one of the district leaders in our zone, so i've talked to him a lot this transfer. He's a good missionary, and has been doing impressive work in Campo Pequeno. Elder Mateer is going to the Açores (to São Miguel, not the air force base), so he's pretty excited. It's weird. On friday i filled in my planner for my last transfer. Usually things slow down a little bit during the beginning of the transfer, so hopefully the next few weeks won't go as absurdly fast as the last three weeks. It's weird.
This week was good. We (mostly me) made a goal to not knock doors this week, wanting to plan more intelligently and work with the members. It was different, we didn't find very many new people, and didn't teach too many lessons but for the most part the week was a lot more effective, and the lessons we taught were real lessons. We visited the members and made plans with them to teach their friends, we talked to ex-investigators and followed up on the potentials and new people we've been finding over the past few weeks. For this last month and a half i want to work hard to work with the members and teach their friends with them. Today in a couple hours we have a family night (more of a family afternoon really) with Leolinda's daughter, Marisa.
Francisco came to church again, this time without us having to go pick him up. He's still struggling to quit smoking, we're going to teach him again on tuesday and make a plan with him, but there's no real trick to it, he just needs to have faith to stop. But he's doing well.
Yesterday we had one of the most powerful lessons of my mission. We taught Graziele, Tiago, and Araiujo, three brasilians we found a couple weeks ago. We taught them last sunday afternoon but we didn't get much time to talk to them. We had left a book of mormon with Graziele and she had started to read, but said she wasn't understanding it at all. All we did with them yesterday was read together 3 Nephi 11, explaining things occasionally, but mostly just reading. The spirit was really strong, when we finished the chapter she said, "I understood it perfectly, why did i understand it this time?" We talked about how the holy ghost teaches us and helps us understand scripture and things. We were there with Otávio (who is a champ) and he also taught and testified about the restoration. In the end we invited them to prepare for baptism on the fourth. There's still a lot to do between then and now, but it was a great lesson. It's amazing, we left that lesson happier than we've been the whole transfer, not just because they set a date, but because of the spirit we felt there. As we were leaving, Araiujo thanked us, and said that we had taked a great weight off his shoulders. It was a very good end to our day and our transfer, neither of which had gone exactly as planned.
We also taught Jocylane a couple times this week, i talked about her last week i believe, she's doing ok, she's bummed out because her boyfriend broke up with it, and she doesn't quite get it. Today i was reading king benjamin's talk, i was impressed with the way he invited his people to listed and pay attention so that they will understand. I feel like a lot of times in our lessons people don't do that. They listen, but they don't open their hearts, nor their minds. We had that with Jocylane, who it didn't seem like anything got in. Her daughter, however, is back from porto and continues to be sharp as a tack and understands everything and asks very good questions when she doesn't.
We tried to have an activity in the Vila Franca chapel, but in the end it didn't get approved and we got moved back to alverca, but we had a good little Noite do Gelado, a more or less active member brought his girlfriend, Isabel, who seemed liked it and had a nice conversation with Leolinda. There are some superstar recent converts here in Alverca, on saturday the whole ward went to the beach (we didn't feel confident enough to ask president to go, nor did we feel like it would be the best use of our time) and a lot of good integration.
We also ran into Tucha again, you'll remember that she dissapeared about a month ago. She's been working two jobs and hasn't had a whole lot of time these days, but we had a good lesson with her. It seems like right now isn't her time.
In retrospect, i learned a lot this transfer, and i'm glad to be able to stay here until the end. Yipes. I'm doing my best to stay focused, and i feel like i'm doing well to keep working and not get lazy or slack off. It's just sort of a fact now that my mission is nearly over. Even president, in our inverview this week, said that i was nearly at the end. And our interview was almost more reminiscing than anything else. I'm realizing it just depends on the way you let it effect you. You can't just ignore the fact that your almost done, it's not possible. The idea is to look towards the finish line and let that motivate you to give everything. At least that's what i'm thinking. We'll see how that goes.
So that was our week here, it flew by, like always. You guys have a great week. It'll be interesting to see what happens this week. I think things are going to start going now, not because Elder Mateer was holding back, but i feel like we finally figured out what we need to do here, and now we just need to work.
Um Grande Abraço,
Elder Ammon
