Dear Family,
Today i'm in benfica for a bit, we had zone leader council, it was really great. But i don't have a whole lot of time, so i'll be quick. This week was good, some great stuff, and some dissapointments. Araujo, who was doing so great, decided out of nowhere to go to brasil, and is now there for a month. It was sort of a shock for us. Graziele and Tiago are doing well, but they're not going to be baptized this week, we're going to talk to them tonight, if we get home on time, and try to set up a new date for them.
On saturday, we did a really cool experiment. Elder Rivera is a great missionary, he's very excited to work, but one of the most impressive things is his courage to try new things. We went to a park and drew the plan of salvation on the wall in chalk and then contacted families that were walking by. It was a cool idea, and in the end we got the address of a moldovian family who was super nice. We're going to try it again this week, and try to find a more populated area to do it in, in the park there weren't a whole lot of people, but that chalk, if we don't scrub it off, will stay there until it rains, and it's been pretty hot and sunny, so who knows what will come out of that. I was afraid to write our number because you never know when you're breaking some minor law, so we just left a couple pamphlets next to the mural. I'll try to get a picture of it and send it for you.
What else happened...Francisco is doing great. He's said today is the day he quite smoking, he's been coming to church on time and on his own, which is spectacular. We're teaching a bunch of families and couples, we marked a lesson with this beautiful little family who are friends of some of our members. We're going to teach them, Edson and Daiane, tomorrow afternoon. We're excited for them. It's always fun to teach people for the first time. In the first lesson, you're so full of hope and faith for the people.
I gave a talk in sacrament yesterday, among other things, i talked about the power of member in missionary work. I commented about how i'm excited to be able to do missionary work as a member and not as a strangely dressed foreiner who barely speaks the language. I always wonder, giving talks, if it really makes a difference to people. Teaching lessons we can tell if people got it when we invite them to do stuff and then follow up on it, but in church you just hope that something you said can touch someone. I had a lot of good experiences this week, we gave a blessing to Leolinda's daughter, who was struggling in several things. We heard from leolinda later that week that they had seen miracles happen in her daughter's life. The mission really is great. I've been thinking a lot about this last month and how i want to finish. I want to finish well. Today i got my "anti-trunky" papers, with some instructions for the end of my mission, and a few talks to help keep me inspired. I'm pretty inspiried, this month ought to be the best of my whole mission, but that basically requires me to work better than i ever have before. But Elder Rivera has a good influence on me, and we have a lot of potential in this area. This thursday we have a lunch-lesson with a member and her daughter and grandchildren, none of whom have been baptized, so we're praying that that goes well. This is basically the perfect opportunity, which doesn't happen as often as it ought to.
Anyway, i'm out of time, so i'll talk to you guys more next week.
Abraços para todos,
Elder Ammon
