Barreiro: Week 58

Zone Conference

Eating Snails!

Hey!! 

Woah Happy 4th of July Week!! Can't believe last year on this day I was in Braga, and the year before Costa Rica. I haven't had a real 4th of July in a while! Haha but I hope it is super fun! We'll eat watermelon or something...

This week was quite good! We had a Zone Conference in Setúbal and the Almada Zone came too which is the zone I was in in Miratejo. It was fun to see the missionaries there and talk to them about people I know! We learned a lot. Woohoo! P.S: I don't think I ever mentioned... My area is so close to Miratejo that I can see it from one of the bridges in my area. Haha... I didn't go too far.

Our stake went to the temple in Spain this past weekend. It was AWESOME because a ton of recent converts went and seriously you should see them the day after they go. They are different people. So happy, so peaceful. They can't find the words for how much they loved it. I love hearing their testimonies about it. I CAN'T WAIT to go back to the temple!

Yesterday one of our investigators, Anilton, was gardening so we taught him as he watered his vegetables. I seriously felt like I was at home it was so fun being in the garden! Haha a bunch of people in the neighborhood just found open land that no one was using and planted huge gardens. So funny.

So yesterday morning was just like every Sunday morning on the mission. Super busy! We had a bunch of people who said they were coming to church as usual. We confirmed with them all week and they were good to go. Well then there was a party here for the Brasilians in the World Cup and a ton of people went. So basically no one got home until 5 in the morning and were too tired to wake up. So we walked around for 2 hours knocking on everyone's doors and no one was answering, or they refused to go. We were so disappointed because we thought we had some SOLIDS this week. I just felt like there was something we needed to do to find a miracle so I started calling EVERYONE we know. No one answered. We bumped into a man we met a few weeks ago and he told us he'd meet us at the pizza restaurant in front of the church in one hour. I thought it was our miracle, but then he wasn't there. All the sudden I look across the street and saw this guy José who I had spoken to the day before at a bus stop. He's older and we just chatted for a little bit, nothing special. I invited him to church and he said, "sure why not?" So he came with us!!! We walked in to the chapel and 3 other investigators were there on their own. WOOHOO!!! Miracles. We did our part, Heavenly Father did the rest. They all LOVED church.

We have 2 investigators marked for baptism. Anilton and Gary. I will update you on them next week. They are GREAT! We also found a FAMILY!!! A mom and 3 daughters. We are helping one of them with her math homework and the whole family loves us now. We are STOKED about everyone!

Just wanted to share a story real quick that I heard last transfer. It is in the book about World War 2 called "The Hiding Place". Mom I know you've read it. So this lady and her sister were put in a concentration camp together. They were placed in a small room crowded with people on the second level where they had to sit on tires to sleep and it was so short they couldn't sit up all the way without hitting their heads on the ceiling. It smelled horrible and was a miserable place. The sister snuck in a Bible with her to give them a little bit of hope. She said she was complaining about the circumstance and how it was so horrible, but then her sister said, "No we need to be grateful! We read that in the Bible this morning." Then they felt a little pinch on their legs. They looked down and were covered in fleas. The sister began to pray and thanked God for everything, including the fleas. She said, "How on Earth can you be grateful for the fleas?" The sister just told her to be grateful. Well, there were never any guards in their room. They were always alone with just other prisoners, so they started having little Bible study groups. They got to be so popular that they had to start splitting the group up because there were too many. People started feeling hope, and happiness even in their horrible situation, which I imagine would be VERY difficult. A little while later they overheard one of the guards say that none of them would go into that prisoner's room because they were afraid of the fleas.

I loved that story. We can be grateful for anything, even when it doesn't make sense at the time. There is a purpose for everything in our lives. Be grateful for the fleas! Love you all. Have a great week.

Sister Carroll