Thanksgiving time is near!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is not a celebrated holiday over here in Portugal, so we will try to celebrate in our own special way. However, we have started listening to Christmas music. I can’t believe it is already this time of year again!
Transfer news- I will be staying in Sacavém for a 5th transfer. Meaning I will be in Lisbon for the entire calendar year of 2011. Also meaning I have been in the office, and have had a car for the entire calendar year of 2011. And I will have only served in 2 areas for the entire calendar year of 2011. Crazy stuff. Elder Crowther is finishing his mission today. Our new companion is named Elder Phillips, he is from England. Our companionship is now Rodrigues, Phillips, and I. Supposedly we will be training a new missionary as well. We don’t know who yet though. So our companionship has an American, a Brit, and a Brazilian. We are quite the mixture. Elder Phillips is a cool kid though, and we will have a lot of fun.
This week we baptized a lady named Angela. She is super awesome! She was so excited for her baptism. She is a mother of 3 kids (who we plan to also baptize in the near future). She has been going through a lot of problems in her life as of lately, including with her oldest daughter who just went through surgery because she is slowly going blind, due to a tumor in her head. She is an awesome lady though, and is always smiling and laughing. She was super happy yesterday.
Edimilson wasn’t baptized and neither was Cintia. Edimilson… we aren’t really sure about. He was good to go, and excited to be baptized. He left for his Aunts house on Friday… and kind of disappeared. His mom was/is super worried about him. Nobody could get a hold of him, and nobody was sure what was going on. His mom took a train out there yesterday… and wasn’t able to find him. Maybe he came home last night, we are sure hoping so. We tried to call over to his mom a few times last night, but she didn’t answer. We aren’t sure what is going on exactly, we just hope he is alright.
Cintia on the other hand is a different story. She came to church yesterday, and she even came to the baptism. She just isn’t completely ready to live the commandments yet. It was our fault that we were unable to help her clear all of her doubts. We are working worth her this week, and hope to baptize her this weekend.
So far we have 5 people marked for this upcoming week. They are: Diogo, Martin, Catia, Liliana, and Anicia. We have plans to mark quite a few more people as well. They all came to church yesterday, and they all really liked it! We actually had 13 investigators in church yesterday, so it was a good day. This week is transfer week though, so it means we have a lot of work ahead. All that work, as well as strengthening all these people is going to result in a hectic week. We really need all of your prayers!
Things have been going really well though! We have been finding some awesome people. I love this work, and I love these people. I hope everyone at home is doing well. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and that you all get fat from eating lots of food. I love and miss you all! I would love to hear from some of you every once in a while as well. Don’t forget about me! And for those who have not forgotten about me… thank you :)
Elder Porter
