August 8, 2011

well hi there thanks a bunch for the email. sorry about not writing back last week i just got going in the week and next thing i knew its monday again but i wrote all the main stuff that happened.

that was a cool testimony meeting you had and just remember never stop praying for your family and anyone else. the lord is preparing all of his children to one day hear the gospel. so keep it up and the lord listens and answers the prayers of the righteous if it is in accordance with his will. i have thought about my siblings a lot lately especially cuz im coming home soon and just pray with me that the lord softens their hearts and opens up a way.

that was a nice little experience with the rattle snake. i have only seen two snakes in my whole two years of portugal. they dont have many wild animals around. one of the snakes was dead in the street and one was this black little baby that i tried to catch back in cb but it got away. ha. thats too bad to hear about brother westlund he seemed like such an awesome guy. i never knew him super well but thats always hard. i will keep them all in my prayers.

well as for the stuff with me this past week. its been pretty good. we have been teaching lurdes and paula a good amount and both of them came to church this week. lurdes is marked to be married and baptised this coming saturuday. its going to be so cool. she is just beaming with happiness so im way excited that will sure be a cool story to tell haha. i just cant describe the joy that comes. and paulo and paula are coming along really well. we are meeting with them regularly and she is coming along. he told us this sunday how much he is liking hearing the lessons again. he was baptised when he was like 16 and left the church a few years after that and its been 18 years. he said he was just feeling like something was missing and he is loving hearing the lessons again. he brought paula along so she could hear and hopefuly be baptised but he said he is needing it just as much if not more than her. so that was really cool to hear. she is doing really well and has already felt and recognized the spirit. she is reading and praying and asking all the perfect questions. im going to talk with paulo about their situation as well and see if we cant get them to get married also if she really wants to be baptised. we have a couple appointments with them this week and we will aslo invite them to go to the baptism. those are our two that are progressing the best. we have a few people that we are trying with but its kind of hit and miss.

one is this mom of a recent convert named maria. she is like 50 or so and smokes drinks beer and coffee. she loves to argue with us and think of any possible question to trip us up but she still hasnt been able to trip us up. haha the church is true plus the lord says that no man will be able to confound us. but she is cool and i like talking to her i think with some work and a lot of prayer one day she could be converted to the gospel.

but the coolest story this week happened a few days ago. we will see what comes out of it. but we prayed where we needed to go to knock and so we went. we found this lady who was super tired or something who said come back in like an hour. so we left and came back and she is brazilian so she was extremely nice and let us right in. she started telling us that she was talking to her parents and she was having a hard time with school but her mom told her she should let us in. the first time we knocked she said she was crying and thinking about quiting her studies and going back to brail then we knocked. the second time we knocked her mom told her to listen to us when we came back and then we knocked. so that was cool. and her studies require her to give a presentation in english and she is struggling a lot so i told her we could help her with that. and she is really interested in the gospel. when she was in brasil there was a church close to where she lived but the nuns always told her she couldnt go so she had a lot of questions and was excited to talk with us. we gave her a book of mormon and she is going to read it. so it was a cool experience and pray for her that we will be able to start teaching her and that she will accept the teachings.

other than that it was a pretty standard week i would say. its been pretty good weather lately it did however rain a little this week. only a couple of days. i learned how to make another portuguese dessert so when i come home i can fatten you guys up with all the desserts i know how to make. haha only like 3 so dont worry to much. its pretty good i think you would like it, its chocolate. but anywho thats about it for this week. thanks for everything mother. i love you guys a bunch and i hope you have a great week.

love
elder abreu