Let's just start off with again how much i love being a missionary. This is literally the hardest thing I have ever done, but I've never been happier.
Yesterday I was crushed and cried some of my hardest tears and an hour later I was laughing harder than that one night me martis and shart had the giggles when we were watching the superbowl last year. it's definitely an emotional rollercoaster alllllll day erry day
Let's start off with some good news.... Happy one year batismo aniversario to Hannah Mack! You're email made my week and I am so happy to hear you are still thriving in the happiness that this gospel brings! and cute little Alberto, my first baptism is at the temple in Spain this week doing baptisms for his first time! ahhhh! I was SO happy when i heard that :)
This week we were working with our progressing investigator Arcelindo, he's this 20-something year old little nig with super long skinny dreads from Cape Verde that wanted to be a padre for catolica, but then he started having a lot of doubts. He wants to find the right path in life so bad, but he has been having a hard time with Jospeh Smith and the Book of Mormon. Last week Bispo invited him to fast during General Conference with the question in mind "Was Joseph Smith a prophet?" We were so excited for him to finally get his answer. We stopped by or talked to him every day to prepare for his fast. On Wednesday we were talking about real intent which means we are willing to act upon whatever answer we receive so I asked him. Arce, if you get your answer this weekend during conference will you get baptized that night? and he said yes! the next day we went over the baptismal interview questions and he passed them all except the one if he believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So we marked him for sunday, planned the whole baptism and fasted and prayed so hard for him.
Saturday we got to the chapel to watch the Relief Society session and right before it was about to start we got the most heart breaking text I've ever received. He told us he had been reading the book of mormon and read in the introduction where the Prophet Joseph Smith said this is the most correct book of any book on the earth and he took that to mean that we dont believe in the Bible (obviously someone totally skipped over the first paragraph in the intro that says we do) and then he told us he wasn't going to fast or come to conference. Seriously my world just got rocked.
I had no idea what to do. As the leader in our companionship I feel like I have to be the one who knows what to do, but seriously I didn't. We called him and tried to ask him to just talk to us one more time or just watch one session of conference, but he had pretty much made up his mind. but the worst part is, he didn't pray about it!!
Over the phone I read him the verses in Joseph Smith History that talks about how he went to pray in the spot he had previously decided and when he started he had the over powering darkness that fell upon him and he thought he was doom to sudden destruction. But he used all his force to pray out loud and then he had that maravilha vision as God the Father and His son Jesus Christ visited this humble boy and started this marvelous work. As I read that to him I knew this is exactly what was happening with Arcelindo.. He had previously made the decision to fast and pray and watch conference to get an answer, but right before it happened Satanas brought out the troops because he knows how much of a force Arcelindo would be for the church here in Coimbra and Arce was not using all his force to fight against him and pray about it. We tried passing by his house that night, but he wasnt there. We haven't been able to get ahold of him since and I don't know what to do. #justkeepprayin
For conference, I didn't get any of Dennis' french toast and home made caramel syrup which was a bummer.... but Saturday night we got to watch the Saturday morning session live, it was being broadcast in the chapel to everyone in portuguese, and then all us 'mericans were in one of the rooms watching it on a tv in English. and then Sunday morning we got to the chapel at 10 a.m. and were there watching conference until 11:30 at night.................. it was like the best day ever though. We hung out at the chapel all day and had sessions almost every 2 hours and in between we just made chocolate banana bread and redeemed myself as a sister missionary (last couple of cooking experiences I burnt the brownies and the tortellini and i added baking powder instead of soda to the cookie dough...)
and I had been thinking all week that I wanted to get a priesthood blessing, but I thought I was just being selfish or something, because i had no health probs or something, and also my goal for the week was to not be chato (like annoying) to the Zone leaders or my DL Elder Morse anymore (I feel like I call them 5 times a day with questions, or problems like getting locked out of our house last week and making elder barbosa scale the apartment building at 10 o clock at night to break in through our balcony... twice.) But during the first talk in conference, the speaker said that we are all capable of receiving all the blessings of the priesthood and I got the confirmation from the spirit that I should ask for a blessing. So Elder Morse gave me a blessing of comfort and it was exactly what I needed. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the worthy holders of the priesthood i can call to at anytime I need.
AHH im out of time, and i could go on and on about everything I learned in conference, but if anything I just hope you are all taking the counsel of the prophet and all the apostles that talked about members being involved in the wonderful work of salvation! and when one of them said to pray for the missionaries and their investigators BY NAME... We need all the prayers we can get, please pray for Arcelindo, Evandro, Celson, Yan and Manuela!
Line of the week:
we went to lunch at Anabellas house like always and as she cooked who knows what this time she told all of us to go look at the puppies so as we were watching these two cute wittle puppies wiff their wittle mama for like 20 minutes i realized we were actually watching the dog currently giving birth!!! ahhh
Elder Bluemel: "Oh my gosh doesnt she want water!? I feel like if I was giving childbirth I would want some water!"
LOVE YOU ALL!!
xoxoxox Sister Krack
p.s. mom im broke as freak....... please put some money on my debit card!
PICSSSS
1. the infamous Elder Bluemel that has made the line of the week for like the past 5 weeks straight
2. me and my wittle mao relagio
3. distrito de ctm reunidos
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