Just, wow. That is all I can say about this week. Were you hoping for a story about Jehova´s Witnesses? Okay, fine. On Monday, we were meeting with an investigator who is the father of a member. While we were talking, some one knocked on the door. The son (the member) went to go answer, and then came back saying, "Oh, no, I can´t do this right now. It´s the Testamunhas de Jeová. I don´t want them here at the same time as you." And Elder Carreira said, "Yeah, we don´t want to start a war. But if you had let them in, I have all these scriptures ready to destroy their arguments." And he showed us a special list of scripture references he had put together just for the JW´s. And then, they knocked again. Irmão Fernando looked at Elder Carreira, then said, "Okay, you guys can answer the door." So we did. It was just about the most awkward thing that has happened here in Portugal. We didn´t bash, they just looked at us and said, "Um... we can try again later."
Now, for the day that really made this week "just wow." I was on splits with Elder Fonseca, who is still training, too, and we did a little bit of tracting. Now, in my area, tracting works, but with much more rejection than acceptance. That´s true of most missions. But that day, we tracted less than twenty doors, and in about an hour and a half we found four new investigators, and that day we taught seven lessons. That is just... wow. It really was a miracle.
But best of all, we baptized Irmão Fracisco yesterday! He´s the investigator whose son is a member. It was my first baptism! It was awesome. That´s all I can say.
Also, we got our transfer calls. I´ll be staying here in Alverca, but I´m getting a new companion! Elder Leal is from San Paulo, Brazil. I´m hoping his Brazilian accent won´t ruin the Portuguese one I´ve been trying to develop.
I don´t really have any doctrine to share this week. I have been learning a lot about gratitude, and as I´ve tried to be grateful during hard times, I have found that I´m happier and actually function better through out the day. So my invitation for the week is for you to be more grateful. Count your blessings, and read the talk "Grateful in any Circumstance" by President Utchdorf. It´s super good.
That´s all for this week. I love you all, and hope you are all having the best day of your life everyday!
Elder Lofthouse
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