Yesterday was Mother's Day in Portugal! :) And seeing how Mother's Day is this weekend for just about everyone else in the worldf, I figure it is a good time to give thanks for my mother! :) I have the best mother in the world! :) Yesterday I was able to bear my testimony on the divinity and importance of mothers everywhere! I think Elder Holland said it best, "To all of our mothers everywhere, past, present, or future, I say, 'Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for shaping souls, for forming chracter, and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ.'" This from one of my favorite talks by Elder Holland! :) Truly, after the Saviour, mothers play a VERY important role in the Plan of Salvation! So thank you Mom, and other moms out there in the world! :)
With this being the first Pday of the Month, it is time for the Pope Quote of the Month: "In Mary, we see that humility and tenderness aren't virtues of the weak, but of the strong." Obviously, we cant thank mothers without forgetting the Saviour's mother. :) She, too, had a VERY important role in the Plan of Salvation. The scriptures say, "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." (Luke 1:28).
This week was a good week :) We applied Chapter 14 from Preach My Gospel ;) We decided to contact more jovens (young people) and invite them to church. We've decided that baptizing old people here is not going to help the Church grow. Yes, the gospel is for everyone, and we are still trying to talk to everyone that we can, we just decided to pur a bigger focus on jovens. It has actually pushed me outside of my comfort zone, because I dont like talking to jovens. I feel like they dont respect me, they probably wont take me seriously, or just dont care enough. Also, jovens tend to not to believe in God, or have little bit of faith. I guess that means we just have more work to do! :)
Ascensão is doing pretty good! We taught the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She told us she wants to get baptized, but she wants the Elder that contacted her in Madeira to baptize her. SO we will see how that works out. She had a number and we got in contact with that Elder. So we will see where he is at after the transfer. We also taught her "Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy" and you know what she told us? She said that she doesnt like making people work on Sundays. She rarely does shopping on Sunday, only if it is an emergency. She also believes that if everyone stopped going to the super markets, the people that work there could have a day off! #elect :) That was pretty cool. We thinking about marking for the 14th of May. We were hoping to mark her during Church yesterday, but she didnt make it :( So we will have to mark her this week! :)
We also taught this one guy named Samuel, who apperently was taught in the past (we have no record though). He is a humble guy, but he doesnt believe he can quit smoking, it was like the first thing he told us. When he let us in, he told us that his house was a little bit of a mess, and it was... So during our conversation we offered to come and help him clean up his house. I, honestly, wanted to do it so bad! :) It has been a while since I have done any type of service, so I am itching to do something! He kinda was turning us down because he didnt want to ask something like that of us. He also said that one of his aunts was going to come and help him. So we told him that if his aunt didnt come and clean by a certain date, we would come and clean up his house with him! So we will see how that goes. :)
Finally, Elder Gomes wanted to go to a Baptist Church Meeting yesterday. We almost went to their Bible Study class on Saturday, but we got there late, and it was time to go home. After lunch yesterday he told me that we were going there. At first I didnt want go, cause I felt that would kinda rub off wrong for some people. But we ended up going. They were actually very welcoming, and I enjoyed it! :) It started at 4pm, and the first hour was a little Bible Study, divided into ages. So, we got to go with the jovens (14-18). :) That was cool. That lasted for an hour, and then there was the normal meeting. Also just over an hour. Kinda similar to ours, just louder ;) Announcements, plans, etc. Singing, the Sacrement, and a talk by the pastor. :) The pastor talked about the importance of families and I was very impressed by what he said. At first it was just talk and talk, and I was thinking, "Ok pastor, this is great, but how can we apply this?" I know how to apply what he was talking about: FHE and family prayer. But towards the end of the talk, he got to that point, and handed out a piece of paper that showed basically how to do family home evening, Baptist version! :) I was pretty happy that he was attacking this point with his members, because if everyone, from all faiths, can start focusing more one the familiy, the world will become a better place! I enjoyed the music, and how lively it was. Also, they had lots of jovens there! WE will see if we will make any further visits :) The other Elders think we are going apostate. :)
Shout-out to Jordan Huffy and his mission call para a "Missão Brasil Salvador!" It wasnt Europe, not even Portugal, but it is Portuguese speaking, so it is close enough! ;)
I love you all! I know this Church is true, and that we are doing an important work here on the Earth. I know that families are important to Heavenly Father's plan and I cant wait for the day to raise my own family! :) Keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers! :)
Com amor,
Elder Yoder
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| A bunch of money! I went to pull out the some money, and they only had tens. So it made me feel rich. |
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| My district! Me, ELder Holdsworth, Elder Andrade, and Elder Gomes. For our Mother's Day gift we gave all the moms in our branch this picture, and a little card with a note from the each of us. I wanted to do a picture of us struggling to do laundry or cook, but it never worked out. :) |
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