Part of our assignment here in Portugal is to be with the Young Adults (jovem adultos!) Our first activity was Saturday evening. We bought a Disney code names game and made some games. We were hoping to have 6 come and were so happy to have 8! (2 guests). We're not sure who had more fun...the youth or us!? Games, lots of Pizza, Ping Pong, and a Book of Mormon video, etc, made for a good time. They were excited to be together and we received a thank you text from Djodjo and another from Djeison during our walk back home that night, plus, Santhosh asked if he could watch the rest of the Book of Mormon videos and wanted the link! The videos are nice for all of us to watch.
Our one young sister, Nadia, in the Evora branch will be back from the Christmas break for university classes this week. She may bring some of her friends to join us next activity. I am way out-numbered! (I found marshmellows here, so we had actual rice krispie treats...that was sweet.) But, the addition of some young women will make the activities a bit sweeter as we go!
Mostly this past week was full of walking and visiting and trying to find members. Grandpa has mapped out the whole city and we are making progress. Because of Covid concerns, we had been unable to go into homes for two weeks, but we could still teach from the doorway. This week our mission is almost back to normal our Mission President said last night. Yay!
This young man (15 years old) wanted to watch the 20 minute Restoration Video.
It was very cold standing there but he warmed our hearts.
Probably one of the best moments this week was finding Amelia. It was a neighbor (that "just happened" to be home and the door that we "just happened" to knock on) that lived on the same long street who showed us where she "might" live as we had no address number. When Amelia opened the door, like usual, she was busy...but when she heard our message and saw our badges she got teary and asked her grand-daughter, Marta, to go into her bedroom to get her missionary card from years ago. Her grand-daughter, though handicapped, knew exactly where the card was and Amelia showed it to us! We all know that it isn't the missionaries themselves that make people record them in their hearts forever, but that hope and love in the message they bring. Before her heart problems and divorce and Covid, she remembers attending meetings in a little house near the Chinese store. She is so happy to know that the branch is still here...but just in another building and that she can meet with her friends again!
