Refreshment

One of my very favorite 7 scriptures is: Doctrine and Covenants 121:45

Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

                           

We met with Carlos on Tuesday.  He is a good man and so anxious to learn.  He received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday, Nov. 6th and so we talked about what all of that means and with all the questions and scriptures and visiting... an hour had passed by so quickly.  Grandpa told him that we must leave, but next time we will share with him the great promises given to us when we keep our promises to God.  Carlos looked up and said, "Can we read about them now?"  And so we sat back down and read more scripture and visited for another 20 minutes about how much Heavenly Father loves His children and the promises He wants to share with them.  We really needed to leave and he asked if we could return quart-feira (wed), but we were flying to Porto, Portugal that day.  He asked when we would return and we set another appointment.  

This was our first time to see Porto which in Northern Portugal.  It is just over 2 hours to fly to the zone conference there.  We arrived in the dark and were up early for a beautiful half hour walk to find the church.  Elder Whiting of the seventy and his wife were there, along with President and Sister Barcellos and what a marvelous day of inspiration and training for all of us.  

After the meetings, we hurried to get to the airport only to find that our flight would be 2 hours late, and so we arrived home about 11:20 pm.   A funny note:  On the way to Porto we sat by a man and as we visited with him and told him what we were doing he pulled out a magazine and showed us what he is doing.  He sells wine to distributors.  We learned all about the wine in Portugal and I think if I remember right, that a sweet red wine is best with potatoes!  We gave him our card and he gave us his.  

        

On the way to the airport in Porto, on the subway, we sat across from a two students, one in law and the other studying biology.    The girl studying law, asked if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints when she saw that we had badges on.  She was baptized last year and began to tell the other girl about her experiences. It was nice to hear her testimony.  

On our flight back to our Azore home, we sat by a Brasilian lady now living in Italy. Adriana was interesting to visit with and she likes to read. So I told her about a very important book she would love and about the miracle experience we had with the Ukrainian Book of Mormon recently.  She asked some thoughtful questions.  Adriana was happy to receive a Book of Mormon and we were happy to know that she was born and raised in a part of Brasil where grandpa served his very first mission when we were 19 years old. 

Friday we were invited to the Bernadinho and Maria da Paz home.  Such good people.  Grandpa shared with them the importance of following Jesus and of making and keeping our promises.

 We returned to visit and read with Carlos.  He started the visit by saying that he was not good at speaking and we sensed that he was rediscent to give a discourso (talk) at church.  In our previous conversation about the Priesthood, he had read that he was to exhort others and teach others. Instead of our original plan, I asked him if he could get some paper and a pencil.  Grandpa asked him questions about how he felt about his decision to be baptized.  He then began writing down his ideas in bullet points.  As his story unfolded, together we found scriptures that matched his own conversion story. We told him that he was already giving a talk to us! He got excited and after 2 pages of notes he understood that a talk is just sharing your testimony in your own voice using truth given through scripture, prayer,  Prophets, and 'doing' the gospel.  

That visit and watching him pass the Sacrament for his first time yesterday...well...there are no words.  Maybe in the next life, I can find a way to describe his reverence, the look in Grandpa's eyes, and the feeling in my heart as Carlos took the emblems to the members in our little Ribeira Grande chapel...

We love you all forever. Make a great week!