After describing her 4th july celebrations, Sister Regan writes:
This week I have really learnt the importance of looking for the good in things. When Sister Gouveia and I were focussed on the bad (member who didn't help in exactly the way we wanted, pesquisadores who would only want to chat to us, the 100th door slammed in our face in a row) we didn't achieve much. However, as we started to focus more on the people who truly loved us and use them more, we had more success. We are blessed with Elisabete a recent convert who investigated the church for 2 years before being baptised, who bore the best testimony in a lesson about the restoration this week. I invited the man to baptism and he was pretty certain in his rejection, but he admired our confidence and faith. I truly felt like whether he ever makes that change or not, I had fulfilled my missionary purpose with him and that's what is most important. We had another great experience this week. We receieved a reference from Elders in Porto who had contacted a guy on the street. As soon as I received the text message I felt good about this person. We weren't able to go by the first day, but the next day we just had 30 minutes before we had to be home and I felt prompted that we should go out there. It was just like you envisioned missions going (now I realise those moments are actually very rare!). He was at home and seemed happy to see us and we made a proper appointment for Wednesday. I am filled with hope and am so pleased that people here seem happy to make appointments, as they are much easier to prepare for and we can bring the spirit stronger. I am starting to see how blessed with are in Matosinhos. Everything is close by. We are able to help people get to mini fsy. Bishop actually asks for our help, so we are all working on the same team. Members give us advice (even if it is to give up on people, because they don't really want to change). We have the most amazing Listao (list of friends that we can contact) with one member and have been passing references to other missionaries ever since! We have the wind that makes us think it's not quite as hot as it is. We also (as of the 1st of this month) have metro passes, so we get small breaks inbetween the endless walking and door knocking inside the cool!
This week I have really learnt the importance of looking for the good in things. When Sister Gouveia and I were focussed on the bad (member who didn't help in exactly the way we wanted, pesquisadores who would only want to chat to us, the 100th door slammed in our face in a row) we didn't achieve much. However, as we started to focus more on the people who truly loved us and use them more, we had more success. We are blessed with Elisabete a recent convert who investigated the church for 2 years before being baptised, who bore the best testimony in a lesson about the restoration this week. I invited the man to baptism and he was pretty certain in his rejection, but he admired our confidence and faith. I truly felt like whether he ever makes that change or not, I had fulfilled my missionary purpose with him and that's what is most important. We had another great experience this week. We receieved a reference from Elders in Porto who had contacted a guy on the street. As soon as I received the text message I felt good about this person. We weren't able to go by the first day, but the next day we just had 30 minutes before we had to be home and I felt prompted that we should go out there. It was just like you envisioned missions going (now I realise those moments are actually very rare!). He was at home and seemed happy to see us and we made a proper appointment for Wednesday. I am filled with hope and am so pleased that people here seem happy to make appointments, as they are much easier to prepare for and we can bring the spirit stronger. I am starting to see how blessed with are in Matosinhos. Everything is close by. We are able to help people get to mini fsy. Bishop actually asks for our help, so we are all working on the same team. Members give us advice (even if it is to give up on people, because they don't really want to change). We have the most amazing Listao (list of friends that we can contact) with one member and have been passing references to other missionaries ever since! We have the wind that makes us think it's not quite as hot as it is. We also (as of the 1st of this month) have metro passes, so we get small breaks inbetween the endless walking and door knocking inside the cool!