"The field is white already to harvest"

Hello everyone!  This week has been pretty normal nothing ourside of the norm!  WE had our first mission council with our new Presidente which was really good!  He will do a lot of good things with this mission no doubt!  One thing he did was he asked to to make a big list about why it is so hard to baptize in portugal.  We made a giant list as a group with things like THEY'RE ALL CATHOLIC or no one gets married, the members are dicouraged and a buch of excuses why.  Then President asked us (with this giant list in front of us) How do you feel that you were called to serve here?  Then he began to teach us the true principles of D&C 4 "The field is white and ready to harvest".  He taught us that when we are looking and thinking about all of these excuses (that is all they are) we are spending our missions looking at the ground.  He helped uys to gain a better vision with the work here.  The church here certainly is not as persecuted as it was when it started in the united states in its beginning, the church is new here but that will not stop in from growing and we need to do our part in helping Portugal become the "Lighthouse of Europe" like it has been prophesied to be.  He is an incredible example to me for sure!

Also another cool thing that happened this week was with Carlos!  The investgator I told you all about a while ago that was having troubles with smoking.  He is marked and progressing towards baptism this saturday!  How did we do it?  He asked us to read the book of mormon with him every day so we did and of course no one (with a sincere heart) can read the book of mormon without being touched by the Spirit he started gaining the courage back to get back on the right path.  One day we did something pretty cool with him.  We brought baptismal clothes from the chapel to his house, we gave him the clothes and told him to get dressed.  He was asking a lot of questions but we just insisted... get dressed!  It was actually kind of funny!  He got into white clothes and we commented on how good he looked and then suddenly something hit me and my eyes got full with tears and my heart was full.  

He had a big smile on his face and asked "now what?"  We put him in front of the mirror asked him how he looked and then I held up his sack of tobacco right next to him after a bit and I asked him..." Carlos what do you really want?  He shook his head and looked himself in the eyes in the mirror and was silent.  My companion then invited him to be baptized the following Saturday and to make a renewed effort to quit smoking.  Carlos accepted and is on the road to baptism.  It is not going to be easy Carlos knows that, but that confirmation that I recieved as I saw him in white that filled my eyes with tears,  I know that we will do everything in our power to help this man to baptism this Saturday.  I am truly excited and happy:)

Well thats about all for this week!  Love you guys tons and tons!

Elder Eldredge