The blessings of righteous service

Hey everyone!  I will have to be a little short this week sorry.  But we had a great week.  We had another 3 baptisms in the zone which makes a total of 7 so far this month.  This is great progress for this zone!  We are really happy!  We are also super happy to have President amorim as you new Mission Presdient.  He has a great gift of motivating and inspiring.  I already know that he will be a grand influence for my life.  He had a private conversation with me and Elder Gomes and gave us a challenge to do 60 contacts every day this week.  We decided we can do better so we set a goal of 75 every day.  This is going to be super hard and tiring but I know that the Lord will bless us for showing our desires to find his elect.  I am super excited!"  I love you all and hope you are doing well!:)  Sorry for the short boring letter this week but I love you tons and tons!!  Thank you for your prayers!

COm grande amor 

Elder Eldredge

Pictures! Joaquim''s baptism, our zone & a unique haircut!

Joaquim is baptized!

Our zone

My awesome haircut!!

Miracles ! The baptism of Joaquim

Hey everyone!  One more week here in Santarém.  I am really liking it here.  We have a few members that are willing to work and help us and I am not sure if many of you know what that means to us as missionaries.  It makes all the diference in our lives and the lives of the people that we are teaching.  I will just show an example that is also the miracle of the week.

So this man in our Ward Brother Paulo Guerra is a super awesome guy.  Recent convert in the church with a great testimony and desire.  He felt one day that he needed to invite his friends Joaquim to come to church and also shared with him a few scriptures.  Joaquim was touched and decided to come two sundays ago.  He liked all the meetings and naturally being the good misisonaries that we are;)  Haha we asked him if we could visit him and teach him more during the week.  He accepted but told us.  I don't want you guys to pressure me at all.  I have already seen you guys pressuiring people a lot in the road and I don't want you guys to do that.  SO we assured him we wouldn't pressure him.... too much;)  Haha anywho so we were thinking yeah whatevs we will teach him.  So we went there on Tuesday afternoon and had a great conversation on the Restoration of the Gospel and in the end he accepted quickly to be baptized on the 18th of the month.  SO a few days pass and me and Elder Gomes had a lot of meetings and zone leader stuff to do which made it so we only had about 2.5 days to work in our area this last week. we came back on thursday just in time for our weekly branch activity.  Joaquim showed up and so we took advatnge and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ during the activity.  After the lesson we were walking through the hall and Elder Gomes asks him.  Joaquim... waht is holding you back form being baptized this Sunday.  Joaquim really didn't have an answer and realized that he realy didn't have any reason to wait another week.  He already a a great faith and so he decided to be baptized on Sunday night.  Obviously we didn't want to hold him back so we went ahead and baptized him yesterday!  This was definitely the fastest I have seen someone accept our message and put their  faith in action!  Joaquim is a great man that will be able to help the body of the Priesthood here in Satarém.  

The funny thing is this case was a lot different than I am used to.  There were very few difficulties.  Almost none.  That like never happens in misisonary work!  I think it is simply because the quality of Faith that Joaquim had and his sensibility to the Spirit.  So it can happen, baptism a week after knowing about the church for the first time in your life.  This was truly a blessing of the Lord that fell into our hands, and it all happened because one faithful member of the church opened his mouth and showed his love for his friend by extending and invitiation.

I know that the Lord prepares people and work through his favortie tools (faithul and obedient members) to bring about miracles.  I am greatful to have been apart of this one.  

The church is true, This work is of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I have seen many proofs of this.

Also if you want something interesting to study that I learned this week.  Study the difference between knowledge and understanding and which is of more value.

I love you all so much thank you for all the support and love!

COm muito amor de Siãotarém

Elder Eldredge

Lots & lots of pictures!!

Pictures of my district

Our attempt at a high school musical jump

Some companion pictures

More architecture

This is the convent

Just me!!

Castle in Tomar

Me & Elder Gomes

Elder Gomes and one of our 

District leaders, Elder Brown

"You can make difference in someone's life and sometimes even in someone's eternity!

So this week has been great full of fun, work, and BURNING HOT WEATHER.  Man it is getting really hot here.  I am not really sure how it compares to the heat of Utah seeing has I have never been a missionary in Utah.  Back home I could espcape the heat whenever I wanted by going inside!  Now it is my duty to talk with all of the people crazy enough to go outside and share with them the restored gospel!  It is great!

WE started the week off on Monday with a call that all of our missionaries needed to travel to Coimbra for a zone conference the following day.  WE got the call pretty surprisingly and we had to call a bunch a missionaries to end p day early to catch a train or a bus.  It was super short notice but we got everyone there. 

The conference was great we all felt full of the spirit to hear our President Fluckiger speak one last time and also pyhsically full when Mcdonalds catered our lunch (Soooooo goood):).  But my favorite part was when me and Elder Gomes had the opportunity to address some issues with the Zone and I was inspired to help the missionaries realize how the MEMBERS are a good source to help investigators with doubts and concerns.  

I shared with them the Story of Beatriz (recent convert from Póvoa de Varzim)  how she was filled with doubt three days before here baptism because of some material she had found on the internet and almost gave up... but we took a member, the member bore his solemn testimony of the Church and how it blesses families and the power of his tesimony took all of Beatriz's doubts away withouy saying a single word of what see saw on the internet.  I told them that Beatriz was baptized and because of her example the rest of her family (husband and daughter) are now also active members in the church.  The feeling that I got as I shared this with them was undescribable.  I was filled with pure love and joy.  The Spirit seemed to fill every bit of my body, not just the burning in the bosom, but a burning that spread from head to toe.  It hit me that that moment could have made the difference in the eternal destination of Beatriz's family.  That simple yet powerful testimony from that member (Antonio Oliveira) changed that families destination in the eternities.  What a wonderful experience that was for me to be there with that family and see real conversion happen.  I know that members of this church have a power and responsability to share the gospel, not just full time missionaries.  Many times it lies in the hands of the members to find and invite and then hand them off to the missionaries to teach and help them accept the gospel.

~

You make a difference.  No matter who you are, in what ward you are in, or you status in life, you can and should make a difference in the lives around you.  It can start with just the little things, for by "small acts of kindness and love, we keep the darkness at bay."  I know that each one of you can help the work of God's kingdom go forth.  You can make a diference in someones life and sometimes even in someone's eternity.

  

With much love in Christ

Elder Eldredge:)

Being a Zone leader & baptism!

Me & Elder Casey at zone council

The last time we see each other :(

I am Elder Cox's zone leader!

Baptism of Wagisa!!