This Work Is Unreal

Hi There Fam-

I can´t believe how the time flies out here in the mission field. It goes by quicker than the MTC. I never thought that was possible. This last week was full of opposition and many blessings. First off- i went to the mission office in Benfica for a zone meeting and there i found many wonderful letters from my family and friends. Thank you, Thank you! I love the pictures!!!!! ISLA is beautiful and so big! I love her smiles and TEETH! OH MY. Drew and Tanner- you made a good looking baby. Drew you´re just beautiful and Boomer.. Dude you´re a giant. How tall are you now? Mom- You still are just beautiful and grandma jake is looking good too.

The members here are superb! We get to eat with them a few times every week and I LOVE the food. I´ve had African food, Brazilian and Portuguese so far. Mom- I have some great recipes for you when i come home! Everyone here eats rice and french fries with everything. It´s hilarious and i love it. annd the Juice.. is to die for. I wish they juice like this in America.

Okay- if you want to know what my days are like contacting here in Odivelas.. they go like this.. We get creepy stares from old men, whistles from apartment windows, we get honked at AND Irmã and i tired to contact a guy the other day and he wanted to go buy us a cup of coffee. ha ha It sometimes get frustrating when we have contacted someone and then they ended up just only wanting to talk to us and they want nothing to do with the church.

There are a bajillion Jehova´s Witness here. They always bash the church and make people think the missionaries here are preaching false doctrines. One of our investigators, Edson was stopped by the Jehova´s Witnesses and he said oh i am already being baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ. They said how long have you been taking the discussions? He said about a week and a half.. they said that is too soon.. you have to wait 7 months. They said he was praying wrong and he shouldn´t be joining the church and it left Edson feeling really sad. He called us right away and said, Irmãs... i need to meet with you right now. I am feeling sad because the Jehova´s witnesses told me i was making a bad decision and i just need to talk about what they said. So we ran to the chapel to meet him. We prayed and read the scriptures with him. He felt much better and was Baptized yesterday! It was such a special experience. He has been prepared for a LONG time now. Yesterday Edson said he really wants to go to the temple and do work for his brother who died some time ago. When we taught him about the plan of salvation and temples of course i cried. ha ha It was tender.

This last week we had 4 people marked to be baptized for next weekend. Two of them did´t show up at church yesterday which means they can´t be baptized until the week after. Rosalino is a young man we marked last week and he has loved the lesson and commandments except the law of tithing. Saturday night we sat on the steps of his apartment for and hour and a half talking about why he is not willing to pay 10%. He said he should be able to pay what he wants and God shouldn´t establish an amount. Irmã Joslin told him he was prideful and God is God. He established this Law. We should´t doubt what he says. Rosalino said, well i just want to go back to the way i was living before i met you. Maybe later i will want to join the church. Irmã then laid it all out there. She said we are the ONLY ones who have the authority right now, in Odivleas to bring you closer to Christ and be baptized. I tried so hard to bear my testimony and tell him the importance of the commandments and how happy his life will be if he follows Christ.. He didn´t say anything and finally we left because it was like talking to a wall. That morning i was reading in Preach My Gospel and there is a quote by Elder Holland that says, these are real people you are talking to. They are not robots or a Baptismal statistic. We are dealing with their salvation. I so badly want to fulfill the Lords will and accomplish my purpose as a missionary. I haven´t had to deal with much opposition in my first few weeks here and now that is it starting to happen it´s like... ahhh what do i do? ha ha But i know there is purpose for EVERYTHING. If i am being obedient and doing what the Lord wants me to do.. Everything will work out according to his will.

This upcoming saturday we hav 3 baptisms planed and 1 for Sunday.. but since 2 of our investigators didn´t come to church i am not sure what will happen this week. It is in the Lords hands. I am just grateful to one of his tools and preach here in Portugal. It´s hard but worth every second. All is well.. All is well.

I hope you are all doing well. I Love you!

XOXO

Irmã Boshard



*Posted By The Boshard Family