Transfer Week Craziness (Week 31)

Aloha Ohana! (I think that means hello family in hawaiian but I'm not sure)

Anyway, hello everyone! Well... What an eventful week it has been! Eventful may be an understatement actually..

Well, let's begin on Sunday. I'm happy to say that the wonderful elect family I told you about last week entered the Lord's Kingdom on earth by the saving ordinance of baptism. They are so wonderful, I can't express it in words! Anyway, we got there Sunday morning to pick them up and once again, they were waiting outside, all nicely dressed and reverent. I feel the Lord prepared them these past few weeks even though we may have not totally deserving of the blessings. We simply collected the fruits that the Lord planted in this wonderful family. It reminded me of the following scripture in John 10:27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Carmita, Mateus and Lorenzo listened to the voice of their shepherd Jesus Christ and followed Him into the waters of baptism. This is truly the Lord's work and I am blessed and privileged to carry His name upon my chest every day and be His representative despite of my faults and imperfections.

The baptism meeting was once again a spiritual feast, the highlight was little Rodrigo who we baptised a few weeks ago doing the closing prayer. It was a very simple prayer but everyone felt the spirit that this little boy has. He wore his tie to church once again with all the pride in the world. Now we're getting him a white shirt! :)

Here is the picture of the baptism!

​So, this week was TRANSFERS!!! No surprise, I'm still secretary and will for sure stay for at least two more transfers (3 months or so). So on Monday night I was in the office til very late with the other secretaries getting everything ready for the transfer (transport, training PowerPoints and all that jazz). We considered sleeping at the office to finish off everything but decided it was better to go home and sleep in our beds. Well, am I glad we made that decision! The next morning when we arrived to the office everything was on the floor and quite evidently someone had broke in and robbed us. All the stuff that was in my drawers, all my pictures and letters were on the floor. In the other room it was the same, the window was broken and there was blood on the curtains. A bit like a CSI crime scene, except the dead body and a lot less blood. :P hahaha, anyway.. My hard drive was stolen and the cameras of two other secretaries were also taken. Ah, the joy. I was surprisingly calm about the whole situation, my hard drive was broken anyway so I hope the guy enjoys trying to sell that on. We're all safe by the way! We called the police and they basically said: "We can't help you but if you need any help, pop by the police station." It's not like I was expecting them to do DNA blood tests like in CSI... Phht... :P

​So enough about that, the transfer meeting went surprisingly smoothly despite everything. The new missionaries arrived from the MTC and we had a wonderful training from President Farnes. :) I also had the opportunity to "train" them a bit and bear my testimony. Bearing my testimony to these new missionaries was a good 2 minute break from all the administrative work and stress of the week. :)

​The next day at 4am, a Sister who had travelled to Cape Verde on Tuesday called me from the airport in Portugal telling me she had a Visa problem at the airport and she was stopped at Border Control or something like that. I was soooo tired and out of it, I mumbled a bunch of stuff and asked her to call me back in 10 minutes. I tried to find a solution without having to leave the bed and gladly it worked out ok in the end. I asked President Farnes to do a conference call at like 5:30am and I talked to the Sister, explained what would happen and asked a worker at the airport to give her food and drink, which she didn't have money for. In the end it all worked out and as when I closed my eyes to finally get some sleep after a hectic week... BEEP BEEP BEEP. 6:30am. *sigh*

Haha, in the morning the secretaries and the assistants were able to go President Farnes' house and discuss some ideas for the multi-zone conferences coming up. A lot of great ideas were shared and I was able to feel the spirit when President Farnes spoke in the end with teary eyes, thanking us for all the work we are doing. He is such an inspired man along with his wife Sister Farnes. :')

We had few teaching opportunities like always near transfer week but we went everyday to teach Carmita and her family, including Ana Luisa who lives above their house and will be baptised tomorrow. Mateus who is 13 is incredible! He reads and understands and is able to interpret scriptures super well! He bore his testimony to us and said that ever since his baptism his thoughts have been purer, he's seen a change in his behaviour and has been happier in general! :D

The other day, we were teaching them and Elder Cardoso was explaining why little babies don't need to be baptised as they have no sin. He pointed at the little baby in the room and said: "She is the purest person in this room." Everyone looked at her for one second and felt the truth and spirit of what he said. Then the baby threw up and farted at the same time and everyone broke out laughing. Hahaha, it was so good to laugh, definitely relaxed me! :'D

Anyway, I hope you are all well and I'll talk to you next week!

Lots of love,

Elder Torres

PS: I got the Christmas cards from the Ipswich Ward finally after 3 months of them being in the mail! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I loved it!!! As you can see below. ;)