Obediência 🤪🤪🤪

This week

There has been a suuuper obvious theme to my week, and it's been obedience. Sister Webster and I have been talking about it a lot, the training was on it in district council, during my exchange, interviews with President, everything. And one question keeps resurfacing: Where does the desire to be obedient come from?

As I recognize the magnitude and the sacred nature of my calling, I can not fathom not having the desire to be obedient to the mission rules.

"You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be an official representative of the Church. As such, you will be expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and appearance, keep the commandments, and follow the counsel of your mission president. As you devote your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs, the Lord will bless you with increased knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel... Our Heavenly Father will reward you for the goodness of your life. Greater blessings and more joy than you have yet experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children. We place our confidence in you and pray that the Lord will help you become an effective missionary."

Isn't that so cool and powerful???

As I recognize my true eternal identity, who I really am and who I can become, I can not fathom not having the desire to be obedient to the commandments.

John 14:15

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

1 John 4:19

"We love him, because he first loved us."

Mosiah 2:41

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

I wanna share some miracles!!!

One day this week we took a bus out to this farther part of our area that we had never gone to before. In the morning when we were preparing to leave, I felt like I should take an english Book of Mormon so I grabbed one and we went and were determined to find someone to give it to. It was a good day we delivered a Book of Mormon to a lady who asked for one in the past and we passed by the house of a friend it was super awesome. We ended up walking faaaar to find our friend and were in the middle of nowhere you guys. Long story short, there was a lady who was super lost. Her phone didn't have service and she was super far from where she needed to be, so we offered to go with her there in her car. She was a cute English lady that was here on vacation and we came to find out that she was interested in the gospel and we got her number and everything for the missionaries near her. We got out of the car and started walking and Sister Webster stopped and looked at me and said "Sister, the english Book of Mormon." Broooo I was so upset we had both forgotten that I had had it and I normally never forget things like that and we had missed probably our only chance to give it away. We both decided that it must've been meant to be because we both had totally forgotten about the book. We kept walking and decided to stop to knock some doors. On the second door we knocked, a girl about my age opened the door, sobbing on the phone, and said in perfect english "Now is not a good time." We asked her if she was okay but she had already closed the door. Me and Sister Webster looked at eachother, didn't say a word, and pulled out the english Book of Mormon and left it on her doorstep with a note from us. I took a picture of her doorstep and I'll include it down there. ❤️‍🔥

We did an hour of missionary work with our recent-convert Kevin!! and within that hour we found lots of new friends to teach and we were able to bless one of their homes. The Spirit was so strong as knelt down in their apartment. It was so cool to recognize the difference between when we walked into their home and when we left.

We stopped by and visited a cute old lady this week and we didn't even know that that day was Grandma's Day here in Portugal and she was so happy to see us.

I had an amaaaazing division with Sister Enger here in Faro. Every single person we talked to that day, whether at their door or on the street had already either talked with the missionaries before, or had a good friend that was a member and already knew about the Book of Mormon.

In the morning we took a bus farther out to drop off cookies at a members house, and then coming back, we waited a good 15 minutes for a bus that never came, and so then we decided to walk a million years back to Faro. On the way back we walked past a bus station and there was a couple guys sitting there. One of them kind of stuck out to me and I thought we should talk to him. But then we kept walking and we were already late for lunch and by this point I was having a full on debate in my head and after having listening to that talk that I sent to you guys a couple weeks ago, I know that the second voice of the adversary was winning. I told Sister Enger that we had to go back and we walked back (I kid you not it took like 3 minutes to walk back that's how long it took me to finally turn around). We go back and talk to him and this man is from Africa and only speaks English. He said that he was actually looking for a place to worship and that he's walked by the church many times but it's never been open. He even wrote down the name of the church from the sign on the front so he could look it up.

We had an amazing lesson where we taught the first part of the plan of salvation up until the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And I've talked about how much I love reading 2 Nephi 2 with our friends already, but reading those verses in this lesson had us all in tears. We finished the lesson and Sister Enger said to me "That wasn't even a lesson for Tomé, that was a lesson for me."

One of the biggest miracles though is that this week, I found out that an old friend, that me and Sister Adib and Sister Smith taught in Aveiro, is going to be baptized!!! I don't think you guys will remember, but his name is Cristian, and I remember writing an email about him and how tears were shed because I did not know what more we needed to do to help him be ready for baptism. He sent me a message this week on facebook saying that he just needed more time to get to know the church better and that he apologizes for all the times he refused to be baptized before. The Lord's plan and timing really is so perfect.

I want to be obedient so that I can experience greater joy and more blessings than I have ever known. I want to be obedient so that my family and I can be blessed temporally and spiritually. I want to be obedient so that that my comp and I can have the Spirit to be us. So that we can help our friends strengthen their testimonies. So that we can find new friends to teach. So that I can help Sister Webster as much as I can. So that I can grow and develop into the person the Lord wants me to be.

D&C 130

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

I love you guys!!

Sister Menden

Pics

- everyone go look at how cute Max is in this pic

- the english Book of Mormon we left for that cute girl

- missionary work with Kevin!!

- FHE with the zone

- Cristian's messages

- Exchange with Sister Enger!!