Train of Thought

"Let your light so shine..."Church in Lisbon...
The Elevator in Lisbon...
A tone of crazy graffiti in our area...
"I am the light and life of the world..."

Hey everybody!

Thanks for the emails. It's cool to see picures!

I never heard anything about MP3 Players – the only problem with MP3 players is that you can't get any new music very easily... but having an MP3 CD player is the best because people can SEND YOU MP3 CD'S! Cough. Hahahaha

I'm so excited to hear that there are other members of the church on Dad's side of the family somehow!

So ever since Sister Lister got transferred to Setúbal, I was basically nominated to be the ward pianist. It's been pretty crazy, seeing as I don't really read music very well. I use the simplified hymnbook to know the chords for my left hand the play the tune by ear with my right. It's been interesting.

What other random news...

Oh yeah, Saturday was INSANE. I was on a division with Elder Wilcox in Almada, and so we went straight to Corroios via light rail to get back together, then went to Lisbon by train to drop off Elder Nielsen's passport so the executive secretaries could start his visa process on Monday. From Lisbon, we took the train 50 minutes south to Setúbal to help teach the mini-MTC there. We saw George, an indian investigator of the zone leaders who is getting ready to get baptized in a couple weeks. When we asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon, he laughed and said, “You bet I've been reading!” Setúbal is so cool! Lisbon and Almada are all concrete. Setúbal has wider streets, less chaos, more green, etc. My vision of Portugal thus far has been very limited to the concrete jungles and chains of transit lines.

The train ride to Setúbal was a great chance for me to think, which is something I haven't been doing well for a while. I've learned from experience and having other people tell me that my thinking is basically what makes me. It's like a constant state of research, and whenever I don't have a topic, everything starts going downhill. I've thought a lot about agency lately. This morning I was trying to answer a question I had of “Did I choose to have agency?” For example, did I choose to be given agency and have to go through this life and everything? Or was agency forced upon me? It would seem a little ironic to have agency forced upon somebody imperfect, especially me, who inevitably will end up tripping over his own shoelaces in the frantic race back to his Heavenly Father. It seems to me that at least this life is our chance to choose to keep our agency or not. You can give it up to Satan, who is incapable of giving anything in return, or you can give it up to God, who promises that you will be perfected in the end by giving it to Him. This life is very revealing – it's like our lunch we had with Leonardo and Marina, who asked, “Who wants dessert?!” I quickly raised my hand and said, “I do!” but Irmã Mack shot out her plate without a sound. It was a big lesson about faith for me. God is asking us, “Who wants eternal life?” And I feel like this life is a long run through the woods and wilderness to dive at His feet with our plate extended.

Another lesson:

On the way back to Corroios for the baptism of Irmão António's daughter and one of the Irmãs' investigators, we left the Setúbal chapel at 6:30. The train was to leave at 6:57. I realized after a couple minutes of walking that the only way we could make it would be if we ran the whole way. So, we started running. We ran the whole way, making it with two minutes to spare. We didn't stop running. It seems to me like Christ gave us a train to catch, and the only way we can make it is if we run. Why would we otherwise choose to walk at a comfortable pace, knowing with an absolute certainty that we would miss the train? Once we started running, why would we stop? Why stop running, when the guarantee is that if you run, you'll make it? Why stop running? Why ever stop running?

We've been working hard to try to find new investigators. I've decided to do what I always knew I should do and stop and pray together during the day. We've been really trying to get help to know where to go or what to do or at least have some hint as to what we should do. So we went on Monday to try to talk to Donivoni, a contact we made on Elder Nielsen's first night. We have passed her every few days for the last three weeks, and she had never been home. She wasn't home earlier that day, either, but we went to try again because we had walked to the area nearby. We rang the doorbell down below, and somebody let us in the building. We went up to her house and knocked the door, and a guy answered. We asked if his mom was home, and he said no. We asked him if he had ever heard of the Book of Mormon. “Yeah, I just started reading it yesterday.” !!!!!! His name is André and he's 22. He was Catholic in Brazil, then tried out the evangelical church, then back to catholic, and now he didn't really know what he should do. He's been looking for a church here. He read everything in the beginning of the Book of Mormon – the testimony of the witnesses, Joseph Smith's story, and all the way to 1 Nephi 8, Lehi's dream. We asked him if he wanted to come to church with us, and he absolutely did. We marked the next possible visit for Saturday, and as we left, we said, “See you Saturday!” And he responded with, “And Sunday too, don't forget!” When we got to the bottom of the building we said a quick prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping us find one way or another the people truly searching for the truth. The Lord does His work on His time, that's for sure.

And now I'm out of mine!

Amor,

Elder Lobo