We have all heard of golden investigators, but this is a story of a truly elect woman of God. One day a woman walked up to the other Elders in Leiria, and gave herself as a reference. We tried to contact her for a while with no luck. Finally we taught her the first lesson; it was a miracle in itself that we found her house, but that is an-other story altogether.
We found out that she was a Jehovah’s Witness for almost fifteen years, twelve of which she served as a local missionary, putting in 70 to 80 hours each week knocking doors. After a time, the elders of her church dealt unjustly with her, and she left their church, disgusted with church, religion and God. After three years, she felt a need, a yearning to have God in her life again. She had always heard that next to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons were the next closest to the truth, “except for their false book, the Book of Mormon.”
She told us after our first lesson with her she thought, “These kids know nothing of the truth or how to teach it.” However, we taught her all of the lessons, and she kept her commitments (sometimes reading her assigned reading the hour after we left). As she began to apply the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, she felt the power of the message. One powerful witness came from a miracle that happened because of prayer and fasting, a principle not taught among Jehovah’s Witnesses. She gave up coffee, read For the Strength of Youth in one night, and came to church on Sundays, missing only twice because of work. She answered gospel questions correctly in Sunday School, dived into Our Legacy and took a special interest in the Doctrine and Covenants.
She received every principle with an open mind, not always accepting it as the truth immediately, but completely willing to read and ask God. Many complications arose, including her decision to change her baptismal date; she originally wanted to wait a year, but later decided two weeks was enough. She conquered all the ploys of Satan, armed with the word of God, prayer and fasting. She set her own baptismal date for the 29th of August, and she even called to see if we needed someone to wash and press our clothes.
It is an honor for us to have worked with one of the truly elect, and see the Spirit enlighten and expand her mind and testimony. Isabel Paulo was baptized on the 29th of August and confirmed the following day. The baptismal service was beautiful, without problems, and she had her family there with her. It is truly an honor to serve the Lord and help God’s children back on the path to eternal life.
Written by Elder Zabriskie
Merry Christmas from the Portugal continent! We celebrated with the 6 zones on the continent with an amazing talent show, a catered dinner, a gift exchange, and then the traditional reading of Luke 2 with actors from among our missionaries! We're just grateful that even though we are away from our families during this holiday season, that we have a big, loving family here in the Porto mission!
During the month of December Elder Causse came for a mission tour in all of our zone areas. It was a whirlwind 4 day visit, but he inspired us to be better and to work harder to find and baptize the people the Lord had already prepared here in the Porto Mission boundaries. The last day here, he met with our zone leaders in a special zone leader council and left us feeling energized with the Spirit. He even treated the zone leaders to a piano solo, "If You Could Hie to Kolob". He is a gifted pianist!
On October 8 we had 5 arrivals from the Provo MTC. Two Sisters - Beckstead and Bateman, and 3 Elders - Abreu, Jenkins and Wood. Then on October 28, Elder Coxi arrived from the Madrid MTC. We put them right to work with their trainers. The two sisters are with Sister Maddox in Braga - a tripla! Elder Abreu is being trained with Elder Lovell in Coimbra. Elder Jenkins went to Vila de Conde with Elder Beard. Elder Wood is way down in Leiria with Elder Lolofie. When Elder Coxi arrived he went to Vila de Conde with Elder Beard. What a great new group of missionaries for the Porto, Portugal Mission.
The Center for Young Adults in Porto, which was organized in May, continues to grow and has already had several baptisms. Another center with great potential will open soon in Coimbra. Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was also with us in England. He and Elder Kopischke said that the future strength of the Church in Europe will be among the age group of 18 to 30, and that is where the missionary success with be achieved. We must each do our best in our small part of the Lord's Vineyard, and then as Alma said, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass...and by very small means the Lord does confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls" (Alma 36:6-7). This is the Lord's work, and we are privileged to be a part of it.