In November the Elders started teaching a young couple named Helder (pronounced elder) and Tania (pronounced Tanya) They have a son Diogo and a baby under a year named Martins. The elders allowed us to help teach this sweet couple and we watched as they embraced the gospel. When they set a date to get married Tania was like a little girl. She cried then after that she giggled. In later times when we taught her it seemed like she wasn't sure that it would ever happen. They are very poor. Helder has been out of work for a long time and has been unable to find work. The family was about to have their water turned off and also be evicted from the tiny, fridgid apartment they were living in. Tania was very worried about that. So, we paid this off for them and they found a smaller, albeit warmer apartment - By small I mean that their kitchen would fit in my master bath and each of the two bedrooms had room for only two beds. They were so happy with the new apartment and the fact that Tania had found a job starting this coming week which gave her Sunday and Monday off. This is unheard of in Portugal - but they had lots of prayers and the Lord recognized their need. They continued to learn the gospel and each time they were asked to do something they happily said they would. And they did. As they made plans to get married they were worried about the $120.00 the government charges to get married and how they would ever get that kind of money. Someone gave them $100.00. Not all of it but most of it, because it wouldn't have any value it they didn't work for it. Anyway Helder called the missionaries to tell them he finally had his 20.00 and so we began planning the wedding. We were asked to be their witnesses and went to the registry to show our papers and they the government gave them a date that they could come in and get married. The date was the same date that the Elders had originally given them as a goal date to get married two months previously. It usually takes much longer to schedule a date for marriage so we were very excited that this could happen just a week after they signed up.
When we first talked about getting married Tania had said that she always wanted to get married in a white dress.. The elder who was teaching the lesson told her the important thing was to be married. No matter what she wore.. However, I couldn''t get that out of my mind. We talked it over and asked them for sizes and went shopping . Now, the problem is Tania wears a 13-14 in girls sizes..
We went to Portamao to a shopping center there. We looked and looked and couldn´t find anything that remotely was a dress let alone a white dress. I had previously seen a knitted dress on a maniquin in another town and that vision kept coming to mind. Finally, we stopped at the top of the escalator and had a quick prayer telling Heavenly Father how much it would mean to Tania to have a white dress in which to get married, and would He please help us to find something she would like. We got on the escalator and walked into a childrens store where I walked over to a rack that had white showing and pulled out almost the exact dress that I kept picturing in my mind. We found tights to match, a camisole, and Dad found the cutest boots. i picked up a pearl necklace and a flower for her hair. She giggled and was so cute when we gave her these few things.
Today we met Tania and Helder at the registrars office along with the sisters, the elders, and their branch President. We waited in a reception area with lots of desks and secretaries and were finally called into a room where we all sat around a table while a woman read over the prepared documents left the room to put a seal on the paper and gave it to them. They were married.
and the next day they were baptized:
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