Paulo and Cândida Rocha

 

Sometimes the Lord works in ways we do not fully understand.  We feel that such was the case with Paulo and Cándida Rocha.

One afternoon we didn´t have any work scheduled and were wondering what to do.  Paula was busy doing history work.  Larry was his normal restless self and went into the living room and was going over the branch list and also over names of inactives.  One of the names seemed to stand out and Larry kept coming back to it.  It was the name of Paulo Rocha.   Larry had seen the name somewhere before.  Going through the records all we knew is that he had a name and an address and two phone numbers.  Larry called the branch president who said that he did not know anything about this person.  The records showed that he lived in a village about ½ hour away called Pontével.  Both phone numbers were disconnected.

Larry decided that he wanted to see what this part of our branch looked like and that he would drive out to either visit or to start the process of removing his name from our branch records.  Frequently we have names on the records, yet the reality is that they have long-since moved away.  Larry suspected that this person was one of those.  Sometimes it is awkward finding and talking to inactives or finding out that nobody knows them as we knock on doors of strangers.  So, this was one of those trips.

With our GPS the home was easily found.  It was on one of those narrow cobblestone streets where all of the homes have no visible walls dividing them from the front vista.  You just have to look for the house number.  Larry found it and knocked on the door.  Nobody came to the door.  As Larry was leaving, a garage door next to the main door opened up and a man looked out.  Larry introduced himself as an elder of the church and pointed to his tag.  He asked the man if he recognized the church and that we had records showing him as member of our church.  The man excused himself and went inside, but said that he would be right back out.  Larry waited for 3 or 4 minutes.  The man (Paulo) came back out and invited Larry in.

Yes, Paulo said, he is a member of the church.  He was baptized when he was 14-years-old.  Paulo is now in his 40´s.  Paulo took Larry through his 100-year-old home and interior patio that he is now remodeling.  He is proud of all of the work that he had done with the original brick and tiles and wood.  He is very handy, and it is amazing how creative and energy conscious he is.  They even still use stored rain water to water his indoor garden and green-house areas.  He has incorporated ways to keep his home warm in the winter and cool in the summer that are so simple, yet engineered in a manner that belies someone that must be quite intelligent.  About 30 minutes into the conversation Larry asked about Paulo´s schooling.  His schooling was at Cambridge in the UK.  Larry had been speaking his own brand of broken Portuguese all this time and Paulo turns out to be quite fluent in English.  So the conversation continued in both languages.  They always do this to us!

Paulo had basically been inactive since his baptism years ago.  He had been ordained a Teacher shortly after he was baptized.  Larry asked him if he had attended church, and specifically the Santarém Branch.  His response was that he knew about the branches in this district because he had been doing computer consulting and set-up for a few of them.  And yet, he was not attending meetings.  Larry´s emphasis here on our mission has been the Melchizedek Priesthood, so naturally he talked to him about it, and Paulo seemed interested in knowing more.  Since Paulo had training in information systems it was not a stretch to send him the preparatory lessons on the Melchizedek Priesthood over the Internet.  Paulo committed to study them if Larry would send them.  We think that Paulo doubted that Larry would actually follow through.  Larry sent them an hour later and Paulo immediately responded with the words “from words to actions”, which meant that he would.  Larry also invited him to attend a Sacrament meeting in Santarém.  He said that he would.  He did tell Larry that his children knew nothing about his religion and that his wife was Catholic and likely would not be interested.  Ha!

Sunday Paulo came to church.  So did Cándida, his wife.  He only stayed through Sacrament meeting, but she went to all of the meetings.  She participated in Relief Society and in Gospel Principles class.  She dressed and acted like a long-time member.  When the missionaries found out she was a non-member they asked if they could go out to her house and teach her later in the week.  She accepted.  It is far enough away that we would have to drive the missionaries out to teach.

It so happened that we went out to their home again that same Sunday evening.  We visited, became friends, and then showed one of the new priesthood videos on the family.  Paulo would get distracted with some things during the video, but Cándida was absolutely glued to it.  We discussed it at the end.  She said that she saw a dramatic change in Paulo the day that Larry visited and then sent him the Priesthood lessons.  She had never seen this side of him.  She said he was suddenly excited about religion and receiving the priesthood.  At the close he offered the prayer and it was obvious when he did not know how to close the prayer that it had been a while since he had prayed.  He humbly asked us how to pray and Cándida quietly listened.

The next visit was with the elders.  It was mostly a get-to-know-you type situation because they have a daughter (who is a bit rebellious) that made it a little bit difficult.  We did get to discuss the Book of Mormon and it turned out that Cándida already had one.  And, she had been reading it!  One day when Paulo was doing the computer work in Caldas da Rainha, she was with him and picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon and it had a 21-day reading plan in it.  She had followed the plan and had been reading --- except that some of it mentioned the D&C.  She said, “What is that?”  Coincidentally, we had brought out a copy of a triple combination specifically for them.  We introduced her to the D&C.  She loves to read.  By the way, she is a full-time biology and chemistry teacher.  She is a quick learner and is very interested in understanding the gospel.

The following week Cándida received the lessons and agreed to be baptized.  She wanted her husband to baptize her.  He was studying about the Melchizedek Priesthood but needed to be ordained a Priest in order to baptize her.  We encouraged our District President that lives nearby to discuss the priesthood with Paulo.  An hour prior to the baptism our District President, Ventura Carvalho, interviewed Paulo and then he and Larry ordained him to the office of a Priest.  Paulo was visibly excited and visibly nervous about performing his first priesthood ordinance, that of the baptism of his wife, Cándida.

The baptism went well, although he stumbled a bit on the words and had to baptize her twice to get her all the way under.  When they looked at each other as she came out of the water you could feel and see their love.  They were both so happy.

On a concluding note, they have a 16-year-old daughter (Ema) that you can tell will be a bit of a challenge.  They also have a very bright 18-year-old son (Vincente) who is in college in Lisbon studying engineering.  We have met him now three times but he has always been on his way back to Lisbon or elsewhere in the house to study.  He is sharp.  We just have to figure out now how to reach out to him and get him involved.  Paulo is progressing rapidly toward receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood and President Carvalho will be very influential.  He will likely receive it within the next month.  We have since followed up with three lessons, including one on temple marriage.  We are becoming quite good friends and we love it.