Merry Christmas from Mafra

Hello Everyone!! I hope you guys all had a great Christmas and enjoyed all your time with your family!! 

We had a great week here in Portugal! 

We started off the week in the Christmas spirit when we did a family home evening for a family we love, Duan, Juliano, Icardo and Sofia! They aren’t members, but they will be one day! We played Christmas Bingo and talked about the story of Christmas and then after they turned on Christmas music (with the lyrics underneath for us Americans) and we sang Christmas songs and danced and then ate an amazing dinner. It was so fun and my heart was SO happy!! I love the spirit of Christmas!! 

On Tuesday we walked for 3 hours straight trying to find a less active in our group. After 3 hours we found his house, but our lesson didn’t go as we would liked. But hey mission adventures when you don’t have a car or a GPS hahaha. We also taught Felipe on Tuesday and he is so firm and so excited for baptism and I am SO excited for him. His faith is inspiring and he is so ready to change and move his life for the Gospel. He was prepared!!!! 

Then on Thursday we have conferencia de Natal!! It was all of the missionaries together and we had a devotional, huge lunch, a gift exchange and then a talent show/skits. It was SO funny and SO fun!! The devotional was so good and so inspiring, and lunch was amazing. The skits were so good and my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard after. It was so good and so happy and I loved it so much!! I love Natal so much!! We also got all of our Christmas packages and letters. Thank you so everyone that sent a letter!!! It means so much and it was so fun to look at all the pictures and read about everything!! You guys are the best and I am so grateful for all of your support!! 

Then we had a party in Mem Martins on Christmas Eve! Here in Portugal they celebrate Christmas more on the 24th. They stay up until midnight, open all of their presents and then party a little more, and then spend the day of Natal just sleeping mostly. So we had permission to stay at the bishops house until midnight, but I didn’t realize I am not capable of staying up late anymore! I was SO tired!! But it was so much fun and SO MUCH FOOD!!! We ate a ton, sang a lot, did a fun gift exchange, and then played that fruit game where you cant show your teeth. We were all crying from laughing so hard, it was SO fun!! I am so grateful for the families in Mem Martins that take us in and shower us with love! They even gave us Christmas Presents!! We are so spoiled. 

Then on Christmas we had church, and then returned to Mafra for Lunch. Let me just tell you about our lunch. So I don’t like seafood.. AT ALL. But our lunch started with a seafood soup.. I didn’t even know what type of fish was in it, but it wasn’t good. When I finally finished that they brought the second course when was codd fish. They served a HUGE plate and I said a few prayers inside my head. After some good strategy I got it all down, thank goodness. Then they offered us OCTOPUS. Luckily we said we were full and they didn’t push it. So yea that was a Christmas meal I will never forget. We finally made it to dessert, which was better (if we take out bolo rei.. please look it up on the internet. Its the weirdest and grossest thing but people LOVE it here). SO yea that was an adventure. 

Then after that we did skype!! It was so good to talk to my family. They are all pretty much the same, and it felt like I talked to them just a few weeks ago so it was weird that its already been almost 5 months. It was so fun to see them!! Love them lots!!

SO yea this week was good, but we couldn’t work that much because of the holiday so I am excited for this week to work hard and share the Gospel!! 

Have a good week! See you next year :) (Actually She won’t see you next year!)

Christmas Morning!

They bought chestnuts, but did not like them!

Random Santa Mannequin killing the mannequin challenge!

Christmas Eve Celebration!

 Our Christmas gifts from Madalyn:

Mission Christmas party

This Week My Heart Almost Exploded

Hello Everyone! 

This week was AMAZING! Probably one of the better weeks of my whole mission. Of course it had its low points, but was so full of joy and love and so many awesome lessons!! 

SO I should probably address the subject line. My heart didn’t literally almost explode (but knowing my luck it is a possibility) but we had a day full of so much love from other people that I literally thought my heart would explode. This day was incredible! It started off with lunch with one of our investigators, Candida, it was her birthday on Friday so on Saturday we had lunch with her and brought her a cake. We showed up and she had a table all set up and a fancy lunch all prepared for us. We sat around and laughed and ate, and also ate so much cake. It was so good and so fun and I was just so happy. Then after this we ran to catch a bus to teach Felipe (our investigator with a baptism date). When we got there he asked us what we would do for Christmas and we just said we will spend time with members and at church and stuff. He then said he bought a present for us and came back with two boxes of chocolate!! He said that he figured we probably don’t get many presents so he wanted to get us one. It was so sweet and I was literally speechless!! Then after our lesson with him (which was incredible!) we stopped by another investigator who lives close by and she gave us a huge cake, and two boxes of chocolates also. Was SO nice!!! I think because of the rain and wind we were looking a little pathetic or something and these people took pity on us. Then at night we had dinner with Isabel, the less active I absolutely love. Our day was just SO good and SO happy and I just felt such a love and happiness I can’t even explain. It was just such a good day and AHHH!! No words to explain the happiness I feel here. 

But yea Felipe is progressing SO well! We finished all the commandments this week and he accepted them all and said he wants to live them because he knows it is what God wants him to do!! He also said the reason he wants to get baptized is to change and become closer to Christ. HE GETS IT! He gets more and more amazing with every lesson and I love teaching him!! 

We also taught his best friend, Miguel, this week and it was such an amazing lesson and the spirit was so strong and he had so many good questions and is already on 1 Nephi 18! But we need prayers now because we haven’t been able to get in contact with him for almost a week now and he has a ton of work. He is marked for baptism with Felipe but we need lots of prayers that we can find him and continue to teach him! He really is incredible and the definition of an elect! 

Also this week at night we went to Mem Martins for their ward Christmas party and it was SO fun! There were SO many people (I am used to like 15 people tops every Sunday) but it was so fun! We got to hang out with other missionaries and eat a ton of yummy food and just get in the Christmas spirit! 

Christmas here they celebrate more on the 24th.  They stay awake until midnight and then open the presents and then have a party until 4 in the morning and then the day of Christmas is more laid back and they pass the day with family. They normally eat cod fish and a lot of treats and seafood. I will tell you more in Skype because I don’t have much time. 

We are so excited for Christmas this week! I hope you guys all have an amazing Christmas and enjoy time together with family!! 

Oh yea we watch and share light the world video with a lot of people. Here is actually translates to be a light of the world. I like it a lot it’s way good! We don’t have ipads or access to internet so we can’t to the challenges everyday but the video is way good I love it! 

Com Amor,

Sister Jones 

Felipe giving us chocolate

Our Study desks

Sunset in Mafra

Mafra Sunset

Awkward Companion Christmas Photo

Just wanted to stop in and say Happy Christmas. Life here in Mafra is going good. Sister Cones (Conrad/Jones) has reached an age of 7 weeks. She is growing and changing everyday. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Hapy New Year. 

Christmas Packages!!

Olá!!
 
We had another week in Mafra, Portugal!!
 
This week was good but I can’t really think about what happened this week it was all a blur!
 
We taught some great lessons and our investigator with a baptism date brought his best friend to a lesson and his friend is literally an elect! They both came to church together yesterday and Sister Conrad and I are already making plans for their baptism together it will be so cool and so special I’m SO EXCITED!!! 
 
We also had a few lessons with our other investigator, Candida, and she was as funny as ever. Then after one lesson it was like 1 so we decided to eat lunch together at McDonalds. This is a huge treat for us here because it is literally the same as home, and when we are surrounded by food a little strange you will do a lot of things to only eat some chicken mcnuggets. And lunch was so fun because she is literally hilarious (don’t worry I have a selfie all together)
 
We also had splits in Mem Martins again because sister Conrad and Rust had to go to Lisboa for a conference and Sister Carr was sick. Staying inside the apartment on a cold day sounds real fun, but it is literally a missionary’s worst nightmare. But yea we watched a few church movies, reach a few conference talks, and after a little time she was feeling well enough to leave (hallelujah) so we taught a few lessons there and it was good!! 
 
Then poor Sister Conrad and Rust received my FOUR packages from Lisbon and had to bring them back on a metro, I felt so bad, but it is clear that my family is the best and that I am slightly spoiled. These packages were SO Christmassy they were SO fun to open!! With a Christmas tree, ornaments of my families faces, CHRSITMAS JAMIES, and SO much more (side note...three of the four presents were from Grandma and Grandpa Wright!). Also the Christmas story lamp was so classic Dad but so good. Also I already opened the present of pictures and we had a great laugh. LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! Thank you so so so so much!    It was absolutely 100 percent golden. I may or may not of already opened some of the presents because I just couldn’t wait. I am the worst. But these packages were literally the best thing after a difficult week.
 
But yea that is my week!! Nothing too exciting, and for everyone that was worried, I still don’t have rabies so that’s good. Also today for P day we dedicated a good hour to taking an awkward Christmas photo so its clear we are way lame and way pumped for NATAL!!!
 
Love you all, have a great week, and don’t forget Christ during Christmas!! 
 
 
 

Me with FOUR packages.
Bringing these back to our apartment was a struggle #publictransportationlife

Christmas Love!

Amoco at McDonald's with Candida!

We decided to decorate a Christmas tree at the church building in Mafra.
It's not the prettiest tree, but hey you do what you can!

The week of the dead rat and possible rabies

Olá!!!! 


This semana was good! Not going to lie it was porbably the hardest week of my whole mission but I am learning and growing so much and I know there is no growth without hard times. So I am grateful for the times and opportunities I have right now to change and also grow closer to Christ as I rely on the Atonement. 

Okay let me just address the subject line of this email. It starts on Saturday. We didn't have plans and we are currently looking for new people to teach so our plans were to  go to the center of the city and just do street contacts and try to find new people. But we chose the wrong day because it was literaly so windy with SO much rain. *Side note: When I got here everyone said it was freezing during the winter and I was like nah I survived a Rexburg winter last year this is nothing. I WAS SO WRONG. It is so cold here I never leave the house without at least 4 layers and a puffy jacket* Okay lets continue with the story. SO we basically decided that street contacts weren't going to happen so we decided to try to visit a less active and as we are walking there battling the wind and rain with our umbrellas when all the sudden a car zooms by and literally just soaks us with water. It was like a movie as we just screamed and then were soaked. But we treaked our way and she wasn't home. But as we were leaving her apartment I saw a dead rat on the ground. SO we naturally decide to take a selfie (which didn't even turn out) next to it. To my absolute horrer my umbrella fell and landed RIGHT on the rat. SO I was basically forced to touch the rat a little and it was absoultely one of the worst moments of my life. Good news I haven't started foaming at the mouth yet but don't have much confidence that I don't have rabies yet. Stay updated. 

But yea anyways we had splits on Friday and I was in a triple with a Brazilian and a Portuguese! It was really good to be back with Native speakers!  It humbled me and reminded me how much I have more to learn. I was getting kind of confident with my language abilities because I can communicate with SIster Conrad with no problems, so it was good to be humbled again. Also I learned so much and we taught some awesome lessons together here in Mafra!!

One of our favorite investigators dropped us this week (for now) she said try after Christmas so we will see but we were pretty sad about that. We are in a dry spell here and everyday we try so so hard to find new people with close to no results and it gets really hard and disapointing sometimes, but I have really learned the importance of relying on the Lord and having faith in His plan for all of His children. 

Also CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED HERE! I thought Mafra was cute before Christmas but now they have little christmas cabins, a nativity, Christmas music all day, and literal chestnust roasting on an open fire! We are literally living out of a Hallmark movie and I love it so much!! Does my heart good to see so much Christmas spirit. 

Also we have an investigator marked for baptism on January 7th (shout out to my sister because thats her birthday) and he is progressing really good so everyone pray for him!!! 

Okay I think thats all I got this week! We had transfer calls last night AND.... we are both staying here in Mafra together! I am so excited because I know my time is not done here and I love Sister Conrad so its a win win!!! 

Love you all! Thank you for all the love and all the prayers! I can feel them!! 

The Rat!

Bad attempt of a selfie with the rat

Mafra

Natal

Two Investigators

Madalyn did not send out a group email so I am publishing her personal email to me instead!

Ola!!! 


Wow lucky you with the tickets! But also I would die with your diet. Eating has become one of my favorite parts of the day as a missionary. I probably can eat twice than I could at home which isnt a good thing... I dont think my clothes will fit in a few months but lets see. Hopefully all of our walking is doing something. When is your iodine free diet over? Before Christmas I hope! 

No haven't gotten the packages yet but I dont recieve packages until we have conferences so only once a transfer.. same thing with cards too. 

I sent a package home today. Was only 14 dollars to send and she said it should arrive in 10 days so be on the lookout and let me know when you get it! It was way cheap that I'm worried it wasn't the right thing (problems when youre only half way fluent hahah) 

Yes the heater is working thank goodness and the melatonin I use sometimes but not too often. I am pretty much just tired a lot so I don't have problems sleeping. 

So sad about James, I dont remember him or even hearing anything about him but that's so sad. Especially for someone so young. I'll be praying for his family this week. 

So hahah about our branch. It only has 4 members who are active. Siria, her brother Felipe, Maura and her son Rafeal. Siria and Maura are strong members but Rafeal and Felipe only come because they are forced. So basically don't have anyone. We are the smallest group in all of Portugal and known as the cursed group in our mission because we dont have much success here. It's a really hard area. So yea we don't have any primany children to teach. We do have one family who is semi active. They come like once a month with twin girls who are 9 but they only stay for the first hour. So yea we are combining with Mem Martins for Christmas and for their Christmas dinner party but I don't think we can go to their party because its really far and kind of a waste of time that we can be working. 

Okay way sad about the Blaises!!!! 

We have 2 investigatores with potential.. Felipe and Candida. Candida has a major problem with Smoking so we were really nervous to teach the Word of Wisdom but we mentioned that she has to stop smoking and she was like "AHHH.. nah I know I want to this month" Which is so awesome that she already wanted too because now we can just help her and promise blessings!! It was a mini miracle thats for sure!! 

Sister Conrad and I will be togther at Christmas so you can meet her!!!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! 

ALso can you send a picture of our house with christmas decorations? On  the outside and the inside??