Sister Madalyn Jones: 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!)