Transferred to Barreiro

Madalyn got transferred this week so between packing, traveling and finally being able to watch Women’s Conference she did not have time to send pictures or a general letter out.  Here are a few bits and pieces from the letter she sent me:

We got our transfer calls last night. I am leaving and going to Barreiro. I will serve with Sister dos Santos. She is a native, like from Portugal.  The area is really ghetto. Like the most ghetto area in our mission, but I heard the members are really good so that will help. I know I am just complaining and I shouldn’t have such a bad attitude before I know anything about the situation, but I am just not excited. The good thing? Its a 4 sister house so that will be fun!! 

Also sad to leave Sister Baker. We are homies now and are completely comfortable with each other.  Plus the first few weeks with a new comp is always SO awkward. BUT it will be good. I actually already know a member who lives there and I love her! She is awesome so I am way excited for that! I think we are going to watch the women’s conference right now because we have time and I don’t want to go home and pack #procrastinating.

Hahaha also this week during exercises in the morning I was wearing leggings and looked in the mirror we have along our wall and saw my sad sight of a butt and decided that I will do 30 squats everyday for the rest of my mission. Man let me just say, I have been sore this week.

(Mom note..Madalyn’s suitcase broke during her last transfer) I never bought a new suitcase because I did the math and figured I probably won’t have another area after I move to Barreiro tomorrow, so basically I just have to make it there, and then make it home. I can handle that. Also I am going to leave a lot of my summer clothes and the clothes that are way worn out here. So yea I think I am good with that. 

Love you!!! Have a good week!! 

Mission Adventures

Welll..... Not much happened this week. We spent a lot of time walking in the street and trying to talk to people. We set up a lot of appointments for next week, so this week will be a good week and we will see the fruits of our labors for sure. 

BUT this week was also one of the funniest weeks of my mission. SO many funny things happened, so yea you have now just tuned in to the crazy mission adventures that literally nothing can prepare you for. *Maybe some aren’t the most appropriate things, but hey they’re real life stories* 

1. SO this week we knocked on this door and this lady answered. She was SO sweet and we talked a lot. But she explained that she believes in the idea of God, but not God completely because she doesn’t believe in Adam and Eve. So I asked her what she believes. She believes that aliens from other planets came to earth and started procreating and now we are here. So basically it is easier for her to believe that we all came from aliens than for her to believe that Adam and Eve were our first parents. Makes sense of course. 

2. So that member who lives in our chapel (who cut his hair in the baptismal font) well.. we found out this week that he also takes baths in the baptismal font. I think it crosses the line just a little bit hahhahaha. We gave the elders the responsibility to talk to the Bishop about that problem. 

3. So in Portuguese to ask the age of someone you would ask "How many years do you have" and they respond "I have # of years" . So this week with members who are a little older.  I wanted to ask about people in our ward who are less active that we can visit and help return to church, but I said "Do you know anyone we can help because you guys have so many years" basically calling them old, and then tried to correct myself saying "Years in the church, as members, here in Setubal" doing everything to save myself, but it already passed and my comp died laughing. 

4. I asked for a referral from the member who lives in our chapel (Jose Chagas) this week and he said he will talk to his friends and get back to us. I found a missionary tag from an elder in the past sitting around the office in the church, so I wrote Elder Chagas and gave it to him as a joke. The problem, he didn’t realize it was a joke and when we came to church on Sunday he was STILL wearing it the whole day. He said he wore it to go grocery shopping and everything. Hmmm.. 

5. We were visiting a less active this week who isn’t exactly there in the mind. I just finished saying the opening prayer when like 15 seconds after she looks at me and says "yea lets say a prayer" so I had to pray AGAIN. It took everything in me not to start laughing during my second prayer. 

6. Someone tried to kiss me. Like full on kiss me this week. He stopped us in the road and we explained that we are missionaries of the church and invited him to come to church with us on Sunday. As we go to leave and he grabs my neck and goes in for a kiss. I turn so awkward and do a quick head turn/double chin/step back motion. He apologizes so I give him my hand to give him a hand shake. And then he tried AGAIN. Man it was bad. In the end we got away kiss free, only to turn and start walking up these stairs in the road. I was a little shaken up from this kiss experience that I full on tripped up the stairs. What is my life? The whole time my comp was just there laughing at my luck. 

7. That same night we were trying a contact that we did in the road a few days before. We knock on the door expecting to find this cute lady. But no. A shirtless (of course, Portugal) man opens it a little too happy to see us. He invites us in to watch the soccer game and drink some wine and beer with him. My comp kindly explained that we are missionaries and our purpose is to help people know Jesus Christ better and he said "That’s not a problem, I am a missionary also and my mission is to help you guys procreate the earth" Luckily I was behind my comp and she kindly declined and left because man I wanted to vomit on his porch. We are staying away from the apartment. 

8. We taught a lesson this week to a lady who lives in a house FULL of spiders. We didn’t realize it when we entered, but in the middle of the lesson I saw a spider crawl across the chair, and the looked and found spiders in about every corner of her house. So yea, we ended that lesson pretty quick. 

SO yea, that is just a day of the life of a missionary here in Portugal. Stay tuned for more funny/inappropriate encounters in the future. I had no idea I was signing up for these experiences when I accepted my call to serve. 

Two weeks ago I made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon again before my mission ended. Well yea, I finished it last week. I don’t know how it happened, but I got addicted to reading it. Every lunch, breakfast, and an hour before bread my nose was in the Book of Mormon. I was so sad to end it because I didn’t know what I would do with my life without the Book of Mormon. I have started reading the New Testament and want to read it all before the mission ends. Its a little more challenging than the BOM but it will help a lot know the Bible better!

We went shopping today. It has started getting cold and windy at night, so I pulled out my jacket only to find it in a lot worse condition that I thought. But after using it for everyday for more than 4 months, I should of been expecting that. The zipper broke and so today I bought a new jacket (its really cute too) and a few more pairs of tights because I threw all mine out after last winter. In the end, it was kind of expensive SO you can take that money out of my personal account, or I can pay you back when I get home. I know the funds are tight at home and it was an expensive bill. Not quite sure what it is in dollars but it was like 62 euros in total.

Have a great week and remember nothing makes us happier than serving those close to us!!! 

Foto: Our ward has the potential to be a "Singles Ward" film, and these 2 mean (Jose and Nuno) could be the main characters.  

Batismoooo!!

Hello everyone!! Hope you are all having a great week! We had a really good week this past week! Passed by way too fast! 

We had conference on Thursday, which was so good! We learned a lot about making goals, eliminating distractions, waking up (figuratively of course), doing more, and being baptizing missionaries. It was very spiritual and gave me that boost that conferences always give! Then we got to work and applied these things into our work! 

On Saturday was the baptism on Joana! It was SO good! Before the baptism, we always warn our friends about the "Law of Opposition" and prepare them for all the bad things that can happen that day to make it hard to get baptized. We prepared her for everything (sharing personal experiences about waking up with the flu and everything), but in the end, it was us as missionaries who faced the opposition! 

We started filling up the baptism font at 12 because we knew it took a few hours to get it all full and ready. BUT after it had been filling up for like 30 minutes we went to look at the font, only to find out that a member decided to cut his hair in the font that morning, and not clean it all up. The problem? We found out a little too late. We didn’t have time to drain the font and clean it. The solution? We ran to a cheap Chinese store to find a strainer kitchen tool, and used to go fishing for hair. It was quite the adventure. I wanted to vomit, but hey it had to be done. After the font was basically all clean, we ran to our home, and ran back (which normally would take an hour in total, but we are speedy and it took like 40 minutes) to get the cookies we made for the baptism, and got there right before Joana. In the end, the water didn’t get the hot (still not quite sure why..) but Joana toughed it out and was baptized! 

The program ran smoothly and the spirit was very present! It bore testimony that Joana was doing the right thing at the right time. She is already looking forward to when she can go to the temple! Her boyfriend, a member from our ward, baptized her and it all ran perfectly! It was the perfect day! I made cookies and 3 of her friends who aren’t members marked appointments so I can go over to their house and teach them how to make chocolate chip cookies. Its so weird that they don’t have chocolate chip cookies here because they literally go CRAZY for the cookies when we make them. And they are so easy!!! 

In other news we found Mexican food today! And a frozen yogurt place, but it was closed. Sad. But the Mexican food was so good! Not anything close to like real Mexican food, but it was good. I am full now. 

Other than that, this week has been full of a lot of prayer and a lot of fasting for some of our other investigators. Its good to be a missionary and its good to be in Portugal! 

fotos: 

1.Batismo de Joana!

2.Sister Baker fishing for hair in the baptism font... gross.

3. Coooookies´

4. Conference this week! 

 

Setubal zone conference

Making chocolate chip cookies!

Sister Baker fishing hair out of the baptism font...yuck!

Joana's baptism

Progress on the Portugal Temple as of September 1, 2017

"Pray like everything depends on the Lord, work like everything depends on you"

Hello Everyone!! 

This week passed by way quickly I have no idea what even happened. I closed my eyes last Monday and next thing you know we are here again?? 

But we had an awesome week full of miracles! 

Okay I got a quick story that happened recently! So this past transfer was really part of my refining period as a missionary. I had to fight against many challenges and really dig deep to remember why I came on a mission, and why I stayed on a mission, and why I should continue on a mission. We entered an area kinda dead as a whitewash with a ward not that receptive to us. We had a ton of difficulties, and my first transfer here I got a little overwhelmed with everything that I wanted to be as a missionary and do with the area, and didn’t know how to start and do it all. I basically felt like I had no purpose in the area because we weren’t seeing much success. But after transfers we learned we would stay together in the same area and I decided that something had to be changed. SO I became exactly obedient, talked to everyone in the road, and prayed harder than I have in my life. And we have seen miracles lately!! Doors have been opening for us, hearts are being touched, and people are literally asking to be baptized (I know, what the heck??) We have a baptism next week and a few investigators who are progressing really well. I have really learned the truth of the statement "Pray like everything depends on the Lord, work like everything depends on you". I am happy and I love the people here in this area now. 

Maria Alice (our miracle investigator) is continuing to progress SO well! She decided she will stop smoking next week and started diminuing this week. She is here in Portugal all alone so she doesn’t have much to do during the day, and that’s when she feels the need to smoke. SO we had the brilliant idea to bring another member (who maybe is a little older) who also lives alone and is kinda lonely, named Ana come and teach with us. The problem? Ana talks SO much. We got there and tried teaching the Plan of Salvation; oh man that lesson was a WRECK. Ana just kept saying "let me explain it, I know it better" Oh my gosh all my patience was used up after that lesson. BUT it’s all good, because they became BEST friends! They have passed every day together since and even had a sleep over one day haha. Man Sister Baker and I (Or sister Joker if you put our names together) are the best matchmakers ever. Its been great because they both have things to do and Maria Alice has gotten even more excited about the church and to be baptized one day!! 

ALSO!! Joana (the girlfriend of a member) is so ready to be dunked! We taught her a few times this week, but she basically already knew everything. She already is reading the Book of Mormon and living all the commandments. We asked her about Joseph Smith and she basically said everything word for word. SO she’s getting baptized this Saturday, the 9th! It will be so good! She is so prepared and SO CUTE! Ah we love her SO much!! 

Random information: Here in Europe EFY is FSY aka For the Strength of Youth (which makes more sense to me??) But they have it every other year. One year it’s for the north of the country (Porto and the islands) and then the other its Lisbon and all the areas in our mission. All the youth came home to recharged and I wanna return to EFY man. I was jealous. 

SO yea, we are feeling really blessed here in our area. We have really been experiencing miracles recently with the so many opportunities to share the gospel with everyone. I feel so blessed. Last transfer really was my refining period of my mission. I had to humble myself, ask the Lord for help, and then work and be obedient to receive the help I needed. And I have really been able to see the Hand of the Lord in my life every moment here. We are happy, we are loving, and we are being loved. It’s a good life here in the mission. 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

I really don’t even have explanations for these pictures... haha Pretty sure only my returned missionary friends from Portugal will understand the two photos from the talhos. Welcome to Portugal aka the land of the raw meat.