Last Week in Portugal

New Area, Different Challenges

Caldas da Rainha hahah is different hah. Its probably the most

challenging area I have served in. The people are different. Everyone

has the same job which is picking fruit. They are very poor and they believe in

energy, not God.  We only had one

investigator at the start and no one would listen to us on the street,

so we started door knocking (still my favorite thing to do:) ). We

have found some really cool people.

People are Wonderful Everywhere

We found Sandra and her cute family. She is pregnant with twins and

 has so much faith in God and a wonderful family!! We were able to

mark her and her daughter for baptism for the 13th of September. We

just need to help her and her husband get married.

Also this week we found Lita. She is from Brazil and is amazing, I 

lover her!! :) I am really excited to start teaching her.

More Ward Activities

We are in a tiny branch and we had a great pancake party! :)

We have a senior sister and elder Sommers in our branch...

 ohhh i love them!! :) The pancake party went great

we had a member bring three friends it was wonderful!! :)

We also had interviews with president Fluckiger. mine was really short

because he was behind and I will be having one with him next week. :)

For pday we went to a gypsy fair... haha it was like a farmers market

but gypsys were running it. It was great. We also ate at this

really cool sushi restaurant  that was all you can eat and it come on a

conveyer belt and it was so fun :)

Last Week in Portugal

I cant believe that this my last week on the mission and that I will

see all of you next week. hah I feel like it was literately yesterday

that I arrived in Portugal and I had no idea what I was doing and I didnt speak a

word of Portuguese! Ahh I cant believe I am coming home! :) I have

mixed feelings.I am really excited to see all of you but I will

definatly miss being a missionary! I feel like the girl on the movie Tangled, one day I am soooo excited to come home and then the next moment I am nervious then I am

excited then I am sad hahah its crazy!! I cant believe it!

I  am going to take advantage of this last week and try and see all

 the wonderful miracles!! I love you all!!! :)

Last Transfers

Last Transfers

We got transfers and I will be leaving Madeira.. :(!!! But I will be

going to Caldas da Rainha and serving with sister Roseman. She is from

Utah! and it will be great :) I am excited to get to know new people and a

new area.

However, I am sad to leave Madeira and all these people that I love

sooo much! Madeira is my favorite area!

Quick Miracle

So Rita (our recent convert) friends from Venezela are amazing!!!

They are a family of 5. My whole mission I have wanted to help

families accept the gospel. I love families and I know they are

central to Gods plan. The family came to church and the wife felt the

spirit so strong durring sacrament meeting. She was crying and after

 asked us to come over and teach her family. She said that her

family is so focused on the things of the world and material things.

She wants us to help her family spiritually. I am so grateful that

I was able to meet this family.I know they will be baptized.

Our other investigators have progessed and Sister Silva will do great

here with her next companion! :)

The Worldwide Church Continues to Spread

FHE

We had a wonderful family night with Zita and Eduardas

family! They made this huge power point about the plan of salvation

and then we had a huge dinner! :) They are so wonderful.

Lisbon

This week I had to go to Lisbon to renew my residency. I traveled by

myself..It was so weird not having a companion with me. The best

part was that I was able to see some former companions and Sister Beard!!!!

:) I love her!!! It was soo fun to talk to her. After taking care of the  residency, we

went to this little American Diner... it was sooo cute. I got a yummy

milk shake. It was fun!! :)  On the ride back to Madeira,  I got to sit in

1st class! It was so nice. They treated me like a princess and fed me

this nice little dinner. I sat by this man that was from England that

owned a airplane company and has traveled the world. He said

that Madeira is his favorite place. He said that he has already heard

about our church and said I didnt have enough time on the plane to

convert him hahah... I invited him to church and to pray. He was a

really funny guy. It was quite the adventure :)

Zita

Zita has been doing well. We helped make a plan to help her

recognize a answer. She is going to pray, read the scriptures, and quit

drinking coffee. Unfortunately, because I have been in Lisbon its been

hard to keep in contact with her...  she didnt show up to church but

we are going there today.

Divisions

On our division with our stls and I went with Sister Mullen (my trainer)!!

:) it was soo great to see her too!! It was so fun teaching with her

now that we both know how to speak.. haha. We taught our

investigators Christana and Alexandre who are amazing!!!!! We marked

them to be baptized. It was such a powerful lesson. They woke up sick

this week and were not able to to come to church but we will remark

them for baptism this week! :) they are so great.

Other New Investigators

We also marked another investigator for baptism, but she didnt come to

church either because her uncle died but, we will try and mark her this week

again. I just feel so blessed!!! sooo many miracles!!  I hope I get to stay here and

be here for these baptisms.  I probably will be transferred back to Portugal

till I come home and be in a threesome.

Also Rita our recent convert gave us a reference of this family from

Venezuela. They are sooo great!! They only speak in Spanish..

haha but I understand almost everything.  We are going to pass by

there again this week.

Yesterday at church Ritas husband always drops her off for church and then

leaves but I went out and grabbed him.  He stayed and came to church with us..

:) haha he is so funny!

A Worldwide Activity

We also had our Activity this week. Our members did so much, it was a

great activity. We have sooo many members from different countries so

we had everyone talk about the history and music and food of their countries. It was so

fun! Everyone had sooo much pride for their country. We

had lots of food!! Next time we need to help more people come! I made

American cookies and Elder Porter did the history and music! It was a

great activity and we just have a great branch.

We are Seeing Miracles Everywhere

Investigators’ Progress

Zita is doing great :). The only thing that is holding her back is

that she doesnt feel like she has recieved an answer. We are going to

help her recognize answers from God. We have a family night

tonight with her and I am so excited. ( Yesterday we got a text from a

member that we could have a family night at their house and I got

sooooo happy :)!!! My comp asked, "what happened?Who texted?" and I

said we have family night!!! :) she said, "oh my goodness you looked

like someone proposed to you..." hahah I love family nights with

members. :)

We haven't been able to see Diaogo  this week.

We found this cute lady named Maria. She is so great. She has had sooo

many hard relationships. This made me sad  I know that what she has been

 missing was the gospel of Christ. I know that a Christ centered Family(home) are the families

that are happy and will stay together forever. I am so grateful for

the gospel.

We found another really cute oldish lady who does daycare in her

house and we invited her to be baptized in the first contact and she

said yes!! :)

We also had zone meeting this week. We talked about how to help people

get to church and how we can have the spirit with us always!! The

spirit is sooo important when sharring the gospel!

Too Busy to Write too Much!

Plenty to Do as a Missionary and Teaching Madieran Soccer Players

This week has been wonderful!!  We ran from one appointment to another and then would sprint

to get home on time!! :) The Lord blessed us with so many

people that wanted to hear the gospel.

Zita is doing great and came to church. This week we focused on the principle of

when we make promises or convenents with God he will bless us. That He

will help her to be happier and help her lift her challenges. We also

had her read Elder Bednars talk about this. We marked her to be

baptized on the 2nd but then she told us the next day that she had too

many doubts and that she felt like God has forgotten her. I can just

feel so much love for her! I know that God loves her. I know that with the

power of Christ's atonement Christ, He will heal her hurting heart.

We are trying to help our investigator Diogo quit

smoking and drinking. He owns-lives in a hotel next to us.

We have started to teach some young adults that are from Mozambique.

They play on the Madeira soccer team! :) We are finding the most

interesting people,  its great! :)

Miracles and a Leaping Lizard

Miracles in the Lord’s work

Wow this week was great! :) we have  been seeing so many

miracles!!!!!!!!!!! This week 4 people came to church. :) Heavenly

Father has been blessing us so much with finding people, having

members that help, less actives who came to church and investigators that came

to church. This week our branch was so full of people.

We found a lady named Zita and she is soooo ready. Both of her

parents died and she is still kind of mad at God, but she willing to

listen to us. She went to Church with us and I think she really liked

it. I really love her she is so great.

Then one of our investigators Diago who we met on the street and invited him

to come to church  and he CAME! Miracle!

Then the other two who came to church are named Irmalinda and Rui. We

contacted them in the street also. They are both really nice, doctors and

married. They really enjoyed church and we are excited to start

teaching them :)

Learning to Save Money but Give Love (Lizardless J)

Our ward did a great activity of how to save money. Everyone had

to bring a plate of food that only cost 3 euros or less that would

feed at least 4 people, it was great :)!

My comp is great. I am learning so much from her. She is just so

full of Christ like love.

On Sunday while we were waiting for the bus my companion

 suddenly jumped up and squeled

because a lizard had climbed on her. Then I felt something slimmy on

my leg... yup she flung the lizard onto my leg.. I freaked out!!

Today I was reading the general congerence talks and I just love

general conference!!! I am so grateful for living prophets and

apostles. I read Elder Ballards talk today and it talked about members

studying preach my gospel! I challenge you to study it.  I would love to hear all that you learn

from studing it :) It will help you to share the gospel and I know

that there is nothing better than helping someone coming to closer to

Christ. :)

Fantastic Companion!

Amazing Companion

Wow this week was wonderful!! I just can't tell you how wonderful my

companion is!! I prayed for a loving companion and I have the most loving person

in the world as my comp :)! Her name is Sister Silva, she is from

Portugal. She has been a member for three years. Her family is

currently living in Ipswitch right now :)! She is so happy and wants

to be a good missionary sooo bad. She is great! The other two sisters in

the Apt are from France and Brazil, so four countries represented.  I love them all.

I was able to go on divisions with the sisters in Amadora for three

days and it was so much fun :)! We went shopping on pday and then we

had a great family home evening. The next day we visited a recent

convert that painted our nails :). We also were able to mark 3 people

to baptized in those two days of working there. The people there are

so humble and nice and ready! It was a lot hotter there than here.

Training - Really Getting it and Loving it

The training was great. As I was sitting there I was just thinking

about how I wish I could start all over again! I just love being a

missionary so much. I hope I can help Sister Silva just love her

mission :).

After the meeting we went straight to the airport and our flight was

canceled again!! We didnt end up leaving until 12:30 am and we didnt get

home until 3:00 am.. But, we got really yummy food again. :)

This week we didnt have anyone come to church. We don't have any

progressing investigators. But. we are going to do a lot of finding this

week! I am so excited for this transfer and all the wonderful miracles

we are going to see! :)