Christmas and Weird Phone Calls

Christmas Parties Galore
We went to our mission party and it was sooo much fun. First we
had some musical numbers and then our stake president spoke to us.
We did training about how to help our investigators recognize
answers to prayers. We need to ask specific questions when we pray to
receive specific answers.

Then Sis Fluckiger talked about different Christmas activities that we

could do for Christmas. After, we played 'do you like you neighbor and

it was so much fun! :). We played white elefante :) I brought a
Portugal hat and I received a picture of Jesus and 5 euros. My comp got
a santa suit hahah. It was so much fun!!! Also we got a mission gift;
a little cook book, floss, Christmas cd, carmel popcorn,
cookies, nuts and chocolate. It was so great and so much fun. :)

Also, Jeniza is so sweet even though she was

super busy and had finals she wanted to make us lunch. She made us

luzana. We were stuffed and then our ward mission leader made us
dinner that night. He made soup and pork and rice. Ohhhhh I was soooo
full!!!!!! Two meal apt in one day!

This week we went carrolling with a member and visited some of her

friends :). I felt the spirit so strong. I love Christmas music. I love Christmas time.

So many people here in Portugal, Christmas is just another day... but I love it!

Also our ward had a Christmas party. So it was suposed to start at

6:30.... none of the ward members showed up until 8:30.... UGH! No one
knew who was in charge and it was really unorganized. But some of our
investigators came and I think that they had fun. We had dinner with
lots of random foods and then we had a talent show. :) it was fun.
Alot of people sang and one member got up and told jokes haha. My companion
and I did the thing where you draw faces on your chin and
turn upside down and we sang a Christmas song. hahah the Português
people didnt get it and didnt laugh hahah it was a little awkweird
hahahah. But overall it was good.

Then at church we had a ward council meeting and it was a big fight!!!

wow!!! Everyone was really mad about the party and our ward mission
leader was saying they need to be more united and help the missionaries
more...  It was interesting.

A lot of the people we have contacted in the street this week do not want to meet
with us until after Christmas!! ugh!!! But I have been making cookies
and I am going to give them to members and menos activos and
investigators :)!!!

Getting Proposed To

So we have gotten some interesting phone calls lately. Haha one was last

night and it was our investigator Iddy.... AH!! So he called and said to me " so I
have been wanting to talk to you. I think you know that I like
you....( awkwierd pause/I am freaking out...) And I know that we can
be one in heart... I understand that you cant have a relationship
until after your mission but I can wait and I just need you to email
 your family and I already have the papers ready... AHHH!!! Then I was
like I am sorry if i gave you the wrong impression, but I am a
missionary and I was just trying to bring you closer to Christ. Then
he was like I know but after your mission... then I was like I am
 sorry I have a boyfriend... then he growned for like ten mins and
hahah I was freaking out not knowing what to say so I passed the phone
to my comp to pretend to be me and she was like.. you should want to
come unto Christ for yourself and then he said no only for you... then
 she was like I am sorry Iddy I know that there is someone out there
for you but its not me... hahahh... then he was like no only you and
then it was awkweird..... that was basically what happened....I do not think we
will continue to teach him.
 
Another one was today. Someone that we had contacted in the street
and we had given him a Book of Mormon. He was in the elders
área so we passed him on to the elders. But he called this week and
said that he wants to change his life around and that he remembered us
and called!!!!!!!! Miracle!!!! I think we are going to teach him this
next week.

But I am so grateful for my Savoir, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for

this day to celebrate His birth. He has showed us a perfect example of
how we should live our lives. He loves us and knows us and He wants us
to be happy. He wants us to come unto Him. I know that when we follow
Him we will be happy. We have been challenging our members to share
their testimony of Christ before Christmas. I Challenge you all to do
the same. :) I hope you all have a great Christmas. I love you all!!!

The True Spirit of Christmas

Amazing Companion

Wow, my comp is amazing. I have learned so much from her. I am so glad

that she is my companion. She is so focused on the work and works so

hard. What I love about her is that in every situation and opportunity

 that she has, she teaches. She is also really good at the language!  She studied

Portuguese before her mission.

Less Active Work

This week we worked alot with menos activos (less actives) and two of them came to church! I was so happy. :). One of the menos activos is Glousia

and she had her birthday this last monday so we had bolo rei and soup

 and sang to her. :).

One of the menos activos is named jeniza and she lives with two

of our investigators. Jeniza came to church this week. :). Its great

because she lives with two our investigators that are named Jessica

and Patricia. They are both in school right now and super busy.

 

Calling To Repentance

Antonio is great. Haha my companion was super hard on him and called

him to repentance! I was like sister Jackson hahah. Its crazy he is so

ready for baptism, but wants to wait until Easter when the water is

 warm. We told him it would be warm! He was like i am following Jesus

and sister jackson was like no sr antonio your not, because you are not

baptized. But he said that he wants to be baptized, but just wait. We

 shared with him the scripture of not waiting to repent.

We are also teaching two muslims right now. We have been working

more with members which I love! This ward needs support and also its

good because I feel like eventhough we haven't had any baptisms in a while, we are helping the ward.

 

Learning to Speak on the Fly and Some Pretty Awesome Parents

Also I gave a talk this week.  I had like no time to plan it

durring the week so I was writting it durring church. But my talk was

 teaching like Christ. My main points were teaching by example,

teaching people with love, and different ways we can prepare ourselves

to teach like Christ. In my talk I talked about how mom and dads

taught me so much, but most of the time it was not by what they said

 but by their examples. I shared how dads would wake up for his church

callings early and never complain and I shared a story about mom when

I would wake up and see her reading the Book of Mormon. Mom and dads

you both were such great examples to me. Thank you. hahah I started to

 cry when I talked about you guys.

The True Christmas Spirit

I love this work. I know that if Christ was on the earth he would be

doing the very same thing. I feel so blessed to be able to do this

work and help others to better their lives through the atonement of

Christ. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. This is a

great time of year to serve and remember our Savoir, Jesus Christ.

Remember that He loves you all so much. Serve someone this week :)

A Wonderful Area and Wonderful People

Birthday and New Companion

My old cute comp took me out to chineese and ice cream for my birthday :) I love her :)

But I am lucky and I get to stay in this area :). I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Jackson. She is from Virginia and went to BYU.

 

Member Work

This last week was great. We worked alot with the members this week. They came and taught with us and we taught alot of menos activos (less actives).

Our members are really so great and help us so much. It was kinda hard to teach the menos activos. It was so sad because they have had the truth but something happened and they would just rather be sad and not go back to church. It is so important for all of us to continue to grow and stregnthen our testimonies. We can do this by reading the scriptures, praying, going to church and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, one of the inactives that we taught did come to church again.

Crazies

We had this crazy guy named Blue Sky come up to us and give us pictures of aliens... they were pictures of clouds... hahah it was so funny. On one of the pictures he wrote.. "while I prepare my Tabaco they talk to me telapathelly" ... what?  hahahh wierd and he thinks that Joseph Smith got attacted by aliens.

More Good Food and a Christmas Party

 Michelle fed us again this week. Wow it was so yummy :). We had hot dogs, fries, soup, and cake. So much food.

We had a huge stake Christmas party this week in Viseu! There were so many people and sooooooo much food. First we had a primary program and the little kids sang and then Santa came and gave the kids really good gifts like soccer balls and dolls!! Then they had a huge lunch. My fav thing was the choc solami. Then they had 4 baptisms. Antonio wasn't baptized, but we are still working with him.

Today I wiated for my new comp and I had to stay with a member all day. Haha We went on lot of errands and she was a crazy driver hahahh. She made me samon and it was actually good :). haha my taste buds are changing :) haha but she was so sweet to stay with me all day :).

Food for Body and Soul

FHE
Monday night we had a family night with a family in our ward.
 Luzi, I love her, she is a return missionary from Portugal. Our
investigator Beatrice and her brother Tiago came. We watched two films
 about Christ. I felt the spirit so strong. I felt the love that Christ
has for each one of us.

Homemade Bread and Conference
Tuesday we had apartment cleaning checks and ours passed :) Sister and
Brother Rose checked them. They were so nice and were so excited about
 missionary work. They also baked us zucchini bread haha I haven't had
home baked thing in so long :)

That night we went up to Porto! It was soooo fun!!! :)! We had another
sleep over!! :) We slept over with the sisters up in Porto. There were
 12 sisters and we all slept in the same apt :). Their house was huge and we
all just slept on mattresses. It was  fun. All of the sisters were so
nice :) Porto is a beautiful city.

We went there because Elder Dikes came and spoke to us. He is a
 member of the 70 and spoke I think last year in conference. There were
sooo many missionaries! It was so fun to see everyone :).

First Sister Fluckiger talked about obedience. She said that obedience
is what brings happiness and the spirit. She said that its our choice.
 This is so true. We are choosing to be happy when we are obedient. :)

President Fluckiger talked next and he talked about the importance of
having the spirit with us when we teach and that is what brings real
 conversion. He also talked about some really great scriptures of how
we should be happy :)

Sister Dikes talked next. She talked about being thankful. We have so
many blessings :). She showed us how to make these cute missionary
 thank you cards!! I loved it! I am going to use it :)

Elder Dikes spoke last and he talked about how happiness is a choice.
Each day we just need to decided that today is going to be a great day
and I am going to be happy. He also talked about how we need to teach
 to the needs of our investigators.

After we got subway sandwiches and went home!! :) wow it was such a
powerful meeting!!!! :) I felt the spirit so strong. I was so grateful
for that meeting.

Investigators and Members
Also this week we visited Vera who is less active and she taught us how
 to make her special soup. Basically all she does is put a ton of
veggies in a pot with water and then blends it all up :).

We are going to try visit Mark Senoir Antonio and invite him to a Christmas Party
this week.  He said he doesn't want to be baptized unless there are lots of people. We
 have a christmas party this week in Viseu and there will be lots of
people :) I hope he gets baptized. He is such a cute old man that
always buys us a treat and is dressed nice and loves his cats hahah.

Also we had a member meal :) Leonardo and his wife Michelle fed us.
Ohh it was the best food I have since I have been in Portugal.
 Michelle said that she wants to be a chef. She made us pork.  It was
so amazing. I love going to members houses because there is such a
different spirit about their houses than the nonmembers we visit. Its crazy how big the difference
 is. I just know that the gospel blesses families so much.

Miracle
I want to share a miracle that happened this week. We found this girl name Patrica
when we were knocking doors last week and she is 18 and super nice and
 going to school here. When we came back we met her friend Jessica who
is also studying and is also really nice. We taught the first
lesson and it went so good, the spirit was so strong. Then we were
almost done with the lesson when in walks her roommate who is a
 member!! Jenzi and less active, but she whipped out her
scriptures and helped us with the lesson. It was such a blessing and I
am so excited to continue teaching them. :)

Ward Party
Also this week we had a ward party! It was great. We watched the
 Joseph Smith film that is longer and talks about the life of Joseph
Smith. We set it up like a theatre and had popcorn :). It is such a
powerful film. I felt the spirit so strong. I am so grateful for
Joseph Smith and all he went through so that we can have the Book of
 Mormon and this church today. The members loved it and all of them had
never seen it before. We also had dinner. It was just whatever the
members brought. Hah it was so funny after the prayer there wasn't
really a line, everyone were kinda like vultures and swarmed the table
 and started eating hahah. It was really great to talk to the members
and spend time with them. Also It was good for our investigators to
see.

More Food
On Sunday it was fast sunday and we fasted until 8 30 at night!!! My
 comp and I were walking around like zombies we were so hungry. ha we
had to wait because thats when the member wanted us over. Jacklyn and
Susana made us bacalhua com bata, it was really good. It might have
tasted so good because i was hungry. hah but it was yummy :)!

An Attitude of Gratitude

Sleepover and Interviews
We went to Viseu for our interviews and we had to go up a day early
and stay with the sisters there!! :)! Ohhhh it was soooo
 fun!!!!!!!!!!! It was like a gaint sleep over. Haha the sisters that
live there are sister Fuller, sister Warburton, sister Duran, and
sister Briggs. They were all so fun!! :) We showed up and they were singing
 songs and made us hot chocolate and cookies. We squished all the beds
 together slept all in one bed haha it was so fun! ohhh but Visue is
sooo much colder!! I wanted to sleep in my coat it was so cold!

Interviews went great :). I love talking with President Fluckiger, he just helps so

 much. I asked him how I could know if I was doing enough and he just told me Heavenly Father loves me.  It was the perfect thing for him to tell me. 

After the interviews we went out to eat at this place in Visue that is popular there. They have these cornish bread things shaped like a tringle stuffed with cheese and ham. hmmm it was good :)

Investigators

So this week Heickel told us that he doesnt have time to talk to us.
 :(. Ohhhh i was soooo sad. He said that he has only been getting 3
hours of sleep and that he is starting a new course and now doesnt
have any time. I told him that we could just talk to him for twenty
minutes. I am so sad. I tried telling him how important these things
 are and how they will help him in his life. He said that he wants
these things in his life but its just too crazy right now. AHHH nooo!!
But even though he said that he doesnt have time we are going to try
to see him every once in a while.
 
Also this week we taught one of our investigators named Luis who is
from Brazil the first lesson. His house is sooo dirty. He thinks
that as long as we love everyone then we are fine. In that lesson we
focused alot about the importance of prophets. I felt the spirit so
 strong during that lesson and why its so important that we have
prophets. I am so grateful for our prophet and the guidance he gives us today.
 
Church
Church was great. We had the primary program for sacrament meeting and
 the children were so cute :). My favorite song was  "I hope they call me on
a missioin." It brought the spirit so strong. I am sooo grateful that I
am a missionary and that I am able to have this experience and help
 share the gospel with others.
 
I taught gospel doctrine at church it was on prophets receiving revelation
for us today. I talked about modern council given by our prophets.  I then
taught about the council to have family nights. I shared the story about one of our family nights.  It was on the one about everyone helping and keeping the house cleaner. I told them how you put a five dollar bill inside a crumbled piece of paper and left it on the floor. All day no one picked it up.... and you used that to make a point. ha ha.  I LOVE OUR FAMILY. I am
so grateful that we had family nights and that our home was a place
that I could feel the spirit.

Members

We had our first member meal!! :) it was with a menos activo Vera. She
made us soup!! Yum it was good!1 I really like the soup here. She said
 that she will teach us how to make it. Basically they just mix up lots
of veggies, its so yummy. She is so proud of her soup hah she calls it the
soup of Vera. We are trying to get her to come back to church because
 she is great and has a big family with lots of kids. She said that the
people at our church are wierd and she doesnt feel the spirit there. We will
work more with her.

Gratitude
So they dont celebrate thanksgiving here but I hope you all have a
great thanksgiving!!

But I have so much to be thankful for and so many blessings!! :)

I am sooooo lucky to have such an amazing
family. I am so grateful for this gospel and that I have this knowlege
and guide in my life. I am so grateful for the Savoir and his
 sacrafice and his love for us. I am so grateful to be a missionary and
the oppertuntiy to serve the people here in portaugal. haha they are

so funny. I am so blessed!!

Things are Picking Up Again :)

Training
We went on divisions with the Sister Training leaders.
I went with the Brazilian Sister Peigman and Sis duke went with Sister
Parker. Sis Peigman was great. She talked so fast and would chase
after people, Haha I felt like we contacted the world that day.

Investigators

We taught Senoir Antonio and we have been really trying to get
him baptized because he is so ready! He has a testimony about Joseph
Smith and the Book of Mormon but he wants to wait and get baptized
during Easter. AHH! We are going to try and figure out what his doubts
are or fears so we can help him to be baptized.
 
We taught Beatrice and she is the little girl that is a little slower.
We taught her with a member named Michelle. Michelle did so great. I
need to learn how to teach to little kids better. But Beatrice is so
sweet and this Sunday she remembered who God and Jesus Christ are. I
was so happy.

Heickel is good too. We taught the second lesson and I felt the spirit
so strong during that lesson. He is the closest to baptism. He
still feels like he hasnt recieved an answer to his prayers yet. But
he believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet.

Also, we have been finding so many people. I love meeting new people.

Everyone is so nice and different. We are next to a college so we meet
lots of young people that are our age. It is fun because they are many
that are from different countries, I love it :). The only hard
thing is that they are all really busy and they go home on the
weekends!

But Church this week was great :) Beatrice and Helana and Antonio came

:). We talked alot about charity in church today :).

Also there is a lady in my ward that is from the Philippines and she

said that she would make me philippine food!! :) I am excited hahah

and I had her speak to me in Tagalog... hahah poor jake!!!!!

 

Positivity the Cure to Any Ailment

Switched Areas, a Little Sickness, But Staying Positive

Some sad news, our area got switched with the Elders... :(. I was so sad because we had probably 5 progressing investigators and we had to give them all up to the elders :(. Also the Elders didn't have any investigators to give us... But its okay :) hah I know that everything happens for a reason and maybe the Elders needed to teach our investigators so that they could be baptized. And I am excited to work in a new area and find new investigators :).

We have one named William and he is from Brazil. He came to church and he is probably 27? We still haven't taught him. But he fell asleep in sacrament meeting. Hah he was completely out.

Its starting to get Chilly!! Today is nice but it has been raining alot. Sister Duke got sick the other day with the flu and so we needed to stay in the house the whole day. I read some articles, wrote in my journal, I tried to make gluten free pizza for her because she can not have wheat (it was nasty) and read the scriptures. It was a nice little break.

Teaching in All Capacities

Church was great :)! I had to give the D & C class. Sister Duke and I switch off every week. This week it was on family history and temple work. This help me gain a stronger testimony of this principle and want try do this more when I get back.

I was super nervous about giving the class because I feel I still cant speak fluent Portuguese! But, no worrys we have Irmao Santos hahah. He is so funny!! He like gave the class. I would say a sentance and then he would coment and talk for like 30 mins. I would think that he would be done and I would start talking and then he would say.. " E O que e interasante...." (idk spell) hahah he is funny. I have got to figure out a way to involve the others in the class and learn how to not breath or else he might start talking again. ha He is funny and a blessing too because I am not exactly fluent in Portuguese.

Also there was a member that gave a talk yesterday and for his talk he told us that we all need to wash our feet often and brush our teeth and not bite our nails and to wash our hands before and after we go to the bathroom. haha He didnt tie it into the church at all and thats all he said. Haha it was interesting haha :).

I am so grateful for the gospel, I have a strong testimony of it.  I know I am a child of God. I know that Heavenly Father knows each of us individually and loves us so much.  I am grateful for my Savior. I am so grateful for this church and my wonderful family!! :) I am so blessed!!!!!! I miss you and love you all so much!! I hope you have a great week.

 

 

Beautiful New Area of Aveiro!

Love – Missionary, Area, and People
Oh I just love being a missionary :)!!
I love reading about what everyone is doing. You are all such great
examples to me!!

New Area

Okay, so Aveiro, my new area is wonderful!! :) It is sooooo pretty here... I love it :).
Its sooo different. My other area kinda felt like I was in
Africa, but now i feel like i am Portugual, hah. It also is cleaner here.
I love my companion. She is soooo sweet! :) She is from Sandy, UT and
went to Utah State studying to be a dental hygienist. She has been out as long as
 I have been and has been in thi area for one transfer.  She is very talented at art :)
Oh and she loves to run!! :)
So my first day here we went and taught Helana. We went to a
members house and it was sooo different. Haha I wish you could have
been there. I felt like I was in the middle of a play.  Everyone there were such
interesting characters and unique. There was Helana and I think
 she might be crazy and she was talking alot. Then we have Paulo, the
member and he doesnt say a word the whole lesson and he is a little
bigger and at random moments in the lesson he wouldl get up and take
pictures of us hahahhah and he has like ten million music cds. Then we
 have his wife that speaks English in kind of a high pitch voice. Hahah
it was funny they were just so different and it just felt like i was
in a play with these super different people hahha :).

Zone Conference

We had zone conference. It was really good. We learned
about how to start teaching and how to ask inspired questions. I
always learn so much when I go to zone meetings. We had to
take two buses to get to Viseu.. Elder Wiscombe from home is in my zone!!!
Hah it was so fun to see him :).

Halloween

They don't really celebrate Halloween here. I saw maybe 20 people
dressed up. My comp and I dressed up like elders hahahha :) (attached picture) I also
made chili, because thats always what we have at home on Halloween:)

People

We are teaching Beatrice, she is the daughter of a member and she
is 12. (I think she has some problems). We tried to teach her about
God, Jesus and prophets. I would say okay God is our father...
Beatrice would respond " who is God?....Our brother?" We repeated this like 20
 times. I think we will just go super slow with her.

Haickel is 30 ish and he was in our area book and we saw that he had

gone to church, so we taught him.  He came to church
and is reading his scriptures!! :) We want to mark him for baptism.

Also there is Antonio and he has been taught everything. I think that

he is scared to be baptized. He is like 76 and so sweet haha. We are
helping him.

Ward

Our ward is kind of small and has a lot of older members. The ward members are nice. I
think this area the missionaries work a lot with members and less actives. In
relief society the women just fought the whole time and then in sunday school,
when sister Duke was giving her lesson there was this guy who talked the whole time.
It is sad, this area has not had a baptism in over 7months! I am going to help change that!! haha

But, I love this area. There are so many more people :) I love talking
 to people on the street. Everyone is so different and special. I know
that God loves us each so much. I know that if we live the gospel of Jesus
Christ we will be happy. :)  I feel so blessed to be a member of this
church.

New Area!

Exciting to Go, but Sad to Leave

This week was great!! :) I was transferred!!! Hahah crazy!! I am up
north now, close to Porto in a city called Aviero. Its sooooooo different. Its really pretty
 and has some really pretty old looking buildings. There are those cool
looking boats and its magical! hahah! We live in our area so we dont
need to walk that far. Yeah!  We have the nicest apartment, it is huge. I have a whole room for all my stuff.  It is just me and companion in the apartment which will be different.
 Also it is more flat and green in this area. It took me three hours to get here on the bus.

 It was wierd traveling by myself.  My new companion is Sister Duke. 

She is so nice and we have been out the same amount of time.  She has
been in this area just one transfer.  They are adding another set of sisters
 to my old apartment, so there will be 6 sisters using one bathroom.  Crazy!

On the way here I passed through Coimbra.WOW it was sooooo beautiful!!!

Okay,I didn't get off and look at anything but I saw it from the bus and it was so cool!!!
 
I am going to miss my WARD!!!!! OHH I am going to miss them!! They
are all so great and helped us so much! I am going to miss all of my recent converts!!!!
 Especially Castro, hahah that guy is so funny!! Haha he told us this
week he is going to hire the fbi to find the three Nephites... :).
He fed us dinner last night to say goodbye. :) He gave me a huge
dictionary but it was so big that I had to leave it :(.

Bela is doing good. We watched the Joseph Smith filme with her this

week. She went back to smoking :(. But she seemed a little bit better.

Jessica and Yolanda ahhh I will miss them. They were too busy to do

 really anything this week...Ahhh Its just sad to think that I might not see
these people again!!  Ohhh I just love them.
 
I am not worried because Sister Carroll has got it all
under control. :) She is going to do great! I am going to miss her
too! She was a great companion and I feel like I learned so much from
her!

We were teaching the Medes Family. It was sad saying goodbye to them. They will be

 baptized soon.  I love how they have great values and are
so united as a family. They still have troubles with
 tithing and the word of wisdom. But they are great.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and watch how

the gospel can bless and change people's lives. I know that God loves all
of us and wants to help us. We are so blessed that we can pray to Him
 anytime that we want. I know that this is the only true church.

Lost but Now Is Found

Family Love
We had a family night last week with Castro and Hogo´s Family. We
talked about how we can stay away from Satan's influence. Then we
had dinner and it was delicious :)
We taught the Medes family. Their family is so united
and you can just tell how much love they have for each other. It was
so nice to see. The dad smokes 18 cigeretes a day but he is trying to
quit and he is down to 4 a day. The parents have a hard time
 understanding why we need to pay tithing, but we are going to keep
working with them. We have been helping the son with his English as
well and he is so ready to be batized.
 
Lost in a New Area
This new area is different. Haha we need to walk a hour before we see
 a single person! So one day we thought we would try another path
to see if it would get us to our area faster. We walked for 2 hours
and it started to get dark out. We kept asking everyone if we were in
Sobrea (dont know how to spell) and they said yes. Then we kept going
 and then we decided that we were completely lost. Haha we asked this
other lady after a while and she said no you are not even close!! We
kept walking hoping that we would find a city because were in just
neighboor hoods. After a while We decided we should ask someone. We
 knocked on this door and this guy came out and we contacted him and he
wasnt interested. At the end of the contact I was like... "Sorry sir I
just have one more question.... where are we?" hahha. He said that we
 were Costa de Caprica or something like that. Haha when we told our
elders that they said that we werent even in our area anymore and that
we were close to the ocean. So we continued walking and finally found
a city and a taxi. This new area is fun :) we decided that we
are not going to try short cuts and get lost again.

Temple Work and Blessings

Castro is doing great. He has been helping the missionaries and went to
the temple this week. So did my recent converts Jessica and Yolanda.
They all loved it. They all said that it was a great experience. The ward rents a bus
and takes everyone that wants to go.  They travel for 7 hours to the Spain
temple and do temple work, have lunch and then come back. Its 30 eros to go.

The Buffetings of Satan

Bela... So she was doing great. We vistited her on tuesday and she
 told us that people kept telling her that she was different and that
she was happier. But then sunday she came and it was like she was a
 whole new person... Apparently alot of people have been asking her why
our church is true and pressuring her and she looked online at some
anti mormon stuff and now she said that she feels like she doesnt know
if its true. Its sad. We are going to keep working with her.

A Little Taste of Home

This sunday we had lunch with the Santos again. They are so nice. I
 feel like they are family. They try to make us American food hahah its
so nice, This week we had roast and soup and apple pie!! :) it was so
nice of them.

 

Hastening The Work of the Lord

Bella’s Beautiful Baptism

Bella was Baptized!! I am so happy! So we taught her this week and she
 had a really hard time giving up smoking but she did it. She said that
 she feels a lot better now that she doesn't smoke. We also found out
 that she had a boy friend but he was super lame and so she said that
 she would break up with him.
Her baptism was great! There were a few tech problems with the font
 and it wouldn't fill all the way and it was making some weird slurping
 sounds and she had to sit down to be completely covered but everything turned out great.
 She really wants her family to follow her example but they don't
 want anything to do with it. They wouldn't come to the baptism and they tried to convince her not o come. She said that other people
 were trying to convince her not to be baptized too, but then we called
 her and she said everything was better.
 
 Also Castro is amazing!!!! The day of the baptism, our ward mission leader told us to ask
 Castro to give a talk. Castro was so
 excited and said that he would. We went in the morning and helped him
 write it. It was on the Holy Ghost.  During the baptism he was
 shaking he was so scared. Ah it made me so sad and I wanted to give it for him! But then he got up here and he gave such a powerful talk.
 After the baptism, he went home and studied more and found more
 scriptures. He shared his experience of how he knew the church was
 true. He made the bishop cry. Ohhh I felt the spirit so strong. I was
 so proud of him. Also he is going to the temple this weekend and
 received the priesthood this Sunday. It is just so amazing how the
 gospel can change people.

New Area But The Same
 Also this week we found out that we have been working in the wrong
 area and outside our ward boundaries and so have soo many missionaries
 before us... So the area that we were working in went to the other
 sisters. Ahhh!! I am sad. So we found out where our lines are for our
 new area and our new area is HUGE! It also is super far from our
 house. It is sooooo different. It has so many houses and there are no
 people in the streets.
 (There are so many pink houses hahah and every time I see one I just have to knock on the door aha I love pink)
 It has been fun exploring this new area but its harder because not as
 many people will talk to us.
 
The New Mendes Family
 This week we taught this family that was a reference from the
 Elders. The Mendes family came to the church and asked to be taught.
 The elders taught them the first lesson and then realized that they
 are in our area. We taught them this week. There is Neilson 17, Erica 5; the dad and the mom. They re such a cute family. Also they have a house!!!! It was the first house that i have been in since I left ur
 home!!! I was so happy!! We marked the son to be baptized this
Saturday but we think that we are going to move the date so that the
 whole family can be baptized on the same day! They are so great! Hah
 just hard to teach because they are never there at the same time.

Bella and Natalie in Picture

 

Conference Spiritual Boost Week

Zone Conference and Training
On Tuesday we had zone meeting. :) We learned how to get references
 from members and what to do after we eat at a members house. We also
learned new ways to contact on the street. They want us to start
inviting people to be baptized on a street contact! :) It surprised me
a little at first, but I know that the Lord has many ready to recieve
 the gospel and follow the example of Jesus Christ.
 
Right after we had divisions with the sister training leaders. I got
set up with one sister that is from Brazil. Sister Nigre... idk her
name exactly... something like that. But she was so nice. She talked
 soooooooooooo fast. The whole day I didnt even talk because she was
talking so fast and I couldnt get a word in. I really liked her
positive and upbeat energy. She was really good at conecting with
people and talking to people. I feel like I learned a lot. Sister
 Carrol went with a sister that is from Jacies area. She was really
nice too. She taught us a lot of fun and more interesting ways to teach
different things :)

Half Year Mark

The next day was our 6 month mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOO I did
 it!!! hahha :)! We went out for ice cream to celebrate :). I feel like
time has just zoomed by! I cant believe that I will be home in a year
from now. Its crazy to think about.

General Conference

 Did you love General conference?!!! Oh it was so amazing! It
 was the highlight of my week. I was looking forward to it all week
:). I was so happy when I saw President Monson, I got the chills. I
feel so blessed that we have a prophet to guide us today. I know that
they speak for God.

For General Conference we watched it in the basement of our church on

the computers. Everyone else was up stairs watching it in Portuguese.
We were able to watch all the sessions. That meant that we were able to
 stay out until 11:30 :) to finnish the sunday night session. :)

I cant decide on my favorite talk! I had so many. I loved President

Monsons talk. I think my favorite session was the Sunday morning
 session. Oh but they were all so good!! :)
 
Can you believe that there are 80,00 missionarys?! I am so happy to be
a missionary! :)

 

Bella and Castro

Bella is still doing great. I love her so much! :)! She is probably
one of the nicest ladies that I have ever met. She came to general
 conference on Saturday and Sunday :). She really enjoyed the talk that
 talked about the lady that recieved bread. She has had doubts
about tithing. Elder Bednars talk was perfect for her. She came out
after that and said that she would not be able to pay tithing because
she doesnt have the money. She said that she is weak from her cancer
 but still has to clean a ladys house for money and sometimes that isnt
even enough. After talking to her and after she watched that talk she
said that she would pay her tithing. She is also smokes but she
promised us that she would quit. She is excited for her baptism this
Saturday. Castro was at conference and he loved it. He was even taking notes :)!

 

On the Other Side

One day when we were door knocking a natural gas salesman walks up
to the door by us so we contacted him. After, he offered us a job.
 hahahhah! It was funny. He wanted us to sell natural gas. hahah :)