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 :)!