This week was great! :) Gaia is great and my comp is great.

Cold Weather

So it is freezing cold up here!!!! It rains a lot. Our house is colder

than outside! The first night our heater blew up at like 3 am. ha The

 first thing I did was went and bought a new one. The

new one doesnt work that well ha so we should hopefully be getting one soon :).

Great People in a Great Ward

The ward here is great :)! I am really excited to start working with

this ward! We have a lot of primary kids. Also we have a really nice

church that is really close. Our area is big and we walk a lot :). My

comp is great and works hard :). We run every morning :).  I am in a

district with our Zone leaders Elder Harris and Elder De Pina (from

cape verde).

The elders had a baptism this week. Her name is Joanna and she is 23

and it was wonderful. :)

Also we have a ward choir. I can't sing at all, but we go to support the

ward.  :)

Also a ward member fed us bacalhau (cod) in spagetti this week. Its so wierd

that I like fish now!

We have some recent converts that I am in love with!!! They are

amazing!!! I love them :). They lived in America for like 15 years

and they all speak in english. Sonia is the mom and a member.  She had

been looking for the church since she has been back in Portugual for

her young girls. She was active when she was in America. She said one day

she saw my companion in the street and ran to them and said you need to

talk to my girls. They were baptized last transfer. Her girls are so

cute twins that are 12 and one that is 10. They are sooo cute. They

all are reading their scriptures and want to missionaries someday. They miss

american food like me hahha :). We watched the longer Joseph Smith

movie with them and I think it was a little bit scary for them!! Also

the oldest daughter hasnt been baptized and doesnt want anything to do

with the church, but we are going to try and teach her.

We dont really have any investigators but we are going to keep searching :).

Scary Contacting

This week we knocked this door and this scary guy, who I think was

on drugs answered and his dog was going to eat me!!! He didnt do

anything about it! so I of course hid behind my comp haha and she did

the whole contact. She is such a great comp :)

We have a ward activity every week and this week we talked about

gratitude and had everyone write 100 things that they are grateful

for.  Heavenly father has blessed us so much. It was great to see that when we did this activity

everyone was happy. I know that when we focus on our blessings we will

be happy. God wants us to be happy. We also had a great lesson in

gospel doctrines about agency and it is our choice whether or not we

will be happy!! SO choose to be happy :)!!! I love you all and I hope

you have a great great week!!!!

Transferred and Antonio Was Baptized!!!

so... I got transfered!!!!

I am more north in Gaia. its right

across the river South of Porto. I am serving with Sister Bollinger!!! She

is tall and blonde and looks super nice. Her first question to

me was"Do you run?"!!! I wanted to hug her I was so happy :)!

! I am excited to serve with here. We have a ward! :) I am really going to miss our ward members!!!

Antonio was baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)!

I was so happy!!! We worked with him almost every day this week. We had the

baptism in Coimbra and another little girl in our ward was baptized

the same day. I was so happy!! I seriously could not stop smiling!! it

is true that the happiness you can feel when you help bring someone

to Christ. Sr. Antonio was so scared of the water being cold but

everything was great because the water was warm and everything ran

smoothly!! :) He doesnt look that happy in the pictures hahah but I

promise he was haha :). I am going to miss him! He is so funny

he always talks about food and the weather and his cats. He

loves pears... and will not eat treats but always buys us treats... I

am going to miss him.

Divisions

This week we went on divisions and I went with Sister Siegman

(Brazilian). We visited a few people. I love divisions because I feel

like I learn so much!!!

Also we found some really elect investigators this week!!!!!! I am sad

that I will not be able to keep teaching them. They are the neices and mom

of a menos activo we visisted. The little girls Bilkens(8) and Sharon

(11). We taught them the first lesson and the Spirit was there so

strong. I felt the spirit strong as I testified that

Joseph Smith was a prophet. The little girls came to church and told

the primary leader  that they wanted to stay in church forever

and that they wanted to be baptized this next week!!!!! :)

 Ah I wish I could keep teaching them.

Working With Members Toward Salvation

Our mission has really been focusing on working with the members. We

have been trying to do that and teach investigators/menos activos with

a member. The difference there is in the work is amazing!!!!! The lessons

go so much better and the spirit is there and then they have a friend

at church. MEMBERS are sooo important to this work! I am going to try

my best to keep working with members in this new area.

Nine Months Into the Mission

The Gospel in Action

ANTONIO is getting baptized! :)

I am so excited!! He is excited too

haha I think he is just nervous about the water being cold. But we

have had some really great lessons with him this week and he is ready.

I am so happy for him :)

(he also told me that if you give a frog a cigerette it will explode

haha I learn new things every day!)

FHE – Fun Home Experiences

Monday we had a family night with family in our ward and

Beatrice. It was great. Paulo Santos gave the lesson and used lots of

objects and things to help the kids understand. He has 3 kids. Then we

brought a game :) we put chocolate in the middle and then we used dice

and if it landed on a one the person could start eating the chocolate

with a spoon and a oven mitt until the next person got a one. haha it

was fun!! :)

Helping the Lost Sheep

We have been working a lot with this member named Lusi, I love her. She

is a return missionary and she is amazing!! I just want to be her! She

has been working with us with the menos activos. She wants us to help

 the menos activos read the book of mormon. We made a

list of the ones that we wanted to focus on and we are praying for

them everyday at 7.

We have been trying to pass visit the menos activos that are young adults

and we want to start a fhe activity each week for them. while we have

been passing by we have been finding families and so many more people

to teach!! :)

Teaching the New Curriculum and an Umbrella Tradition

This week were able to sub and teach the young woman. :)! They were so

cute! We have 2 young women in our ward. We taught about the

the God head. I really like how the lessons are structured now! The new

curriculum is great!

Today we rode around on bikes in the city.   Also, the Portuguese

have this tradition where they celebrate some

saint(I forgot the name). To celebrate they go to the top of their church and throw

sweet bread off the roof and the people at the bottom hold

umbrellas upside down to catch it.  They use these giant stick

net things to catch the bread. It is really funny to see  really

old people fighting over really hard bread hahahh :)

Celebrating New Years in Portugal

New Years Ever in Portugal

On new year Eve we spent the whole day with a member named Olinda and

she introduced us to all of her friends. Sometimes it was

awkward because I felt like we were just interrupting a lot of family parties.

It was fun to meet so many different people haha.

At night we set the alarm at 11:58 to wake up haha. We woke up

and I rolled up the blinds and heard people screaming and I

saw three fire works and then I went back to sleep.

New Years Day as a Missionary

The next day all of Portugal slept in.   Everything was dead!, nothing was

open. We had to have a member drive us to our  zone meeting

which was great.The focus was on how to work better with

members. I loved seeing the other sisters and getting to talk to them :).

After one of our members invited us to this clasical concert and

wanted to introduce us to her friends. None of her friends came so we

ended up just listening to the music.

Celebrations All Around

I  hit my 9 month mark this week!! Crazy that I am half way done

with my mission. We went to this place called chocolate chocolate and

got these really yummy treats. I got ice cream in a chocolate bowl

and sister jackson got a wafflel.

This week we invited Senior Antonio to fast with us. The next day in

church we had a lesson with a member and Senior Antonio and we marked

him to be baptized on the 19th of january!!!!!!!!! ha he said "cant

it be later?" and the member was like no no no because we dont know

when we are going to die hahah! But I am so happy for him and to be

able to have the blessings of the gospel.

Also this Sunday a lot of the menos activos came to church and one of

them bore her testimony!! :)