Life on the lovely island

Madeira

This week was good. :) It was a little challenging. We were rejected a lot. But it was still

great haha I cant be sad for too long I just look outside and I

remember, oh yeah I am on an island... :) It really is the best thing

ever!!!!!! :) It is the prettiest place that I have ever seen!!  I just need to work

harder and be positive.

Family Night

This week we had a family night at irma Eduarda´s house with Rita.

It was soooo great!!! We watched the Joseph Smith film. I love it. I

feel the spirit soo strong every time. Ahe fed us a really yummy

dinner and I made cookies. Portuguese people love cookies. But I

just love Rita sooooo much. This week she invited us over to meet her

family. Her family is soo great. She has three daughters that dont believe

in God and a husband that is Catholic. It was sooo much fun!!

They are all really nice. They talk really fast and basically it was

only in Spanish (from Venezuela). I understood 90% of it haha. But they had so much

energy and I love them :). They also made us some Venezuelan food-- it

was alright.. haha. But Rita is great and she will be batized this

Saturday. (She atually found the sisters

and asked them what time church started and she had been looking into

the church for about a year.)

Beach Baptism

The other sisters had a baptism on the beach.. well it was like a big rock

beach... and  it was windy and they kept getting knocked into the

rocks... hah the man getting baptized was determined to get batized

there. It took a long time. :)

I know that God loves us. I know that the church is true. I know

that through Christ we can change and can change the lives of others.

I know that God listens to our prayers. I am grateful to share this knowledge with others.

Hike

Today is Sister Briggs Bday and a member took us on the prettiest

hike. Pico Ruivo, its the highest peak in madeira, 6,200 ft. We

were like on top of the clouds. IT was the coolest thing that I have

done on my mission.

Madeira

Adventures on the Island

The airplane ride was a lot of fun. I was kind of nervious because I

didnt know how it would be but...I LOVE MADEIRA!!! It is soooo beautiful!!

it is probable one of the prettiest places I have ever been!!! :) It is soo green,

I can see the ocean from every part in my area and has beautiful flowers.

They even have a flower that smells like popcorn!! It is not too hot

and not too cold, it’s perfect weather :) Everything is uphill so we use

the buses alot. Also in our area there are a lot of tourists. They say

that Madeira is like the Hawaii of Europe. Its fun to see people from

different parts of the world and hear them talk. I love talking to

anyone that is from England hah :) But we dont usually work where the

torrists go.

We live in a beuatiful house. We share it with 2 other sisters

Sister Cardoso (Portuguese) and Sister Prieto ( Brazilian). It has been

really fun to have other sisters in the house. Ha the first night I

woke up to go running and there was a giant cock roach on the floor...

ew... also we might have bed bugs!!! But its okay hahah I am on an

island :)

I love our little branch :) We meet in a pink church building and the

members our great. The accent here is a little weird... hahah Some

things I dont even understand!

This week we also had zone conference. We practiced on

inviting someone to be baptized and we also practiced following up. We

have a very small zone.

We have an Investigator that is ELECT!!!!! She has been

investigating the church for about 11 years and the sisters stopped

and talked to her in the street and she is marked to be baptized on

the 13th. She is from Venezuela. She is soo sweet and talks and

laughs alot :)

We went to visit someone that we had contacted in the

street.  When we opened the little gate and went to ring the door

bell three dogs come around the corner and start barking. I

carefully slipped out and my comp came right behind me. But the dog

bit her!!!! It wasnt huge, but it bit her ankle.

But it has been great!! :) Today we went to a castle :)

I have always wanted to go into a casle. :)

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Transferred To an Island off the Coast of Africa

Transferred

Guess what?!!! I AM GOING TO SERVE ON

Madeira!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) it will be great! I

got the transfer call yesterday at like 2 and they said that I had one

hour to pack and to get to the train station. I ran home and me and

Sister Caldwell were frantically throwing everything into my bag... we missed the

train by 4 minutes. But it all worked out! I was able to stay see my

old comp Sis Carroll and we stayed up talking sooo late... I LOVE

HER!! It was so fun! My plane will leave in a few hours I will be

serving with sister Briggs.  I can only take one suitcase weighing less than

23 pounds.   I am going to miss this area and the

ward and Sister Caldwell, but I know that they are in good Hands :)

International Party and Zone Conference

This last week was wonderful. We had a huge ward activity. It was an

international party :) Everyone brought food from different countries

and we mad a really fun jepordy game that they loved and we played

musical chairs :) It turned out to be a great activity. We have 6

investigators there and about 50 people. I made an apple pie :) it was

soo much fun.

We had a really great conference ,Elder Kearon came from the 70

and he spoke to us. It was amazing the spirit was very strong.

I am soo happy that I am a missionary an I am able to have all these

cool experiences. It was also great to see everyone at the conference.

okay sorry it's short, but my I have to catch my plane... :)  I love you all

so much!! have a great week!!!

Teaching the Truth and Sometimes Indiana Jones... :)

Vera, Nilda, Ishmel, and Chritane

Our investigator Vera is doing good. She loves everything and

especially the Book of Mormon. This week she was sick and was in the

hospital so we were not able to see her. Nilda right now is kind of

avoiding us, but we are going to try and visit her by surprise. We

found a new investigator name Ismel who came to church. He is 17 and I

am excited to teach him. We also are going to be able to teach

Christane this week she was out of town all last week.

An Unfunny Movie Night

This week we had a ward activity. We had another movie night. We

watched Mega mind.  Sister Caldwell and I sat outside and made sugared

popcorn. They said that Portugues people only like sugary popcorn.

It was a great activity we had about 40 people there. Haha I guess

that none of them thought that it was funny. No one in there laughed. hahah

Portuguese Indiana Jones

We were invited to a members house to eat for lunch.

His name is Joaquim and he is really cool. He reminds me of Indana

Jones. He has been all over the world and been on so many cool

adventures. He makes the stones for grave sites and also he

paints sculptures. He works in a graveyard. In Portugal you can only

be buried for a certain amount of time and  after that certain amount

of time they dig the graves up. So that is his job. He kinda lives in a

house,  but I dont know if i would call it a house. I felt like we were

camping. We ate soup and pork and soda. Next time we go over there I

will bring my camera.

Member Missionary Work

In church this week they announced that they want to split our ward.

It  will  be a really good thing. They announced

that the month of June is going to be a month for the members to

invite at least one friend to church. It was perfect because this

week we made a ward plan for how the members can invite their friends

to church and give them to the missionaries.

I am so grateful for the gospel and that I am a missionary. I have

been studying in Preach my Gospel about how I can improve my personal

studies. Personal study everyday is sooo important. I am grateful for

that time to learn, recieve revelation, and grow closer to our Savoir.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you alll soooo much!!!

Easter in Portugal

Sick Companion                          

This week sister Cawldwell was sick. She had the same exact flu that I

had like two weeks ago. So we have been in our house all week. I

made her chicken noodle soup and she had lots of Vitamin C, just like

I did. Sister Cawldwell is great! She loves to talk and she is nice

and a great missionary! :)

Christina                    

But we also finally contacted this reference that we got from the

elders. Her name is Christana and she is soooo sweet and so amazing.

We taught her the first lesson and it went great. She prayed about the

Book of Mormon and feels like it is true. She came to church and loved

it. She is so ready.

Easter

In Portugal they do not really do anything special to celebrate

Easter. They just eat chocolate covered almonds, they

dont color eggs or have easter egg hunts.   On Easter Sunday

it was wonderful to go to church. I am just so

grateful for our Savior and that we will all have the opportunity to

live again.

Nilda and Divisions

Divisions

This week we had divisions and it was a great division. I went with

sister Swasey. She is so cute and speaks the language so well!! It was

fun to have the sisters over and I felt like we got alot done that day

:)! This week we also had to get sister Parkers residency and that took a while.

Nilda

We also have been working alot with Nilda. We had a great lesson with

her and her family. Oooooh I just love them sooo much!! So we taught

them what a testimony is and the steps to gaining a testimony and then

had a mini testimony meeting. The spirit was there so strong. It was

so great to have Nildas mom and sisters bear testimony to her. You

could just tell how much her mom loves Nilda. Nilda was like balling

and she also bore her testimony and it was just great! :)

Also this week Sister Parkers grandma came to church and I think that

she liked it. I love her family too :). We spent sis Parkers last

night in their house. Her grandma taught us how to make some

Portuguese food :).

PMG Christlike Characteristics Test

This week I took the Christ like attribute test in pmg and it was

great. I am so grateful for the example of Christ and that everyday we

can work to be more like him! You all should take that test its great.

:) I love you all so much! I know that this is the one and only true

church.

Balls, Pancakes, and Conferences Galore!

Zone Conference and Having a Ball

This week we had zone conference. It was one of my

favorites, we talked about repentance and how to better plan for our

investigators and that we need to study the nature of God. I

have loved studying about the nature of God. I feel that as I learn

more about Him, I am learning how much love He has for us and I have

felt alot closer to Him this week.

Also this week I recieved a wonderful surprise in the mail :) haha a

pink ball!! Thank you, It was soo cute and sweet!! :) ohhh you should

have seen the mail mans face.... hahhahahhahahahhah it was so funny!!!

:)

Hanging out with Family

Also this week I hit my one year mark... what?! It was great. We were

able to go and visit Sister Parkers family again. They fed us fish.

Sister Parker is doing family history with them.

We had such an amazing lesson with Nilda!!! It was so

powerful. She really opened up to us. I felt the spirit so strong. She

has been through sooooo much and I just felt that Heavenly father

loved her sooo much and wanted her to know that.

Pancake Party

Also, my companion and I planned a ward activity.  It was a

pancake party :)! It was great hahh they all loved the pancakes.

 It was so much fun. The elders started with the message and

game and then we made 200 pancakes!!

One of our investigators Anna Rita had her baby so we

went and visited her in the hospital. There were soo many pregant

ladies who looked in a lot of pain (freaked me out)  hahah it did not look fun.. but the babies were sooo cute :)

General Conference and Inspired Prophets

Also the huge highlight of my week was of course

conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!

wow it was just sooo amazing! I think that my favorite talk was from

our Prophet Thomas s Monson. I am just so grateful that we have a

prophet that leads our church today. Also Maria came back from France

and was able to come to conference and she loved it! :) I am happy

that she is back.