Well, this is the last time! I think you all already know that I´m sad, so I´ll try to be upbeat!! But this last week was truly amazing, full of miracles, and we had three baptisms!!!! Max and Shirley, the kids that ´we´ve been working with were baptized, as well as Sérgio, whose whole story is a miracle of how we found and marked him. The elders here had a baptism too, so we had four in one! :D It was amazing, and such a great way to end.

I don´t have much time (and there´s never enough time to tell everything), but I just want to say how thankful I am for this chance to serve a mission, and here in Portugal. Yesterday I spoke in sacrament meeting about Joy, and it really is amazing to me how that is our purpose here, and how the gospel brings the fullest, most complete joy for us. Although there are difficulties and struggles in the mission, I have learned how to love everyday, and to enjoy the adversities, becuase it always means that a miracle is coming! I know that this truly is the work of the Lord, and that we are helping others to come unto Christ so that they also may have the benefits of the atonement in their lives. I know that this is the true and living church of God, restored and led by living prophets. We can know this for ourselves through the Book of Mormon, whcih helps us to come unto Christ and learn the path that returns to our Heavenly Father. I know that this is what leads to true and fulfilling happiness and joy. I am so grateful to have this light in my life and to have shared it with some, and hope to continue sharing it with all that I meet! I love the people here in Portugal with all of my heart, and am grateful for the privilege to know and serve them. Thank you for your support- I love all of you as well. My motto for this transfer has been 2nd Timothy 4:7 ´´I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith´´. I hope that we can all say at the last day before Jesus Christ!

Well, one more week sped by and we´re already approaching April! Every time I look at the calendar (that´s every day with planning!) I get scared :P But this last week was a good one.

On Saturday we had the baptism of Alberto, who we had marked the week before. He´s older (about 60), but he´s such a good-hearted and happy-go-lucky guy, it was awesome to see him in white! And Walkidi, who was baptized in December, preformed his first baptism, which was soo awesome to see :D I love them both so much, and it was a really good experience, although not many members came to support him, which is always frustrating...but step by step we´ll get where we want to be! But it was a great week to see Alberto progressing and really applying the principles of the gospel! I love seeing the changes in people as they learn and live the gospel.

This week we also marked two girls for baptism this next Sunday...I love this family. It´s a single mom with 4 kids, from Cabo Verde, and they are so amazing! The mom doesn´t have much time to meet with us, but reads the Book of Mormon on her commute to Lisboa. We´ve been teaching the two older kids (13 and 10) regularly, and I love them!! There is a 3yrold girl that talks the most I´ve ever met! And she talks like an adult...a lot better than our Portugues :P The three girls went to church yesterday, which was awesome. We also had some other miracles\blessing of people coming to church...

we´ve been teaching 2 kids (11 and 9) that are part of a huge family but only they have interest and time (the mom has interest but ALWAYS works...it´s amazing). We had already invited them to be baptized, but the mom wanted them to wait. So we´re trying to help them be more self-reliant and indepentant with the gospel...reading, going to church etc. So yesterday we had told them that they needed to go to church alone, that we couldn´t pick them up and go with them. They live about 20 minutes from the church, which is quite a hike for two little kids. BUT, they came alone!!!!!!!! I was so happy for them, because if they can manage to go to things alone they will be able to progress notwithstanding the support (or lack of) in their family. So that was a little miracle :)

Also, I was sitting at the piano playing the hymns when I saw two people walk in that were two investigators that I hadn´t talked to in a month! They came recently from Brasil and started working all the time (a common case here, mesmo). But yesterday they didn´t have work and came by themselves!! That was a miracle too, and a really good sign of genuine interest :) It´s interesting how we found them- we had contacted a family, and a few times later when we passed by these friends have just arrived from Brasil. The woman came to church the next Sunday...it´s cool how we find people through other people that we have contacted- there is a purpose for everything!

I am so excited for Conference this week!!!! It´s just a little sad because we don´t have as much time to work, but so worth it!! I love hearing the words of the living prophets, and the counsel and teaching that we need to apply especially now. I love that all of our questiosn can be answered :D It´s so amazing to me that we have living prophets, seers, and revelators that reveal the will and words of God to us! To know this is a huge blessing in my life that makes all the difference.

Well another week sped by...and today is transfers...and...I´m staying in Mem Martins! (my fourth transfer here, and I´m going to die here!). I wasn´t sure if I wanted to stay or go, so I´m happy to be staying. But my companion was switched to Almada, and another irmã- Irmã Thayer- will be coming here. I´m glad that at least something is changing...at times it´s rough when everything stays the same. But that´s the big news of the week.

This week was pretty normal, not much to report. One of the elders in our ward goes home today, so he was wayy trunky this week! It was funny to watch him and realized that it really will end one day! But there were a few highlights or interesting stories from the week...

We had lunch with a member that is an older woman, who is extremely quirky but so sweet...she laughs in every situation, and its contagious. So, as costume, we washed our hands in the bathroom before eating, and then were helping her ge everyhing to the table and organized. She went into the back of the house, and suddenly we heard this loud, nervous laugh. We went there to see what happened, and we had flooded the bathroom! The faucet didn´t turn off all the way, and the drain was clogged, and there was a solid inch of water on the floor! We grabbed a mop and a towel, and tried to pick up all the water. She was a really good sport about, just laughing and saying she shouldn´t have bothered cleanning the bathroom. But it was a really funny experience! :P

We found a family this week from Cabo Verde that is really neat. It´s a single mom with 4 kids, and they´re incredible. When we got there for our appointment, the kids were on a sofa eating dinner together! (not normal!) We had a really good lesson with them too...it was really neat.

So on Saturday, we weren´t sure if we would have daylight savings here or not. We knew it was in America, but no one here had any idea. So we called the Zone Leaders, and after a while they called back and said that it would be. But no one here knew it, so we still weren´t sure. So we woke up an hour early, but weren´t sure if we should go pick up our investigators an hour earlier or not, because no one knew. So we tried calling the ward leaders to see if they knew, but no one answered (a common problem here!). But finally we got ahold of one who said that it was not dayight savings. Later the ZLs called and said that the secretaries (who had said it was) were wrong...So basically we lost an hour of sleep and lots of stress of not knowing when church would start. Sometimes being cut off from the world can be hard!!!

Then, during church (which we managed to get out investigator to :) ), the Primary president called me out of Relief Soceity and said that two kids that had come to church had disappeared, and they didn´t know where they were! So, we went with two members of our bishopric to the house of one that lives just 5 minutes from the church, and they were there playing PSP. !!! So we left the one at his house and took the other one back to church....I never had investigator run out of church before!!!

But yeah, other than some interesting experiences, it was just another week. I heard about the tsunami in Japan from the members here- sounds like it was a huge disaster. Just another reminder that the day to prepare ourselves is today!!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

Happy March! Today is my 17-month anniversary- crazy! Time flies so fast...there´s an elder in my district that´s going home next week...it´s so weird to think that that day actually comes!

But things are going good here...this week wasn´t as miraculous as last week, but we always need to learn patience and perseverance! We have a lot of people that we passed by a lot, but weren´t progressing, so we felt that we should drop them. It´s always hard and a little scary to drop people that you want to help, but that don´t really want to be helped. But I know that as we continue, we will find more of those who are prepared to be helped to attain salvation mesmo agora.

This Sunday we had Stake Conference, which was interesting. As usual, my favorite speaker was Presidente Torgan :D He spoke about the famous Portuguese explorers who defied the traditions and beliefs at the time and found new lands and riches. He applied this to the Portuguese latter-day saints, who are defying the traditions of the culture here to embrace the truth, and who are finding new opportunities, hope, and riches of eternity through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ- it is the most precious thing that I have, along with my family (love ya, btw!) :) Being here and spending all my time, thoughts, and energy on teaching the blessings of the gospel has helped me realize even more every day the endless blessings that we have. I love the scripture in D&C 6:7- rich is he who has eternal life- we really do have the greatest wealth that exists!

There was also a 70 from Germany that came and spoke- he was really interesting and amusing. He talked about optimism and balance in our lives. I honestly remember more of what he did than what he said, but what we need most is balance!

So, changing lanes, this last pday was incredible. A member of our ward (Roberto) offered to drive us to some of the main tourist spots close to us, and we got permission from President to go. It was so cool!!! We went to Boca de Inferno (hell´s mouth), which is a group of rocks on the sea that foam up and look like a mouth when there are lots of waves. We went to see a few beaches, and also went to Cabo de Roca, which is the farthest west point on the European continent!!!! This area of Sintra is sooo beautiful, and it was so neat to see the high-lights. It´s so much faster when you go by car! It was like 3 normal pdays in 1. I honestly love Portual so much...the scenery, history, the people. It´s so different, but I love it here. I´ll send pics from pday in another email.

wow, it seems like Spring is finally coming! I think we´re all excited, especially those in the snowstorms in Michigan! Good luck :)

This last week taught me a lot- at times it was rough, but I really felt the blessings of the Lord.

Last pday we went with our elders to Sintra, to the Quinta do Regaleira, which is a big old house with gardens that are AMAZINGLY cool- like underground caves and tunnels, towers, and just about everything you could wish for. It was the coolest ´´touristy´´ thing I´ve done here in Portugal. It was an awesome pday. At the end of pday our zone leaders called and said that our President and Assistants had prayed and they wanted to know yes\no if we would have a baptism this week. They asked us to pray and then call back with an answer, but if we said yes, we really had to baptise....(no pressure!). So we prayed and we felt that we would have a baptism, and basically we made a covenant that we would have a baptism this week. I´ve learned a lot about covenants and the power and blessings we have when we make covenants, but its a lot of pressure when you covenant with God that you will baptise someone! But I really felt that He would do His part as we did everything that we could...but there is always a trial of faith!

So this week we were really focused and really doing everything that we could. But the first couple days of the week were unusually rough- not finding new people, appointments falling through, and things just working out very well. I really felt that the Lord was teaching about humility- we could (and we were) doing everything that we could, but we cannot determine our own success. But it was really interesting- despite the difficulties that we were having, I could appreciate the lessons that we were learning in the moment, and I still really had faith that we would fulfill our covenant to have a baptism. And just like we always hear, the Lord fulfills his promises and after the trial of faith we will receive His blessings, and we did!

So we received the ´´call´´ on Monday, and we went 3 days without sucess in marking anyone. Remember that family that I talked about last week that I felt we should pass by and we found the daughter at home and she went to church? We had marked an appointment with her early in the week, but she had to leave to visit a relative and our appointment fell through. We tried to pass at other times, but she was never home (and she doesn´t have a phone). When we were on the way to visit someone else Thursday night, we saw her in the road and marked an appointment with her (no way it was coincidence to find her in that road at 9pm!). We had felt earlier in the week (after praying) that she was ready to be baptized, so in our lesson on Friday we invited her to be baptized on Sunday, and she accepted! It has been an amazing experience to teach her, becuase she is a perfect example of someone whose heart has been prepared by the Lord. She is so willing to learn, and recognizes the truth...we didn´t really have to do anything expect teach her, because the Lord had already done the rest. It was a HUGE miracle for us. She was baptised on Sunday after church, and it was such a special service, and I felt so happy for her, and for the changes that she is making. I feel so privileged that I had the opportunity to find and help her. It was so interesting how the Lord really showed us that it is NOT us that really do this work or bring conversion, but it is His work that is done in His way through th spirit. So even though it was a semana muito dura, it was so worth it for the things that I learned and the miracles that I saw.

We´re still teaching some other famies, and have lots of kids that come to church! We had a church activity on Saturday, and my companion was sitting with Dália (our baptism) and I was sitting with 5 kids ages 11, 9, 8,8, and 8- what a hand full! I want a family, but I want to spread it out a bit :P But I love teaching kids too, they´re so fun.

Well, one more week flew by! It honestly seems that every week passes by faster and faster...I need more TIME!! But this week was a good one.

An update on the flea situation :P - we got rid of them this last week washing and ´´bio-killing´´ everything in our house. Then my poor companion got 4 more bites during one day this week. But we don´t know if it is the same bugs or others...but we´ve gone a few days without anymore bites, so we´re hoping that´s a good sign!

Lately we´ve been finding and teaching lots of families, which is new for me and has been really fun. I love how kids are so willing to listen and learn, and they recognize the truth so easily. And they are actually excited to go to church!!! Yesterday we about doubled the size of our primary with the kids that we brought to church :) They´re really funny and so cute. We had a lesson about OLA (oração, leitura, assistir igreja) and we used mini glowsticks that my comp brought from the states. They don´t have them here, and the kids LOVED them! It´s so fun to teach families :D

The mission leads to lots of moments that you just have to laugh. Have I already mentioned that they have a LOT of dogs here? Yesterday we were walking and tracting on a road that had vivendas (stand alone houses instead of apartment buildings that are more common). There was a dog in the road in front of us, but I didn´t think much about it. My comp is REALLY scared of dogs, so she was a little reluctant to walk by. Suddenly we´re surrounded on both sides of the road by HUGE dogs that are in the yards of the houses on either side (like, St Bernard huge- like a pony!). There are about 5 dogs barking like crazy and growling at us, with one loose in the road! My comp ran away a little, so I found myself alone in the middle of all the dogs! We had to pass through to keep going in the road, so I went back to my comp and pushed\pulled her through the dogs to keep going, and the dog in the road was following and growling at us...finally I got him to leave us alone, but it was soo annoying! I never loved dogs but the mission has sealed a solid hate of dogs in my soul!!

The other day we were walking to an appointment when the heavens opened and we got sooo soaked. We had umbrellas, but with wind and literally rivers of water in the road, it doesn´t help much! When we got to the house, I was wringing out my skirt in the doorway before going in...we stayed wet the whole day, but thankfully eventually the sun came out :)

One of the challenges of the mish (and life!) is learning to be led by the spirit to know what and where to do and go. We had one neat experience this week that really showed how the Lord guides His work. A few months ago the primary had its presentation, and I played the piano. We had a practice on saturday, so we were in the chapel. My comp invited some kids from the street to come watch the practice, and they liked it. We saw the kids a few days later in the street with an adult and talked to them briefly, but didn´t get their contact info, and never saw them again. A couple weeks ago I contacted a woman in the street that was going to buy compras, that said we could pass by her house another day. We passed by a few times, but no one was ever home. This last week while on the way to another appointment that passed by the house, I felt that we should try again. We knocked, and one of the daughters was home and talked to us, and told us that the two younger kids had already gone to our church once and always talked about the church when they passed the chapel- it was the same family that we had seen that one time! We went back the next day and met some other members of the family, and they went to church yesterday with us. It was just so cool to see how we were guided to find this one family- what is the chance that we would contact the mom of these kids in the street and find them again? It´s always neat when things like that happen.

Well, one more week has speeded by! This week was good- we taught a lot and I like working with my new comp a lot. We just need to strengthen our area and help our investigators to progress more. I am really coming to love the ward and the people here in Mem Martins...it´s weird to think that I might end my mission here (thanks for all the trunky emails, by the way :P )

But really, it hits me more every day how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have had to be here, and all the things that I have learned. I really feel that what King Benjamin said in the beginning of Mosias is so true about unprofitable servants. We may obey and do everything that we can to serve the Lord, but He will recompensate us so much more than the little that we have given! Truly the lord turns little sacrifices into great blessings. When we were doing our weekly planning, we started a new agenda because of a new transfer. I was filling in all the dates, and this trasnfer goes until the middle of March! I felt like i wanted to cry when I was looking at the yearly calendar and seeing how little time is left. I love you all, but I don´t want to come home!! I´m glad that I still have 3 long months left to be here, and do my best to help the people here.

This week we had a zone meeting that was really good. One of the scriptures that we read that I really liked was in Doctrine and Covenants, section 33, or roundabout. It talks about how we should open our mouths and it will be filled by the Spirit, like Nephi experienced, and that we will have many sheaves upon our backs (or something like that translation). I had read it recently and really liked those verses, but they asked a question that I hadn´t thought of- why Nephi was used as an example of opening his mouth. One reason I thought of is of what Nephi taught his brothers- basically repentance and trust in the Lord. How many times did they refuse to follow the counsels of the Lord, and didn´t even want to understand His way? Also, it was interesting to think of how Nephi was the youngest brother. He had to teach and chastise and call to repentance those that should have been the examples. Especially as a young missionary, you feel that way a lot as well. Here we are, more or less 20 years old, teaching so many people and families that have a lot of experience in the ´world´, but that need to be called to repentance. At times (a lot!) you feel weak, young, and inadequate, but it is by the weak things of the world that the Lord confounds the wise and brings about His purposes. A lot of times I may be more like Laman or Lemuel, but I want to be like Nephi! I was reading about Captain Moroni today as well, when he lifted the Title of Liberty. What power and courage he had! I want to have the same power in defending the truths of the Lord.

There are always interesting stories that come when you tract, but there were a couple of sad instances this week. We ran into multiple people who basically said the same thing- they didn´t know if what they knew or believed was true, but it was what they were used to and didn´t want to know the truth. When we flat out asked if they would like to know the truth for themselves, they said no. That made me really sad that there are people who aren´t even interested in the truth, but just content to stick to the statis quo. That just means that we as misssionaries and members need to find those who have been prepared by the Lord, that are looking for the truth. I know they exist everywhere- we just have to open our eyes to see them

Well, today is transfer day :) I am going to be staying in Mem Martins, but Irmã Reis is leaving and Irmã Egbert will be my new companion! She is my ´grand-daughter´ (I trained Irmã Almeida, who then trained Irmã Egbert), and she´s awesome, so I´m excited to serve with her.

This last Friday we had a combined zone conference with Elder Caussé, who in the the Presidency of the Europe Area (general authority). It was an amazing conference that I loved, and some big news was announced as well. As of July, the Lisboa and the Porto missions will be combined, and there will just be one Portugal mission! President Torgan will take over the combined mission! This is really big news here, and I´m excited for the progress that this shows we are making, even though I won´t be here when it actually happens. It is amazing to see all the blessings and miracles that the Lord is doing here in Portugal, and I´m so glad I get to be a part of His work :D

I loved the conference that we had- we talked a lot about consecration, which has been on my mind a lot recently, and it was amazing to truly learn by the spirit. Elder Caussé started off by having us personally answer 3 questions- why we are on a mission, what are our srengths, and what do we want to improve. It was interesting to reflect and then see how my own thoughts and needs were responded in the conference. One of my favorite scriptures during my whole mission has been Helaman 3:35. I always focused on the prayer and fasting, and have really tried to put into practice these concepts. It didn´t really hit me until Friday how I was missing the part in the middle of the verse- that they were firm in Humility and strong in Faith. One of the themes that I really got out of the meeting was the importance of humility. Reflecting on my thoughts and actions recently, I realized how prideful I have been! It´s always good when the spirit brings us down...the next day during personal study I read Alma 37, when alma is giving counsel to his son. At the end of the chapter he talks about the need to avoid pride, and not thank God for being better than other people, but to recognize our own unworthiness before the Lord! That chapter was really for me that day, especially following the conference. At times it is so easy to judge others without knowing their heart or circumstance. We really can not compare ourselves ,but just work to improve our own faults and work out our own salvation. I learned a lot of things at the conference, but don´t have much time, so I´ll just leave you with that bit :)

Well, we´re hitting the end of January! After a couple of spring-like days the cold, wind, and rain returned with a vengeance! I never knew that you could put on so many layers of clothing ;) Usually I use 2 pairs of pants (leggings), under my skirt with boots, and 2-3 jackets under my coat and scarf...it takes 10 minutes just to get all the layers on before leaving the house!! :P

This week was good overall. We had a baptism yesterday of a girl that´s nine years-old. Her parent aren´t members, but she has two brothers that are members, one serving a mission in Porto. We started teaching her a few months ago, but in the end she didn´t have a lot of desire to be baptized. We decided recently to start teaching her again, and it was interesting to see the difference, and how the Lord prepares the hearts of His children. She really wanted to be baptized, and it was neat that her brother was able to baptize her (he´s a priest). It took him three times, but he did a good job!

We´ve also started teaching a mom and her teenage daughter, and they´re amazing. We contacted them a few weeks ago, but after several missed connections we finally began teaching them last week. The first lesson was really good, and they came to church (which is always a higlight :D )I´m really excited for them and hope they continue to progress.

It´s funny how we receive so many blessings, and how at times the Lord answers prayers before we even think of them. On Saturday we had to pay our gas bill, which we had meant to do during the week but never had time or were close to the place. We got there on Saturday at 12:35, to see the sign that says they close at 12:30. We didn´t know what to do since it was the last day to pay the bill. So while we´re standing there thinking and debating what to do, a woman comes up, and entering asked what we needed. We showed the bill we needed to pay, and she helped us so that we could pay the bill even though the system had already been shut down. What a BLESSING! It´s amazing how the Lord knows even the little things that we need...

At the beginning of the month, our President talked about the value of our message and the truths that we teach (see D&C 6:7). He grabbed a backpack and asked who we know that needs 2000 euros...what we have is worth even more. So following this method, we have had a few lessons of ´´2000 euros´´, where we ask members who they know that needs 2000 euros....which has led to some intresting situations!!!!! We asked one member who he knew that needed 2000 euros, if someone he knew had had a baby, a death, or other event or problem recently. He then started to recount how his son had died last year, but he hadn´t told anyone in the church, about the problems he has....basically pointing to himself. When we pulled out the ´´´2000 euros´´ (aka the Book of Mormon), he just started to laugh. Similar things have happened with other members...funny how it is human nature to think of ourselves! But I know that we really do have the greatest wealth, which is the truth. We have hope to achieve eternal life, which is the greatest gift that we could ever receive.

sorry this email is random and scattered...but sometimes thats kinda the way life is!! I hope you have a great week and remember I love ya. :D

Irmã Geiger

PS- Who do YOU know that needs 2000 euros?!

I know I say it every week, but I can´t believe its pday again. The days fly by here...this last week was just normal. We´ve found a lot of new investigators, which is good, but a lot of our return appointments fell through, which is always sad and frustrating. But we found one family that was taught and went to church about 4 years ago, and they have a friend who is a member who talked a lot with them when they visited Switzerland one time. The mom went to church and loved it, and I´m excited to hopefully see them progress.

This week in our district meeting the zone leaders had given us some scriptures to read about santification (? santificação). I love reading and learning about this topic, because really this is our purpose here- to become sanctified. One of my favorite scriptures is Helaman 3:35, where the members of the chuch fasted and prayed, and became sanctified as they gave their hearts to the Lord. Oftentimes we talk about the sanctifying power of the holy ghost- I really like Alma 13:11-12 that talks about this power. There are a lot more scriptures that I found and like, but I´ll leave it to you to find more!

This Christmas was a REALLY good one. On Christmas eve we arranged with another pair of Elders to sing Christmas songs in the street by the train station, and we were joined by a couple of recent converts (and one soon-to-be). We sang in the street for about 45 minutes. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive to just start singing in the middle of the street, but when we started it was soo fun. Some people stopped or at least slowed down when they passed, and it was good to be able to smile and sing joyfully of the birth of Christ!! After that, we went around and sang at the house of some investgators and did some door contacts singing. It was fun even in the cold rain without umbrellas :P

On Christmas we woke up early (like always!) and traded our presents, and then we read in the scriptures about the birth of Christ (the traditional scriptures that Dad always leads us in). After that we opened presents and made a table of presents :) Thanks for all the love and thoughts- I loved everything that I got. Then I made homemade hot chocolate like Debbie!! I finally found evaporated milk here because of the holiday- they don´t normally have it. We had lunch with a member family and than went to the chapel to prep for the baptism and talk with family!!

The baptism went really well. We had about 12 people there, which considering it was Christmas, wasn´t too bad. Because of what happened last week with the freezing water and the cold outside, we only used hot water to fill the font. At the end it was really warm!! They complained about it being too hot, but hey, its better than getting hypothermia!! It was a really good day :)

Feliz Natal! I can´t believe that Santa Claus is coming this week :D Are you all prepared and excited?!

This last week was a good one. On pday after writing we went to Sinta and visited Castelo dos Mouros- it was really neat and has a great view of Sintra and Mem Martins. I´ll send photos in another email :)

This week we worked a lot with Orlando to prepare him for his baptism on Sunday. Everything went well except for the fact that we didn´t have hot water. For some reason, both of the heaters for the baptismal font weren´t working. So we asked him if he wanted to postpone for another day to fix the heaters or be baptized in COLD water- he was really brave and said that he didn´t want to delay his baptism. So we went ahead and had the baptism. An elder in our ward baptised him, and oh, the look on his face when he entered the water! I hadn´t thought until than that we asked Orlando if he wanted to be baptized, but we didn´t ask the elder if he was willing to baptize in the freezing water! :) But he courageously fulfilled his duty. When Orlando came up out of the water he gave a huge gasp of shock....I thought we had killed our investigator!!! But afterwards Orlando was really happy and said it was a good experience (in spite of the cold!)

We also have another investigator that´s going to be baptized on Christmas!He´s an awesome investigator who reads, studies, goes to church, and is really serious to understand the gospel. He´s been praying and received his answer that this is what is right for him to do, which is so awesome! He´s the brother of a recent convert, and it´s been so neat to see how excited he is for his brother to be learning and accepting the gospel. Especially considering that their parents are JWs, they are really firm.

On Friday we had our ward Christmas party. The ward mission leader was also doing the decorations and asked the misionaries to help him paint a sleigh and reindeer that he made from styrafoam. We spent 5 HOURS painting the thing!! Then we had to leave the party before it came out because the party went really late. Then when we saw it the next day, and had been torn! That´s a little frustrating considering how much time we spent painting it, but, service is service. The ward party was fun- dinner and then a concert by the youth who are learning piano in the ward.

We had a lesson the other day with a recent convert about repentance that was interesting. He understands the concepts of repentance, but feels that he hasn´t felt the change of repentance, or the ´´sorrow´´ or weight of repentance. It made me think of a talk I read recently by Elder Eyring, where he talked about repentance and conversion, and how they are implicit in one another. It was interesting to talk with him about the reason of repentance- sometimes we repent or regret something just becuase of the consequences that it brought, and not necessarily that we disobeyed or displeased God. One is an external force that may change our actions, but doesn´t change our heart or desires. They other is a change that starts from the inside- our love of God and desire to obey and please him. As we feel the weight of acting contrary to this, our heart and our desires will change, which will thus bring a permanent change in our behaviour. Repentance is something that I am constantly learning more and more about, and I am so grateful for the opporutinity that we have to repent!

On a less serious note, I hope that you all have a great week until Christmas!

Well, we´re officially in the holiday season, with less than 3 weeks
until Christmas :D

This last week flew by, as has been the custom lately. We had two
baptisms planned for Satruday that didn´t happen, but I think
everything happened for the best.
The cousin of our most recent-convert, has been progressing bastante
(I don´t know how to convey that meaning in english). He is 60+, and
lives alone. He went to the baptism and confirmation of Mizé, and
liked it a lot. One big problem was smoking- he´s smokedaround 12
cigarretes a day for 39 years. We talked about the WoW this week ( and
he already knew he needed to stop). But it was amazing for me to talk
with him about this problem and addiciton that he knows and wants to
stop. He even started to cry during our lesson, talking about how hard
it is. I had never comprehended well until that moment truly the
anguish and suffering that an addicition can cause. But I know that
the gospel of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice can relieve that
suffering. That very night, Orlando stopped smoking, and he hasn´t
smoked since!!! It´s been amazing to see the difference in his life
and countenance.

This week was pretty mcuh full of normal stuff. Yesterday it rained
like nothing else. It was pretty mcuh pointless to have an umbrella!
The streets turn into rivers here, and both my coat and skirt were
literally dripping water when we got home, and my shoes full of mud.
But it was a good day! I love missionary work and I love being here!

wow, another week has flown by and now we´re almost in december! Christmas is definately in the air here! This week was a good one :)

We finally had a zone conference with President Torgan. They came out with a new curriculum for all the missions in September, I think, and in the new curriculum we only have interviews and zone conference every three months, instead of every transfer. So it feels like forever since we had had a zone conference with President. He talked about how we can open our eyes (spiritually of course) and gave us a step by step process of conversion- for us and also for our inveestigators. Desire, which comes from our testimony, leads to obedience. From that comes faith and repentance- feeling the remorse of sin and changing. As we make and keep convenants, we have the company of the spirit, which gives us spiritual power. As we act with power and open our hearts we will be able to open our eyes as well, and be truly converted. It was really interesting everything that we talked about, and the scriptures he shared. I don´t have my notes with me to give the scriptural references, but you can study them out and find them :) But the conference was good.

On Thursday was Thanksgiving! Our ward is all brasileiros that don´t do anything for thanksgiving, so we didn´t have any invites to eat with members. So, us and the elders in our ward had our own thanksgiving lunch. They actually made (and bought) almost everything, which was really impressive! We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing (it was real homemade stuffing!) and rolls...not too shabby! It was fun to celebrate, even if it was just us. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well.

On Saturday we had a baptism- Maria José, who´s an older Portuguesa. She started to learn about the church a year ago, but decided not to be baptised. The irmãs had just started teaching her again right before I got here. Whats neat is that one of the elders who started teaching her a year ago returned to this area for his last transfer right now before he goes home. So he got to baptize her. She was really excited when he returned, and it is so neat to see that really each of us has a purpose in being where we are! We´re teaching another friend of her´s that will be baptized this next Saturday, and also her cousin. She´s really great :) The baptism was really special and had a sweet spirit.

So, those are the highlights of the week...I can´t believe that we´re almost in December, before you know it Christmas will have already passed! So we just have to take advantage of every day that we have :D Hope you all have a great week and remember I love you!

Love,

Irmã Geiger

ps- to any who are planning to send packages\cards or something- the mission christmas party is on December 21 and is when we will get all the stuff that is sent to the mission office. It normally takes 8-10 days for things to get here, so it would be a good idea to send items in the next two weeks :D

Wow, I can honestly not believe that I´m already writing again! Time
is flying by so quickly.

This last week nothing unusual really happened. The ward members here
like to feed us, which is nice of them, but I feel that we lose a LOT
of time by having a lunch with members every day. It´s hard to be
charitable and grateful sometimes! But I just need to get better...

This week we continued to work with two women who are preparing to be
baptized this Saturday. One of them has been investigating the church
for a year, and finally decided to act and get baptized. The other
lady is her friend, that has a lot of drama in her life (divorce,
daughter with depression...) a lot of problems in the family. Trying
to help them both with their problems has made me so grateful for my
relative problem-free life!! Also there is an investigator and a
member here who are both facing the problems and drama caused by
breaking the law of chastity. I am so grateful for the commandments!!!
It is soo obvious why they are so important when you see the suffering
and problems caused in the lives of those who break them. Truly they
make us free.

So, are you all looking forward to Thanksgiving? There´s no
thanksgiving here- just another normal day. Everyone is already
getting ready for Christmas! There are lights in the streets and all
the holiday decorations in the stores :) It almost makes it worth
being cold...

Not really much that is noteworthy has happened...I finished the Book
of Mormon again today :) It´s interesting that I never noticed how
much it talks about the ministery of angels at the end...In Morôni 7
he talks about the ministry of angels to men- that they manifest them
to those who have a vigorous faith and a mind firm in sanctity (vs
30), and of the importance of this ministry to prepare the way and
fulfill the covenants of the Lord. I had never noticed before that one
gift of the spirit is to see angels and ministrating spirits (10:14).
How neat! I decided that I would like to develop this spritual
gift...so we´ll see how that goes! But it was just something that
stuck out that I have never really thought before.

I hope you all have a great week and a great Thanksgiving! Eats lots
of turkey for me, and cornmeal rolls :D

Wow, another week has already flown by, and we´re in the middle of November! I arrived in my new area, Mem Martins on Monday (well, technically at 1am Tuesday morning). The executive secretaries were asked to give all the Irmãs rides to the new areas, but as all of the areas changed, it took a while for all of us to arrive. But, eventually we all arrived :)

Mem Martins is close to Sintra, which is supposedly a big tourist spot...hopefully I´ll get there on a pday soon. There´s a big castle on a mountain that we can see from where we live. It´s a lot different from Lisboa- there´s green! There aren´t as many people in the streets, which is a little sad, but I like it so far.

My companion is Irmã Reis, this is her second transfer in the mish. She´s originally from Angolda but has been in Portugal for about 10 years. She´s fun to work with and so far everything is going well!

On Sunday at church, I felt like I was in Brasil! Almost all of the members here are Brasileiro, which is a change but is neat. The ward is really strong and has a good missionary focus, so I think it will be great to work with the members here. They like to feed the missionaries..which is a bad thing for me! We have lunch almost every day of the week, and sometimes two meals in one day....yesterday we had lunch with a member after chuch, an investigator wanted to have a ´´lanche´´ (a snack or small meal), and at the end of the night another investigator gave us food to take home...aaaghh!!!

Apparently there´s no one in the ward that plays the piano, so I got to acompany the ward in Sacrament Meeting..the primary also asked me to help with the ward primary program that they´re having in two weeks...I think I´ll be playing a lot! But I really like to play, so I´m all right with having the chace to serve :) I´m grateful to be able to help.

Things are going all right with the work here. There have been a lot of recent converts, but the inctivity rate is high too, sadly. So we´re trying to bring them back while finding new people as well. We marked two women this week to be baptized in a few weeks...they´re friends, and older Portugues women, and they´re sweet. Hopefully they continue to progress!

Yeah, not really much new to say (well, everything is new, but I´m not sure what´s the most interesting). Christmas is already coming in ful force, in stores, at home...I´m excited!

So, today is transer day :( I´ve been praying all week that I wouldn´t leave, but as usual, Heavenly Father knows better than I do! I´m being transfered to Mem Martins, which is close to Oeiras, but I don´t really know where...I´ll be greenie-breaking a native! It´ll be nice to serve with a native again, my Portugues could use a little polishing :P (or a lot!)

But this last week was really good. Everything went well with Cesaltina´s baptism. Well, at least in the end everything worked out... the baptismal font in our chapel in ´´under construction´´ and locked to our access, which has been really frustrating. So we have to go to Gago Coutinho, which is about 40 minutes away, to have baptisms. Last week for Jorge´s baptism, we missed the bus to get there by 30 seconds, which was soo frustrating!!! Luckily the Bishop was kind enough to come pick us up. So, this week we got to the stop at plenty of time before the bus would come by. However, there was a protest going on in the same area (its by a big roundabout- Marquês de Pombal). Little did we know that the bus stop was closed off to vehicle access. So we watched the bus come, pass the area where it would enter the bus stop, and continue on around the round about! We started running after it, hoping it would stop for a few minutes at the next stop, but it was gone. So we had to wait another 40 minutes for another bus to get there!! There is always ´´drama´´ when there is a baptism. But, the elders helped us get everything ready and the members were great, and it was a really good service. Her boyfriend baptised Cesaltina, and it was really cute, although she had to go under 3 times to get everything covered! But it was awesome to see her and Jorge confirmed during church on Sunday. The chapel was full, and also the gospel principles for new members class, so its really rewarding to see how the ward is growing.

I have really LOVED Lapa- I love the members here, the new converts, and working in the city. I really didn´t (and don´t!) want to go becuase my heart is here, but I know that I´ll love Mem Martins too, in time. It just shows that time really is moving when changes come...

We had a cool experience this week with a less-active. I had in my mind for a few days the name ``Ribeiro Santos´´ like a streetname. I looked in our index of streets, and saw a rua that was ´´Ribeiro Sanches´´. So we went there and knocked the predios there. In one of the first few predios we knocked, we found a woman named Joy from the Filipines. She works in a house there and has been here for 3 months. She was baptized in 1987 and even went to the temple, but becuase of family opposition eventually fell into inactivity. But she was so happy to see us, and she really wanted to go to church and become active again. Just so happens that we have a single mom in our ward who is from the Filipines. We saw her the next day, so we told her about this woman we had found. She called her, and it turns out they are from the same island of the Filipines! Joy came to church on Sunday, and it was soo awesome to see her and Elsa together. Elsa has really needed a friend, and it is so good for her to have found Joy. They were both blessed!! It´s great to see them both so happy and have the chance to mutually strengthen each other. IT´s interesting how we were led to find her, and was really a testimony to me that Heavenly FAther knows and watches out for each of his children.

I hope you all had a great Halloween and are ready to settle into the holiday season! We busted out the Christmas music last night, and I´m officially excited :D But it´s crazy to believe how fast time is flying...

This week had its ups and downs, like always. We did a lot of procura but didn´t find as many new investigators as we would have liked. Its weird that at times it seems to easy to find new people, and at other times it´s such a struggle. It really doesn´t depend on us, but we just have to continue to seek direction and work, and the results will come. But, we did still see miracles :)

Yesterday Jorge was finally baptized! We´ve been working with him all this month. He´s from CaboVerde and came here for a leg operation and is recovering\ receiving treatment. These last couple weeks his family has invited him to spend the weekend with them, which is good, but meant that he couldn´t go to church. He finally made the decision that church is more important, talked to his family that he wanted to stay here for the weekends, which was the only thing he was lacking to be baptized! It´s been interesting teaching him- he doesn´t talk Portugues really, just criole, that isn´t all that understandable. But we´ve all learned a lot of patience in the last month ;) It´s been neat to see the changes in him over the last couple weeks, and so good to see him finally ready to be baptized. Our chapel is ´´in obras´´ and the baptismal font is locked, so we had to go to another chapel, which was a pain and a hassle. But, everything is worth it in the end!

We also had a surprising miracle yesterday. There´s a young woman who is dating a boy in our ward that has been coming consistently for a few months. I had tried in the past to set up appointments to teach her, but they fell through and I didn´t think that she really had that much interest, but just came because of her boyfriend. BUT, yesterday she came up to me at church and asked if we could teach her the last two lessons that shes lacking (she was taught like 4 months ago the first lessons). Of course I said yes, and we set up an appointment for yesterday afternoon. We taught her, which was the first time I had had a prolonged conversation with her, and it was really good. She know so much and she has a strong testimony that the church is true. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ- the five basic steps. She said that she had already thought about baptism, and had wanted to be baptized before her birthday in the summer, but with holidays and other things, it didn´t work out. We committed her to be baptized, and she said ´´yes, as soon as possible...I've already waited months´´!!!!! So we´ll be having her baptism this Saturday. It was totally a surprise, but as we talked with her, she is so ready, and has such a strong desire. She talked about about how so many things have already changed as she´s gotten to know the church, and I know that she´ll be even more blessed by the decision to be baptized. Bençãos!!!!!!!!

So despite the work being hard or discouraging at times, Heavenly Father really gives us so many tender mercies and we see so many miracles. I love it!

Bem. Lots of random things happened this week, and I just wanted to give you a taste of what is missionary work in Portugal....

There is the ´´Portugues finger´´. When you´re doing something wrong, or somebody doesn´t want to talk with you, they give you the ´´Portugues finger´´, where they wave their pointer finger definitively in the air. The finger is the final rejection! ...there´s also ´´the hand´´ where you greet someone thats passing and they raise their hand, almost as if to greet you with a wave, but really it´s saying ´´don´t talk to me´´. When this happens we say to each other ´´you got the hand!!´´. It´s interesting talking with strangers all day.

All of the predios, or buildings, have a doorbell pad (I don´t know what you call it in English), ou seja, campainhas. You ring for each apartment, and they always say ´´Quem é?!´´ to ask who it is. If the pad doesn´t have an intercom system, they like to open their windows and yell to talk. This may work when they´re on the bottom floor, but when they´re on the 3rd or higher floor, it gets complicated! There´s no way that there going to hear or understand us, and we´re just there on the street yelling that we´re disciples of Jesus Christ! Not exactly the way I pictured contacting :P They also ask ´´quem é´´ when you knock on their doors. People here are afraid of opening their doors, and refuse to open it until they know who it is (and even then they don´t...) But when they can´t understand what you´re saying because there´s a door in the way, it can be frustrating!! It´s happened several times where someone came to the door and couldn´t hear or understand us because of other noise. They went back inside to turn off the tv or tell someone to be quiet instead of just opening the door and solving the problem!!! it´s interesting ;)

I always knew about the supposed discord between missionaries and dogs, but really never appreciated how annoying dogs can be :P There are so many dogs here...the streets are covered in dog poo! But they´re always inside the houses. It´s happened several times that someone said they could not open the door or talk to us at the door because of the dogs. The other week a dog bit me for the first time! Luckily it didn´t draw blood, but was a little scary....suffice it to say that the mission has sealed a solid dislike of dogs in me...

Other quirk of Portugues culture- when we try to talk to people who are in their house, they say that they came answer and that there busy, or whatever other excuse. Then when we go on to talk to more people in the same area, they decide to help us, saying at every house we go to ´´não há ninguém´´, or no ones home. This has happened many times that someone says that at the same time that someone answers the door at that house....interesting how they suddenly want to ´´help´´ us. The other week we contacted a lady that was in her window (they all like to stay at the window and watch the street) and she didn´t want anything. Then when we were contacting people on the other side of the street, she started yelling at them about who we are when they came to the window to talk to us (see two paragraphs above for an explanation of this behavior!) So they gave us the ´´Portugues finger´´ and went back inside. aahh, life is interesting in Portugal!!

I really do love it, sorry if these descriptions seem a little negative. It´s really not, just oddly absurd and at times I can´t believe that whats happening really is happening. But, you never know whats going to happen when you´re a missionary! We passed this potentials house last week and there was another couple there from Romania that didn´t really speak Portugues. We sang and prayed with them, and then tried to watch a dvd. She put in the film and then started asking us if we would give them money, because they´re behind on rent. Obviously we said that we couldn´t give them money. She wrenched the dvd from the machine, and they practically kicked us out of the house, all the while speaking things that I had no idea what she was saying....we just laughed about it afterward...so absurd.

But, it is awesome to get to know Heavenly Father´s children, of all varieties. I know that He loves each and every one of us individually, and that He has a plan. I hope that you all have a great week and remember that I love you!

Well, another week has already gone by...next week we´ll be in November! crazy. But things are good.

Yesterday at church was the primary program here- it was so good! There are about 10 kids in the primary here, and the program they put on was actually really amazing...there were a lot of prayers offered by the primary leaders! But the spirit was good, and they bore a simple but powerful testimony. It´s good that it went well especially because there were a few jornalists there yesterday. I don´t know what journal they were with, but they asked us several questions, and talked with other ward leaders....I think they had a good impression of what they saw and heard, which is always good!

This week we had some interesting experiences, but I learned a lot. We´ve been working with one woman who was scheduled to be baptized last week but was out of town for work. She remained out of town for most of the week, and we didn´t know when or if she would come back this week. So pretty much the only thing we could do was pray and fast for her, which we did, that she would come back and would have the opportunity to be baptized.We called her friday morning, and she said she would be coming back on Saturday, which was great! We called her on saturday to arrange something, but she didn´t answer. We stopped by in the afternoon and caught her right before she left to go shoopping. (coincidence?!) So we went by later and talked a lot with her. She had doubts about being ready to be baptised, and we talked a lot about what it means and the blessings we receive. The spirit was really strong, and I knew I was being guided in what I was saying. I know that she felt the spirit and knew what was the right thing to do. But in the end, she said that she wanted to know more, even though she doesn´t have any doubts about the truthfulness of the gospel, and refused baptism for the present. On Sunday she didn´t even end up coming to church, which made us supersad. But in all of this I learned a lot as well, despite of the frustration and sadness...I learned even more that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, and that fasting is a powerful tool to call on the powers of heaven. I know that He helped us to meet Carmen at exactly the right time. I know that our prayers were answered by the spirit that we all felt, by the words which were given us to teach her. But in spite of everything, God also gives us agency, and no one will be compelled to righteosness or wickedness, but it will be granted unto us according to our desires. I just hope that eventually she will be able to receive the blessings that I know are waiting for her. We claim blessings by our obedience, and Heavenly Father cannot fully bless us when we fail to cumply with the commandments that He has given us...

So in this and other things, it was a week of learning. I´m grateful for these experiences that I´m having, for the people that I meet here...so, so grateful.

Wow, I can´t believe that another week has already come and gone! We´re already approaching the middle\end of October...

This last week was good- lots of work. Unfortunately we didn´t see as many fruits as I would have liked. Last weekend we had two people marked for this last Sunday (dia 17). On Wednesday we taught another fairly new investigator and marked him for dia 30...so everything seemed great! Then Wednesday night when we taught someone that was marked, he said that he had to go out of town for family...In our mission there is a big focus on receiving revelation for the exact day that someone should be baptized, and that that particular day is the will of God for that individual. So to say that you´ll be out of town on the day that you´re marked for baptism is a big thing...we tried to explain this to him, to talk about what God wants him to do, but in the end he felt that it would be okay to be baptized this next weekend...we´ll see how things pan out. But that was a little (lot!) frustrating.

The next day we got a call from our other marked investigator, saying that she has to be out of town for work this weekend.....talk about frustrating! We still have hope for them, but its frustrating when everything is being thrown in the way of baptism..but thats the way this work is. It really is a guerra (war)...and we are on the front lines!

So besides the frustrating of cancellations, it was a good week. We had a Zone Meeting where we talked more about the focus of the new mission curriculum, which was good. Yesterday we had stake conference, which was good. President Torgan talked, and I loved his talk (obviously...) He talked about the importance of baptism to access the power of the atonement, and about the blessings that we receive immediately depois baptism...principally the gifts of the spirit. He speaks really well (since he´s a politician), but speaks with the spirit that gives so much power to his words...its incredible!

I´ve been reading recently in Alma, about the missions of Alma, Amuluque, and the sons of Mosias. They are such incredible examples, I love reading about their experiences. I read today about when the sons of mosias left on their mission, praying and fasting in the wilderness on the way to the Lamanites. The spirit filled them with courage, which I thought interesting. All of us are asked to do hard things, but when we seek the assistance of the Lord, He will give us the courage and power that we need to fulfill what is asked of us. The Lord really qualifies whom He calls! Which is always a big reassurance :)