Wasn´t conference incredible?! I couldn´t believe it when I heard that a temple had been announced. We were in the mission office trying to get the internet to work so we could watch it in English, when one of the assistants got a call, started to go crazy and ran to the chapel next door. When we got there, we heard that there will be a temple built in Portugal Lisboa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The members were all going crazy- calling people, laughing, crying....it was amazing to be here. We talk a lot in the mission about how our goal is to prepare Portugal so that one day it will have a temple, and now we know that day has come! It was a lot of emotions as a missionary, and incredible to see the reactions of the members- the people here have longed for a temple, and they became so grateful when the announcement came. After that session of conference there was an impromptu testimony and prayer of gratitude in the name of all, and it was really special. Especially because I am in the Lisboa stake, which was the first in Portugal and where the temple will be built (well, in Lisboa somewhere). But there will be a temple here!!!!! It made be even more grateful for the blessings of the fulness of the gospel that are becoming more available to all.

So besides conference, this week was good. We had a baptism on Sunday right after the Preisthood Session was shown here! He went to temple square a year ago, visited all the sites and heard ´´Music and the Spoken Word´´ and was really touched. He spent the next year trying to call the church here, but never succeeded in making contact. He returned to temple square about a month ago, and gave his information as a reference. When we got it a couple weeks ago, we knew that he was golden! It has been a really great experience teaching him- it´s interesting to see how someone can know its true without even knowing what it is or exactly what it means! But as he came to better understand the doctrine of the gospel, everything made even more sense. It really is a privilege to know and be able to teach him. He asked me on Saturday what the best experience of my life has been (thats not a difficult or loaded question!). But what I answered is really how I feel- the mission. It´s not always (or ever!) easy and not always ´fun´, but it has definately been the best experience- to deepen my own testimony and understanding of God, His love for me, and the gospel, and to be able to share that with others, and seeing the huge changes that the gospel can make in all of our lives. I just want the time to stop speeding by!

I really liked conference- I can´t wait for the conference ensign to come out! I really liked a lot of talks, but one that I especially liked was by Elder Eyring on Sunday, about trusting in the Lord. As I reviewed my notes from conference today, I was thinking about this talk, and what we can gain or how we can be~benefitted by trusting in the Lord. Clearly there are an infinity of ways that we are blessed, but in my studies I found a couple scriptures that I really liked. In Mosiah 23:22, it says that those who trust in the Lord will be lifted up in the last day- what better eternal promise can we have than this? But, there are also more immediate ways that we are blessed- I love a few verses from Alma, who talks about the experiences f his life. In Alma 36 when he is talking to his son, he says how trust in the Lord has helped him- in verse 3 that those who trust in the Lord will be helped in their tribulations, trials, and difficulties...I love that promise. He also talks about the difficulties in his missions, and that although he was cast into prison and worse, he always put his trust in the Lord and the Lord continually freed him. I know there are a myriad of examples, but I love the promised blessings that we receive when we trust in the Lord. To trust Him we have to know Him, and how can a man know the master who is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart? (Mosiah5:13) There is a direct link between our thoughts and desires, our actions, and our trust in the Lord...I´m sure you can all think on a level far deeper than me, so I´ll leave my thoughts there!

Wow, thanks for all the pics and updates of the wedding- it looks like you all had a great time! I hope you had some wonderful days together, and congrats again Dave and Liz!!

The week was good here too, though I don´t think it quite compares! Our amazing investigator Linda was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday, and everything is great with her. She really is sooo incredible; I am so glad I have the chance to know her! Her baptism was at 9am on Saturday, and we didn´t fill up the font on Friday, so we had to get up at 5am on Saturday and walk (there isn´t transport that early!) to the chapel so the font could fill up for three hours. But it was a really good service, and she was so happy. It´s amazing to see the changes that the gospel can make in peoples lives- she´s already starting to see the miracles :) So that was an awesome part of the week.

This week our mission also had a special ´´Irmãs Conference´´ just for all the Irmãs in the mission. We talked about the new curriculum for missions, and then Presidente Torgan talked for a bit. It was really good to talk about the new emphasis and to also be with the other irmãs :P

Because they flew in the Irmãs from the Açores (islands), we had some transfers early. I have a new companion- Irmã Perez. IT´s funny that I already know her from BYU- we were in the same ward freshman year. What are the chances?! We´ve already been together4 days, and I think it´s going to be a good transfer :)

I hope you´re all doing great!! This last week was good, although we actually didn´t have much time to work (at least compared to normal). My companion had to renew her visa, which took all day on Tuesday and Wednesday to do....but at least she can stay in the country!!

We were really blessed to have another baptism yesterday. A couple weeks ago we contacted a man in a bus stop that was waiting with a little girl. We´ve been teaching him ever since, and about 10 days ago we invited him to be baptized. So yesterday was his baptism! He is really incredible. He is from Sáo Tomé, which is an island off of Africa, but I honestly don´t know where exactly it is! I´ve discovered there are a lot of countries in Africa that I never even knew existed, but that have great people. He can´t read, which made it harder to include and hit hard the Book of Mormon with him, but he has a lot of faith, and is also willing to act on that faith! He accepted everything that we have taught him, and really has a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. It has been such a blessing to find and teach him. He also has a little girl who is sooo adorable. She has learned how to pray and sing (well, she can´t read but she makes noise!) with us...it is so awesome to see the changes in everyone in a home when they accept the gospel.

Also yesterday Vitor (who was baptized last week) was confirmed, which is always special. He already seems so different from when we found him, and is already fitting into our ward. I love that there is a power to change lives in the gospel! To see those changes makes everything worth it.

I also learned even more that God really hears and answers prayers, and when we pray for specific things, we get specific responses. In district meeting on Thursday, we were talking with our Elders about missionary work (pois!). One of them talked about specific prayers, and how we can ask for ´´rediculous´´ things in our prayers. He had known an elder in Porto who had prayed with his companion to find a ´´King Lamoni´- someone that would open the way for many more to hear the gospel. Eventually they found a radio host, who talked a lot on his program about the gospel and through whom they received many references. We also talked about the scripture Alma 29:6- that the Lord grants unto us according to our desires, whether for good or bad! So my companion and I decided to pray specifically, and we wanted to find a ´´rei Lamoni´´.

Well, yesterday we went to a big park where we like to do procura, and we´ve already had success from people there. Right when we walked in I noticed a man sitting alone on a bench. I immediately moved to go in that direction, and my companion knew exactly what I was thinking at the same time. As we approached, he got up and greeted us! (não é normal!) we didn´t know if we knew him or not (I didn´t know him!), but he said he was going to get some water. So we said chão and kept walking. About 2 minutes later my companion said, we need to go back to him now, so we went back and found him. Turns out, he went to church a lot 10 years ago (but wasn´t baptized) but then with work and other things lost contact. But he still has a Book of Mormon and reads in it regularly. He knows that the Book and the church are true, and while we were talking to him, he said that he would bring ALL his friends and everyone he knew to the church. While we were talking with him, I had to keep myself from laughing in amazement, because here was our Rei Lamoni!!!!!! We´re going to teach him tonight and invite him to be baptized...so we´ll see what happens this week!! But really, Heavenly Father is amazing. I know that he knows each of us individually, and when we pray specifically, we are opening the door to specific blessings. All we have to do is ASK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I hope that you all have a great week! Remember I love you, and pray for miracles in your life, because God grants unto us according to our desires- if we desire and ask for miracles in faith, they WILL happen!!

Happy Labor Day!! Does that mark the unofficial end of summer? I hope everything goes well with schools starting this week!

This week was really good- we were so blessed by the Lord. IT´s funny that I´ve noticed in the mission that after you have a hard day or week, you pray a lot more sincerely, and you´re a lot more blessed! We had a reunião de zona at the beginning of this week, and it was really inspiring to move and change some things. Apparently the brethren have started a new curriclum for the missions, and this meeting was the beginning of changes according to the new curriculum. We talked a lot about teaching- teahing better and with more power. We made goals and I really felt that there are some things we need to change. So me and my companion, we talked, decided some changes to make, and are already seeing the blessings!

We prayed to know what should be our goal for baptisms this week, and really felt that there is someone in our area ready to be baptized this week. During the week we contacted a potential that we had contacted last week- Vitor. He said that he had already visited the church in Benfica, which is in another area of Lisboa. When we started teaching him, he was really open, and really prepared! HE understood and agreed with everything, and really had a desire to follow Christ and be baptized! So we worked with him a lot this week and he was baptized yesterday! It really is amazing that the Lord is the one that prepares people, and then He just puts them in our path! I am so grateful that he answers prayers according to our faith, desires, and works.

We´ve also been blessed with other investigators that we found in the last week- we basically just have men! Our leaders have said to focus on the preisthood holders, and we are finding lots of dads! We had (for us) several investogators at church yesterday, one is marked for baptism next week, and things are improving. We also have a new ward mission leader that is completely gung-ho for missionary work, and we´re really excited to start working with him and the new ward missionaries. For now, everything seems to be going well. But, it´s easy to think that we are doing it, and not recognize the tremendous blessings that the Lord gives us. Honestly, there is no way to do this work without Him, becuase it is His work, and HE is the one the prepares and touches people to lead them to make convenants with Him through baptism.

Besides getting to know and teach great people, there are a lot of lighter moments in the mission, and some interesting things happened this week....

The saga of the pigeons continues...while we were walking in the rua, a pigeon that was in the road suddenly flew RIGHT INTO my face, it almost hit me! My companion was behind me, and couldn´t even see the pigeon because I was blocking it from view because it was so close...This is the revenge for running after them and making them take flight while we walk down the road... :D

On the way to an investogator´s house, we passed an area where kids were playing. As a passed, a ball came towards me. I picked up the ball, and lugged it to the kid (that was quite a distance away). It was actually an awesome through, hard, fast, and straight at him. (it was luck!) But the old guys that were outside a cafe started clapping for me...we laughed about that for a while.

We went to visit a potential investigator whose house is in an alley with just one exit- he wasn´t home but a relative answered the door, said she was taking a shower but that would return. While we waited, a woman left another house and left the alley, closing the alley gate behind her. We waited about 5-10 minutes, then decided to leave. When we got to the gate, we discovered that the only way to open it was with the keys! So we knocked on the door of our potential´s house, but she didn´t come to the door. Then we knocked on the doors of other houses, but no one was home! We were literally locked in an alley! We banged on the potential´s door incessantly, becuase we knew someone was home, but no one ever came to the door! Finally, after being stuck for half an hour, my companion managed to wedge open the lock using our keys as a lever...what an adventure! Not sure if there´s a lesson to learn from that, or maybe just to be more careful about the gates that we use!

But life is always interesting here! I am grateful for the blessings and miracles that we see every day. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

I hope you are all enjoying the last weeks of summer...this week will take us into Setembro! You can see a visable difference here in the number of tourists as the summer winds down; things aren´t quite so crowded here.

This week was a little bit rough as far as the work goes...not much progress on the part of pesquisadors that we are teaching, and searching for the elect, which can be rough when you feel you´re having difficulties finding them! But it´s interesting its always said that you grow through trials...because its true! I feel that I made a lot of progress this week personally (and now I need to pass it on to our investigators!). Something that we talk a lot about is the power and authority of our calling, and the power of the spirit needed for conversion. We had some really powerful, spiritual lessons this week where I knew that I was being led by the spirit, which was really neat. I was reminded of something from the first chapter in PMG- that we know we are successful missionaries (and people!) when we can feel the influence of the spirit and know that we are following it. So although those powerful lessons didn´t bear fruit that is apparant now, it is good to still have hope that what I am doing is acceptable to the Lord!

Today I finished the Book of Mormon (I read it all in Português!); I love the last couple chapters of Moroni. One verse that really struck me due to circumstances, was in Moroni 9, versiculo 6 (acho eu)- Mormon wrote to Moroni about the hardness of hearts and wickedness of the people, but then he wrote (parafrazed) nevertheless we will continue to work diligently, or else we will be under condemnation- and he spoke about the importance of continuing to work, trust in the Lord, and have hope for life eternal. So, even when it seems that we are not making forward progress, we need to continue to trabalhar diligentement! It also reminded me fo the talk by PResident Uchtdorf about pacience- that pacience is continuing to work diligently when the desired results don´t come immediately...so basically I just need more pacience and persaverance :) (easy to say, harder to do!)

But, I am really grateful for the spirit that I felt this week. I am so grateful to be here, even though it is hard work. I read an article today entitled `Member for Life´ or something similar, and there was a paragraph about the blessing of serving a mission. I have already received so many, and I know that I (and we :) ) will yet receive many blessings. After all ``sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!!``

Sorry there aren´t any comical stories that I can remember from this last week. Last night we got on the same bus as the slightly crazy lady who yelled at us on a bus last Sunday...we didn´t hide, but I was praying that she wouldn´t notice us! Thank goodness that God answers prayers :D

This last week (as usual!) flew by...nothing major happened, but a lot of little things and miracles, né, that show the hand of God. We finally managed to find one of our new investigators at home a couple times this week...she is Brazilian, a mom with two (and 8\9ths) kids. (the 8\9 means that she is extremely pregnant!). The other sisters met her a few months ago, but never managed to meet with her. We passed by and finally found her in the beginning of this week. She said that the night before, she had prayed to God to give her a sign, or help her to know how to help her family (they are having some struggles). Then the next day we unexpectedly appeared! She is so open, and likes to read the Book of Mormon. The only difficulty is that she is 9 months pregnant (I think she may have given birth this weekend!), so there are things a little more pressing in her life :) But I really feel that we can help this whole family, so I hope things continue to go well with them.

We also randomly met an inactive member in the street; he contacted us and said he had been baptized 20 years ago, but wandered long from the church. He said that when he was studying to be a catholic priest, he found a BoM on the ground and started teaching the doctrines in it. The other catholics wanted him to destroy the book, but he refused. (Does this sound familiar?) I´m not sure exactly what is his story, but I can tell that he has a sincere testimony of the restoration, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. We met with him a couple times and he came to church this week! Something that has really brought me joy that I didn´t expect (because I didn´t really think about it) is working with less-active members, helping them to rekindle their testimonies and receive the blessings from the gospel. Seeing them change their lives again brings the same measure of happiness as seeing others come for the first time.

Every other week we have an activity in our ward (put on by the missionaries, basically- there´s no activity committee!!). This last week we had a ´´Pancake Night´´ where I used my pancake making skills. All the pancake breakfasts that I did in our Relief Society at BYU came in handy! I think that all that came enjoyed the night, and one of our investigators even brought her sister ,so it was good :) Unfortunately I was so busy making pancakes that I didn´t get to eat any :\ But that´s alright.

I know that I usually preach a lot in my emails, but really, a lot of interesting and random things happen in missionary life. I wanted to just share a couple things that happened yesterday to give an idea of what happens in our day-to-day life.

Well, after church and lunch at a members house, we went to pass a less-active family that hadn´t come to church. While we were ringing the bell, a pigeon dropped a bomb on my companions head! Later, when we were on the bus, we started talking to one lady, who (speaking english) said that she prays every night for peace, and starting ``uhmm``ing there on the bus. When I told that we know that God restored His church and that we have a living prophet, she asked his name and I told her. She got really mad, started saying that we were crazy and wasting our time, swore in English, and got off the bus (all within 3 minutes). It was a little abrupt and shocking, but these things do happen.

Later, we were in a square and contacted a man who lives in France, but had been in Angola for a year and was stuck here in Portugal for a few days. Before he had left for Angola, he had talked to missionaries, so we talked with him for a while. While we were talking to him (and he was golden!), an ex-pesquisador that we haven´t seen for months came up (drunk and high on drugs), pinched my companion, and started talking about how I had lied, that we didn´t like him, and worse things. It was so weird and random! Luckily, the guy with whom we were talking defended us and got the high-ex-pesquisador to leave. So while we were talking with a golden contact from France about baptism, we were accosted this wild man. And that was the end of our day...so, life is always interesting here! We meet the elect, not-so-elect, and very un-elect! but all the while we have the assurance of the spirit that we are on the Lord´s errand and in His hands. So everything is worth it :D

Wow, time just keeps on flying. I can´t believe its already another pday! Last pday being the first of the month, we went to the Lisbon Zoo. It was pretty cool. The best part was that they had a dolphin and seal show that was really good. I got ´´kissed´´ by a seal! More of a head-butt, but it was neat :) I always get a little depressed at zoos becuase the animals are jsut stuck in cages, but it was still good. They had elephants, white tigers, rhinoceras, and lots more. IT´s interesting to see Lisboa from the perspective of a tourist and the things that are here to do.

This week was good, but went really quick and I can´t really think of anything spectacular to write about. We saw a lot of littles miracles here, which is always gratifying. We marked one of our pesquisadors, Pedro, to be baptized next week, so I hope that everything continues to go well with him. What else..? I can´t really remember much. We made a BOATLOAD of chocolate chip cookies because we made cookies for practically the whole ward; we made little goodie things with cookies and a note to show our love and appreciation, hopefully to help unite the ward!

Really nothing huge happened, just lots of small miracles. A less-active member contacted us in the rua, and we passed by his house. Another less-active that has recently started to return decided that she wants to quit smoking, a man contacted us on the bus, we found a family of 5 siblings from Guiné that are really neat, and lots of other small things that really are miracles to me. I am so grateful for the mercy of God! It is really easy to miss everything that He gives us, but if we just stay with eyes open and searching, the evidence is everywhere of the love and concern that he had for us.

I know that God loves me and you! He wants us to be happy and successful here, and most improtantly have united and happy families that will be eternal. This is His plan!!! And He already marked the way for us to follow....